Category: Trending

Four people have been arrested in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest that involved vandalizing military aircraft at an airbase in in the United Kingdom, authorities said.

On June 20, two activists from the group Palestine Action allegedly broke into the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire, England, where they sprayed red paint on two refueling and transport aircraft and damaged them with crowbars.

Three individuals, aged 29 to 36, were arrested on suspicion of committing, preparing, or instigating acts of terrorism. A fourth person, a 41-year-old woman, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, according to UK police.

UK moves to ban protest group Palestine Action

Palestine Action, who claimed the action, responded to the arrests by accusing authorities of cracking down on “nonviolent protests” that disrupt the flow of weapons to Israel during what it called the country’s “genocide in Palestine.”

Last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer labeled the act “disgraceful,” while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Monday announced plans to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws.

According to Cooper, the group’s actions have become “more aggressive,” with members showing a “willingness to use violence.”

The Home Secretary decided to proscribe the group following the incident. Once the ban takes effect next Friday, supporting the group will become a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/four-arrested-over-pro-palestine-vandalism-at-uk-air-base/a-73067757

Wall Street climbed into record territory on Friday (Jun 27) as the United States and China moved closer to a trade deal and Washington signalled it could reach tariff agreements with over a dozen other partners.

With the Israel-Iran ceasefire holding, investors turned attention back to the wider economy and President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz.

Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariff on goods from nearly every country at the start of April, but he delayed higher rates on dozens of nations until Jul 9 to allow for talks.

On Thursday, he said the United States had signed a deal relating to trade with China, without providing further details.

China said on Friday that Washington would lift “restrictive measures”, while Beijing would “review and approve” items under export controls.

“While details remain sparse, the announcement removed another layer of uncertainty from the global risk environment,” said David Morrison, an analyst at financial services firm Trade Nation.

“Investors welcomed the confirmation as a positive signal for supply chains and global trade, even if the implementation timeline remains vague,” he added.

TRADE DEAL PROGRESS

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added on Friday that Washington could reach key tariff deals with over a dozen partners in the coming months and have its trade agenda completed by early September.

The United States is focusing on agreements with 18 key trading partners.

“If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18, there are another important 20 relationships, then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labour Day (Sep 1),” Bessent told Fox Business.

Wall Street stocks pushed higher, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices entering record territory.

The gains came despite the US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, coming in at a higher-than-expected 0.2 per cent increase in May.

“Today’s inflation report should not be enough to give markets a significant scare, but it probably dashes the slim hopes investors had for a July rate cut,” said eToro US investment analyst Bret Kenwell.

“Further, it may give investors a bit of hesitation with stocks surging into record high territory as we near quarter-end,” he added.

EUROPEAN AND ASIAN MARKETS

European stock markets also rose, with the Paris CAC 40 leading the way, boosted by a rise in luxury stocks.

Traders brushed off data showing that inflation edged up in France and Spain in June, even as it added to speculation that the European Central Bank might pause its interest rate cut cycle.

In Asia, Tokyo rallied more than one per cent to break 40,000 points for the first time since January, while Hong Kong and Shanghai equities closed lower.

WEAKER DOLLAR

The dollar held around three-year lows on Friday as traders bet on US interest rate cuts, especially after Trump hinted at replacing Fed chief Jerome Powell.

The prospect of lower borrowing costs sent the Dollar Index, which compares the greenback to a basket of major currencies, to its lowest level since March 2022.

Weak economic data on Thursday, showing that the world’s top economy contracted more than previously estimated in the first quarter and softer consumer spending, further fuelled rate cut expectations.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-stocks-hit-record-us-china-trade-progress-5208076

At least 29 school students were killed in a stampede in the Central African Republic as they took their exams, authorities said on Thursday.

The incident occurred as more than 5,300 pupils sat their baccalaureate exams at Barthelemy Boganda High School in the capital, Bangui, on Wednesday.

An electrical transformer exploded and sparked panic, leading to a stampede. Some students were seen jumping from the first floor of the school.

Most of the victims — including 16 girls — died at the scene, according to the Health Ministry. At least 260 other students were treated for injuries.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances,” a Health Ministry source told the AFP news agency.

President declares 3-day mourning period

Central African President Faustin Archange Touadera responded to the news while attending a vaccine summit in Brussels, Belgium. He announced three days of national mourning.

“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” he said in a video posted to Facebook.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/dozens-killed-in-central-african-republic-school-stampede/a-73051599

WATCH as Kim Jong Un surveys the “North Korean Benidorm” which will finally welcome guests next week after the dictator personally oversaw the mega tourism project.

Hundreds of Brits have already signed up to visit the artificial resort – eager for a glimpse of life inside the Hermit Kingdom – and Kim has now cut the ribbon.

The first guests will finally be welcomed to the Wonsan-Kalma resort next week after years of blundering delays.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the site and made a grand speech at a ceremony on Tuesday.

Footage shows him beaming in front of jack-rabbiting crowds and taking a seat to watch “volunteers” fly down waterslides.

Kim declared that the completed project would go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and hailed the site as “the proud first step” towards a thriving tourism industry.

The only hitch is that very few foreigners are actually allowed into North Korea.

Foreign visitors are almost exclusively Russian, reflecting Kim’s bromance with Vladimir Putin.

After a total shutdown during the pandemic, Pyongyang opened the border to Russian tourists in February 2024.

Before Covid, Chinese group tours made up 90 percent of North Korea’s overseas tourism, but that inflow is still being heavily limited.

Wonsan-Kalma, built at a former missile base, is modelled on Spain’s Costa Blanca.

Kim event sent a party of stooges there in 2017 to take notes.

Work kept stalling and the site was even overrun by homeless wanderers – known as “kotjebi” in North Korea – who filled the empty hotels with faeces.

But Kim plodded on with the project, and visited one numerous occasions to monitor progress.

He was pictured strolling along the beach with his daughter Ju-ae at the end of last year.

When word spread that the resort was almost ready, holiday planners On The Beach opened a link for people to express their interest – and it racked up more than 250 sign-ups from Brits within a month.

This is despite a terrifying warning that a trip to the dictatorship could cost holidaymakers their lives.

Campaigners have warned that nobody’s safety is assured in Kim’s kingdom.

Greg Scarlatoiu, director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said a trip there would be unsafe and immoral.

He said: “The Wonsan-Kalma resort was built with forced labour. Vacationing there is morally and ethically wrong – it is truly an abomination.

“Having Russian nationals vacation there is testament to the pathetic isolation of both Russia and North Korea.”

Past tourists in the country have even lost their lives.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14566026/kim-jong-un-north-koreas-benidorm-open/

LGBTQ+ Sri Lankans face violence, while promises by the government to repeal colonial-era laws remain unmet.

When 20-year-old Maya went to what he thought was a meeting with a Facebook acquaintance two months ago, it turned out to be a trap.

Maya described how he was met by four men who assaulted him for being gay.

“They said ‘How can you be like this? This isn’t legal in Sri Lanka,’ and beat me,” Maya told DW.

“I didn’t go to the police, because there’s no law, and they won’t take any action.”

Sri Lanka has not yet repealed sections 365 and 365A of the penal code, colonial-era laws that criminalize “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and “acts of gross indecency.”

Although the law broadly applies to all kinds of sexual activity with no reproductive nature, it has “overwhelmingly been used against the LGBT community,” rights lawyer Aritha Wickramasinghe told DW.

Wickramasinghe works with iProbono, a global group of organizations providing free legal service to help people access their rights.

Many of Maya’s friends have cut him off for being gay, he said, adding that hateful comments directed toward him have deeply affected him.

“When other people go and tell my family members, ‘How can a man behave like this?’ I feel really upset. I’ve even attempted suicide, that’s how disturbed I was,” Maya said.

A history of discrimination

Sri Lanka’s colonial-era laws echo those once seen across Asia. Many countries have repealed these laws — notably India in 2018 and Singapore in 2022 — but Sri Lanka still lags behind.

Kannan Sathurshan, a 27-year-old performance artist, said he felt “trapped between society and the law, and unable to move forward” and was considering leaving Sri Lanka to live more openly with his boyfriend.

“As a gay man, I can’t be open about who I am,” he told DW. “There are younger people who look up to me as a role model, but when they see that even I’m not open about who I am, how will they be?”

Although the laws are not widely enforced, LGBTQ+ people in Sri Lanka continue to face discrimination in many aspects of life.

“Sri Lankans never had a problem with homosexuality,” said Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, founder and director of the LGBTQ+ organization EQUAL GROUND.

“It was the British who brought this into our country, and it has been used by some politicians to vilify LGBTQI people in order to cause division within society,” Flamer-Caldera said.

She told DW that Sri Lankan society had “come a long way” in the last 20 years, with far more public support for LGBTQ+ people. However, she also noted a rise in hateful rhetoric towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Wickramasinghe said that although the use of the law was going through its “quietest period,” police officers continued to use it against LGBTQ+ people, contrary to reports that it was unenforced or dormant.

He said his organization had previously handled cases of forced anal and vaginal examinations of LGBTQ+ people being conducted by the police.

Police media spokesperson Frederick Udayakumara Wootler told DW that consenting LGBTQ+ couples could not be prosecuted for having sex in private in the absence of a complaint that alleged a use of force or a lack of consent.

He said the message of sensitivity towards LGBTQ+ individuals had been conveyed “very clearly” to police officers through circulars and directives, and said, “there won’t be any harassment against” LGBTQ+ individuals.

Fight for decriminalization

Sri Lanka’s current government, led by leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake, promised in itsbmanifesto to repeal the laws that criminalize the LGBTQ+ community.

However, seven months after it won a supermajority in November’s parliamentary elections, there has been no official action on the topic.

A private member’s bill was put forward in 2023 by parliamentarian Premnath C. Dolawatte to repeal the colonial-era laws.

The same year, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court welcomed the move and said decriminalization would not be unconstitutional.

The court ruled that the decriminalization of sexual activity amongst consenting adults “only furthers human dignity and as such this cannot be considered as being an offence that must be maintained in the statute book.”

Lawyer Wickramasinghe told DW the Human Rights Commission had also written to the government to ask them for decriminalization.

Adhil Suraj, the executive director of the LGBTQ+ organization Equite, told DW the government’s lack of action was “questionable.”

He said Equite was planning to meet parliamentarians from the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, opposition leaders and international stakeholders to advocate for decriminalization.

“We can’t express ourselves as who we really are,” he said. “The law is a really bad barrier to day-to-day life on many levels — economically, socially, politically.”

Maya believes that a change in the law will mean a change in attitudes both within the community and beyond.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/lgbtq-discrimination-persists-in-sri-lanka/a-73034352

Meanwhile, a Brit couple have been held in Iran for unspecified espionage charges

IRAN executed three more prisoners accused of spying for Israel as it launched a major crackdown in the wake of the 12-Day War.

The three men – named as Idris Ali, Azad Shojai and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul – were hanged yesterday morning.

The trio were paraded on State TV in blue prison uniforms after being convicted of espionage.

At least six men have been killed in the past 10 days on the orders of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A further 700 have been rounded up and arrested.

Iran human rights boss, Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, said: “After the ceasefire with Israel, the Islamic Republic needs more repression to cover up military failures, prevent protests, and ensure its continued survival.

“Executions are the Islamic Republic’s most important tool for instilling societal fear, and in the coming days and weeks, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners might be at risk of execution.”

In May, a young son of a British couple imprisoned in Iran on spying charges revealed how devastated he was after hearing of his parents’ arrest.

Husband and wife Craig and Lindsay Foreman have spent almost 150 days in jail since being detained during a round-the-world motorbike trip.

The Brits entered Iran despite being warned by the Foreign Office and their family to avoid passing through the notoriously strict state.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14562617/iran-executes-prisoners-spying-israel/

A shaky ceasefire began to take hold between Israel and Iran on Tuesday (Jun 24) under pressure from US President Donald Trump, raising hopes for an end to the biggest ever military confrontation between the Middle East arch-foes.

Trump scolded both sides for early violations of the truce he announced at 0.500 GMT, but directed especially stinging criticism at Washington’s close ally Israel over the scale of its strikes, telling it to “calm down now”.

He later said Israel called off further attacks at his command to preserve the deal to end a 12-day air war with Iran.

Both Iran and Israel sent signals that the conflict was over, at least for now.

President Masoud Pezeshkian hailed a “great victory” in a war he said Iran had successfully ended, according to Iranian media.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA earlier reported Pezeshkian as saying during a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Iran was ready to resolve differences with the US based on international frameworks.

Israel’s military, meanwhile, said all regions of the country had moved to full activity level without restrictions from 8.00pm local time (17.00 GMT). Its airport authority said Ben Gurion Airport had reopened.

Israeli armed forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir said the military was at “the conclusion of a significant chapter, but the campaign against Iran is not over”, though he added the military was refocusing on its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Whether the Israel-Iran truce can hold is a major question. Signalling a difficult path ahead, it took hours for Israel and Iran to even acknowledge that they had accepted the ceasefire that Trump said he had brokered.

Still, oil prices plunged and stock markets rallied worldwide in a sign of confidence arising from the ceasefire pact, which was taken to mean there would be no threat of disruption to critical oil supplies from the Gulf.

CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS?

Iran and Israel earlier on Tuesday accused each other of violating the truce.

Trump, en route to a NATO summit in Europe, admonished Israel with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst at an ally whose war he had joined two days before by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear sites.

“All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

That followed a post in which he had said: “Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!”

Before departing the White House, Trump told reporters he was unhappy with both sides for breaching the ceasefire, but particularly frustrated with Israel, which he said had “unloaded” shortly after agreeing to the deal.

“I’ve got to get Israel to calm down now,” Trump said. Iran and Israel had been fighting “so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office acknowledged that Israel had bombed a radar site near Tehran in what it said was retaliation for Iranian missiles fired three-and-a-half hours after the ceasefire had been due to begin.

It said Israel had decided to refrain from further attacks following a call between Netanyahu and Trump, but did not explicitly say whether the strike on the radar site took place before or after they spoke.

The Islamic Republic denied launching any missiles and said Israel’s attacks had continued for an hour-and-a-half beyond the time the truce was meant to start.

Pezeshkian said later Tehran would not violate the ceasefire unless Israel did so, and that it was prepared to return to the negotiating table, without elaborating, according to state-run Nournews.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One heading to the NATO summit, Trump said he did not want to see Iran’s ruling system toppled.

“I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos,” he said.

“Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon, by the way, I think it’s the last thing on their mind right now.”

In the hours before the truce took effect, four people – one of them an off-duty Israeli soldier – were killed by Iranian missiles that hit a residential building in Beersheba in southern Israel, according to the Israeli ambulance service.

Iranian officials said nine people were killed by a strike on a residential building in northern Iran.

SENSE OF RELIEF

In both countries, there was a palpable sense of relief that a path out of war had been charted, 12 days after Israel launched it with a surprise attack, and two days after Trump joined in with strikes on Iranian nuclear targets.

“We’re happy, very happy. Who mediated or how it happened doesn’t matter. The war is over. It never should have started in the first place,” said Reza Sharifi, 38, heading back to Tehran from Rasht on the Caspian Sea, where he had relocated with his family to escape the airstrikes.

Arik Daimant, a software engineer in Tel Aviv, said: “Regrettably, it’s a bit too late for me and my family, because our house back here was totally destroyed in the recent bombings last Sunday. But as they say: ‘better late than never’, and I hope this ceasefire is a new beginning.”

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One heading to the NATO summit, Trump said he did not want to see Iran’s ruling system toppled.

“I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos and ideally, we don’t want to see so much chaos,” he said.

“Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon, by the way, I think it’s the last thing on their mind right now.”

In the hours before the truce took effect, four people – one of them an off-duty Israeli soldier – were killed by Iranian missiles that hit a residential building in Beersheba in southern Israel, according to the Israeli ambulance service.

Iranian officials said nine people were killed by a strike on a residential building in northern Iran.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-says-hit-iran-radar-conflict-refrained-other-strikes-donald-trump-call-5200861

Dozens of tourists and workers, some carrying children, were left stranded on Tuesday (Jun 24) at Thailand’s main land crossing with Cambodia, after the army stopped almost all border traffic in an escalating territorial dispute.

Thailand has closed crossing points in all seven border provinces to everyone except students and those seeking medical treatment, after a long-running row erupted into military clashes last month in which a Cambodian soldier was killed.

