Category: World

For several minutes after the earthquake struck, he could hear their screams. Then there was silence.

Mohibullah Niazi, a neighbor who helped in the rescue efforts, said Saturday that the eight people killed on the outskirts of Kabul after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan the previous night were a refugee family recently returned from neighboring Iran.

There was only one survivor: a boy of around 3 years old, who was injured and has been hospitalized in Kabul.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on Saturday increased the overall death toll from the quake to 12, with another four people injured. Fitrat said five homes were destroyed and another 33 significantly damaged, affecting 40 families in the provinces of Kabul, Panjshir, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan.

The Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority put the overall death toll at nine. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

The family near Kabul was among the millions of Afghan refugees who have recently returned from Iran and Pakistan, after both countries launched crackdowns in 2023 on foreigners — particularly Afghans — living in their countries.

They had arrived 15 days ago and were living in a tent on land next to Niazi’s home. The family head, Najibullah, who was about 50 years old, “had no other shelter,” Niazi said. “He was a very poor person.”

‘We tried our best’

The family had set their tent up next to a wall separating the plot of land from Niazi’s home, which stood on higher ground, in the village of Ittefaq on the eastern outskirts of the Afghan capital.

Heavy rains over the past several days, which have led to deadly floods in many parts of Afghanistan, had left the ground sodden and soft. When the earthquake struck, the wall collapsed on the family.

“My daughter shouted to me that a wall had fallen on them. The whole family ran, but there were so many big rocks,” Niazi recounted Saturday as he stood at the scene. “We tried our best.”

On Saturday morning, piles of bricks and mud were all that were left, along with blankets, cooking utensils and other personal belongings salvaged from the rubble and set into a pile.

“For about three minutes, I could hear the voices of these people,” Niazi said. “But we couldn’t do anything. There were two or three of us, but this was not the work of three people.”

Neighbors soon rushed to help, digging through the mud and rubble with spades and their hands. They alerted the local Taliban police checkpoint, which sent rescuers and ambulances.

The young boy, Aarash, was pulled out alive but injured, and rushed to the hospital. Health Ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman, who visited the boy Saturday, said he was being treated for a severe head injury.

For the rest of the family — the father and mother, four daughters aged between 12 and 23, and two sons — it was too late. The rescuers could only recover their bodies.

Niazi said he had hosted the family in his own home one night. On Friday, just half an hour before the earthquake struck, he had renewed the offer, telling the family they could spend the night in his own guest room to shelter from the cold and rain. “But they did not come with me,” he said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-earthquake-refugees-iran-b66c1e2677d6d561f2faf285ee2998db

IT’S the US Midwest state famed for being “nice”.

However, what is unfolding in Minnesota now is anything but — and it is turning into a story all too familiar to British people.

While we had the Pakistani grooming gangs ignored by cops and social services too afraid of being branded racist, the “land of a thousand lakes” is facing a multi-million-dollar ­education fraud by Somalians.

And there are whispers it was ignored for the same reason that UK authorities failed to act on the grooming gangs.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the US, with an estimated 120,000 living there.

One of its largest cities, Minneapolis, was considered by the Justice Department as a “Sanctuary City”, where local cops and other officials are not supposed to ask residents their immigration status so no one fears deport­ation and will report crimes properly.

But in January, it was the focus of the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Metro Surge” operation — with more than 3,700 immigrants arrested and Trump ­vowing to “take back” Minnesota.

And the president has now doubled down on the state, after a YouTuber revealed systematic theft across fake childcare centres, fake hospices and a 3,000 PER CENT rise in autism ­funding — all led by Somalian groups.

It comes after acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said that when his current investigations are finished, fraud in programmes administered by Minnesota could exceed $1BILLION.

YouTuber Nick Shirley shot to fame earlier this year after a viral video showing him outside a hilariously misspelled Quality “Learing” Center.

The softly-spoken and floppy-haired 23-year-old took viewers on a 42-minute tour of empty daycare sites that received government funding.

Incredibly, one woman involved even planned to “flee to the UK” in the wake of the expose, he claims.

Now a minor online celebrity needing a 24/7 bodyguard, Nick told me this week: “So much money was going towards these daycare centres . . . then we go there on a weekday and there’s no children there.

“The signs say they are open — they’re supposed to be open. We went to one — it said open 7am to 10pm. We’re there at 11am and no one’s there.”

Weeks later, the Quality “Learing” facility shut up shop, but not before pocketing nearly $2million in taxpayer funding.

Shirley’s report has helped propel the issue of benefit fraud to the top of the Trump administration’s domestic agenda, and arrests are mounting.

On Thursday, a probe led by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud saw three nurses, a chiropractor and a psychologist arrested in California over allegations of a $50million sham hospice scheme.

Raids are taking place across the country, where Shirley says: “100 per cent people have said, ‘Enough is enough’.”

It’s a story we in the UK know only too well.

Last year in England, investigators revealed that thousands of students were recruited — often with no intent to study — to claim millions in Government-backed maintenance loans and tuition fees.

In 2009, a Home Office investigation was launched after our sister paper, The Times, revealed hundreds of men from Pakistan’s North West Frontier had paid at least £1,000 to a gang to be admitted into bogus colleges.

And the Rotherham grooming gangs are a perfect example of where authorities failed to investigate — because they were worried they would be seen as “racist”.

Ironically, Shirley tells me Britain inspired his initial investigations — about immigration and the rise of Islam.

He said when he visited the UK last summer, it was “completely different” to how he had envisioned it.

He added: “Then I realised, ‘If this is happening here, it’s probably happening in the United States’. So I started looking into the rise of Islam inside the US. That led me to Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

But what he found there would generate very ­different headlines.

Shirley tells me locals had “always heard about the allegations” of fraud bubbling under the surface for years in ­Minnesota, “but nobody had actually gone to show people what it’s like”.

He continued: “And the fraudsters had been getting away with it for so long that they thought they could continue to loot our system.”

Speaking on Harry Cole Saves The West, he explained: “So I went and did a video on Christian churches converted to mosques in Minnesota.

“And while I was there, the locals of Minnesota said, ‘Nick, you’re here to do a video on the fraud?’. I said, ‘Well, what fraud is taking place?’. A lady told me for hours upon hours about what was taking place.”

Shirley even claimed that after his video expose of daycare centre fraud, “one lady tried to flee to your ­country, the beautiful country of the United Kingdom”.

This was not the first time fraud had been linked to the Somalian community in the state.

The so-called Feeding Our Future programme to get food to needy kids was alleged to have siphoned off $250million during the Covid pandemic.

The group claimed to have served 90million meals in less than two years — more than 120,000 meals per day across 300 sites in Minnesota.

One Feeding Our Future site claimed to have dished up 6,000 meals in a single day, but FBI watchers saw barely 40.

A federal probe concluded that just three per cent of the assigned funding was spent on food.

Last August, ringleader Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 36, was jailed for 28 years after a court heard he ­personally pocketed more than $8million during his 18-month involvement in the fraud.

He bought five luxury vehicles in six months, including a Porsche, a Tesla and a GMC truck, and properties in the US, Kenya and Nairobi.

Other high-profile convictions included Mohamed Jama Ismail, 52, jailed for 12 years, while Abdimajid Mo­ham­ed Nur, 24, got ten years’ jail.

Each of the three was also ordered to repay nearly $50million.

Just as with the UK grooming gangs, officials claimed political correctness slowed things down.

They feared being called racist for investigating the fraud and ­halting funds even after obvious failings were found.

Feeding Our Future had even ­­att­empted to sue the state, in late 2020, for racial discrimination.

While the Feeding Our Future scandal has led to more than 90 arrests and 60-plus convictions, many people believe it was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fraud in the state.

Eyebrows were also raised by a 700 PER CENT increase in services for autistic kids.

In 2018, there were just 41 providers in Minnesota — costing taxpayers $6million. But that soared to 328, and nearly $192million, last year.

Then there were the swirling rumours about the number of child daycare centres — again many run in the Somali community — that appeared to be providing services for ghost kids.

Enter Nick Shirley, who has the support of fellow US influencer Jake Lang.

Shirley’s video report from Minnesota was pushed online by Vice President JD Vance, half of Trump’s cabinet and X owner Elon Musk.

Meetings with the president and US Treasury followed, kick-starting a massive push on fraud not just in Minnesota, but across America.