There was confusion at the Ban Khlong Luek checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province – the main crossing for people travelling overland to Cambodia’s Siem Reap, where the Angkor Wat complex is located.

Around 50 Cambodian workers, mostly vendors who regularly cross into Thailand for trade, found themselves stuck at the checkpoint, unable to return home.

“I wanted to go back last night but had to sleep at my shop instead because police didn’t allow me to cross,” said Malin Po, 38, a clothing seller.

“I usually cross every day because I come to work in Thailand and go back home to Cambodia.”

She said no one had explained why the checkpoint was closed, leaving many frustrated.

Riot police were stationed near the crossing point – a grand archway sealed shut with yellow railings – as people trudged back towards the Thai side after being turned away.

Chanta Wo, 32, a Cambodian carpenter based in Sa Kaeo, said he was trying to cross the border after learning that his 73-year-old mother-in-law had just died.

Travelling with his wife, brother, two-year-old daughter and one-month-old baby, he was seen changing his infant son’s nappy on a bench near the checkpoint.

“I was warned away by the police … I’m very concerned,” he told AFP.

BORDER ROW

As well as Cambodian workers, a handful of tourists hoping to cross the border also found themselves stuck.

Matteo Toso, 34, from Turin, Italy, said he was backpacking across Asia and had spent two months starting from Nepal before attempting to cross into Cambodia.

“I might have to go back to Bangkok and take a plane to Cambodia but of course that’s more expensive,” he told AFP.

He said he was concerned that tensions between Thailand and Cambodia could impact Thailand’s tourism in the long run.

Dozens were also stuck on the Cambodian side of the border, where food sellers urged the two sides to reconcile.

“I appeal to both Cambodia and Thailand to get along with each other again, so all people can make mutual benefits,” seafood vendor Phong Ratanak, 37, told AFP.

Touch, 18, who has been working on a farm in Thailand, said she did not know the news about the border restrictions imposed by the Thai army.

“I have been waiting at the checkpoint since the morning. I don’t know what would happen,” she told AFP, adding she felt “a bit sad”.

Thailand and Cambodia are at odds over several small sections of their border in a row that dates back to the drawing of the 800km frontier in the early 20th century during the French occupation of Indochina.

Violence sparked by the dispute has led to at least 28 deaths in the region since 2008, but the issue had died down in recent years until last month’s flare-up.

Peace-seeking talks stalled, and Cambodia has banned imports of fuel and oil from Thailand, as well as Thai fruit and vegetables.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-thailand-border-crossing-shut-confusion-5200766

The US Embassy in India now requires F, M, and J visa applicants to make their social media profiles public to strengthen identity verification and eligibility screening. This builds on a 2019 rule mandating all visa applicants to submit social media identifiers as part of the application process.

The US Embassy in India has introduced a new requirement for F, M, and J non-immigrant visa applicants to adjust their social media privacy settings, making their profiles publicly visible. This measure aims to enhance the screening process, allowing officials to verify applicants’ identities and assess their eligibility under US law.
In the social media post announcing the requirement, the US Embassy noted that in 2019, the United States had implemented a requirement for all visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and non-immigrant visa application forms.

The post does not specify the duration for which applicants need to make their social media profiles public. The US State Department under President Trump has taken several steps to increase scrutiny for foreign nationals entering the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously announced that visa applicants with social media activity related to the Israel-Gaza war can face stricter vetting or outright rejection.

In addition, the US government has announced a new travel ban targeting 12 countries, completely barring entry for nationals from those nations and imposing partial visa restrictions on seven others. The policy, aimed at safeguarding national security, focuses on countries considered high-risk due to security gaps and terrorism-related concerns, primarily in the Middle East and Africa.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/us-embassy-in-india-announces-new-social-media-privacy-requirement-for-f-m-and-j-visa-applicants-article-152139037

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (Jun 24) said Israel has agreed to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire with Iran after it achieved its goal of removing Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat.

A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office thanked Trump and the US for their support and participation. Israel also said it would “react with force” to any violation of the truce.

Trump’s declaration came after a sharp escalation of the conflict since Sunday, when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites, prompting Iran to retaliate by firing missiles at a US base in Qatar on Monday.

Israel agrees to Trump’s proposal for ceasefire with Iran

Israel has agreed to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire with Iran, having achieved its goal of removing Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement just posted by his office.

The statement added that Israel had “inflicted severe damage on the military leadership, and destroyed dozens of central Iranian government targets”, and “all the objectives” of Operation Rising Lion, which was launched on Jun 13, had been met.

“Israel thanks President Trump and the United States for their support in defence and their participation in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat. Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire.”

Iran-Israel ceasefire is now in effect, proclaims Trump

“The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it,” said US President Donald Trump in his latest Truth Social post.

However, both Iran and Israel have yet to officially confirm the agreement, although Iranian state TV earlier announced that a ceasefire had been “imposed” on Israel.

A senior White House official had said Trump brokered a deal in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel had agreed so long as Iran did not launch further attacks.

Death toll in Iran missile strike on Israeli city rises to 4

In an update, Israel’s emergency services said four people had now been killed, while over a dozen were wounded after an Iranian missile struck the city of Beersheba in the country’s south.

Israel’s Magen David Adom added that over 20 people were injured, and search and rescue operations were ongoing. Pictures and videos of the incident showed a partially wrecked residential block, with debris everywhere in the aftermath of the strike.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-ceasefire-iran-israel-5197361

The NATO alliance has crafted a summit in The Hague this week to shore itself up by satisfying U.S. President Donald Trump with a big new defence spending goal – but it now risks being dominated by the repercussions of his military strikes on Iran.
The two-day gathering is also intended to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is united, despite Trump’s previous criticism of the alliance, and determined to expand and upgrade its defences to deter any attack from Moscow.
The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on heeding Trump’s call to spend 5% of GDP on defence – a big jump from the current 2% goal. It is to be achieved by investing more in both militaries and other security-related spending.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, upset NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s preparations on Sunday as he declared Madrid did not need to meet the new spending target even as Spain approved the summit statement.
Rutte insisted on Monday that Spain did not have an opt-out and NATO was “absolutely convinced” Madrid would have to hit the new target to fulfil its military commitments to the alliance.

“NATO does not have – as an alliance – opt-outs, side deals, et cetera, because we all have to chip in,” he told reporters in The Hague.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had to settle for a seat at the pre-summit dinner on Tuesday evening – rather than a formal session with the leaders when they meet on Wednesday – due to his volatile relationship with Trump.
The U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites at the weekend makes the summit much less predictable than Rutte – a former prime minister of the Netherlands hosting the gathering in his home city – and other NATO member countries would like.
IRAN ADDS UNCERTAINTY
Much will depend on the precise situation in the Middle East when the summit takes place – such as whether Iran has retaliated against the U.S. – and whether other NATO leaders address the strikes with Trump or in comments to reporters.

The deal to increase NATO member countries’ defense spending reportedly went through after Spain secured an exemption, following its staunch opposition. Spain called the rise to 5% “disproportionate and unnecessary.”

NATO members agreed on Sunday to increase defense spending to 5% of their countries’ GDP, a benchmark long sought by US President Donald Trump, who had complained more vocally than other US presidents that his country had shouldered much of Europe’s security for too long.

Spain had sought to block the measure, but ultimately dropped its opposition after a deal was reached for it to be exempt.

It is expected that NATO members will vote in favor of ramping up defense spendingto 5% during the upcoming two-day NATO meeting set to start Tuesday in The Hague.

Once adopted, all member nations except Spain will have until 2035 to reach the goal of 5%.

The agreement calls for at least 3.5% of national GDP to be spent on core military needs, while an additional 1.5% can be allocated for related expenditures.

Spain claims exemption
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez fought the deal. In a blistering letter to NATO chief Mark Rutte, Sanchez said the 5% figure “would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive.”

Sanchez went further during a national address on Spanish television. “A 5% spending would be disproportionate and unnecessary,” he said.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/nato-members-agree-to-increase-defense-spending-to-5/a-73000676

Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping channel through which around 20% of the world’s daily oil flows.

The move, which could block $1 billion in oil shipments per day, is likely to send oil prices soaring.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, jumped 3.9% to $80 a barrel on Sunday, while US crude rose 4.3% to $77 a barrel.

The conflict between Israel and Iran has sent oil prices yo-yoing over the past week, which has in turn caused see-saw moves for the U.S. stock market, because of rising and ebbing fears that the war could disrupt the global flow of crude. Iran is a major producer of oil and also sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s crude passes.

It will come into effect pending a final decision by Iran’s Supreme Council.

The Supreme Council’s decision must be made by tonight, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

Iran’s major escalation in response to US strikes on its nuclear facilities “will be done whenever necessary,” Email Kosari, Commander in the Revolutionary Guards, said on Sunday.

The strait connecting the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf is one of the world’s most critical chokepoints — just 20 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Shipping lanes in the strait — the area that is deep enough for ships to pass — are even narrower at less than two miles wide in each direction, making them much more vulnerable to attacks and threats of closure.

The channel is shallow, making it a particular target for underwater mining, while the narrowness of the strait makes passing vessels vulnerable to attack from shore-based missiles or interception by patrol boats or helicopters.

“Iran would most likely pursue a multi-layered asymmetric strategy rather than attempting an outright naval blockade,” Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum told The Post.

“Their primary approach would involve rapidly deploying naval mines across the shipping lanes—this is their most effective tool for immediate disruption. They’d simultaneously launch anti-ship missiles from mobile coastal batteries like their Ghader and Nasir systems, targeting oil tankers from distances up to [185 miles].”

Iran has no legal authority to block sea traffic through Hormuz, and any attempts by its navy to bar entry to the strait would likely be met by a strong response.

Ships with the US Fifth Fleet, along with other Western navies, are patrolling the area at all times.

It is bordered by Iran to the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates to the south.

The bulk of all oil exported by the regional petro giants, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, all travel through this narrow waterway.

Asia is likely to bear the brunt most from any closures to the waterway, with China, India, Japan and South Korea all getting most of their oil imports through the strait.

China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil and a critical partner that has previously used its veto power at the UN Security Council to block sanctions or resolutions against Tehran, would be particularly affected by any closure.

The move would also hit Iran’s own economy.

“Any closure attempt would be temporary and ultimately self-destructive. Iran depends on the strait for its own vital imports and knows that such action would trigger an overwhelming response from the US 5th Fleet, which maintains detailed operational plans for exactly this scenario,” Roman said.

“It would amount to economic suicide while alienating China, their primary oil customer. Tehran understands this calculus, which is why the threat remains more valuable as leverage than as an actual course of action.”

Iran last disrupted traffic in the Persian Gulf in April last year when it seized an Israel-linked container ship near the Strait of Hormuz, accusing the MSC Aries of violating maritime regulations.

In April 2023, Iran seized a US-bound tanker, claiming the ship had struck another vessel.

And in May 2022, two Greek tankers were held for six months in what was widely seen as retaliation to the confiscation of Iranian oil on a different ship by Greek and US authorities.

In previous years, the Houthi militia in Yemen was able to successfully disrupt traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait leading into the Red Sea on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.

Using the firing of missiles and drones, the Houthis were able to cut ship traffic through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden some 70% in June compared with the average levels in 2022 and 2023, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd, a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker.

Vessel operators have been forced instead to reroute traffic around the southern tip of Africa instead of using the Suez Canal, making journeys for ships traveling between Europe and Asia vastly more expensive and much longer.

Iran’s Navy was likely to employ the same tactics previously used by the Houthis, along with cyber attacks and other sabotage operations, Roman added.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/22/world-news/iran-orders-closure-of-strait-of-hormuz-putting-one-fifth-of-worlds-oil-supply-at-risk/

THE US military has bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities in an historic strike against the Islamic Republic.

America has now directly joined Israel’s campaign as they both seek to obliterate Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Donald Trump announced the strikes in a surprise late-night post on TruthSocial.

He said US bombers had hit three nuclear plants in Iran at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – all key to Iran’s doomsday project.

The bombings come just two days after Trump said he would decide “within two weeks” whether to join key ally Israel in attacking Iran.

In a nationally televised speech at the White House, Trump said: “Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.”

Trump said the US and Israel worked as a “team”, adding: “I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

“We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu said afterwards: “Congratulations, President Trump.

“Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous mind of the United States will change history.

The US is now bracing for Iran to shoot back – with Trump warning they shouldn’t and should instead look for peace.

But pro-Ayatollah voices have already shot back, warning Trump’s bombing would be “a recipe for all-out war” in the region.

Hossein Shariatmadari, a pro-regime media figure, said: “It is now our turn to act without delay.

“As a first step, we must launch a missile strike on the US naval fleet in Bahrain and simultaneously close the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German, and French ships.”

The US military used six of their flagship B-2 bombers to drop 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) 30,000lb “bunker-buster” bombs on Fordow, officials revealed.

They said the assessments indicated that the facility had been “taken off the table”.

While 30 BGM-109 Tomahawk Land-Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAMs) were launched from submarines with the US Navy at the Natanz and Isfahan Nuclear Facilities.

It marked the first combat use of GBU-57 MOP in the history of warfare.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported early Sunday that attacks targeted the country’s Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.

IRNA quoted Akbar Salehi, Isfahan’s deputy governor in charge of security affairs, saying there had been attacks around the sites. He did not elaborate.

Another official confirmed an attack targeting Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site.

On Saturday, the US deployed B-2 long-range stealth bombers capable of dropping the bunker-buster bombs required to wipe out Iran’s most secretive nuclear facility – Fordow.

Israel said its airstrikes on Iran will not stop until it destroys the regime’s capability of enriching uranium to weapons-grade and making a nuclear weapon.

At the heart of its nuclear program, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, is encased in steel more than 300 feet beneath solid rock.

Israel’s arsenal lacked huge bunker-buster bombs needed to destroy the underground enrichment facility – some 125 miles from capital Tehran.

The attack now threatens to ignite a massive Middle East war involving the US, Israel and Iran.

UN chief Guterres said he was “gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran”.

He called it a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge and a direct threat to international peace and security.”

He added: “There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world.

“At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace.”

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said it would not allow the development of its “national industry” to be stopped, and said the attacks violated international law. It did not clarify the extent of damage.

Israel launched a surprise barrage of attacks on sites in Iran on June 13, which Israeli officials said was necessary to head off what they claimed was an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs.

Iran, which has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with a series of missile and drone strikes in Israel, while Israel has continued to strike sites in Iran.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14534022/us-bombs-iran-fordow-israel/

The Middle East risks a nuclear catastrophe if Israel strikes Iran’s southern nuclear facility in Bushehr, the head of the UN atomic watchdog warned on Friday (Jun 20).

Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the UN Security Council that while no radiation has been detected so far from Israel’s week-long military campaign against Iran, the risk remains high, especially if Bushehr is targeted.

“Countries of the region have reached out directly to me over the past few hours to express their concerns, and I want to make it absolutely and completely clear — in case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” Grossi said.

The Bushehr reactor, located in southern Iran, is the Middle East’s first civilian nuclear plant and contains thousands of kilograms of nuclear material. Grossi warned that a direct hit or even damage to the electrical lines powering the site could trigger a meltdown.

POTENTIAL FOR REGIONAL IMPACT

In a worst-case scenario, Grossi said evacuations and shelter orders would need to be issued across areas within several hundred kilometers of Bushehr, potentially affecting population centers in the Gulf Arab states.

He added that civilians may also be required to take iodine and face disruptions in food supplies. The plant sits near a vital artery of the global economy, heightening the stakes of any possible fallout.

Construction on Bushehr began in the 1970s under Iran’s then pro-Western shah. While initially assisted by German firms, the Islamic Republic has worked with Russia to complete and maintain the facility since the 1990s.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iaea-warns-nuclear-disaster-if-israel-strikes-irans-bushehr-plant-5194656

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra visited the border with Cambodia on Friday as she faced resignation calls following a leaked phone call between her and Cambodia’s former leader discussing recent border tensions.

Paetongtarn traveled to a border town in northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province, near a small contested territory with Cambodia where a brief confrontation between the two sides on May 28 killed one Cambodian soldier.

A statement from Thailand’s Government House said Paetongtarn’s visit was aimed at boosting morale among soldiers who are working hard to protect the country’s sovereignty and interests.

Several groups of activists said Friday that they would rally next week to demand Paetongtarn’s resignation.

Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen on Wednesday released a 17-minute recording of a conversation with Paetongtarn. She could be heard telling Hun Sen not to listen to “an opponent” in Thailand. It’s believed to be a reference to regional Thai army commander Boonsin Padklang, who had publicly criticized Cambodia over the border dispute.

Before the leak, Paetongtarn had already been criticized for a perceived soft stance toward Cambodia, especially by right-wing nationalists who are longtime foes of her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

During Friday’s visit, Paetongtarn was filmed walking alongside Boonsin, the commander of the 2nd army area who oversees the border area including the site of the recent clash, in an apparent display of unity between the government and the military.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/thailand-border-cambodia-paetongtarn-449b4340ae6467657da67596b20b60e5

Israel’s defence minister said on Thursday (Jun 19) that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

The comments from Defence Minister Israel Katz came after the Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba reported 40 people injured following a fresh salvo of Iranian missiles.

“Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals,” Katz told journalists in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv.

“Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”

When asked about Khamenei on a visit to Beersheba on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I have made it clear that no one is immune.”

But he added: “In war, I believe one must choose words carefully and execute actions with precision.”

A senior United States official told AFP on Sunday that President Donald Trump had “found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader”.

“President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Netanyahu has neither confirmed nor denied the claim.

In a television interview on Monday, he did not rule it out, saying that killing the 86-year-old cleric who has ruled Iran since 1989 would “end the conflict” between the two countries.

Trump wrote on Tuesday that the US knew Khamenei’s location but would not kill him “for now”.

The White House said on Thursday that President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks.

Citing a message from Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

Israel launched strikes on Iran last Friday in what it said was an 11th-hour move to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

It has since hit hundreds of targets, including military commanders, top nuclear scientists and military and nuclear facilities.

“REGIME CHANGE”

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Netanyahu has not said publicly that Israel is trying to topple him, only that regime change could be a result of its military action.

Iranians “understand that the regime is much weaker than they thought – they realise it, and that could lead to results”, he told a press conference on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that any attempt at forcing change through military action would result in “chaos”, while both China and Russia have demanded that Israel cease fire.

Iran denies seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, and reports citing US intelligence officials this week have cast doubt on Israeli claims that it has accelerated efforts to produce one.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-iran-khamenei-no-longer-exist-missile-strikes-netanyahu-us-trump-5192491

Chinese authorities have warned of flash floods and swift currents in mountainous areas in the eastern, central, southern and southwestern regions of the country after heavy rains there.

The red alerts, the first for this year, were issued late on Thursday (Jun 19) covering areas in the provinces of Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi region, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the water resources ministry and national weather forecaster China Meteorological Administration.

China is experiencing heavy and sudden rain in many parts, which meteorologists have attributed to climate change, leaving its huge population vulnerable to related disasters.

In southern Hunan, heavy rainfall triggered the largest floods since 1998 in the upper and lower reaches of the Lishui River after its water levels breached the safety mark by more than two metres on Thursday.

In the hilly metropolis of southwestern Chongqing, apartment blocks were submerged in muddy waters and some vehicles were swept away in flood waters gushing down streets, according to state broadcaster CCTV’s footage and images from Thursday.

An image showed flood waters almost reaching the top of power cable lines. Water and power supply were also disrupted in some areas, CCTV said.

Nearly 300 people were evacuated from towns and villages in Pengshui county, where cumulative daily rainfall had reached 304mm, and floods were made worse by precipitation from the mountains converging into the Ditang River which had swollen by 19m, according to CCTV.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-warns-extensive-flooding-heavy-rains-5193266

Hidden away in a mountainside south of Tehran is an enrichment plant that is vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions – and Israel’s attempts to dismantle them.

Israel may have achieved dominance over Iran’s skies but the Fordo nuclear facility – believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France – has remained out of reach of Israel’s weaponry.

Only the US is considered to have a bomb that might be large enough to destroy Fordo, a move that could dramatically widen a Middle East war.

We take a look at the secretive site, which Iran insists is for civilian purposes only but Israel says threatens its survival.

In a setback for transgender rights in the United States, the conservative-dominated court voted to uphold a ban on hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for minors.

The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

The court, which is dominated by conservative justices, voted 6-3 in favor of the Republican-backed ban on hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for patients under the age of 18, ruling that it does not violate the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

What did the judges say?

“Tennessee concluded that there is an ongoing debate among medical experts regarding the risks and benefits associated with administering puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder and gender incongruence,” wrote conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

“[The Tennessee] ban on such treatments responds directly to that uncertainty.”

The Supreme Court ruling comes after several plaintiffs, including three transgender minors, their parents and a Memphis-based doctor who provides such care, took legal action against the Tennessee law, which they argued discriminates based on sex and transgender status, thus violating the 14th Amendment.

But Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court largely deferred to the state legislature’s policy choices in upholding the ban without conducting a “meaningful judicial review.”

Dissenting “in sadness,” she said the court had “abandon[ed] transgender children and their families to political whims.”

Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the plaintiffs, said that the Tennessee law has “taken away the only treatment that relieved years of suffering” for those concerned.

The first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the court, Strangio added: “What they’ve done is impose a blunderbuss ban, overriding the very careful judgment of parents who love and care for their children and the doctors who have recommended the treatment.”

A setback for transgender rights in the US

The decision represents a setback for transgender rights, an issue at the heart of the culture debates that have become a dominant feature of American political life.

While the Justice Department under Democratic former President Joe Biden had challenged the Tennessee law, his Republican successor Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against transgender rights.

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children,” read a January 28 executive order signed by Trump, who had said in his inauguration speech that his government would only recognize two genders: male and female.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-supreme-court-backs-tennessee-youth-transgender-care-ban/a-72966021

THIS is the terrifying moment a huge cargo ship is sent up in flames after reportedly smashing into another vessel.

Footage shows a supposed “dark fleet” tanker on fire in the Persian Gulf with thick black plumes of smoke billowing over the water.

The MV Adalynn was left a flaming wreck after it was crashed into by another tanker, believed to be the MV Front Eagle just south of Strait of Hormuz in early hours of this morning, according to local reports.

All 24 crew on board the Adalynn were quickly and safely evacuated with neither vessel dealing with any casualties or major injuries.

The collision is said to have been caused by a simple navigation error as the pair of ships passed through the Khor Fakkan anchorage near Fujairah.

The 900ft Adalynn is registered in Antigua and Barbuda and is reportedly owned by Global Shipping Holding Ltd.

It was sailing without cargo towards the Suez Canal in Egypt, say reports.

The area where the fiery crash took place has been embroiled in a surge of GPS related interference fears in recent months.

The UK-based Maritime Trade Operations monitor said on Tuesday there was no evidence that any hostile activity caused the tanker collision.

But they did warn all vessels going through the region to take care and use caution.

The situation has heightened in recent days amid the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.

The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow Persian Gulf maritime gateway, is currently under Iranian control.

Iran has already threatened to close the strait off completely to foreign ships which would have major implications on the world’s oil and gas supply trade.

It comes as a major fireball collison sparked fears of international interference after a cargo ship collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea.

Heart-stopping footage showed a massive explosion as the Portuguese-flagged Solong ploughed into the anchored Stena Immaculate off the coast of Hull back in March.

Cops have arrested the Russian captain of the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14503557/cargo-ship-fire-tanker/

President Donald Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” on Tuesday (Jun 17) and warned that US patience was wearing thin, but said there was no immediate intention to kill Iran’s leader “for now”, as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth day.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said meanwhile that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and hanged in 2006 after a trial.

“I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens,” Katz told top Israeli military officials.

Explosions were reported in Tehran and the city of Isfahan in central Iran, while Israel said Iran had fired more missiles towards it late on Tuesday, and air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and southern Israel. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities in Tehran.

Trump’s comments, delivered via social media, suggested a more aggressive stance toward Iran as he weighs whether to deepen US involvement.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now…Our patience is wearing thin.”

Three minutes later, he posted, “Unconditional surrender!” in all capital letters.

Trump’s sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between close US ally Israel and longtime foe Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis. His public comments have ranged from military threats to diplomatic overtures, not uncommon for a president known for an often erratic approach to both domestic and foreign policy.

Trump had predicted earlier on Monday that Israel would not be easing its attacks on Iran. But he also said he might send US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet Iranian officials.

Trump had said his early departure from the Group of Seven nations summit in Canada had “nothing to do” with working on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, and that something “much bigger” was expected.

Vance said the decision on whether to take further action to end Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Western powers suspect is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb, “ultimately belongs to the president”. Britain’s leader said there was no indication that the US was about to enter the conflict.

Trump met for 90 minutes with his National Security Council on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the conflict, a White House official said. Details were not immediately available.

The US is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three US officials told Reuters. The move follows other deployments that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as defensive in nature.

REGIONAL INFLUENCE WEAKENS

Khamenei’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.

The Israeli military said Iran’s military leadership was “on the run” and that it had killed Iran’s wartime chief of staff Ali Shadmani overnight, four days after he replaced another top commander killed in the strikes.

With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cyber security command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.

Israel launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.

Ever since the Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei’s regional influence has been weakening as Israel has pounded Iran’s proxies, from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. And Iran’s close ally, Syria’s autocratic president Bashar al-Assad, has been ousted.

Israel launched its air war, its largest ever on Iran, on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran’s nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.

Before Israel’s attack began, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.

The IAEA said on Tuesday there were indications of direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility, and that there was no change to report at the Fordow and Isfahan sites.

Israel’s Katz said the Iranian nuclear installation at Fordow, where an enrichment site is dug deep into a mountain, was an issue that will “of course” be addressed.

Israel says it now has control of Iranian air space and intends to escalate the campaign in the coming days.

But Israel will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites like Fordow without the US joining the attack, according to analysis echoed on Tuesday by Germany’s leader.

Iran has so far fired nearly 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, with about 35 missiles penetrating Israel’s defensive shield and making impact, Israeli officials say.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-calls-irans-unconditional-surrender-israel-iran-air-war-rages-5188001

On Friday, after Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Iran, its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Iranians directly. Speaking in English, he told them that the time had come for them to stand up against an “evil and oppressive regime”.

Israel’s military operations were, he announced, “clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom”.

Now, as the military confrontation between Iran and Israel intensifies, and the range of targets widens, many are asking – what is Israel’s real endgame?

Is it simply to end, as Netanyahu also declared on Friday on the first night of strikes, “the Islamic regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat”?

Was it also to finish off any more talks between the US and Iran, to reach a new negotiated deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of painful sanctions?

Or could that message to Iranians about clearing a path to achieve freedom nod to an even bigger aim of trying to bring an end to Iran’s clerical rule?

The FBI is warning millions of Americans to be wary of an innocuous-seeming text message that’s making the rounds — and to delete it immediately if they get it.

(Surprise! It’s a scam.)

Americans have been bombarded with text scams for some time now, but according to Forbes, attacks on iPhone and Android users surged more than 700% this month alone. And the latest one’s a doozy, the feds say.

Here’s how the scammers trap unsuspecting iPhone users in their web — by posing as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of different states.

The messages look like they could be legit, telling people that if they don’t pay an unpaid toll or fine, they might be subjected to having their driving privileges revoked or possible jail time.

The text includes a link and instructs people to reply to the message then open the link.

But officials warn that all of this is just someone trying to steal your personal data — and urged users not to click the link and rather immediately delete the text.

These kinds of texts can “put malware on your phone, which then can go in and steal information from your device, or collect your payment information,” FBI Tennessee’s Supervisory Special Agent David Palmer said in a statement.

Palmer also noted that, in general, if you get a link from an unknown number, you should exercise caution and not click on it.

“These scam texts lead to phishing websites designed to steal people’s credit card information and make unauthorized charges,” a rep for Guardio, a tool that offers protection against malware, identity theft and phishing on your browser, told Forbes.

New York State DMV Commissioner Mark J. F. Schroeder added, “These scammers flood phones with texts, hoping to trick unsuspecting people into handing over their personal information. DMV will never send texts asking for sensitive details.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/16/tech/fbi-issues-urgent-text-scam-warning-to-iphone-users/

Satellite imagery shared with BBC Verify has provided a clearer picture of damage inflicted on two of Iran’s key nuclear sites as well as other military targets.

Imagery from two different providers shows damage to the Natanz nuclear facility as well as a missile site south of the city of Tabriz – hit in the first round of strikes against Iran on Friday.

Other images show damage to other known missile bases.

Israel is continuing to target numerous sites across Iran, which has prompted retaliatory strikes.

IRAN and Israel have both launched blistering missile attacks at each other as the Middle East faces a third night of carnage.

Benjamin Netanyahu said just before his latest blitz that Iran is now “very weak” as he warned of an impending “regime change” in Tehran.

Israel successfully blasted numerous Iranian targets on Sunday as Tehran Iran fired back with a barrage of around 30 missiles targeting central Israel and Jerusalem.

But the retaliatory attacks have done little to restore much faith among Iranian locals who have spent the past three days awaiting the next Israeli blitz.

Chaos erupted in Tehran this weekend as civilians started to flee the Iranian capital amid car bombings and relentless Israeli air strikes.

A CNN correspondent based in Tehran reported people becoming increasingly more stressed and panicking amid the high intensity attacks.

Pictures show hundreds of cars gridlocked on roads as they try to flee the capital city.

Local media reports heavy damage was caused to Tehran’s urban infrastructure.

Many buildings were seen destroyed in various parts of the city.

The strikes are also said to have obliterated an aircraft repair centre, and targeted the city’s famous Valiasr Square.

A slew of car bombings were also reported, which the Iranian media has blamed in Israel.

Tel Aviv has denied setting off these bombs.

Netanyahu told Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier that Iranian civilians are now growing tired of the current regime.

The Israeli PM claims the current leadership doesn’t “have the people”, and says “80 per cent of the people” want to overthrow it.

Israeli officials have even said Iran’s theocratic dictator Khamenei is not “off limits” from being targeted in the airstrikes.

There is now growing concerns that the US may be drawn into the raging conflict.

Donald Trump told ABC News network that it remains possible he will become involved at some point if strikes continue.

He warned Tehran would experience “the full strength” of the US military if it attacks the US bases in the Middle East.

Iran and Israel sit on the brink of a full-scale war after Tel Aviv accused Tehran of trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14467652/israel-iran-attack-live-updates/

Israel launched an expanded assault on Iran on Sunday, targeting its energy industry and Defense Ministry headquarters, while Tehran unleashed a fresh barrage of deadly strikes.

The simultaneous attacks represented the latest burst of violence since a surprise offensive by Israel two days earlier aimed at decimating Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

New explosions boomed across Tehran as Iranian missiles entered Israel’s skies in attacks that Israeli emergency officials said caused deaths around the country, including four in an apartment building in the Galilee region. A strike in central Israel killed an 80-year-old woman, a 69-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy, officials said.

Casualty figures weren’t immediately available in Iran, where Israel targeted its Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran as well as sites that it alleged were associated with the country’s nuclear program. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed that Iranian missiles targeted fuel production facilities for Israeli fighter jets, something not acknowledged by Israel.

Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program were cancelled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.

“Tehran is burning,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Both Israel’s military and Iran state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard near midnight, while the Israeli security cabinet met.

Israel’s ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country’s surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.

Urgent calls to deescalate

World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate and avoid all-out war. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting.

Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days have killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s U.N. ambassador has said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.

U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon before Israel unleashed its campaign of airstrikes targeting Iran beginning Friday. But Iran’s uranium enrichment has reached near weapons-grade levels, and on Thursday the U.N.’s atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program his top priority, said Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”

In what could be another escalation if confirmed, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported an Israeli drone struck and caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. It would be the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.

Iran calls nuclear talks ‘unjustifiable’

The sixth round of U.S.-Iran indirect talks on Sunday over Iran ’s nuclear program will not take place, mediator Oman said. “We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.

Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday the nuclear talks were “unjustifiable” after Israel’s strikes. Abbas Araghchi’s comments came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The U.S. has said it isn’t part of the strikes.

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program, adding that “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”

US helps to shoot down Iranian missiles

Iran launched its first waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early Saturday. The attacks killed at least three people and wounded 174, two of them seriously, Israel said. The military said seven soldiers were lightly wounded when a missile hit central Israel, without specifying where.