Giving evidence to Congress, Shirley said: “I made this video to document the widespread fraud that has been taking place. People like me, my generation, are sick of seeing tax dollars go toward fraud.”

And the response has been remarkable.

“Just from my videos, they have created new groups inside the government,” Shirley tell me.

“We have a new fraud task force that will be tackling the fraud.

“Now, you’re seeing that we are not going to put up with it.”

Shirley says Donald Trump’s unique style — flying in the face of claims of racism — can fix it.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16178024/somalian-fraud-minnesota-youtuber-exposed-cops-ignored/

THE US Army has designed a new grenade that uses powerful shock waves instead of shrapnel to rupture blood vessels and organs.

Even if doomed enemies throw themselves behind a wall it won’t be enough to hide from the deadly impact.

The M111 is the first grenade that’s been designed by the Army since the MK3A2, which was introduced in 1968 during the Vietnam War.

It’s using cutting edge technology to target enemies with force instead of relying on the shrapnel, which risks blowing back in the thrower’s face.

The shock waves, also called blast overpressure, kill or disable people with an explosive force that immediately vaporizes the weapon’s plastic shell.

Anyone caught in the blast zone will be struck by an intense impact that blows through walls, furniture, or appliances.

In a news release, Colonel Vince Morris wrote, “A grenade utilizing BOP can clear a room of enemy combatants quickly leaving nowhere to hide while ensuring the safety of friendly forces.”

The pressure of the explosion “violently compresses and decompresses tissue,” the Army wrote in a fact sheet.

“The eardrums, lungs, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract are most at risk of rupture and serious damage from smaller blasts,” the force explains.

Intense blasts can even cause brain damage or blow off entire limbs.

The M111 differs from the MK3A2, which was withdrawn because it contains asbestos that can lead to fatal diseases if lodged in the lungs.

After that was discontinued, the Army used the M67, which shoots metal pieces of shrapnel in all directions after exploding.

The weapon poses a potential risk to friendly forces or innocent bystanders who are accidentally caught in the crossfire.

“One of the key lessons learned from the door-to-door urban fighting in Iraq was the M67 grenade wasn’t always the right tool for the job,” Morris, who is a project manager for close combat systems, said.

“The risk of fratricide on the other side of the wall was too high.”

The Army said they have a training version, the M112, which is highly similar to the real grenade, offering soldiers a chance to practice.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16176053/us-army-new-grenade-shock-waves-burst-enemies-organs/

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of choosing “Easter escalation” over an Easter ceasefire after Russia carried out another deadly large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine.

Six civilians were killed and 40 others injured as Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles across the country.

Major daytime attacks, which were once rare, have been increasing.

It’s happening as efforts to end the war, led by the US, have stalled since US President Donald Trump and his team shifted focus to the conflict in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Zelensky agreed with a British intelligence assessment that the situation on the frontline in the east was the “most favourable” for Ukraine in 10 months, as the advance of Russian troops appears to have slowed.

But there has been no let-up in the air raids.

In the Zhytomyr region, west of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, rescuers had to search for survivors beneath the rubble of their homes as a whole line of houses was destroyed.

In the Kyiv region, a drone was filmed careering towards a block of flats, then slamming into its side, starting a fire.

In Kharkiv, in north-eastern Ukraine, a woman was killed and other people were critically injured in a day of strikes the mayor called “one of the biggest” on the city so far.

Zelensky described the barrage as Russia’s response to his proposal of a temporary truce for the holidays: Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter next weekend both in Ukraine and in Russia.

“The Russians have only intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation,” he wrote on X.

In recent days, Ukraine has launched multiple deep strikes of its own, targeting energy facilities on the northern coast of Russia in particular. One port, in Ust-Luga, has been hit by drones multiple times, forcing Russia to suspend exports.

Zelensky said the offer of a holiday truce was still on the table if Moscow agreed, and that message had been passed on in a call to Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Plans for further in-person talks with Russia, mediated by the US, have now been postponed twice. Moscow says they are “on hold”.

Zelensky said Trump’s team were welcome to come to Kyiv, then shuttle to Moscow, to keep the peace process alive.

But there are doubts over whether Moscow is really looking for a deal as the global context has shifted in its favour.

For Ukraine, the potential scarcity of fuel and surge in prices caused by the war on Iran is a worry: its own frontline troops need large amounts of diesel for their tanks and vehicles.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cew70wjvv9do

Page Six recently reported that a noted New York classical composer is wanted in Russia over a titanium deal gone wrong — and the battle is becoming increasingly operatic.

Igor Raykhelson — whose works have been performed in both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center — also trades in metals and sold titanium to Russian metal giant AVISMA.

But the company claims he was working with an inside man to overcharge the company by millions of dollars.

Now the Russian-born composer of the “Adagio for Viola and Strings” tells us: “They want me to kneel down and pay them millions. I told them to go to hell.”

“Their lawsuit basically says that a deal we struck to sell them titanium 10 years ago was priced too high even though they didn’t complain at the time,” he told us, “They are also ignoring a legal agreement we all signed back then not to sue each other. It makes no sense at all. It’s a shakedown.”

Meanwhile, he made clear that — while AVISMA supplies titanium to the Russian military — the metal he sold them was never used for the armed forced.

“We supplied only [so-called] Western-grade scrap which could only be used to produce titanium products destined to the West.”

“I’m not going to kneel down to anyone,” Raykhelson added. “I’ll fight them to the end.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/04/03/society/nyc-composer-accused-of-massive-scam-speaks-russian-bad-guys-can-go-to-hell/

Talk about unlikely prison pals.

Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine bragged Friday about getting captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to sign his “jailhouse” SpongeBob SquarePants doll inside a Big Apple federal lockup.

The 29-year-old musician was released from Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center early Friday and celebrated by flashing Maduro’s purported John Hancock along with multimillion-dollar bling.

Video posted on Tekashi’s Instagram page shows him holding a stack of papers in one hand and the Nickelodeon toy in the other as he emerged a free man following his latest stint behind bars.

“Look, Maduro signed it,” he said, excitedly showing his pals the signature. “Maduro, second of April, Venezuela forever.”

Maduro has been housed at MDC since January when he was captured in Caracas by US forces.

Tekashi, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, reported to MDC in January after he violated the terms of his probation by assaulting a man and stashing MDMA and cocaine in his bedroom.

He was originally sent to the clink in 2019 for his involvement in the violent Nine Trey Gangsta Blood gang – but was cut loose early because of COVID.

The flamboyant musician’s lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons both confirmed to TMZ that he was released Friday morning predawn.

As he stepped back into freedom, he was gifted a nearly 400-carat chain that weighs more than four pounds, according to the outlet.

Tekashi claimed on the Instagram post the necklace cost more than $2 million.

“Fresh OUT THE FEDS $2,200,000 on my neck. GOD IS THE GREATEST. MY LORD AND SAVIOR,” he said before adding, “MADURO SIGNED MY JAIL HOUSE SPONGE9INE.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/03/us-news/rapper-tekashi-6ix9ine-brags-that-maduro-signed-his-spongebob-toy-in-infamous-nyc-lockup/

Peace talks between Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Pakistan are advancing, China’s government said Friday, two days after those countries resumed conversations following weeks of fighting that have killed hundreds.

“The consultation process is being steadily implemented and advanced,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. Xi Jinping’s government is mediating between Islamabad and Kabul, whose representatives resumed the talks on Wednesday in the western Chinese city of Urumqi.

“The three parties have also reached consensus and arrangements on a specific operational mode, including media coverage,” she added, without giving more details.

“Since the recent escalation of the Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict, China has been mediating and promoting talks in its own way, maintaining close communication with both sides through multiple channels and at various levels, and creating conditions and providing platforms for dialogue”, Mao said.

She added that both countries “attach importance to and welcome China’s mediation efforts, and are willing to sit down again for talks, which is a positive development.”

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks in recent years, many claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Even as the talks restarted, the police reported that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan late Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding several others.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-afghanistan-china-talks-fighting-urumqi-92f73bfacd2c6e68a4808ce8923b4645

Myanmar’s parliament on Friday elected Min Aung Hlaing, a general who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 and kept an iron grip on power for the past five years, as the country’s new president.