U.S. ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

Israel’s main international airport said it will remain closed until further notice.

First responders were looking for survivors and clearing the remnants of a missile that fell on a neighborhood outside of Tel Aviv early Sunday morning.

An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass.

Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors in some of the areas that were too hard to access. Some people were fleeing the area with their belongings in suitcases.

‘More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities

Israel attacked Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. Satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage there. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility.

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said.

Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, including “infrastructure for enriched uranium conversion,” and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said four “critical buildings” at the Isfahan site were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. “As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation expected,” it added.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army’s initial assessment “it will take much more than a few weeks” for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had “concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-missile-drone-attacks-nuclear-a8b23f58b502ed77a20a9d843bf30f76

Masses of demonstrators packed into streets, parks and plazas across the U.S. on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, marching through downtowns and small towns, blaring anti-authoritarian chants mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights.

Organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations said millions had marched in hundreds of events. Governors across the U.S. had urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers gathering.

Confrontations were isolated. But police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted a week earlier and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the formal event ended. Officers in Portland also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.

And in Salt Lake City, Utah, police were investigating a shooting during a march downtown that left one person critically injured. Three people were taken into custody, including a man believed to be the shooter, who also suffered a gunshot wound, according to Police Chief Brian Redd.

Redd said it was too early to tell if the shooting was politically motivated and whether those involved knew each other. The shooter appeared to be walking alongside the group of thousands who were marching, he added. Video feeds showed demonstrators running for safety as gunshots rang out.

Huge, boisterous crowds marched, danced, drummed, and chanted shoulder-to-shoulder in New York, Denver, Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles, some behind “no kings” banners. Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity event quickly reached its limit, with thousands more gathered outside barriers to hear speakers in front of the state Capitol. Officials in Seattle estimated that more than 70,000 people attended the city’s largest rally downtown, the Seattle Times reported.

Trump was in Washington for a military parade marking the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincides with the president’s birthday. About 200 protesters assembled in northwest Washington’s Logan Circle and chanted “Trump must go now” before erupting in cheers. A larger-than-life puppet of Trump — a caricature of the president wearing a crown and sitting on a golden toilet — was wheeled through the crowd.

In some places, organizers handed out little American flags while others flew their flags upside down, a sign of distress. Mexican flags, which have become a fixture of the Los Angeles protests against immigration raids, also made an appearance at some demonstrations Saturday.

In Culpepper, Virginia, police said one person was struck by an SUV when a 21-year-old driver intentionally accelerated his SUV into the crowd as protesters were leaving a rally. The driver was charged with reckless driving.

The demonstrations come on the heels of the protests over the federal immigration enforcement raids that began last week and Trump ordering the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, where protesters blocked a freeway and set cars on fire.

“Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings,” the No Kings Coalition said in a statement Saturday afternoon after many events had ended.

Thousands gathered downtown, where organizers handed out small American flags and people carried protest signs saying “fight oligarchy” and “deport the mini-Mussolinis.”

Karen Van Trieste, a 61-year-old nurse who drove up from Maryland, said she grew up in Philadelphia and wanted to be with a large group of people showing her support.

“I just feel like we need to defend our democracy,” she said. She is concerned about the Trump administration’s layoffs of staff at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fate of immigrant communities and Trump trying to rule by executive order, she said.

A woman wearing a foam Statue of Liberty crown brought a speaker system and led an anti-Trump sing-along, changing the words “young man” in the song “Y.M.C.A.” to “con man.”

”I am what the successful American dream looks like,” said C.C. Téllez, an immigrant from Bolivia who attended the protest. “I’ve enjoyed great success here in the United States, and I’ve also contributed heavily to my community. And if there was space for me, I think there’s a way for everybody else to belong here as well.”

Los Angeles

Thousands gathered in front of City Hall, waving signs and listening to a Native American drum circle before marching through the streets.

As protesters passed National Guard troops or U.S. Marines stationed at various buildings, most interactions were friendly, with demonstrators giving fist bumps or posing for selfies. But others chanted “shame” or “go home” at the troops.

Amid signs reading “They fear us don’t back down California” and “We carry dreams not danger, ” one demonstrator carried a 2-foot-tall (60-centimeter) Trump pinata on a stick, with a crown on his head and sombrero hanging off his back. Another hoisted a huge helium-filled orange baby balloon with blond hair styled like Trump’s.

A few blocks from City Hall, protesters gathered in front of the downtown federal detention center being guarded by a line of Marines and other law enforcement. It was the first time that the Marines, in combat gear and holding rifles, have appeared at a demonstration since they were deployed to city on Friday with the stated mission of defending federal property.

Peter Varadi, 54, said he voted for Trump last November for “economic reasons.” Now, for the first time in his life, he is protesting, waving a Mexican and U.S. combined flag.

“I voted for Donald Trump, and now I regret that, because he’s taken this fascism to a new level,” Varadi said. “It’s Latinos now. Who’s next? It’s gays. Blacks after that. They’re coming for everybody.”

Even after the formal event ended, the downtown streets were packed with a jubilant crowd as people danced to salsa music and snacked on hot dogs and ice cream bought from vendors, many of whom are Latino immigrants. But the previously calm demonstration turned confrontational as police on horseback moved into the crowd and struck some people with wood rods and batons as they cleared the street in front of the federal building.

New York City

Marchers in the crowd that stretched for blocks along Fifth Avenue had diverse reasons for coming, including anger over Trump’s immigration policies, support for the Palestinian people and outrage over what they said was an erosion of free speech rights.

But there were patriotic symbols, too. Leah Griswold, 32, and Amber Laree, 59, who marched in suffragette white dresses, brought 250 American flags to hand out to people in the crowd.

“Our mothers who came out, fought for our rights, and now we’re fighting for future generations as well,” Griswold said.

Some protesters held signs denouncing Trump while others banged drums.

“We’re here because we’re worried about the existential crisis of this country and the planet and our species,” said Sean Kryston, 28.

Minnesota

Gov. Tim Walz and law enforcement encouraged people not to attend rallies “out of an abundance of caution” following the shootings of the Democratic state lawmakers.

Dozens of events were canceled, but tens of thousands still turned out for demonstrations in Duluth, Rochester and St. Paul, which included a march to the state Capitol. Walz canceled his scheduled appearance at the St. Paul event.

Authorities said the suspect had “No Kings” flyers in his car and writings mentioning the names of the victims as well as other lawmakers and officials, though they could not say if he had any other specific targets.

Seda Heng, 29, of Rochester, said she was heartbroken by the shootings, but still wanted to join the rally there. “These people are trying to do what they can for their communities, for the state, for the nation,” Heng told the Minnesota Star-Tribune.

North Carolina

Crowds cheered anti-Trump speakers in Charlotte’s First Ward Park before marching, chanting “No kings. No crowns. We will not bow down.”

Marchers stretched for blocks, led by a group of people holding a giant Mexican flag and bystanders cheering and clapping along the way.

Jocelyn Abarca, a 21-year-old college student, said the protest was a chance to “speak for what’s right” after mass deportations and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles.

“If we don’t stop it now, it’s just going to keep getting worse,” she said.

Naomi Mena said she traveled an hour to demonstrate in Charlotte to represent her “friends and family who sadly can’t have a voice out in public now” to stay safe.

Texas

A rally at the Texas Capitol in Austin went off as planned despite state police briefly shutting down the building and the surrounding grounds after authorities said they received a “credible threat” to Democratic state lawmakers who were to attend.

Dozens of state troopers swarmed through the grounds about four hours before the event, but the area was later opened and the rally started on time. The building remained closed.

The Department of Public Safety later said one person was taken into custody “in connection with the threats made against state lawmakers” after a traffic stop in La Grange, Texas, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Austin. State police did not detail the threat or immediately identify the person, but said there was no additional active threat.

Mississippi

A demonstration of hundreds of people opened to “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath playing over a sound system on the state Capitol lawn in Jackson.

“A lot of stuff that’s going on now is targeting people of color, and to see so many folks out here that aren’t black or brown fighting for the same causes that I’m here for, it makes me very emotional,” said Tony Cropper, who traveled from Tennessee to attend the protest.

Some people wore tinfoil crowns atop their heads. Others held signs inviting motorists to “Honk if you never text war plans.”

Melissa Johnson said she drove an hour-and-a-half to Jackson to protest because “we are losing the thread of democracy in our country.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/no-kings-protest-trump-philadelphia-los-angeles-immigration-raids-a3b67d23733cd060f8d01aef1e391dbf

Iran and Israel targeted each other with airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iranian missiles and rockets struck Tel Aviv early on Saturday, while explosions were heard in Jerusalem, Israel’s two largest cities, as hostilities between the Middle East’s two biggest adversaries escalated. The fresh wave of airstrikes came a day after Israel launched its largest-ever offensive against Iran, targeting nuclear facilities, killing top military commanders, and destroying critical infrastructure. In retaliation, Iran fired missiles at Israeli cities, while fresh Israeli strikes triggered explosions in parts of Tehran.

Iran’s assault on Tel Aviv, dubbed “Operation True Promise,” killed one person and injured around 34 others, according to Israeli police and health authorities. Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion”, which launched on Friday, and continued on Saturday, reportedly killed at least 78 people, mostly civilians, and left over 320 injured.

HERE ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

• Iran and Israel exchanged airstrikes early on Saturday, a day after Israel launched its largest-ever offensive aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Israeli forces said they were actively intercepting a “barrage of missiles” fired by Iran, as air raid sirens blared across multiple cities. At least 35 people were reported injured in Tel Aviv. Explosions were also heard in Jerusalem, according to news agency Reuters.

• Israel quickly launched another round of strikes on Tehran, with several explosions heard across the Iranian capital. According to local media reports, two projectiles struck Mehrabad Airport, located near key Iranian leadership sites and home to an air force base housing fighter jets and transport aircraft. Flames were reported at the site. This marked the third wave of airstrikes on Saturday, following two salvos late Friday night.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “more is on the way,” declaring that Israel’s efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme are “just beginning.” In a fresh statement, Netanyahu said the offensive is directed against what he called the “murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes the Iranian people.” He asserted that the campaign is aimed at eliminating what he described as an “existential threat” posed by Iran.

  See more

  ØçÙ…ØôØèØŒ می‌خوØçهم ØèØç ØôÙ…ØçØŒ Ù…ØñØïÙ… محتØñÙ… ØçÛŒØñØçÙÆØŒ صحØèت ÚéÙÆÙ….

  Ù…Øç ØïØñ Ù…ÛŒØçÙÆÙ‡ ÛŒÚéÛŒ Øçز ØèزØñÚï‌تØñÛŒÙÆ Ø¹Ù…ÙÄÛŒØçت‌هØçÛŒ ÙÆظØçÙ…ÛŒ ØïØñ تØçØñیخ، هستیم – عمÙÄÛŒØçت Ø·ÙÄوع ØôÛŒØñØçÙÆ.
  Øñژیم ØçسÙÄØçÙ…ÛŒ ÚéÙ‡ تقØñÛŒØèØçÙ‹ ÛµÛ° سØçÙÄ ØôÙ…Øç ØñØç سØñÚéÙˆØè ÚéØñØïه، تهØïÛŒØï ØèÙ‡ ÙÆØçØèÙˆØïÛŒ ÚéØôÙˆØñ Ù…Øç- ØçسØñØçØæÛŒÙÄ Ù…ÛŒâ€ŒÚéÙÆØï.

  Ù‡Øïف عمÙÄÛŒØçت ØçسØñØçØæÛŒÙÄ Ø¬ÙÄÙˆÚïÛŒØñÛŒ Øçز تهØïÛŒØï هسته‌ØçÛŒ Ùˆ موØôÚéÛŒ… pic.twitter.com/sS5cXgJExi — Benjamin Netanyahu – ×‘× ×™×ž×™×Ÿ × ×ª× ×™×”×• (@netanyahu) June 13, 2025

   

• Iran’s barrage of rockets on Israel came after a televised address from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who pledged: “The armed forces of the Islamic republic will inflict heavy blows upon this malevolent enemy.” He warned the consequences of Israel’s attack “will bring it to ruin”.

• The United States said the Donald Trump administration was not directly involved in the latest escalation, though the President remarked that they “knew everything”. American ground-based air defence systems in the region were assisting in intercepting Iranian missiles. “We knew everything, and I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out. They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late,” Trump added.

• The strike came as the US was urging Iran to sign a nuclear agreement. Former President Donald Trump called on Iran to negotiate a deal on its nuclear programme, warning of “even more brutal” Israeli attacks if it failed to do so. Iran said on Friday the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” after Israel’s military strike. “The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Iran foreign ministry spokesperson.

   

• Israel said that the attack was planned way back in November 2024, shortly after the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. In the current operation, Israel deployed warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the country to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists.

• Israeli strike on Friday killed three of Iran’s top military leaders — one who oversaw the entire armed forces, General Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/israel-iran-tensions-conflict-benjamin-netanyahu-nuclear-sites-hit-2740505-2025-06-13

The role of Elon Musk’s SpaceX in an ambitious new U.S. missile defense system is in question following the dramatic feud last week between the billionaire entrepreneur and President Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the project.
The White House until recently had considered a plan for SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and satellite venture, to partner with software maker Palantir (PLTR.O), and drone builder Anduril to construct crucial elements of the project, dubbed “Golden Dome.” The administration had instructed the Pentagon to prioritize a network of satellites for the purpose, these people said.

But a new framework for the system, which would seek to track and prevent possible missile attacks against the United States, is now being considered that could reduce the role of SpaceX. One possibility, the three people said, could initially forego SpaceX’s satellite capabilities and focus on the expansion of existing ground systems for missile defense instead.
In a statement, a White House spokesman said “the Trump Administration is committed to a rigorous review process for all bids and contracts.” A senior Defense Department official said the Pentagon “has no announcements regarding future contracts associated with the Golden Dome effort.”

SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A reduced role for SpaceX would represent the first known setback to Musk’s huge volume of business with the U.S. government since his break with Trump last week. The shift in plans, especially for a project that Trump has touted as paramount for U.S. defense strategy, also underscores the highly personalized nature of the president’s leadership, aerospace and defense experts said.
“That people guiding the program or building it are approved based on their political affiliation signals a real concern that the project itself is very politicized and not being conducted on the technical merits,” said Laura Grego, a missile defense expert and research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In its statement to Reuters, the White House said any decision would be made “prioritizing the best deal for America and leveraging the most advanced and innovative technology.”
Trump in May said the defense shield should be operational by the end of his presidency, January 2029. But industry experts have said that timeframe, and a projected cost of some $175 billion, could be too optimistic.
The change in the proposed “architecture” of the system, the three people said, could have the political advantage of allowing the current administration to deliver at least a portion of it. It isn’t clear how soon a final decision on the project could come or whether the ultimate role of any company, including SpaceX, has been determined.
Trump’s efforts to roll out the project fast have led to uncertainty about the project’s details and a scramble by contractors to be involved, industry experts and some of those involved in its development told Reuters. “To this day, no one knows what the requirements are,” said one of the people familiar with the process. “There isn’t a coordinated effort with a true vision. All of these companies are just grabbing at this pot of money.”

SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir were all founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump. The three companies had previously met with top administration officials and decisionmakers from the Defense Department to discuss Golden Dome, according to people familiar with those discussions.
Before his high-profile falling out with the president, Musk served as a key Trump advisor and donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect him. But the recent dispute, which included Musk calling for Trump’s impeachment and accusing the president of improper involvement with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, triggered the change in direction, the three people told Reuters.
“Because of the blowup, the Pentagon has been given the space to look at other alternatives,” one of the people said.
In recent days, Musk has sought to temper the dispute, saying he regretted some of his comments and taking down some of his social media criticism of Trump, including the call for impeachment. Earlier this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump appreciated Musk’s apology and that she was unaware of any administration efforts to review Musk contracts because of the dispute.
Reuters couldn’t determine whether Musk’s conciliatory overtures might improve SpaceX’s chances of winning Golden Dome contracts or securing further new business with the U.S. government.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/after-trump-feud-role-musks-spacex-golden-dome-missile-shield-question-2025-06-12/

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday U.S. personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because “it could be a dangerous place,” adding that the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.

The four U.S. and two Iraqi sources did not say what security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%.
A U.S. official said the State Department had authorized voluntary departures from Bahrain and Kuwait.
The State Department updated its worldwide travel advisory on Wednesday evening to reflect the latest U.S. posture. “On June 11, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel due to heightened regional tensions,” the advisory said.
The decision by the U.S. to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and U.S. intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters. “We’ve given notice to move out.”
Asked whether anything can be done to lower the temperature in the region, Trump said: “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.
Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said on Wednesday that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting U.S. bases in the region.
The U.S. embassy in Kuwait said in a statement on Wednesday that it had “not changed its staffing posture and remains fully operational.”

MILITARY PRESENCE

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that China will make it easier for American industry to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals, clearing the way for talks to continue between the world’s two biggest economies. In return, Trump said, the U.S. will stop efforts to revoke the visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.

Trump’s comment on social media came after two days of high-level U.S.-China trade talks in London.

Details remain scarce. Trump didn’t fully spell out what concessions the U.S. made. Beijing has not confirmed what the negotiators agreed to, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump himself have yet to sign off on it.

What Trump described as a “deal’’ is actually less than that: It’s a “framework’’ meant to set the stage for more substantive talks.

And Trump’s own comments created confusion about what was happening to his taxes – tariffs — on Chinese imports, generating uncertainty about more than $660 billion in annual trade between the two countries.

On social media, Trump declared: “WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT!” But a White House official, who was not authorized to discuss the terms publicly and insisted on anonymity to describe them, said the 55% was not an increase on the previous 30% tariff on China because Trump was including pre-existing tariffs, including some left over from his first term.

“We have no idea what the rules are,″ said Rick Woldenberg, CEO of the educational toy company Learning Resources, who is part of a lawsuit challenging Trump’s authority to impose the tariffs.

In a follow-up social media post, Trump said he and Xi “are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade. This would be a great WIN for both countries!!!”

The framework emerged late Tuesday in London after intense talks involving U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer. Leading the Chinese delegation was Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has deployed tariffs aggressively, seeing them as a way to raise money for the federal government, protect American industries, lure factories back to the United States and pressure other countries into bending to his will.

He has imposed baseline 10% tariffs on imports from almost every country on earth after having introduced and then suspended for 90 days bigger tariffs on countries based on the size of U.S. trade deficits last year.

To American trading partners and to businesses calculating their import tax bills, the president’s mercurial approach to trade policy can be baffling. For example, he recently doubled his steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%, likely increasing costs for U.S. manufacturers and construction companies that rely on the metals as raw materials.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-xinjiang-critical-minerals-forced-labor-uyghur-eac368889c299fd304a3b7beefc7469a

A former pupil killed 10 people and himself at a secondary school in Austria’s second city, Graz, on Tuesday in the worst school shooting in Austria’s modern history.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said six of those killed at the school were female and three were male, without giving any details of their ages. Graz Hospital later confirmed the death of a 10th person.

Karner said another dozen people had been injured but gave no further details about the victims. Austrian media said most were pupils.

Police said they believed the 21-year-old Austrian shooter, who was found dead in a bathroom, had been operating alone when he entered the school with two guns and opened fire. His motive remained unclear.
Director General of Public Security Franz Ruf told state broadcaster ORF that victims were found outside and inside the school on various floors, adding the gunman had been armed with both a shotgun and a pistol, both found at the scene.
Chancellor Christian Stocker called the shooting a “dark day in the history of our country”.
“There are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all of Austria – are feeling right now.”

Stocker travelled to Graz where, at a press conference alongside officials including Karner, he announced three days of national mourning. A minute’s silence was set for 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.
Ruf also told ORF the suspect had left behind a farewell letter, both in analogue and digital form, in which he said goodbye to his parents but gave no indication of a motive, which was still being investigated.
More than 300 police were called in after shots were heard around 10 a.m. at the school, for pupils of 15 and above. Ambulances also arrived within minutes as the premises were cordoned off.
The Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper said in an unconfirmed report that the suspect had opened fire on pupils in two classrooms, one of which had once been his own. It said he had been a victim of bullying.

Julia Ebner, an extremism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think-tank, said the incident appeared to be the worst school shooting in Austria’s post-war history.
Foreign leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed shock.
Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-person-killed-attack-austrian-school-media-report-2025-06-10/

Protests have rocked Los Angeles since last Friday (Jun 6) as federal agents faced off against hundreds of demonstrators following immigration raids.

Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the city, a rare deployment that goes against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has called it “purposely inflammatory” and unlawful.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war under the age of 25 on Monday in emotional homecoming scenes, the first step in a series of planned prisoner swaps that could become the biggest of the war so far.
The exchange was the result of direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul on June 2 that resulted in an agreement to exchange at least 1,200 POWs on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The return of POWs and the repatriation of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have managed to agree on as broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Fighting has raged on, with Russia saying on Monday its forces had taken control of more territory in Ukraine’s east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv saying Moscow had launched its largest drone attack of the war.
Officials in Kyiv said some of the Ukrainian prisoners who came home on Monday had been in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war.
At a rendezvous point for the returning Ukrainian prisoners, soon after they crossed back into northern Ukraine, an official handed one of the freed men a cellphone so that he could call his mother, a video released by Ukrainian authorities showed.

“Hi mum, I’ve arrived, I’m home!” the soldier shouted into the receiver, struggling to catch his breath because he was overcome by emotion.
The released Ukrainian men were later taken by bus to a hospital in northern Ukraine where they were to have medical checks and be given showers, food and care packages including mobile phones and shoes.
Jubilation was tinged with sadness because outside the hospital were crowds of people, mostly women, looking for relatives who went missing while fighting for Ukraine.
The women held up pictures of the missing men in the hope that one of the returning POWs would recognise them and share details about what happened to them. Some hoped their loved ones would be among those released.
Oksana Kupriyenko, 52, was holding up an image of her son, Denys, who went missing in September 2024.

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Sinwar in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month.
Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.

Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas.
“This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again,” said Defrin.
“We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar’s death last month, but Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him.

Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana.
Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and which triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Shabana was one of Hamas’s most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids.

DESTRUCTION

The drive to Khan Younis in Israeli military vehicles showed widespread devastation, with countless buildings lying in ruins, and piles of rubble collected at the roadside.
The Israeli military has raided or besieged numerous hospitals during the war, alleging that Hamas uses them to conceal fighters and orchestrate operations — a charge Hamas has repeatedly denied. While Israel has presented evidence in certain cases, some of its assertions remain unverified.

Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it.
A large trench dug infront of the Emergency Room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel, that was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-reveals-tunnel-under-gaza-hospital-says-body-sinwars-brother-found-there-2025-06-08/

US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12.01am Eastern Time (12.01pm, Singapore time) on Monday (Jun 9), a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists”.

The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.

Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists”, fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.

He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.

The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.

Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.

“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the US a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the US.

Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/donald-trump-travel-ban-12-countries-goes-effect-early-monday-5170381

“Private companies can do whatever they want,” leftists once snorted in defense of companies like Facebook banning conservative speech.

But now the tables have turned, and LGBTQ activists have found themselves in a state between panicked and sulky as their fair-weather friends in corporate America are pulling sponsorships of Pride celebrations this month.

As a result, Pride events across the nation are facing budget shortfalls, and activists are blaming everyone but themselves.

At least 14 companies — including Pepsi, Citi, MasterCard, Nissan, Garnier, and US defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. — have dropped or greatly scaled back their financial contributions to annual Pride events nationwide.

Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud Light, has also backtracked on Pride sponsorship — and for good reason. The company lost an estimated $395 million after its botched partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney led to a nationwide boycott in 2023.

Ever since, Bud Light has struggled to reposition itself as the good ol’ boys, God ’n’ guns beverage, to lukewarm reception.

The numbers are grim: Heritage of Pride, organizers of New York City’s festivities, by far the largest in the nation, faces a $750,000 shortfall this year after nearly a quarter of corporate donations dried up. This follows years of operating at a loss: In 2022, the group was $2.7 million in the hole, and another $1.2 million the following year.

In California, longtime corporate donors ran for the hills when San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford reached out begging for money. Twin Cities Pride has seen longtime corporate sponsors in Minnesota shift into retreat mode, and now the group is scrambling to meet a $200,000 goal. Organizers in Washington, DC, Milwaukee, and St. Louis all have reported being ghosted by big companies they once relied upon.

All of this is occurring at a time when a dozen companies have withdrawn participation from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a shakedown scheme used by the LGBT nonprofit behemoth to enforce woke capitalism.

For LGBTQAI2S+ activists, the reason for all this is simple: It’s Trump’s fault.

“There’s a lot of fear of repercussions for aligning with our festival,” Wes Shaver, president of Milwaukee Pride, told The New York Times, joining others who believe companies fear they may be penalized by the White House if they donate to Pride events, citing the administration’s effort to curtail DEI initiatives.

(When asked about this, the White House didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post.)

What’s equally likely is that everyone just has gay fatigue — a collective eye roll at the oversaturation of LGBT themes in culture, combined with all the negative connotations now associated with Pride. Once a niche event of subculture fun and revelry, it’s devolved into a mainstream, month-long orgy of far-leftism that looks more like a tent revival beckoning an impending open-borders transgender race war.

Rage-hungry conservative influencers have latched on to videos of public nudity and shameless parents forcing Pride spectacles onto their children. Transgender insanity has swallowed the entire movement and, in doing so, repelled middle-of-the-road Americans.

Simply put, it’s exhausting.

And what company, in its right mind, wants to be tied to all that? While activists say companies are afraid of Trump, the same could have been true about Biden. Businesses certainly felt the Democrat gun in their back to start coughing up their woke bona fides during his term.

Overall, the corporate retreat from Pride is a good thing for everyone, and it ought to continue. The grotesque parade of political and corporate pandering that’s defined Pride over the last two decades is embarrassing, as any honest gay person will admit.

After all, who wants their sex life validated by junk food companies and bomb-makers?

It’s also alienated plenty of old-timers.

“The cold corporations are more important to the rotating Heritage of Pride than the actual surviving Stonewall veterans. Plenty are still alive and kicking,” former New York City Pride Grand Marshall Williamson Henderson, of the Stonewall Veterans Association, and who participated in the original Stonewall rebellion in June 1969 (the reason Pride Month exists), told The Post.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/06/07/opinion/why-theres-no-shame-in-corporate-america-boycotting-lgbt-pride-month/

Thailand and Cambodia have reinforced their troops at a disputed border after a recent military skirmish. Tourists have been ordered not to use two border crossing points between the neighbors.

The decision follows the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief military clash on May 28 in an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of the two neighbors and Laos meet.

Thailand and Cambodia share an 817 kilometer (508 mile) border, first mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony. For most of the following century, the neighbors have disputed various un-demarcated points along the frontier.

What did Thai authorities say?
Authorities in the eastern province of Chanthaburi said in a statement that they had “temporarily suspended” crossings by Thai and Cambodian tourists at two permanent border checkpoints.

The Royal Thai Army cited a threat to Thailand’s “sovereignty and security” as the reason for the move.

The army said trade would be unaffected and Cambodian workers could still enter Thailand.

Six other border checkpoints tightened their opening hours and issued bans on six-wheeled vehicles.

Thai Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the army had reinforced its military presence at the border following an increase in troops on the other side.

“There has been a reinforcement of military presence [by Cambodia], which has exacerbated tensions along the border,” Phumtham, who is also deputy prime minister, said in a statement.

“Consequently, the Royal Thai Government has deemed it necessary to implement additional measures and to reinforce our military posture accordingly.”

The army said Friday it was ready to launch a “high-level operation” to counter any violation of Thailand’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile, the Thai Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the country was committed to holding bilateral talks with Cambodia on June 14 to resolve the dispute.

What has Cambodia said?
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet insisted in a speech Saturday that his country’s stance was “not to initiate conflict, but to defend ourselves.”

Hun said earlier this week that the kingdom would file a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the border dispute.

The two neighbors had agreed to ease tensions following last month’s killing but Cambodia then said it would keep its troops in the area, in defiance of a request by Bangkok.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/thailand-closes-border-to-tourists-after-cambodia-clash/a-72830456

US President Donald Trump is not interested in talking with Elon Musk, a White House official said on Friday (Jan 6), signaling the president and his former ally might not resolve their feud over a sweeping tax-cut bill any time soon.

The White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no phone call between Trump and the Tesla CEO was planned for the day. Earlier, a different White House official had said the two were going to talk.

In interviews with several US media outlets, Trump said he was focused on other matters.

“I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem, the poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump told CNN on Friday morning.

Trump may get rid of the red Tesla Model S that he bought in March after showcasing Musk’s electric cars on the White House lawn, the official said.

Musk, for his part, did not directly address Trump but kept up his criticism of the massive Republican tax and spending bill that contains much of Trump’s domestic agenda.

On his social-media platform X, Musk amplified remarks made by others that Trump’s “big beautiful bill” would hurt Republicans politically and add to the nation’s US$36.2 trillion debt. He replied “exactly” to a post by another X user that said Musk had criticized Congress and Trump had responded by criticizing Musk personally.

People who have spoken to Musk said his anger has begun to recede and they think he will want to repair his relationship with Trump, according to one person who has spoken to Musk’s entourage.

The White House statements came one day after the two men battled openly in an extraordinary display of hostilities that marked a stark end to a close alliance.

Tesla stock rose on Friday, clawing back some losses from Thursday’s session, when it dropped 14 percent and lost US$150 billion in value, the largest single-day decline in the company’s history.

Musk’s high-profile allies have largely stayed silent during the feud. But one, investor James Fishback, called on Musk to apologize.

“President Trump has shown grace and patience at a time when Elon’s behavior is disappointing and frankly downright disturbing,” Fishback said in a statement.

Musk, the world’s richest man, bankrolled a large part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Trump named Musk to head a controversial effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-president-trump-musk-feud-tax-cut-bill-5169346https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-president-trump-musk-feud-tax-cut-bill-5169346

India has said that the IWT will remain in abeyance until Islamabad “credibly and irrevocably” ends its support for cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan wrote to India as many as four times urging it to reconsider its decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which has now left Pakistan battling for water, reported news agency IANS, citing sources. Syed Ali Murtaza, Secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources, sent four letters to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, which has since then forwarded them to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Sources said Murtaza has urged India to revoke the suspension and resume the agreement. The suspension has led to a water shortage in Pakistan, with many dams left without water.
India had suspended the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan on April 23, a day after terrorists shot dead 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. It was one of the punitive measures India took against Pakistan; others being suspending all visa services, closing Attari border and asking Pakistan nationals to leave.
India said that theIWT will remain in abeyanceuntil Islamabad “credibly and irrevocably” ends its support for cross-border terrorism. This is the first time New Delhi has hit pause on the World Bank-brokered agreement.

After India launched Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi clearly said that “water and blood cannot flow together” and “terror and talks cannot happen at the same time”, underlining the government’s uncompromising position.

Exposed around the globe, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been expressing Islamabad’s willingness to engage in peace talks with India to resolve ongoing disputes.

Notably, Pakistani politicians had issued repeated warnings calling the IWT suspension an “act of war”. Many leaders pleaded to the Shehbaz government to “defuse” the “water bomb” that is hanging over the country.
“We would die of hunger if we don’t resolve the water crisis now. The Indus Basin is our lifeline as three-fourths of our water comes from outside the country, nine out of 10 people depend on the Indus water basin for their living, as much as 90 per cent of our crops rely on this water and all our power projects and dams are built on it. This is like a water bomb hanging over us and we must defuse it,” Pakistan Senator Syed Ali Zafar was heard saying during a Senate Session last month.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/pakistan-syed-ali-murtaza-wrote-4-letters-to-india-pleading-to-resume-indus-waters-treaty-report-pahalgam-attack-article-151806706

Harvard University said on Thursday (Jun 5) that US President Donald Trump’s move to bar foreign nationals seeking to study at the Ivy League school from entering the United States is illegal, and asked a judge to block it immediately pending further litigation.

Harvard amended an earlier lawsuit, which it had filed amid a broader dispute with the Republican president, to challenge the proclamation that Trump issued on Wednesday.

“The Proclamation denies thousands of Harvard’s students the right to come to this country to pursue their education and follow their dreams, and it denies Harvard the right to teach them. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the school said in the filing.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called Harvard “a hotbed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators”, claims that the school has previously denied.