The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered as an effort to keep the army in power after an election organized by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair, and as civil war rages.

Transitioning to an elected government is also seen as a way to improve frosty relations with some Southeast Asian neighbors following the military takeover. China and Russia have supported the military administration, while Western powers imposed sanctions.

Min Aung Hlaing won an expected lopsided victory

Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president’s post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.

The vote was held in the newly renovated parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw, which was damaged in last year’s earthquake.

Aung Lin Dwe, speaker of parliament’s combined upper and lower house, announced that Min Aung Hlaing won 429 out of the 584 votes.

The two runners-up become vice presidents. Nyo Saw, a former general, had served as an adviser to Min Aung Hlaing, and Nan Ni Ni Aye, an ethnic Karen politician from the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, will be the country’s first female vice president. All three are expected to be inaugurated next week.

Min Aung Hlaing, who holds the rank of senior general, earlier this week relinquished his post of commander-in-chief because the constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. A close aide, Gen. Ye Win Oo, took over the powerful job.

Meanwhile, much of the country remains enmeshed in a bloody civil war.

Opposition group says struggle for real change continues

Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government — Myanmar’s main opposition organization, which views itself as the country’s legitimate government — charged that Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for numerous war crimes, and his easy assumption of the presidency proved that the political change some countries had hoped for will not materialize.

“Myanmar people do not accept it. The revolution will continue with great momentum,” he told The Associated Press..

The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing had been the military chief since 2011. Under the military-imposed constitution, he held significant powers even before overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.

Parliament members were elected in three phases in December and January. Major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy, were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair. Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.

Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 to 2016, when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide election victory. It won an even greater mandate in the 2020 polls, but the army staged a takeover in 2021 before the new parliament could convene.

Peaceful protests against military rule were then put down with deadly force, pushing pro-democracy activists to turn to armed resistance and ally themselves with ethnic minority groups who have been battling for greater autonomy for decades.

Deadly repression birthed ongoing civil war

Security concerns meant voting in the recent election could be held in only 263 of the country’s 330 townships.

Nearly 8,000 activists and civilians have been killed since the 2021 army takeover, and some 22,872 political detainees are imprisoned, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that tracks rights violations.

The military’s major reliance on airstrikes — 1,140 strikes in 2025 alone, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project — accounts for hundreds of civilian casualties.

“If Min Aung Hlaing thinks that an official civilian title will shield him from prosecution for the many grave violations of international law that he is accused of overseeing as head of the military, that is not how international justice works,” Amnesty International Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said in statement.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-president-min-aung-hlaing-military-c263b2d6175b82c5868e24496c975ff8

Pakistan faces a looming power crisis as LNG supplies are set to drop sharply and coal shortages worsen due to logistical issues. With nearly 30% of electricity supply at risk, the government may enforce load-shedding, higher tariffs, and conservation measures amid growing concerns over domestic mismanagement.

Pakistan’s LNG supplies are expected to fall to near zero from next month, removing a source that contributes more than one-fifth of total power generation, while coal availability is also under pressure, jointly affecting close to 30 per cent of supply, an article in the local media said.

Energy supply disruptions deepen crisis

The fallback option, furnace oil, comes at a steep cost, with generation expenses significantly higher than gas- or coal-based alternatives. These are structural shocks that no policy can fully offset in the short term, according to an article in the Karachi-based Business Recorder.

Load-shedding and tariff hikes planned

The Pakistan government plans to go in for two to three hours of daily load-shedding, higher tariffs, and conservation measures, but the effectiveness of this approach will depend less on its design and more on its execution, it stated.

Simple steps such as mandating early market closures or restricting high-consumption commercial lighting are neither novel nor difficult to implement. They have been used in the past with measurable impact.

Their omission from the core strategy suggests that the burden of adjustment may fall disproportionately on households and industry rather than on inefficient consumption patterns, the article lamented.

Domestic mismanagement adds to strain

It points out that domestic mismanagement is exacerbating the crisis, as disputes between Pakistan Railways and key coal-fired power plants have placed 1,500 to 1,800 megawatts of generation at risk. This is not an external shock; it is an entirely avoidable disruption.

Coal transport bottlenecks, refusal to load wagons, and delays in logistical coordination are undermining plants that are critical for grid stability. The fact that these issues persist in the middle of a supply crunch points to deeper administrative weaknesses.

Rising costs and broader impact

Reduced coal supply threatens additional load-shedding beyond what is already planned, while also increasing reliance on more expensive fuels. At the same time, Pakistan Railways stands to lose a significant portion of its freight revenue, creating a situation where inefficiency damages multiple parts of the system simultaneously, the article pointed out.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/pakistan-faces-power-crisis-as-lng-supply-set-to-drop-coal-shortages-and-domestic-mismanagement-threaten-30-per-cent-electricity-output

Iran claims to have shot down two US military aircraft- the F-15 and the A-10 – and hit two Black Hawk helicopters in a day.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian Parliament speaker, took a dig at the United States President Donald Trump, calling the US and Israel’s joint attack on Tehran as “no-strategy war.” The comment came after Iran claimed to have shot down two US military aircraft- the F-15 and the A-10 – and hit two Black Hawk helicopters in a day.

“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from “regime change” to “Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?” ,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). A pleading face emoticon accompanied the dig.

“Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses,” he added.

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After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from “regime change” to “Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?🥺”

Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) April 3, 2026

The US and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran on February 28, killing the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This followed the killings of Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics; Mohammad Shirazi, Chief of Military Bureau of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; Ali Samkhani, Supreme Leader’s Advisor for Security Affairs and Secretary of the Defense Council; Hossein Jabal Amelian, Chairman of the SPND.

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🔴ELIMINATED:
IAF fighter jets precisely struck military targets across Iran, eliminating 7 senior officials of the Iranian Defense Leadership:

Ali Shamkhani, Mohammad Pakpour, Saleh Asadi, Mohammad Shirazi, Aziz Nasirzadeh, Hossein Jabal Amelian, Reza Mozaffari-Nia.

The world… pic.twitter.com/4oOj2Y7DMt

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 28, 2026

This led to A change of leadership in Iran, with Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, taking over.

Trump’s Ever-Changing Stance On “Regime Change”

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on April 1, Trump called the “Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors.”

However, during his national address on Thursday, Trump said that regime change in Iran was not the stated goal of the war and suggested leadership shifts had already taken place. “Regime change was not our goal… but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths,” he said.

He called the Islamic regime running the country “thuggish and murderous”, pointing to a recent crackdown on protests in the country, which killed thousands of citizens.

“Leaders like that cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said.

“From the very first day I announced my campaign, I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting “Death to America” for 47 years — and it should have been handled long before I arrived in office,” he said.

He claimed that he tried the diplomatic approach first. “Yet, the regime continued its relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”

Iran Claims F-15 And A-10 Shot Down

Iran on Friday claimed to have struck two US military aircrafts – a two-seat F-15 jet and a single-pilot aircraft, an A-10, known as the Warthog.

The F-15 fighter jet is crewed by a pilot and a weapons-system officer in the back seat. US media outlets reported that one of the two crew members had been rescued by special forces, and a search was underway for the second.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/regime-change-to-can-anyone-find-our-pilots-irans-ghalibaf-mocks-trump-f-15-fighter-jet-a-10-warthog-fighter-aircraft-black-hawk-helicopters-us-planes-11309145?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

 

Trump said that he was not happy with the media coverage of the rescure efforts underway in Iran to find the missing pilot as it affects the search operation

After reports emerged that two US warplanes were shot down by the Iranian military on Friday, President Donald Trump, in first reaction, ruled out the possibility of the downing affecting negotiations. The US officials, as cited by Reuters, confirmed that two fighter jets, an F-15 and an A-10 Warthog, were downed in Iran.

When asked whether the downing of the jets would affect ongoing negotiations with Iran, Trump said in an NBC News interview, “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in a war.”

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Footage of the exact moment an American A-10 warplane is struck by an air defense missile fired by the Iranian Army’s integrated air defense system.#Iran#WAR#AirDefense#A10 https://t.co/q8fUc3Ugar pic.twitter.com/49k5yu57aB

— Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) April 4, 2026

Trump declined to provide further details on the rescue operation for the missing pilot who ejected after the aircraft was shot down, stating that he was unhappy with the media coverage as it could affect the rescue efforts.