“Harvard’s behaviour has jeopardised the integrity of the entire US student and exchange visitor visa system and risks compromising national security. Now it must face the consequences of its actions,” Jackson said in a statement.

Trump cited national security concerns as justification for barring international students from entering the US to pursue studies at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university.

The suspension will initially be for six months but can be extended. Trump’s proclamation also directs the US State Department to consider revoking academic or exchange visas of any current Harvard students who meet his proclamation’s criteria.

In Thursday’s court filing, Harvard said Trump had violated federal law by failing to back up his claims about national security.

“The Proclamation does not deem the entry of an alien or class of aliens to be detrimental to the interests of the United States, because noncitizens who are impacted by the Proclamation can enter the United States – just so long as they go somewhere other than Harvard,” the school said.

The Trump administration has launched a multifront attack on the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, freezing billions of dollars in grants and other funding and proposing to end its tax-exempt status, prompting a series of legal challenges.

Harvard argues the administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.

Trump’s directive came a week after a federal judge in Boston, US District Judge Allison Burroughs, announced she would issue a broad injunction blocking the administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, who make up about a quarter of its student body.

Harvard said in Thursday’s court filing that the proclamation was “a patent effort to do an end-run around this Court’s order”.

The university sued after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on May 22 that her department was immediately revoking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which allows it to enroll foreign students.

Noem’s action was temporarily blocked almost immediately by Burroughs. On the eve of a hearing before her last week, the department changed course and said it would instead challenge Harvard’s certification through a lengthier administrative process.

Nonetheless, Burroughs said she planned to issue a longer-term preliminary injunction at Harvard’s urging, saying one was necessary to give some protection to Harvard’s international students.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/harvard-challenges-trump-proclamation-ban-international-students-entry-5168361

Five countries won seats on the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday in uncontested elections and will start serving two-year terms in January on the U.N.’s most powerful but deeply divided body.

The 193-member General Assembly held a secret-ballot vote for the five rotating seats on the 15-member council. Bahrain received 186 votes, Congo 183 votes, Liberia 181 votes, Colombia 180 votes and Latvia 178 votes.

This will be the first time on the council for Latvia, which was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and gained independence again after its collapse in 1991.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told reporters after the vote her Baltic nation is ready for the responsibility, saying, “Our historical experience puts us in the position to understand, empathize with, and forge partnerships across every region in the world.”

“We know the value of freedom,” she said. “We know the fragility of peace and the power of multilateralism to safeguard it.”

Braže said Latvia will spare no effort to achieve just and lasting peace in Ukraine and to alleviate suffering in the Middle East, Gaza, Africa and other conflicts around the globe.

Bahrain will be the Arab representative on the council, and Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said his country’s election to the council for a second time reinforces its determination to be “a proactive contributor” to international peace and security.

“Our goal is to fortify peace and stability within our region,” Al Zayani said, stressing that resolving the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict is “the cornerstone for achieving peace in the region.”

The immediate requirement, he said, is a ceasefire and massive influx of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the release of all hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and progress toward a two-state solution and “a viable state of Palestine.”

The Security Council is mandated in the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, but it has failed in the two major conflicts because of the veto power of Russia on Ukraine and the United States, Israel’s closest ally, on Gaza.

There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the world in 2025, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all failed.

The council still includes five veto-wielding permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — and 10 elected members from the U.N.’s different regional groups. One major failing is the absence of a permanent seat for Africa or Latin America and the Caribbean.

Under its current rules, five new council members are elected every year. In January, the newly elected countries will replace Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.

Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner of Congo, which will be serving its third term on the council, told the council its election not only reflects confidence in her country, “it is also a reflection of Africa’s unity and its rightful place in shaping the global peace and security agenda.”

Asked about the ongoing fighting by armed groups in the country’s mineral-rich east, she said Congo will bring to the council the knowledge of dealing with decades of conflict, the challenges of U.N. peacekeeping operations and protecting civilians, and “the convergence between conflict, natural resources, and environmental changes.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/un-security-council-new-members-latvia-36b9ed65e770f6fed3354872fc14dafe

DONALD Trump has signed a sweeping new travel ban blocking people from a dozen countries from entering the US — with restrictions set to kick in within days.

The bombshell move, announced late Wednesday, will take effect at 12.01am Monday.

The countries hit with a full ban include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In addition to the outright ban, heightened restrictions will be slapped on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in a proclamation.

The sweeping list stems from a January 20 executive order, in which Trump tasked the State Department, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence with flagging “hostile attitudes” and countries that pose a national security risk.

The crackdown mirrors Trump’s highly controversial 2017 executive order from his first term, which initially barred citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — triggering chaos at airports and global backlash.

Dubbed the “Muslim ban”, it sparked scenes of confusion as travellers, including students and tourists, were blocked from boarding planes or detained after landing in the US.

After legal challenges, the policy was retooled and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018, with a version targeting Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, alongside North Korea and Venezuelan officials.

Trump has consistently defended the bans as vital to national security, despite critics accusing him of religious discrimination.

The latest move ramps up his hardline immigration stance as the Republican firebrand gears up for a second term — once again placing border control and national safety at the heart of his presidency.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump held an hour-long call with Vladimir Putin, revealing the Kremlin tyrant “will have to respond” to Ukraine’s devastating drone blitz on Russian airfields.

“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

The warning came after Operation Spiderweb — a daring Ukrainian drone assault that wiped out 41 Russian warplanes across four strategic air bases, including nuclear-capable bombers.

The pair also discussed Iran’s nuclear programme, with Trump writing: “I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14401462/trump-travel-ban-us-dozen-countries-restrictions/

ELON Musk has slammed Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill as “disgusting” and “pork-filled” – just days after leaving the White House.

The tech tycoon’s scathing attack on one of the US president’s signature policies comes as he stepped down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Friday.

The bill promises multi-trillion dollar tax breaks, increased defence spending and funding for Trump’s mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Musk, who campaigned to reduce the national debt, fumed on his platform X: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.

“It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5trillion and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.

“Congress is making America bankrupt.”

In American politics, “pork” refers to spending added to bills by lawmakers to benefit their own constituencies – and are implicitly, unnecessary.

Musk had previously called the bill “disappointing”, claiming it undermined the DOGE’s work.

Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, soon after said: “With all due respect, Elon is terribly wrong about the one big beautiful bill.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt similarly said: “The President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill.”

“This is one, big, beautiful bill,” she added. “And he’s sticking to it.”

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” pledges to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and introduce new tax breaks.

It narrowly passed the House of Representatives in May by just one vote – despite warnings from the Congressional Budget Office that it would add $3.8trillion (£3trillion) to the current national debt of $36.2trillion (£28.3trillion).

The bill also proposes raising America’s debt ceiling – the government’s borrowing limit – to $4trillion (£3.1trillion).

Trump sent the bill to Congress several days ago, where it awaits approval from the Senate.

Republicans have set a July 4 deadline to get the bill passed and signed into law.

Musk’s rant on X come just days after his farewell press conference, where Trump praised him for doing a “fantastic job” in the White House.

The US president listed the billionaire’s achievements, which included slashing many offshore projects said to be funded by USAID.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14391272/elon-musk-blasts-donald-trumps-bill/

Bill Gates has urged African leaders to join him in advancing health and development on the continent. He says his foundation will partner with nations putting people’s health first.

US billionaire Bill Gates on Tuesday announced that the majority of his philanthropic Gates Foundation’s $200 billion (€175 billion) endowment will be spent in Africa over the next two decades.

Gates, who on May 8 said he would wind down the foundation by 2045, made the pledge while addressing African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“I recently made a commitment that my wealth will be given away over the next 20 years. The majority of that funding will be spent on helping you address challenges here in Africa,” Gates said as he urged leaders to boost health and development through partnership and innovation.

“By unleashing human potential through health and education, every country in Africa should be on a path to prosperity… and that path is an exciting thing to be part of,” Gates told government officials, diplomats and health workers.

Gates makes pitch as US government slashes aid
“Investing in primary healthcare has the greatest impact on health and wellbeing,” he said. “With primary healthcare, what we’ve learned is that helping the mother be healthy and have great nutrition before she gets pregnant, while she is pregnant, delivers the strongest results. Ensuring the child receives good nutrition in their first four years as well makes all the difference.”

US businessman-philanthropist Gates singled out Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe as examples of countries that to his mind show strong leadership fostering innovation. He did not comment on allegations of authoritarianism and rights abuses against the governments of, for example, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

“Our foundation has an increasing commitment to Africa,” Gates said. “Our first African office was here in Ethiopia about 13 years ago. Now we have offices in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal. That’s a great way for us to strengthen partnerships.”

Gates’ pitch comes amid halts to US foreign aid on the advice of US President Donald Trump’s donor and budget oversight advisor, Elon Musk — the world’s richest man — who bragged of “feeding USAID to the wood chipper.”

A recent study in the medical journal The Lancet projected that cuts to American spending on PEPFAR — the program to deliver HIV and AIDS relief abroad — could cost the lives of 500,000 children by 2030. The journal Nature suggested a sustained halt to US aid funding could result in some 25 million additional deaths over 15 years.

The Gates Foundation has invested heavily in projects aimed at reducing childhood and maternal deaths; advancing progress on vaccines for infectious disease, such as malaria or HIV; as well as lifting poor populations out of poverty.

The foundation claims that it has contributed to more than 100 innovations that have saved more than 80 million lives, citing partnerships with GAVI and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Gates says ‘rich should do more in philanthropy’
Gates, who made his fortune with the computer software company Microsoft and started the Gates Foundation with his ex-wife, Melinda, has urged other wealthy individuals to spend their money on humanity not just personal possessions.

When recently asked by The New York Times about why he is donating his fortune he first said, “It makes a big difference to take the money and spend it now versus later,” pointing to its impact on developments in agriculture and AI.

“What am I going to do?” he added, “Just go buy a bunch of boats or something? Go gamble? This money should go back to society in the way that it has the best chance of causing something positive to happen.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/bill-gates-to-give-most-of-200-billion-fund-to-africa/a-72769394

THIS terrifying video shows the moment tourists run for their lives as the mammoth Mount Etna erupts behind them.

Groups of hikers were on the volcano’s slopes when it began spewing smoke and hot ash, with some just metres from the mouth forced to flee urgently.

Long lines of tourists could be seen snaking down the mountainside in the shadow of an enormous growing black cloud.

“Very intense and almost continuous” eruptions were reported from the Sicilian stratovolcano – Europe’s highest tinderbox.

Part of the southeastern crater is thought to have collapsed into the bubbling magma setting off the eruption.

A lava fountain has then sent boiling rock, ash, and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide spewing from Etna’s mouth, visible for miles.

The cloud is now 4miles high – but it is slowly moving northwest and away from the nearby city of Catania.

Despite this the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Toulouse (VAAC) has issued a code red for flights due to the eruption.

A code red means that there is a “significant” amount of ash in the atmosphere.

Only a small number of flights at Catania airport have been delayed as authorities respond to the safety challenge.

Italian civil aviation is yet to close any airspace.

Eruptions previously around the world have seen planes grounded for days due to risks posed by volcanoes.

Tourists on the fabled mountain captured the moment the eruption happened and the thick grey plume of smoke and ash rushed into the sky.

Other sightseers could be seen running for their lives as their holiday turned into a nightmare.

A terrifying volcanic tremor was felt just moments before the eruption.

The tremor began at roughly 10pm last night before reaching a peak three hours later in the middle of the night.

It was localised at an altitude of 1.7miles below the crater area.

They explained that an ash cloud made predominantly of water and sulphur dioxide was “drifting towards the south west”.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said: “Over the past few hours, the activity flagged in the previous statement issued at 4.14am (3.14am BST) has carried on with strombolian explosions of growing intensity that, at the moment, are of strong intensity and nearly continuous.”

They explained that explosive activity from the Southeast Crater has “moved to a lava fountain,” adding that the “volcanic tremor has reached very high values”.

In the past, Etna’s eruptions have caused nearby towns to be covered in black volcanic ash.

The mountain is one of the most active volcanoes in southern Italy, with the last eruption occurring in May.

In February, Mount Etna turned into a fiery peak as hot lava spewed from the erupting volcano.

Marco Bassot, who has 416,000 Instagram followers, captured the moment on camera.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14377404/etna-erupts-tourists-flee/

While he did not provide further details, Patel said in a social media post: “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”

Boulder, Colorado: Eight people were injured on Sunday when a 45-year-old man yelled “Free Palestine” and threw incendiary devices into a crowd in Boulder, Colorado where a demonstration to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza was taking place, authorities said.

Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were transported to hospitals, Boulder police said. Authorities had earlier put the count of the injured at six and said at least one of them was in a critical condition.

“As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, Mark Michalek, said.

Michalek named the suspect as Mohamed Soliman, who was hospitalized shortly after the attack. Reuters could not immediately locate contact information for him or his family.

FBI Director Kash Patel also described the incident as a “targeted terror attack,” and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said it appeared to be “a hate crime given the group that was targeted.” Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved.

“We’re fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody,” he said.

The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district in the shadow of the University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, an organization devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

In a statement, the group said the walks have been held every week since then for the hostages, “without any violent incidents until today.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on X he was shocked by the “terrible antisemitic terror attack,” describing it as “pure antisemitism.”

The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the United States over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has spurred both an increase in antisemitic hate crime as well as moves by conservative supporters of Israel led by President Donald Trump to brand pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic. His administration has detained protesters of the war without charge and cut off funding to elite U.S. universities that have permitted such demonstrations.

In a post to X, a social network, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Soliman had overstayed his visa and been allowed to work by the previous administration. He said it was further evidence of the need to “fully reverse” what he described as “suicidal migration.”

Reuters was not able to independently verify the suspect’s immigration status. When asked about Soliman, the Department of Homeland Security said more information would be provided as it became available.

Victims burned

Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.

She described seeing a man whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.

“Everybody is yelling, ‘get water, get water,'” Coffman said.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/world/fbi-investigating-targeted-terror-attack-in-boulder-colorado-director-says-3567056

SEAN “Diddy” Combs can still come out of his federal trial as a winner if he’s not convicted on all charges, despite the scandalous evidence and testimony from witnesses, according to an attorney.

Week three of Combs’ federal trial has wrapped up as more witnesses, including another former assistant, continued to testify about the violence the music executive, 55, inflicted behind closed doors.

The testimonies dived into the prosecution’s accusations that the hitmaker, with the help of an inner circle of close confidants, used his far-reaching power and intimidation to cover up his alleged crimes and protect his public image.

However, Combs’ defense team has argued that the alleged victims all engaged in consensual sexual acts and remained by his side for years because of his lavish lifestyle and career advancements.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in the trial, said even if the music mogul is convicted of some crimes but not all, he will come out as a winner.

“Diddy’s defense is that these individuals engaged in these sex acts willingly,” Rahmani told The U.S. Sun.

“There was no force. There was no coercion. They chose to do drugs. They weren’t drugged.

“And the fact that they may have been paid may be unlawful under the prostitution charges, but to the extent that the defense gets guilty verdicts on prostitution only, and not guilties on racketeering and sex trafficking, that would be a huge win for Diddy in the defense.”

WEEK THREE

For the second day, the courtroom heard on Friday gut-wrenching testimony from Combs’ former assistant, referred to only as Mia, about the total control he held over her.

Mia, who worked for Combs for eight years in various capacities starting in 2009, testified how he made her work grueling hours and violently attacked her.

The former assistant, one of Combs’ many ex-employees who have taken the stand, broke down in tears as she told the jury about the multiple times he allegedly raped her.

Mia admitted in her testimony that she never disclosed the alleged sexual assaults to anyone, saying, “I was going to die with this.”

The emotional victim recalled Combs’ spurts of violence towards her and Ventura, telling jurors about the times he allegedly threw a computer and his bowl of spaghetti at her head.

“I wondered, what did I do to make him like this to me?” Mia testified.

The jury heard from Scott Mescudi, better known as rapper Kid Cudi, during the trial’s second week.

Mescudi testified about his brief relationship with Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura in late 2011, and told the court about when Combs flew into a jealous rage over the relationship.

The Mr. Rager rapper, 41, accused Combs of breaking into his house, messing with his dog and locking his pet in the bathroom.

Mescudi’s testimony was dominated by the January 2012 incident when his Porsche was blown up on his driveway by a Molotov cocktail, which he accused Combs of being responsible for.