Two US jets go down in Iran war for the first time

Within 24 hours, the US lost two of its most advanced fighter jets in the conflict with Iran. This marks the first time Iran has successfully targeted US jets inside contested territory in this war, raising concerns about further escalation.

An F-15E Strike Eagle was the first aircraft reported downed, followed by an A-10 Warthog. Reports suggest that two of the three pilots have been rescued, while one remains missing. Iran’s state media reported that the country has launched a search for the missing pilot. An Iranian television reporter said that anyone who captures a crew member alive would “receive a valuable reward,” according to AFP.

Iran Parliament speaker mocks US while ex-foreign minister says ‘lets talk’

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s Parliament speaker, reacted sarcastically on X, saying that after claiming repeated victories over Iran, the US campaign has now been reduced from ‘regime change’ to rescuing its pilots.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/we-are-in-a-war-donald-trump-says-iran-downing-us-fighter-jets-wont-hit-war-negotiations-101775269324791.html

 

 

Recent U.S. intelligence assessments suggest that Iran is unlikely to relinquish its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz in the near term, viewing its control over the world’s most critical oil artery as its primary point of leverage against Washington.

According to the Reuters report, Tehran intends to continue throttling the waterway to keep global energy prices elevated, applying direct economic pressure on President Donald Trump to secure a favorable exit from the five-week-old conflict.

The “weapon of mass disruption” and market impact

The initial objective of the U.S.-led military campaign was to dismantle Iran’s regional influence, but analysts warn the war may have inadvertently achieved the opposite. Tehran’s successful obstruction of a passage that carries 20% of global oil trade has demonstrated a “weapon of mass disruption” that some experts argue is more potent than a nuclear deterrent.

Iran’s blockade has sent crude prices to multi-year highs, fueling inflationary fears in the U.S. just as the Republican Party prepares for critical midterm elections in November.

The tactical reality on the ground complicates any military solution to reopen the 21-mile-wide transit point. Even if U.S. forces were to seize coastal territories, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) retains the capability to disrupt commercial traffic using low-cost drones and missile strikes launched from deep within the Iranian mainland.

“All it takes to deter vessels is one or two drones,” noted Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group, highlighting the asymmetrical risk that makes the waterway currently uninsurable for most commercial carriers.

Post-war revenue and deterrence strategies

The intelligence reports further indicate that Iran’s long-term strategy involves transforming the temporary blockade into a permanent regulatory framework. Former CIA Director Bill Burns suggested that Tehran views the ability to charge “passage fees” as a vital mechanism for funding post-war reconstruction.

Iran is expected to use its “discovered” maritime leverage, beyond immediate financial gain, to demand long-term security guarantees and deterrence measures in any final peace settlement with the United States.

As the White House maintains that the President is “confident” the strait will open soon, the administration has also signaled that NATO allies and Gulf nations, who have a higher dependency on these energy corridors, should take a more active role in the maritime security mission.

The shifting stance underscores the difficulty of the current negotiations, as the U.S. seeks to reopen trade routes without being drawn into a protracted and costly ground war.

Source : https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/intelligence-reports-warn-of-a-lasting-hormuz-blockade-by-iran-4597442

The NATO alliance has in recent years survived existential challenges – ranging from the war in Ukraine to multiple bouts of pressure and insults from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has questioned its core mission and threatened to seize Greenland.
But it is the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, thousands of miles from Europe, that has nearly broken ​the 76-year-old bloc and threatens to leave it in its weakest state since its creation, say analysts and diplomats.

Trump, enraged that European countries have declined to send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping ‌following the start of the air war on Feb 28, has declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.
“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in a Wednesday interview.
In a speech on Wednesday night, Trump criticized U.S. allies but stopped short of condemning NATO, as many experts thought he might.
But combined with other barbs aimed at Europeans in recent weeks, Trump’s comments have provoked unprecedented concern that the U.S. will not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, whether or not Washington formally walks away.

The result, say analysts and diplomats, is that the alliance created in the Cold War that has long served as the basic fabric of European ​security is fraying and the mutual defense agreement at its core is no longer taken as a given.
“This is the worst place (NATO) has been since it was founded,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who now leads the Europe, Russia, and ​Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“It’s really hard to think of anything that even comes close.”
That reality is sinking in for Europeans, who have counted on NATO as a ⁠bulwark against an increasingly assertive Russia.
As recently as February, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had dismissed the idea of Europe defending itself without the U.S. as a “silly thought.” Now, many officials and diplomats consider it the default expectation.

“NATO remains necessary, but we must be capable of thinking of NATO ​without the Americans,” said General Francois Lecointre, who served as France’s armed forces chief from 2017 to 2021.
“Whether it should even continue to be called NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization – is a valid question.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “President Trump has made his disappointment with NATO and other allies ​clear, and as the President emphasized, ‘the United States will remember.’”
A NATO representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT

NATO has been challenged before, not least during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, when he also considered withdrawing from the alliance.
But while many European officials until recently believed that Trump could be kept on board with pomp and flattery, fewer now hold that belief, according to conversations with dozens of former and current U.S. and European officials.

Trump and his officials have expressed frustration over what they see as NATO’s unwillingness to help the United States in a time of need, including by not directly assisting with the Strait of Hormuz ​and by restricting U.S. use of some airfields and airspace. U.S. officials have declared NATO cannot be a “one-way street”.
European officials counter that they have not received U.S. requests for specific assets for a mission to open the strait and complain that Washington has been inconsistent about whether such ​a mission would operate during or after the war.
“It’s a terrible situation for NATO to be in,” said Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official who is now a senior fellow at the Friends of Europe think tank.
“It is a blow to the allies who, since Trump returned to the White House, have ‌worked hard to ⁠show that they are willing and able to take more responsibility (for their own defense).”
Trump’s latest comments follow other signs of an increasingly unsteady alliance.
Those include his stepped-up threats in January to wrest Greenland away from Denmark and recent moves by the U.S. that Europeans see as particularly accommodating toward Russia, which NATO defines as its principal security threat.
The administration has remained essentially mum amid reports that Moscow has provided targeting data for Iran to attack U.S. assets in the Middle East and has lifted sanctions on Russian oil in a bid to ease global energy prices that have spiked during the war.
At a meeting of G7 foreign ministers near Paris last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, had a tense exchange, according to five people familiar with the matter, underlining the increasingly fraught transatlantic relationship.
Kallas asked when U.S. patience ​with Russian President Vladimir Putin would run out over Ukraine peace negotiations, ​prompting Rubio to respond with irritation that the U.S. was ⁠trying to end the war while also providing support to Ukraine, but the EU was welcome to mediate if it wanted to.

NO GOING BACK

Legally, Trump may lack the authority to withdraw from NATO. Under a law passed in 2023, a U.S. president cannot exit the alliance without the consent of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, a nearly impossible threshold.
But analysts say that, as commander-in-chief, Trump can decide whether the U.S. military will defend ​NATO members. Declining to do so could imperil the alliance without a formal withdrawal.
To be sure, not everyone sees the current crisis as existential. One French diplomat described the president’s rhetoric as a passing ​temper tantrum.
Trump has changed his position on ⁠NATO before.
In 2024, he said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Putin to attack NATO members that do not pay their fair share on defense. By the last annual NATO summit, in June 2025, the alliance was in his good graces, with Trump delivering a speech effusively praising European leaders as people who “love their countries.”
Next week, Rutte, the NATO secretary-general, who has a strong relationship with Trump, is set to visit Washington in an effort to change Trump’s view once again.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/trumps-anger-over-iran-thrusts-nato-into-fresh-crisis-2026-04-03/

Cuba began releasing prisoners from its jails on Friday just hours after its ​communist-run government announced a sweeping amnesty coinciding with the most intense pressure campaign applied by the U.S. in decades.
More ‌than 2,000 prisoners are slated to be released as part of Cuba’s state-run media on Thursday called a “sovereign and humanitarian” gesture, the largest such amnesty in 10 years.

The U.S. said it was closely monitoring whether those it deems to be political prisoners would be among the liberated.

“It is unclear how many, if any, political ​prisoners will be released,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to call for the immediate release of the hundreds of other brave ​Cuban patriots who remain unjustly detained.”
The question of political prisoners has long been a major sticking point in ⁠negotiations between Washington and Havana. The release of all, or the majority, of political prisoners would be seen as a major concession on Cuba’s ​part in ongoing talks between the two countries.

“LONG LIVE FREEDOM”

A steady stream of men and women could be seen leaving the La Lima prison in ​Guanabacoa, just outside Havana, through the morning on Friday. Reuters spoke with several who had been pardoned of common crimes ranging from theft to bribery, but none had been involved in political anti-government protests.

“Long-live freedom,” shouted one man, convicted of theft, as he embraced his sister, waiting for him outside the prison gates. Others ​left more quietly, some in tears, holding a single white slip of paper that stated the reason for their discharge was a “pardon.”
Abel Tamayo, ​convicted of bribery in 2024 and released Friday, said the amnesty was proof the Cuban government was open to change.
“This shows they are open to everything, ‌open to ⁠dialogue, open to national unity,” Tamayo told Reuters. “There are many people who are imprisoned who may well be bad people, but there are also many who are good people.”
The Cuban government has consistently rejected any suggestion it makes decisions under U.S. pressure.
Neither the U.S. nor the Vatican, which was involved in prior amnesties, were mentioned in state-run media reports outlining Thursday evening’s announcement.

UNCLE SAM WATCHING

Human rights groups, some financed by the ​U.S. government, say the Cuba is ​holding hundreds of political prisoners, ⁠with estimates varying, and promised scrutiny of the prisoner release process.
Cuba has repeatedly denied it holds political prisoners. Island authorities say those jailed during anti-government protests are found guilty of crimes including public disorder, resisting ​arrest, robbery and vandalism.
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, a Madrid-based group that has received U.S. funding, ​said that by ⁠noon Friday it had yet to register the release of any so-called “prisoners of conscience.”
Cuba generally does not publish a list of the names of prisoners released during such amnesties, further complicating corroboration by human rights groups.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-begins-releasing-prisoners-under-scrutiny-rights-groups-us-govt-2026-04-03/

President Donald Trump on Friday requested a 10% cut in non-defense spending for the 2027 fiscal year and a massive $500 billion increase in the military budget, as the U.S. continues its war against Iran.
The 2027 budget request comes as the president faces risky choices abroad, with the administration sending U.S. service members to ​the Middle East, and a weary public at home feeling the economic crunch of skyrocketing gas prices due to the conflict.

The request ultimately requires approval by Congress, where disagreement over Trump’s spending decisions recently led to the longest ‌government shutdown in U.S. history.
The huge proposed surge in defense spending to $1.5 trillion, up from about $1 trillion in 2026, includes a 5% to 7% pay raise for military personnel at a time when thousands of servicemembers are actively deployed.
The White House boasted that this defense funding approaches the “historic increases just prior to World War II.” The hefty ask contrasts with the more skeptical view Trump took toward military spending in his first term, when he even once called the level of funding “crazy.”

Trump came into office vowing to cut federal spending and rein in the nation’s growing budget deficit, bringing in the world’s richest ​person, Elon Musk, to lead an effort that pushed about 300,000 people off the federal payroll.
Despite that, the nation’s deficit, the gap between the amount of money the federal government takes in and how much it spends, has continued to widen, ​with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecasting a $1.853 trillion shortfall in the fiscal year that ends on September 30, deeper than last year’s $1.775 trillion.
The nation’s $39.016 trillion debt has continued to grow under ⁠Republican and Democratic governments in part because most of the political battles around spending revolve around the amount Congress directly controls, the roughly one quarter of the budget known as “discretionary spending.”

The 2027 budget request did not grapple with the most expensive part of ​mandatory federal spending – Social Security retirement and Medicare health spending for senior citizens – where suggesting cuts is considered politically perilous.
If enacted, total federal spending would reach $2.2 trillion in 2027, compared with the roughly $1.8 trillion spent for the current fiscal year.

DEFENSE COSTS

The military request ​will please defense hawks on Capitol Hill, but also highlights how Trump is trying to pay for doubling down on military pursuits, even after Republicans boosted defense spending last year in party-line legislation.
The Pentagon already requested $200 billion in extra funding to pay for the Iran war, but the White House has not yet officially made that request to Congress, where it is also likely to face scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties.

Other specific funding increases proposed by Trump include his controversial Golden Dome missile defense shield, money to build up critical mineral supplies for the defense industry and $65.8 billion to build ​34 new combat and support ships.
Funds for shipbuilding, a priority for Trump since his first term, include initial funding for the so-called Trump-class battleship as well as submarines.
“Fiscal futility is ending,” White House budget director Russell Vought said in a letter to Congress, adding, “Our ​fiscal ship has turned to face in the right direction.”

MESSAGING IN A MIDTERM YEAR

The president’s budget also reflects the administration’s political priorities ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in November, when Trump’s Republicans hope to maintain their small majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House ‌of Representatives.
Lawmakers on Capitol ⁠Hill often treat White House budget requests as suggestive, as appropriators try to negotiate behind the scenes to maintain their own legislative priorities.
Top congressional Democrats said Trump’s defense-heavy proposal was “dead on arrival.”
“It’s just an out-of-touch plea for more money for guns and bombs, and less for the things people need, like housing, healthcare, education, roads, scientific research, and environmental protection,” Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the budget committee, said in a statement.
It was unclear how this new spending would affect the U.S. budget deficit because the projections were not included by the White House.
The budget is “light on details and heavy on borrowing,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. “It relies on an entire decade of rosy economic assumptions for the vast majority ​of its improvements in the nation’s finances.”
In a Friday social ​media post, Trump asserted that his administration’s pursuit against fraud ⁠could “balance our American Budget,” a claim met with skepticism from budget experts.
However, the president and his team relish more funding fights with Democratic lawmakers, arguing in the documents that savings will be found “by reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs, and by returning state and local responsibilities to their respective governments.”
Some proposed cuts follow the Trump administration’s pursuit against “green energy” spending, as well as eliminating nearly 30 Justice ​Department programs they deem “weaponized” against the American people, along with other initiatives, like cutting the $315 million National Endowment for Democracy.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-budget-proposes-10-cut-discretionary-spending-increased-defense-spending-2026-04-03/

U.S. job growth rebounded more than expected in March as a strike by healthcare workers ended and temperatures warmed up, but downside risks for the labor market are mounting from a war with Iran that has no clear end in sight.
The biggest increase in nonfarm payrolls in 15 months, ​and also the largest since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, followed a sharp decline in February, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed on Friday.

Nonetheless, the rebound exaggerates the labor market’s health. The ‌average workweek was shorter last month and annual wage growth increased at its slowest pace in nearly five years.
While the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4% in February, that was because 396,000 people dropped out of the labor force, more than offsetting weakness in household employment. The labor force participation rate fell below 62% for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economists said March was too early to capture the fallout from the Middle East conflict.
“This is an on-the-one hand, on-the-other kind of a job market,” said Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank. “This report tells us next to nothing about ​the Iran war’s impact on the job market.”

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 178,000 jobs last month, the most since December 2024, after a downwardly revised 133,000 drop in February, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters ​had forecast payrolls rising by 60,000 jobs after a previously reported 92,000 decrease in February.
Estimates ranged from a loss of 25,000 positions to a gain of 125,000 jobs. The economy has experienced ⁠months of positive and negative payrolls since May last year, with volatility intensifying this year. Economists attributed some of the choppiness to the birth-death model, which the government uses to estimate how many jobs were gained or lost because of companies opening or closing in ​a given month.
Others blamed uncertainty related to Trump’s sweeping import tariffs, which have since been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump, however, responded by imposing a global tariff for up to 150 days.

Job growth averaged 68,000 per month in the first quarter, which economists ​said was a better reflection of the labor market’s health. Data from the BLS this week showed job openings decreased by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years in February, pointing to slipping labor demand.
March’s employment report likely has no impact on the interest rate outlook, with the effects of supply chain disruptions from the conflict still to work their way through the economy. The odds of a rate cut this year have greatly diminished. The Federal Reserve left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50% to 3.75% range last month.
U.S. Treasury yields rose on the report. The stock market was closed for the ​Good Friday holiday.
“Since May 2025, each month of positive job growth has been followed by a month of negative growth, a pattern that likely reflects the tariff uncertainty that began in April,” said Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economics at Fitch Ratings. “The war in Iran ​now threatens to add to that choppiness, especially if the conflict drags on and the uncertainty impulse intensifies. For the Fed, wait-and-see is the only sensible option at this point.”