The jurors were shown pictures of Mescudi’s charred sports car with the cut-up roof where the explosive was thrown.

The trial opened up with powerful testimony from Ventura, Combs’ ex-girlfriend of over a decade.

The singer, 38, emotionally spoke about how Combs forced her to participate in weekly drug-fueled sex marathons, which he called “freak-offs,” with male escorts.

Ventura, who said she did not want to engage in the sex acts, told the court her music career took a backseat due to the toll the “freak-offs” took on her day, testifying how she needed days at a time to recover.

Prosecutors also released photos of the injuries Ventura allegedly suffered from Combs’ years-long abuse, including a gash on her forehead that had become a permanent scar.

Dawn Richard, a singer who once competed in Combs’ reality show Making the Band, also testified how she witnessed the music executive’s abuse of Ventura.

Richard, who was signed to Bad Boy Records and part of the trio Diddy – Dirty Money, described how Combs hit Ventura “on the head and beat her on the ground” during a visit to his home recording studio in 2019.

Combs’ trial is expected to continue until the first week of July, with the prosecution’s case slated to rest the week of June 9.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14362896/diddy-not-guilty-sex-trafficking-trial-winner-lawyer/

TWO people have died after a plane crash landed into a home and sparked a devastating fire.

A 71-year-old woman, believed to be the pilot, and an 84-year-old were confirmed dead after the horror accident on Saturday afternoon.

The plane smashed into the terrace home at midday local time in western Germany.

The crash severely damaged the building in Kleinenbroich, near Dusseldorf, upon impact.

Photos show the roof’s building smoking as around 50 firefighters desperately battled with the fire which sparked when the small plane hit.

Piles of debris could also be seen strewn outside the home which is said to belong to three people.

One of the residents, an elderly woman, is among the victims.

She is believed to have died when the plane first smashed through the roof.

The experienced pilot reported technical problems from the cockpit just above Kleinenbroich shortly before the crash.

Her final destination is believed to have been Moenchengladbach, which sits just 2.5 miles away from Kleinenbroich.

Harrowing images of the plane’s wreckage sat in the back garden were released by officials.

The tail had been completely ripped away from the aircraft’s body with much of the remainder of the plane scattered across the ground.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14368752/plane-crashes-house-germany/

Xiao Chen turned up at the US Consulate in Shanghai on Thursday morning, hours after Washington announced that it would “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students.

The 22-year-old had a visa appointment: she was headed to Michigan in the autumn to study communications.

After a “pleasant” conversation, she was told her application had been rejected. She was not given a reason.

“I feel like a drifting duckweed tossed in wind and storm,” she said, using a common Chinese expression to describe feeling both uncertain and helpless.

She had been hopeful because she already had the acceptance letter. And she thought she had narrowly escaped the bombshells in recent days.

First, Donald Trump’s administration moved to end Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students, a move that has since been blocked in court. And then it said it had stopped visa appointments for all foreign students.

But now, Chen is ready for plan B. “If I can’t get the visa eventually, I’ll probably take a gap year. Then I’ll wait to see if things will get better next year.”

A valid visa may still not be enough, she adds, because students with visas could be “stopped at the airport and deported”.

“It’s bad for every Chinese student. The only difference is how bad.”

It has been a bleak week for international students in the US – and perhaps even harder for the 280,000 or so Chinese students who would have noticed that their country has been singled out.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Harvard of “co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the move against Chinese students in the US would include “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”.

That could hit a wide swathe of them given membership of the Communist Party is common among officials, entrepreneurs, business people and even artists and celebrities in China.

Beijing has called it a “politically motivated and discriminatory action”, and its foreign ministry has lodged a formal protest.

There was a time when China sent the highest number of foreign students to American campuses. But those numbers slipped as the relationship between the two countries soured.

A more powerful and increasingly assertive Beijing is now clashing with Washington for supremacy in just about everything, from trade to tech.

Trump’s first term had already spelled trouble for Chinese students. He signed an order in 2020 barring Chinese students and researchers with ties to Beijing’s military from obtaining US visas.

That order remained in place during President Joe Biden’s term. Washington never clarified what constitutes “ties” to the military, so many students had their visas revoked or were turned away at US borders, sometimes without a proper explanation.

One of them, who did not wish to be named, said his visa was cancelled by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when he landed in Boston in August 2023.

He had been accepted into a post-doctoral program at Harvard University. He was going to study regenerative medicine with a focus on breast cancer, and had done his master’s degree from a military-affiliated research institution in China.

He said he was not a member of the Communist Party and his research had nothing to do with the military.

“They asked me what the relationship was between my research and China’s defence affairs,” he told the BBC then. “I said, how could breast cancer have anything to do with national defence? If you know, please tell me.”

He believes he never stood a chance because the officials had already made up their minds. He recalled one of them asking: “Did Xi Jinping buy your suitcase for you?”

What was surprising, or even shocking then, slowly turned normal as more and more Chinese students struggled to secure visas or admissions to study science and technology in US universities.

Mr Cao, a psychology major whose research involves neuroscience, has spent the past school year applying for PhD programs in the US.

He had graduated from top-tier universities – credentials that could send him to an Ivy League school. But of the more than 10 universities he applied to, only one extended an offer.

Trump’s cuts to biomedical research didn’t help, but the mistrust surrounding Chinese researchers was also a factor. Allegations and rumours of espionage, especially in sensitive subjects, have loomed over Chinese nationals at US universities in recent years, even derailing some careers.

“One of the professors even told me, ‘We rarely give offers to Chinese students these days, so I cannot give you an interview,” Mr Cao told the BBC in February.

“I feel like I am just a grain of sand under the wheel of time. There is nothing I can do.”

For those who did graduate from US colleges, returning home to China has not been easy either.

They used to be lauded as a bridge to the rest of the world. Now, they find that their once-coveted degrees don’t draw the same reaction.

Chen Jian, who did not want to use his real name, said he quickly realised that his undergraduate degree from a US college had become an obstacle.

When he first came back in 2020, he interned at a state-owned bank and asked a supervisor if there was a chance to stay on.

The supervisor didn’t say it outright, but Chen got the message: “Employees should have local degrees. People like me (with overseas degrees) won’t even get a response.”

He later realised that “there really weren’t any colleagues with overseas undergraduate background in the department”.

He went back to the US and did his master’s at Johns Hopkins University, and now works at Chinese tech giant Baidu.

But despite the degree from a prestigious American university, Mr Chen does not feel he has an edge because of the stiff competition from graduates in China.

What also has not helped is the suspicion around foreign graduates. Beijing has ramped up warnings of foreign spies, telling civilians to be on the lookout for suspicious figures.

In April, prominent Chinese businesswoman Dong Mingzhu told shareholders in a closed-door meeting that her company, home appliance maker Gree Electric, will “never” recruit Chinese people educated overseas “because among them are spies”.

“I don’t know who is and who isn’t,” Ms Dong said, in comments that were leaked and went viral online.

Days later, the CIA released promotional videos encouraging Chinese officials dissatisfied with the government to become spies and provide classified information. “Your destiny is in your own hands,” the video said.

The suspicion of foreigners as the US and China pull further away from each other is a surprising turn for many Chinese people who remember growing up in a very different country.

Zhang Ni, who also did not want to use her real name, says she was “very shocked” by Ms Dong’s remarks.

The 24-year-old is a recent journalism graduate from Columbia University in New York. She says she “doesn’t care about working at Gree”, but what surprised her was the shift in attitudes.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dezrrl3z3o

The U.S. plan for Gaza, seen by Reuters on Friday, proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages – alive and dead – in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The document, which says the plan is guaranteed by U.S. President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes sending humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement.

The aid will be delivered by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal.
Israeli media said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted the deal presented by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister’s office declined to comment.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it had received the Israeli response to the proposal, which it said “fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people” including an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Hamas official Basem Naim said the Israeli response “fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation”.
However, he said Hamas’ leadership was carrying out a “thorough and responsible review of the new proposal”.
The U.S. plan provides for Hamas to release the last 30 of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Israel will also cease all military operations in Gaza as soon as the truce takes effect, it shows.
The Israeli army will also redeploy its troops in stages.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely, be dismantled as a military and governing force and return all 58 hostages still held in Gaza before it will agree to end the war.

Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

The subsequent Israeli military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and has left the enclave in ruins.

MOUNTING PRESSURE

Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that are usually reluctant to criticise it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as “the hungriest place on earth”.
Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire by the two sides in the conflict.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict,” Witkoff said then.
The 60-day ceasefire, according to the plan, may be extended if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded within the set period.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday the terms of the proposal echoed Israel’s position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded.

AID DISTRIBUTION

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said it had distributed a total of more than 1.8 million meals this week and it expanded its aid distribution to a third site in Gaza on Thursday. GHF plans to open more sites in coming weeks.
The group, heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, began its operation this week in Gaza, where the U.N. has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after an 11-week blockade by Israel on aid entering the enclave.
There were tumultuous scenes on Tuesday as thousands of Palestinians rushed to distribution points and forced private security contractors to retreat.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-proposes-60-day-ceasefire-gaza-plan-shows-2025-05-30/

North Korea helped Russia to ramp up its missile attacks on key Ukrainian civilian infrastructure through the shipment of thousands of soldiers and artillery shells — with Pyongyang getting sanctions-busting air defense weapons and military equipment in return, officials revealed Thursday.

The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group comprising 11 United Nation members observing the sanctions against Pyongyang, found that Russia and North Korea had violated UN sanctions to bolster their military ambitions.

Moscow received more than 12,000 North Korean troops to help retake the Russian region of Kursk from Ukraine earlier this year. The Kremlin also got as many as nine million rounds of artillery and rocket launcher ammunition from North Korea, the MSMT confirmed in its first report.

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un formally signed a new military alliance last year, Pyongyang had shipped ballistic missiles, self-propelled artillery, long-range multiple rocket launchers to the Kremlin, the MSMT added.

“Pyongyang contributed to Moscow’s ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure,” the report said.

In return for the men and weapons, Russia gifted Kim at least one Pantsir mobile air defense system, a medium-range surface-to-air interceptor and anti-aircraft weapon, officials said.

North Korea also received a Pantsir-class combat vehicle, electronic warfare jamming devices and other military equipment to bolster Kim’s defense systems, according to the report.

MSMT found that Moscow also “supported North Korea’s ballistic missile programs by providing data feedback… leading to improvements in missile guidance performance.”

Along with the military trades, the MSMT found that Pyongyang and Moscow were engaging in financial transactions through North Korea-owned bank accounts in South Ossetia, a city in the nation of Georgia.

Neither North Korea nor Russia have publicly confirmed the exchange of military equipment or technology under their mutual defense pact, which Putin and Kim signed last year.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/29/world-news/north-korea-shipped-minions-munitions-to-russia-heres-what-the-hermit-state-got-in-return/

President Donald Trump’s trade war has cost companies more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, a toll that is expected to rise as ongoing uncertainty over tariffs paralyzes decision making at some of the world’s largest companies.
Across the United States, Asia and Europe, companies including Apple (AAPL.O), Ford (F.N), Porsche and Sony (6758.T), have pulled or slashed their profit forecasts, and an overwhelming majority say the erratic nature of Trump’s trade policies has made it impossible to accurately estimate costs. Reuters reviewed company statements, regulatory filings, conference and media call transcripts to pull together for the first time a snapshot of the tariff cost so far for global businesses.

The $33 billion is a sum of estimates from 32 companies in the S&P 500, three companies from Europe’s STOXX 600 (.STOXX), and 21 companies in Japan’s Nikkei 225 (.N225), indices. Economists say the cost to businesses will likely be multiple times what companies have so far disclosed.
“You can double or triple your tally and we’d still say … the magnitude is bound to be far greater than most people realize,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor at the Yale School of Management.
The ripple effects could be worse, he added, citing the potential for lower spending from consumers and businesses, higher inflation expectations.

While a recent pause in Sino-US trade hostilities has offered some relief and Trump has backed down from tariff threats against Europe, it is still not clear what the final trade deals will look like. A U.S. trade court on Wednesday blocked Trump’s tariffs from going into effect. In this environment, strategists say companies will look to strengthen supply chains, boost near-shoring efforts, and prioritize new markets – all of which will push up costs.
Companies themselves are uncertain about the final cost. As the corporate earnings season draws to a close, Reuters found at least 42 companies have cut their forecasts and 16 have withdrawn or suspended their guidance. For instance, earlier this month, Walmart (WMT.N),  declined to provide a quarterly profit forecast and said it would raise prices, drawing a rebuke from Trump. Volvo Cars (VOLCARb.ST), one of the European automakers most exposed to U.S. tariffs, withdrew its earnings forecast for the next two years and United Airlines (UAL.O), gave two different forecasts, saying it was impossible to predict the macro environment this year.

Trump has argued that tariffs will cut America’s trade deficit and prompt companies to move operations to the country, bringing jobs back home. Tariffs will also force countries including Mexico to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States, Trump has said.
“The Administration has consistently maintained that the United States … has the leverage to make our trading partners ultimately bear the cost of tariffs,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai.

TARIFF TALK

On earnings conference calls for the January to March quarter, 360 companies, or 72%, in the S&P 500 index mentioned tariffs, up from 150 companies, or 30%, in the previous quarter. Executives at 219 companies listed on the STOXX 600 mentioned tariffs, compared with 161 in the prior quarter. Of the Nikkei 225 companies in Japan, that number was 58, up from 12 earlier.

“I don’t think corporations have an awful lot of visibility about anything in the future,” said Rich Bernstein, CEO of Richard Bernstein Advisors in New York. Referring to withdrawn forecasts, he said, “If you take into account this uncertain world and you can’t guide anybody to a number, it’s safer not to guide.”
Wall Street is expecting net profit for companies in the S&P 500 index to grow at an average 5.1% per quarter through April through December, versus a growth rate of 11.7% a year earlier, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Automakers, airlines and consumer goods importers have been among the worst hit. Levies on raw material costs and parts including aluminum and electronics have risen, and tariffs on multiple countries are making assembling cars more expensive because of far-flung supply chains. Moving any production to the United States will also raise labor costs.

Kleenex tissue maker Kimberly Clark (KMB.N), slashed its annual profit forecast last month and said it would incur about $300 million in costs this year as tariffs push up its supply-chain costs. A few days later the company said it would invest $2 billion over five years to expand its manufacturing capacity in the U.S., a number not included in the Reuters tally. Companies including Apple and Eli Lilly have this year announced investments in the United States.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/trumps-tariff-tally-34-billion-counting-global-companies-say-2025-05-29/

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief and the younger brother of the Palestinian militant group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack, Yahya Sinwar, had been killed.
Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month and Netanyahu said on May 21 that it was likely he was dead.

The Israeli leader announced that Sinwar had been “eliminated” in an address to the Israeli parliament as he listed off names of other Hamas officials that Israel had killed over the past 20 months, including Sinwar’s brother Yahya.
“In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” he said, adding that Israel was also “taking control of food distribution”, a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a U.S.-backed group.
Hamas has yet to confirm Sinwar’s death.
Netanyahu’s announcement comes as the Israeli military has intensified its war campaign in Gaza after breaking a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March. Israel has said it aims to dismantle Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and secure the release of hostages that are still held in Gaza.

The war erupted on October 7, 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed out of Gaza, rampaging through southern Israeli communities and killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
More than 250 were captured and taken as hostages into Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has decimated the coastal territory, killing more than 53,000, according to health officials in Gaza, and displaced over 2 million Palestinians.
Gazan health officials have said most of those killed have been civilians but have not said how many militants have died. Israel believes it has killed tens of thousands of militants but has not provided any evidence to support those claims.
Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir on May 26 said Hamas had lost many assets, including its command and control centre.
Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-says-hamas-gaza-chief-mohammed-sinwar-has-been-eliminated-2025-05-28/

Billionaire Tesla (TSLA.O), CEO Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the generational savings he had sought.
His “off-boarding will begin tonight,” a White House official told Reuters late Wednesday, confirming Musk’s departure from government. Musk earlier on Wednesday took to his social media platform X to thank President Donald Trump as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency draws to an end.