HEALTHCARE DOMINATES JOB GROWTH

The war, now in its second month, has boosted global oil prices by more than 50%. ‌Trump on Wednesday vowed more ⁠aggressive strikes on Iran.
The healthcare sector dominated the nearly broad increase in employment, adding 76,000 positions as 35,000 employees at doctors’ offices returned to work following a strike. Employment also increased at hospitals.
Construction employment increased by 26,000 jobs. Transportation and warehousing payrolls advanced by 21,000 positions, though employment in the sector remained down by 139,000 since peaking in February 2025.
There were further gains in social assistance employment. Manufacturing, which the Trump administration is trying to shore up with import duties, saw payrolls increasing by 15,000 jobs – the biggest gain since November 2023. Still factory payrolls are down 82,000 since January 2025.
Leisure and hospitality employment rebounded 44,000, with the bulk of the increase at restaurants and bars. Federal government employment declined by another 18,000 jobs, and is down 355,000, or 11.8% since peaking in October 2024. The White ​House embarked on an unprecedented campaign to slash the size of ​federal agencies, which Trump argued were bloated. The federal government ⁠is, however, now actively recruiting workers.
The financial activities sector shed more workers. There were signs of the adoption of artificial intelligence leading to job losses in the professional and business services sector, where positions for computer systems design and related services dropped by 13,200.
The share of industries reporting job growth increased to 56.8% from 49.2% in February. But the workweek eased to 34.2 hours from 34.3 hours. ​A single month does not make a trend, but businesses will first reduce hours before resorting to layoffs.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% after increasing 0.4% in February. Wages increased 3.5% year-on-year, the ​smallest gain since May 2021, after ⁠advancing 3.8% in February. With the national average retail gasoline price topping $4 a gallon this week for the first time in more than three years, households’ purchasing power will be squeezed. The war wiped about $3.2 trillion from the stock market in March.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-employment-growth-rebounded-march-unemployment-rate-falls-43-2026-04-03/

Soon-to-be brides and grooms seeking shortcuts to shed pounds before the big day have become the latest consumer target for weight-loss drugs in India.
New Delhi wellness clinic Klarity Skin Clinic touts a “Mounjaro ​bride” package, while other clinics have woven weight-loss injections into “pre-wedding” transformation packages typically focused on skin treatments and hairstyle makeovers.

In a social media video, Klarity offers “guided nutrition, Mounjaro and ‌smart workouts” to prepare brides to walk down the aisle. The clinic did not respond to a request for comment.

Eight doctors interviewed by Reuters said they have been fielding inquiries from brides, and some grooms, about taking weight-loss drugs before taking their vows. Many asked for Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N), Mounjaro, the first GLP-1 medication to enter India’s market for both diabetes and weight loss. It has become more sought after than Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO), rival Wegovy, the doctors said.
“Over the last few months, over 20% of ​the queries we’ve received for obesity injections are from to-be brides, who also openly give us a timeline on how soon they are getting married,” said Rajat Goel, a bariatric surgeon ​at Hindivine Healthcare in New Delhi.

So far, at least three Indian seafarers on board foreign-flagged vessels have been killed and one has been injured while their vessels were stranded in the Hormuz Strait

New Delhi has called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — which has been under Iran’s chokehold since the war began in the Middle East — noting that India was the only nation that has lost citizens in the conflict-hit waterway. During a multilateral meeting convened by the UK on the situation in the Middle East, India also highlighted the importance of ensuring safe and free navigation through international waterways.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who represented India at the virtual gathering attended by more than 60 countries, reiterated India’s official stance about diplomacy being the most viable path for de-escalation of the ongoing conflict.

“He emphasised the impact of the crisis on India’s energy security and the fact that India remains the only country to have lost mariners in attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Highlighting the direct implications of the ongoing crisis, the Foreign Secretary drew attention to India’s energy security, which remains closely tied to developments in West Asia. He pointed out that volatility in the region has had tangible consequences for India, particularly in the context of maritime safety.

“He also underlined that the way out of the crisis consisted of de-escalation and a return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue among all concerned parties,” it added.

So far, at least three Indian seafarers on board foreign-flagged vessels have been killed and one has been injured while their vessels were stranded in the Hormuz Strait, according to the Directorate General of Shipping.

India Joins Hormuz Talks

India has joined a meeting of over 60 countries in the UK to explore ways to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has sent oil prices spiralling.

The meeting comes as nations around the Persian Gulf continue to witness heightened instability, with concerns mounting over disruptions to key shipping lanes, including those critical for global energy supplies. India, being one of the world’s largest importers of crude oil, has repeatedly emphasised the need for stability in the region to safeguard its economic interests.

Indians in the Gulf

According to official figures, approximately 10 million Indian citizens reside in the Gulf countries. The Foreign Ministry said all Indians in these nations are safe. “Our embassies in all these countries remain in constant contact with them,” the ministry said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-war-news-were-only-nation-to-lose-mariners-at-hormuz-india-at-iran-war-talks-11304867?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

During his state visit to South Korea on Thursday, Macron also said that Trump has undermined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) by creating “daily doubt” about America’s commitment to the alliance.

French President Emmanuel Macron has accused US President Donald Trump of creating confusion by repeatedly contradicting himself regarding his views on the Middle East conflict.

“You have to be serious. When you want to be serious, you don’t say the opposite every day of what you said the day before. And perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day”, he said.

‘Trump Has Undermined NATO’

During his state visit to South Korea on Thursday, Macron also said that Trump has undermined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) by creating “daily doubt” about America’s commitment to the alliance.

“If you create daily doubt about your commitment, you hollow it out,” Macron said, adding that there is “too much talk … going off in all directions.”

Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to back US military action against Iran.

Trump described the alliance as a “paper tiger” and said removing the United States from the defence pact was now “beyond reconsideration”, the newspaper reported. He said he had long held doubts about NATO’s credibility.

“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” Trump told the newspaper when asked about whether he would reconsider US membership of the alliance after the conflict.

Trump has also said that the US has spent “trillions of dollars on NATO” while receiving little in return when support was sought.

“There Must Be A Ceasefire”

Macron also said that it would be “unrealistic” to conduct military operation to liberate the Strait of Hormuz.

“There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States. It is unrealistic because it would take an inordinate amount of time and would expose anyone crossing the strait to coastal threats from the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards, who possess significant resources, as well as ballistic missiles, (and) a host of other risks,” he said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-war-news-you-shouldnt-talk-every-day-emmanuel-macron-slams-donald-trump-for-iran-war-u-turns-11303480?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

New Zealand and Cook Islands signed a defense and security pact Thursday, easing more than a year of tension between the Pacific nations over Cook Islands’ deepening ties with China.

The fraught diplomatic standoff that prompted Wellington to pause millions of dollars in aid to Avarua was hardly a clash of geopolitical heavyweights: New Zealand has a population of 5 million, while Cook Islands has 15,000 people. But the lengthy freeze gripped Pacific observers because it reflected the struggle confronting tiny island nations with close ties to Western countries such as New Zealand and Australia as they seek to balance their traditional alliances with overtures from Beijing.

In the new declaration, Cook Islands pledged New Zealand would be its “partner of choice regarding defense and security matters,” apparently quashing the prospect, feared by Wellington, of China occupying the role. It resolved “ambiguity” about the two countries’ existing ties, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

Diplomatic spat began over China deal

When Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown inked a comprehensive strategic partnership between his country and China during a visit to Beijing in February 2025, it provoked alarm in Wellington because Brown wouldn’t divulge the content of the deal first, a refusal New Zealand officials said could have security implications. Cook Islands is a self-governing country with a 60-year free association relationship to New Zealand, which means it’s defended by New Zealand’s military, and citizens can live and work freely in New Zealand.

The links require Cook Islands leaders to consult with Wellington on deals with other countries that might affect New Zealand. Brown defended his decision not to disclose the contents of his pact with China, which he said was unnecessary under his country’s existing accords with Wellington.

New Zealand — which is Cook Islands’ biggest benefactor — froze millions of dollars in aid over the episode, although it wasn’t a large amount of the total funding that Wellington contributes. That aid would now flow again, Peters told reporters during a visit to Cook Islands on Thursday, where he and Brown signed the new agreement.

“This declaration seeks to remove previous ambiguity about the nature of the relationship between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, especially as it pertains to defense and security,” Peters said.

China on Thursday said that the relationship with Cook Islands “is not directed at any third party, nor should it be subject to interference or constraints by any third party,” and that everybody should respect the autonomy of any Pacific islands.

“Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries have always treated each other on equal footing with mutual respect and pursued common development,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a daily briefing in Beijing. “We are willing to deepen practical cooperation with Cook Islands to continuously enhance the well-being of the two peoples.”

Larger powers vie for sway in the Pacific

Cook Islands, an archipelago of 15 islands in the vast South Pacific Ocean, is among many small nations in the region to be courted by Beijing, which has offered aid, loans and deals throughout the Pacific to increase its sway. The sparsely populated South Pacific is considered strategically important and many of its countries, including Cook Islands, have large and lucrative exclusive economic zones, where Brown is exploring prospects for mining of deep sea minerals.

“The strategic environment we face is more complex and contested today than at any other point since New Zealand and the Cook Islands formed our free association relationship in 1965,” Peters said Thursday.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/cook-islands-new-zealand-china-security-deal-a48cfa5347704092dd0a2a5dd73a4f1e

Pakistan on Thursday confirmed it was holding peace talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban government in China, where Beijing is trying to broker a lasting ceasefire after weeks of fighting that have killed hundreds, disrupting trade and cross-border travel.

The confirmation of the new round of talks came a day after officials from the two sides told The Associated Press that representatives from the countries had traveled to Urumqi in western China for them.

It was unclear who is representing Pakistan in the talks. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a post on X that “a mid-level delegation” from his country had traveled to Urumqi for the negotiations following a request from China.

Balkhi said Afghanistan believes diplomatic engagement grounded in mutual respect and non-interference can help produce “practical and lasting solutions” to bilateral issues.

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told a news briefing that the talks are ongoing. “Yes, Pakistan has sent a delegation to Urumqi, in line with its consistent position and longstanding practice of supporting a credible process that can help find a durable solution to cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan,” he said.

Pakistan says success of talks lies with Afghanistan

Andrabi said success of the talks largely depends on Kabul.

“The burden of a real process lies with Afghanistan, which must demonstrate visible and verifiable action against terrorist groups using Afghan soil against Pakistan,” he said.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks in recent years, many claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan late Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding several others, local police chief Rafi Ullah said.

Pakistan often accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven to militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. The group is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.

The fighting between the two sides has been the deadliest since February, when Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Pakistan launched strikes in Kabul and several other areas, causing mostly civilian casualties. Pakistan has said it targeted hideouts of TTP. Pakistan also has said it is in “open war” with Afghanistan.

Andrabi said Pakistan has never shied away from dialogue on the issue. “We remain engaged with the Chinese leadership on this issue and other relevant international partners,” he said, but maintained that Pakistan is seeking written assurances from Kabul that Afghan soil will not be used for attacks against Pakistan.

Though China has not officially confirmed the talks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Xi Jinping’s government has been “actively mediating and facilitating the resolution of conflicts between Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China has “always supported both sides in resolving their differences through dialogue and negotiation.”

Afghanistan says Pakistan’s shelling continues

Despite the peace talks, Pakistan’s operations against the Pakistani Taliban along the border with Afghanistan and other militant groups will continue, according to Andrabi.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, posted on X on Thursday night that Pakistan since Wednesday had been “continuously carrying out mortar, missile and drone attacks” on the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Paktika and Khost. He said two people were killed and 25 people, mostly children, had been wounded.

On Thursday, he said, Pakistan had fired 185 long-range artillery shells into one district in Kunar, wounding 10 people, while 178 long-range artillery and mortar shells hit other areas of Kunar, causing no casualties.

Andrabi dismissed an earlier accusation by a police spokesperson in Kunar who said on Wednesday that mortars fired from Pakistan had killed two civilians and wounded another six. Andrabi said Pakistan conducts operations against militants with care to avoid civilian casualties.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-afghanistan-china-talks-fighting-urumqi-fe6135ac3b986a5362a0b951f66ec5c1

In an industrial park in Zhangjiagang, a small city on China’s east coast, a large humming and hissing machine feeds on piles of used clothes and sorts them.

The novelty? It uses artificial intelligence to sort them by composition at high speed, offering a glimpse into how AI could play a role in reducing the impact of synthetic textile waste.

The Fastsort-Textile machine, named one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025, was created by DataBeyond, a Chinese AI recycling company founded in 2018.

“We can make full use of textile waste and reduce the amount that is incinerated which will be a great help to recycling resources,” DataBeyond CEO Mo Zhuoya said.

Synthetic textiles are derived from fossil fuels and are a low-cost, popular option for fashion production. Altogether they account for around 70% of global textile production, according to a report from Amsterdam-based nonprofit Circle Economy, which analyzes ways to reduce textile waste.

Textile waste is a major global pollutant, with China as the leading contributor. China led global textile exports at $142 billion, more than double that of the European Union, according to the World Trade Organization’s 2025 Key Insights and Trends report.

Fastsort-Textile is being used only in one location in China: Shanhesheng Environmental Technology Ltd., a textile recycling facility in Zhangjiagang that installed the machine in 2025.

The equipment uses an AI scanner to read the composition of such textiles and sorts them by fibers, after which they can be recycled.

Fastsort-Textile sorts through 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of clothes in two to three minutes , compared to around four hours for one worker to do the same thing. The machine can process two tons per hour, while two people would need two days and at reduced accuracy, according to analysis by Shanhesheng.

The AI scanner measuring 5-by-2 meters (16-by-6.5 feet) works with a series of conveyer belts. Workers load stacks of textiles onto belts that move them through the scanner, which emits a sharp hiss while reading the textiles’ composition. A live video feed displays the reading on the scanner’s side.

It takes less than one second to accurately read one item’s material composition, which is set according to customers’ desired benchmarks.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-recycling-textiles-artificial-intelligence-863551cc54e88da6a7916894cb8980c4

The suspected assailant was arrested at the scene and remains in police custody. His motive remains unclear.

Four young children were stabbed to death at a daycare center in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on Thursday, local police have confirmed.

The toddlers, aged between two and three, were reportedly attacked by a male suspect who gained access to the kindergarten by posing as a parent.

According to local media, angry residents of the upmarket Ggaba district attempted to lynch the suspected assailant as he tried to escape before a security guard from a nearby church apprehended him.

When police and military personnel arrived on the scene, they fired warning shots into the air to disperse crowds before arresting the suspect.

“We confirm a tragic incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division, Kampala City, where a male suspect brutally stabbed and killed four juveniles,” a police spokeswoman said, adding that the children had “died on the spot.”

Uganda school stabbing: what do we know?

According to preliminary police investigations, the man had visited the kindergarten on two previous days and had attempted to enroll his own child.

He had reportedly been told to return on Thursday when he spoke to the daycare director and paid admission for his child before launching his stabbing spree.

“The motive behind the killings is still under investigation,” said the police spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abas Byakagaba attended the scene and called for calm. “We call upon anyone with information about the suspect to [contact] police and aid in investigations,” he said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/uganda-kampala-ggaba-four-children-stabbed-killed/a-76645784

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s two biggest steel plants will likely harm Tehran’s ability to wage war, but could also cripple Iran’s economy in irreversible ways.

The bombing of two of Iran’s largest steel producers, Mobarakeh Steel in Isfahan and Khuzestan Steel in Ahvaz, triggered a strong reaction inside Iran — with most of the conversation focusing on whether the two plants were legitimate military targets.

Some have argued that the sites were linked, directly or indirectly, to the economic networks that sustain the state and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Others saw the strikes as an attack on civilian industrial infrastructure in a country already under severe pressure due to the US-Israeli bombing.

Fewer people, however, seem to be concerned with the long-term effects of crippling Iran’s steel production, which is one of the most important industrial sectors in the country.

While Iran’s economy relies heavily on oil, the country was also among the top crude steel producers in 2025. The World Steel Association put Iran’s annual output to about 31.8 million tons. Mobarakeh Steel alone generated $860 million (€741 million) in export revenue between March 2025 and January 2026, according to company linked-reporting.