His departure was quick and unceremonious. He did not have a formal conversation with Trump before announcing his exit, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, who added that his departure was decided “at a senior staff level.”
While the precise circumstances of his exit were not immediately clear, he leaves a day after criticizing Trump’s marquee tax bill, calling it too expensive and a measure that would undermine his work with the U.S. DOGE Service.
Some senior White House officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, were particularly irked by those comments, and the White House was forced to call Republican senators to reiterate Trump’s support for the package, a source familiar with the matter said.

While Musk remains close to the president, his exit comes after a gradual, but steady slide in standing.
After Trump’s inauguration, the billionaire quickly emerged as a powerful force in Trump’s orbit: hyper-visible, unapologetically brash and unfettered by traditional norms. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, he brandished a red metallic chainsaw to wild cheers. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” he declared.
On the campaign trail, Musk had said DOGE would be able to cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending. DOGE currently estimates its efforts have saved $175 billion so far, a number Reuters was not able to independently verify.
Musk did not hide his animus for the federal workforce, and he predicted that revoking “the COVID-era privilege” of telework would trigger “a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.”

But some cabinet members who initially embraced Musk’s outsider energy grew wary of his tactics, sources said. Over time, they grew more confident pushing back against his job cuts, encouraged by Trump’s reminder in early March that staffing decisions rested with department secretaries, not with Musk.
Musk clashed with three of Trump’s most senior cabinet members – Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He called Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.” Navarro dismissed the insults, saying, “I’ve been called worse.”
At the same time, Musk began to hint that his time in government would come to a close, while expressing frustration at times that he could not more aggressively cut spending.
In an April 22 Tesla conference call, he signaled he would be significantly scaling back his government work to focus on his businesses.

“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” Musk told The Washington Post this week. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”

DOGE GOES ON

Musk’s 130-day mandate as a special government employee in the Trump administration was set to expire around May 30. The administration has said DOGE’s efforts to restructure and shrink the federal government will continue.
Several cabinet secretaries are already discussing with the White House how to proceed without further alienating Congressional Republicans. But even as department heads will keep some DOGE infrastructure in place, they will likely move to reassert control over budgets and staffing, sources have told Reuters.
“The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk said.
Trump and DOGE have managed to cut nearly 12%, or 260,000, of the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce largely through threats of firings, buyouts and early retirement offers, a Reuters review of agency departures found.
At the same time, DOGE has hit a number of roadblocks, with federal courts at times propping back up agencies shortly after DOGE had moved to eliminate them. In some cases, staff and funding cuts have led to purchasing bottlenecks, increased costs and a brain drain of scientific and technological talent.
The most recent source of friction came on Tuesday when Musk criticized the price tag of Republicans’ tax and budget legislation making its way through Congress.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS News.
One source said the billionaire’s decision to trash Trump’s bill on television deeply upset senior White House aides.
His political activities have drawn protests and some investors have called for him to leave his work as Trump’s adviser and more closely manage Tesla, which has seen falls in sales and its stock price.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has defended his role as an unelected official who was granted unprecedented authority by Trump to dismantle parts of the U.S. government.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-leaving-trump-administration-white-house-official-confirms-2025-05-29/

Six people were still missing following the explosion at the plant operated by Shandong Youdao Chemical in the city of Weifang in Shandong province late on Tuesday morning, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The plant, situated in an industrial park, manufactures chemical components for use in pesticides and pharmaceuticals, they said.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media and verified by the Reuters news agency showed plumes of orange and black smoke billowing into the sky.

Windows of nearby buildings were ripped from their hinges by the explosion, one of the videos showed.

Authorities launched a large response to the explosion and the blaze it ignited, with officials sending more than 230 responders to the scene, according to CCTV.

Drone video posted by The Beijing News, a government-run publication, showed smoke emerging from the chemical plant and from a second, unidentified facility nearby.

Baidu Maps, a navigation app, shows other manufacturing companies next to Youdao’s plant, including a textile company, a machinery company and a firm that makes industrial coating materials.

The Weifang Ecological Environment Bureau dispatched staff to test the site of the blast, but said no results were available yet. It advised nearby residents to wear face masks in the meantime, The Beijing News reported.

A local resident, who did not wish to be identified for fear of repercussions, said in a video that his home, more than 7km (4.3 miles) from the plant, shook from the impact of the explosion, The Associated Press news agency reported.

A statement from China’s emergency response authority urged response crews to quickly contain the fire and establish the number of people affected.

Shandong Youdao Chemical was established in August 2019 in the Gaomi Renhe chemical park in Weifang, according to the company’s website. The plant covers about 47 hectares (116 acres) and has more than 300 employees.

Blasts at chemical plants in China in recent years have included one in the northwest region of Ningxia in 2024 and another in the southeastern province of Jiangxi in 2023.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/27/at-least-five-reported-killed-in-large-explosion-at-china-chemical-plant

EMMANUEL Macron and his wife Brigitte have put on a united front for the world’s cameras a day after the shocking face slap drama.

Viral footage that has overshadowed the start of the couple’s Southeast Asia tour shows the French leader’s wife shoving him in the mouth and jaw after landing in Vietnam.

Furious Macron attempted to downplay the incident last night by claiming the pair were “squabbling and, rather joking”.

He added that the unbelievable incident has been overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe”.

The French leader also argued that the clip and viral reaction to it offered a cautionary tale about disinformation in the social media age.

Today, Macron and the First Lady were captured arm-in-arm after arriving at Hanoi’s University of Science and Technology for the French president to make a speech.

The couple were pictured together a few hours after Macron claimed “crackpot” conspiracy theorists were trying to heighten speculation on what their marriage might look like behind closed doors.

Footage of the shove was initially denied by Macron’s office as being an AI-generated fake – but were forced to retract their statement and admit it was genuine.

His office said: “It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around.

“It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists.”

The unbelievable moment captured at Hanoi airport showed Macron facing his wife – who is out of the frame – as the plane’s doors opened.

Despite Brigitte not being visible, her arms are soon seen raised as she shoves a stern-looking Macron in the face.

Appearing shocked, the French leader immediately notices the doors open and quickly turns to wave at the sea of cameras at the bottom of the plane steps.

Despite Macron’s attempts to defuse claims that they weren’t in a heated argument, the couple’s body language immediately after the push seems to suggest otherwise.

Brigitte and Macron emerge together from the aircraft and walk down the staircase, with the French leader extending his arm to his wife.

But she takes hold of the handrail of the walkway for support instead, potentially due to an explosive argument they could have had inside.

The French leader has repeatedly been targeted by conspiracy theories and deepfakes.

He previously had to deny “false and fabricated” rumours his wife was born a man, dubbing the transgender claims as being typified misogynistic online attacks on women.

And recently he blasted a fake Russian claim that he had a bag of cocaine on the table when he was pictured on his way to Kyiv with Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz.

Drawing comparison with the shove video and the cocaine tissue claim, Macron said in Vietnam last night: “For three weeks, there have been people who have watched videos and who think that I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a mano-a-mano with a Turkish president and now that I am having a domestic dispute with my wife.

“In these three videos, I took a tissue, shook someone’s hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more.

“None of this is true. So everyone needs to calm down.”

The politician was just 15 when he started a relationship with the then mother-of-three, his French literature teacher.

Macron is in Hanoi to begin a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, where he will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14330698/macron-brigitte-united-front-slap-drama/

North Korea slammed on Tuesday (May 27) United States President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile shield plan as a “very dangerous” threat that could spark nuclear war in space, state media said.

Trump announced new details and initial funding for the missile shield system last week, calling it “very important for the success and even survival of our country”.

The initiative faces significant technical and political challenges, according to analysts, and could come at a hefty price tag.

In a statement shared by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the “very dangerous ‘threatening initiative’ aimed at threatening the strategic security of the nuclear weapons states”.

The US is “hell-bent on the moves to militarise outer space,” the foreign ministry said.

“The US plan for building a new missile defence system is the root cause of sparking off global nuclear and space arms race by stimulating the security concerns of nuclear weapons states and turning the outer space into a potential nuclear war field,” it added.

Washington – Seoul’s key security ally – has in recent years ramped up joint military exercises and increased the presence of strategic US assets, such as an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine, in the region to deter the North.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear weapons state and routinely denounces joint US-South Korea drills as rehearsals for invasion.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP that Pyongyang saw Trump’s “Golden Dome” as a threat.

“The North’s strong reaction suggests it views the Golden Dome as capable of significantly weakening the effectiveness of its nuclear arsenal, including its ICBMs,” he said.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he added.

CHINA, RUSSIA MODERNISING WEAPONS

China has similarly expressed strong concerns about Washington’s Golden Dome plan, accusing the US of undermining global stability.

Beijing is closing the gap with Washington when it comes to ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, while Moscow is modernising its intercontinental-range missile systems and developing advanced precision strike missiles, according to a 2022 Pentagon review.

The Kremlin has said Trump’s initiative would require consultations with Russia but was otherwise a “sovereign matter” for the US, softening its tone after also previously slamming the idea as destabilising.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-us-trump-golden-dome-missile-shield-plan-5154436

A 53-year-old British man plowed a minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city’s Premier League championship Monday, injuring more than 45 people as shouts of joy turned into shrieks of terror.

The driver arrested was believed to be the only one involved and the crash was not being investigated as an act of terrorism, police said.

Ambulances took 27 people to the hospital, including two with serious injuries, and another 20 people were treated at the scene for minor injuries, said Dave Kitchin of North West Ambulance Service. At least four children were injured.

Four of the victims, including a child, were trapped under the van and firefighters had to lift the vehicle to free them. A paramedic on a bicycle was also struck but was not injured.

“It has cast a very dark shadow over what had been a joyous day for the city,” City Council leader Liam Robinson said at a late night news conference.

As the parade was wrapping up, a gray minivan turned onto the parade route and plowed into the sea of fans wrapped in their red Liverpool scarves, jerseys and other memorabilia. A video on social media showed the van strike a man, tossing him in the air, before veering into a larger crowd, where it plowed a path through the group and pushed bodies along the street before coming to a stop.

“It was extremely fast,” said Harry Rashid, who was with his wife and two young daughters as the minivan passed by them. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”

Rashid said the crowd charged the halted vehicle and began smashing windows.

“But then he put his foot down again and just plowed through the rest of them, he just kept going,” Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”

Rashid said it looked deliberate.

“My daughter started screaming, and there were people on the ground,” he said. “They were just innocent people, just fans going to enjoy the parade.”

Liverpool fans had come out in the hundreds of thousands to celebrate the team winning the Premier League this season for a record-tying 20th top-flight title.

Peter Jones, who had traveled from Isle of Man, said he heard the car smash into the crowd and saw at least a half-dozen people down.

“We heard a frantic beeping ahead, a car flew past me and my mate, people were chasing it and trying to stop him, windows smashed at the back,” Jones said. “He then drove into people, police and medics ran past us, and people were being treated on the side of the road.”

Police said they were conducting extensive inquiries to establish what led to the collision and asked people not to speculate or share “distressing content online.”

Police identified the suspect as white, in a possible decision to prevent misinformation from flooding social media.

Last summer, a teen in the nearby town of Southport killed three girls in a stabbing rampage at a dance class and wounded 10 others, including two adults. An incorrect name of the suspect was spread on social media and people said he was an asylum seeker. In fact, he had been born in the U.K. Rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland, targeting Muslims and refugees in hotels of asylum seekers and lasted about a week.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes appalling and hailed the bravery of rescuers.

“Everyone, especially children, should be able to celebrate their heroes without this horror,” Starmer said. “The city has a long and proud history of coming together through difficult times. Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool.”

Liverpool Football Club’s legacy is overshadowed by a disaster 36 years ago when 97 of its fans were killed in a stadium crush during a match against Sheffield at Hillsborough Stadium. The tragedy was compounded by a coverup into the cause and missteps by police.

Supporters were denied the chance to publicly celebrate the club’s last league title in 2020 due to restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/liverpool-crystal-palace-arsenal-women-trophy-parade-b2929e5981eeff72e074bf9c901a0bc5

NORTH Korea has arrested three shipyard bosses after a humiliating warship launch flop that Kim Jong-un called a “criminal act”.

The 5,000-tonne destroyer – hailed as a symbol of military might – ended up crushed and listing in the harbour during a high-profile launch in the port city of Chongjin last Wednesday.

State media on Sunday said three officials – chief engineer Kang Jong Chol, hull workshop head Han Kyong Hak, and deputy manager Kim Yong Hak – were detained over the “serious accident”.

Kim Jong-un, who watched the botched launch unfold in person, reportedly fumed that the fiasco had “damaged the country’s dignity”.

The Pyongyang tyrant has since ordered the ship to be restored by next month’s ruling party meeting, with repairs already under way.

KCNA said the incident was “a criminal act caused by absolute carelessness” and insisted those involved “can never evade their responsibility for the crime”.

Satellite images showed the vessel lying on its side, covered in blue tarps.

The stern appeared to have slipped into the water while the bow remained on the shipway – a spectacle experts say amplified the embarrassment for the regime.

“No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged,” KCNA added.

South Korea’s military, citing joint analysis with US intelligence, said Pyongyang’s side-launch attempt of the ship had failed and left it crippled.

But North Korean state media claimed an “underwater and internal inspection” showed “no holes made at the warship’s bottom”, calling the damage “not serious”.

Despite the regime’s insistence, insiders say Kim is hunting for scapegoats as part of a high-stakes purge.

The manager of the Chongjin shipyard, Hong Kil Ho, has also been summoned by law enforcement and could face similar repercussions.

The failed destroyer is believed to be the same class as the newly unveiled Choe Hyon warship – a 5,000-tonne behemoth reportedly capable of carrying nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

Analysts believe Russian help may have gone into its development, possibly in exchange for North Korean troops aiding Moscow in Ukraine.

International relations expert Edward Howell previously told The Sun the warship fiasco was a double blow for Kim.

“It’s an obstacle, nonetheless, to North Korea’s further development of its navy, the modernisation of its navy and its broader military modernisation,” he said.

He added that it also dented the regime’s “sense of status and prestige. All great powers have strong navies, and Kim Jong-un wants to make sure that North Korea isn’t left out in that regard.”

While it’s unclear what exact punishment awaits the detainees, North Korea’s grisly track record suggests it could be fatal.

In the past, top officials have been executed by anti-aircraft guns or killed for infractions like falling asleep during rallies attended by Kim.

One source told NK News the fact that the incident was publicly reported likely means “North Korea is going to lose some of its best naval engineers.”

The ship’s hull reportedly suffered scratches and seawater entered through a rescue channel, with repairs expected to take around 10 days – though Kim has demanded it be fixed before June.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14317950/north-korea-arrests-three-warship-disaster/

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he was suspending planned 50% tariffs on the European Union until July 9.

He made the announcement on his Truth Social network.

That agreement came after a call Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

“Good call with @POTUS,” Von der Leyen wrote on X. “The EU and US share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship. Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively. To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”

What did Trump say?

Von der Leyen said “talks will begin rapidly,” Trump posted regarding his phone call with the European Commission president on his Truth Social platform, adding that it was his “privilege” to agree to the “extension.”

Speaking to reporters on Sunday before boarding the US presidential aircraft Air Force One, Trump said Von der Leyen had “asked for an extension on the June 1 date, and she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation.”

How did we get to this stage?

Authorities in Brussels and Washington have been negotiating to avoid a trade war sparked by Trump’s April announcement that he would slap tariffs on most of the US’ trading partners.

Trump threatened a 20% tariff on most EU goods, before halving it to 10% with a deadline of July 8.

On Friday, Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on the EU from June 1 because trade talks with the bloc were “going nowhere.”

Now, he has agreed to an “extension” to the original July deadline announced last month.

The bloc, which Trump has repeatedly accused of having “taken advantage” of the US, has been hit with three rounds of tariffs: a 25% tax on imports of steel and aluminum and cars, a 20% “reciprocal” tariff on all imports, which has been lifted while trade talks are ongoing. A “universal” baseline 10% tariff, however, remains in place.

The EU, for its part, has said it will tax US goods in response.

Europeans call for “respect” not “threats”

Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, has said Brussels is “committed” to reaching an agreement but insisted that the transatlantic relationship be based on “mutual respect” instead of “threats.”

On Sunday, Germany’s Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said he was hoping for “serious negotiations” with the White House but urged against “further provocations,” adding that he had discussed the issue with his American counterpart Scott Bessent.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-trump-suspends-planned-50-tariffs-on-eu/a-72666268