Blow to Iran’s exports capacity

An airstrike on a plant of this size impacts more than Iran’s military forces. It is also a blow to supply chains, industrial employment, exports and one of the few sectors of the Iranian economy that still carries real weight under sanctions.

The full extent of the damage is still not independently clear, and much of the detail has come from Iranian reporting and specialist commodity coverage. But the broad picture is consistent.

Argus Media, an organization focusing on global energy and commodity markets, reported that the strikes damaged storage facilities and power infrastructure at both Khuzestan Steel and Mobarakeh, and said the attacks were expected to reduce Iran’s production and its export capacity.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Khuzestan Steel had halted operations, while Mobarakeh remained operational despite damage.

Steel production is also heavily dependent on a continuous supply of electricity. If substations, captive power plants or production lines are hit, the effects often spread well beyond the immediately damaged units.

Iran’s fading hope of economic recovery

The longer the war continues, the more capital and state resources will be diverted toward conflict and away from managing Iran’s already crisis-hit economy, an Iran-based economist told DW.

The economist, who asked not to be named, also said the deeper effects may become clearer only after the war.

But even now, Iran is dealing with war damage on top of sanctions, inflation and long-term economic mismanagement. If the fighting ends without political change and with sanctions still in place, many skilled workers may choose to leave the country and make Iran’s economic recovery even harder, the source warned.

US-Israeli strikes deal billions of dollars in direct damage

Reports on the strikes indicate that power generation units, parts of the iron and steel workshops and alloy-steel production lines were hit, economist Hassan Mansour told DW.

He said the direct losses may be in the range of $5 billion to $6 billion, but argued that the wider damage to the national economy could be far greater, with the disruption spreading into construction, manufacturing and a wide range of downstream sectors.

That assessment fits with the broader strategic importance of the metallurgy sector for Tehran. The US Treasury has long treated Iranian steel as a major source of state revenue. In 2020, it sanctioned entities linked to Mobarakeh Steel and pointed out that Iran’s metals industry generated billions of dollars in export revenues.

No way back for Iran’s steel production?

Alireza Salavati, an economic analyst, believed that some damaged units might technically be repaired within a few months if the destruction is not too extensive. But he said the more serious problem lies elsewhere.

According to Salavati, parts of the steel industry operate on narrow margins. If those sections are badly damaged, rebuilding them may no longer make economic sense. In such cases, he said, it could become cheaper to import steel than to restore some damaged units.

This is where the longer-term danger becomes clearer. The visible damage from airstrikes is only one part of the story. The more lasting effect may come later, if damaged sections are never fully rebuilt, output remains lower and supply chains begin to weaken.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/strikes-on-iran-steel-mills-deal-painful-blow-to-economy-isfahan-ahvaz/a-76621439

A REALITY TV bombshell has been tipped to make her Met Gala debut where she is expected to shake up fashion’s biggest night, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.

Hollywood heavyweights will have stiff competition on the red carpet this year with the reveal that this fashionista will be attending the event on the first Monday of May.

The 2026 Met Gala is shaping up to be a showcase of not just A-listers, but also rising stars – with one breakout name leading the charge: Maura Higgins.

Celebrity PR specialist, Kayley Cornelius, told The U.S. Sun: “The Met is always about who is having a moment, and 2026 will be no different.

“Maura Higgins could also make her first appearance following her growing US fanbase after her Traitors run.

“These are the kind of names that keep the Met feeling fresh, bringing together established talent and rising stars in a way that keeps everyone watching closely.”

Other names expected to attend, according to the insider, include Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley, Zendaya, and Lady Gaga, Kayley who discussed various Met Gala odds with Covers, stated.

Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and former Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour will definitely be in attendance as they serve as 2026’s co-chairs to the fashion benefit.

Maura, 35, first burst onto screens as a bombshell contestant on Love Island UK in 2019 – instantly becoming one of the show’s most unforgettable stars.

Her sharp wit, unapologetic confidence, and headline-making one-liners quickly made her a fan favorite, even among a stacked cast.

Though she didn’t win the series, Maura walked away with something arguably more valuable: lasting star power.

She leveraged her fame into a booming career in fashion, brand partnerships, and TV presenting – building a reputation as one of the UK’s most stylish reality exports.

But it was her appearance on Season 4 of The Traitors that launched her into a whole new stratosphere, particularly in the United States.

Maura emerged as a breakout star of the hit competition series, earning praise for her fashion, charisma, and on-screen presence.

Her performance didn’t just win over viewers – it sparked a surge in her American fanbase, with her social media following and brand interest skyrocketing in 2026.

Industry insiders say that kind of momentum is exactly what Met Gala organizers look for when curating their ultra-exclusive guest list.

Beyond reality TV, Maura has become synonymous with bold, high-glam fashion.

From plunging gowns to daring red carpet looks, she has carved out a distinct style identity that blends classic Hollywood glamour with modern edge.

Designers have increasingly tapped her for major events, and fashion insiders say her Met Gala debut feels like a natural next step.

If confirmed, Maura would join a new wave of reality stars crossing into high fashion’s inner circle – proving that viral fame and style influence now go hand in hand.

And with the 2026 guest list expected to mix A-list heavyweights with buzzy newcomers, all eyes will be on whether Maura finally gets her Met moment.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tv/16171869/met-gala-maura-higgins-debut-guest-list-fashion-designer/

A MOM allegedly executed her children’s father while giving him a surprise back massage with a gun pointed at his head.

Jenna Strouble, 30, is accused of killing 32-year-old Jacob Lambert.

He appeared to have been shot at point-blank range in the back seat of her car on March 22.

She then reportedly drove to his parents’ home and shot them, Patrick and Stacy Forde.

Strouble told cops she did not like the way Lambert spoke to their children and described his parents as “overbearing”, reported WBBM, as per court documents.

She reportedly confessed that she surprised Lambert, with whom she had an “occasional intimate relationship”, with a back massage after he agreed to go for a joyride through the suburbs of Chicago.

She then allegedly told cops that she “she climbed on his back in a straddling position and massaged him for approximately 20 minutes” as he lay on his stomach in the reclined passenger seat.

Will County Sheriff’s Office said she told them she grabbed a “Glock 19 fitted with a suppressor” that was hidden under the seat and held it to the back of his head for eight minutes before pulling the trigger.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16169698/mom-gave-kids-dad-massage-gunpoint-killing-him-parents/

“Trump’s address delivered little to nothing new on timelines for ending hostilities against Iran,” said Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid, as oil prices surged following the US president’s warning of further strikes.

Oil prices surged Thursday (Apr 1) after US President Donald Trump threatened more heavy strikes on Iran, while global equity markets reacted indecisively to the latest developments in the conflict.

In a prime-time address Wednesday night, Trump warned that more bombing could take Iran “back to the Stone Ages” but offered no solution on the reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for the world’s oil and gas.

Oil prices shot higher, lifting both major benchmarks to about US$110 a barrel by the end of the day.

“Trump’s much-anticipated address delivered little to nothing new on potential timelines or conditions for ending hostilities against Iran,” said Deutsche Bank managing director Jim Reid. “There was no signal of the US seeking an imminent off-ramp out of the war.”

US stocks began the session sharply lower, but later regained their footing, with two of the three major indices ending narrowly positive.

“It’s as if the equity market is a bigger believer that we’re closer to the off-ramp than the oil market,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.

After being down more than one per cent, European markets closed mixed, with London higher and Paris and Frankfurt slightly lower.

Signs of de-escalation had buoyed markets in recent sessions, but Trump’s speech dashed those hopes.

As time passes, markets are treating Trump’s statements with greater scepticism, said Dave Grecsek, managing director at Aspiriant Wealth Management.

“Initially there was a lot more weight attached to his comments, whether this was related to tariffs or what happened in Venezuela or in Iran,” he said.

But “at some point, the markets are going to start to question the veracity of some of his statements,” he added.

London finished 0.6 per cent higher, boosted by oil companies BP and Shell rising almost three per cent.

Paris dropped about half a per cent, even as oil giant TotalEnergies was up almost three per cent on reports it made a US$1 billion profit in March trading petroleum products.

Most markets in Europe and the United States are closed Friday for Good Friday.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/stocks-oil-prices-trump-threat-iran-war-6034576

The two cases – both men aged 30 and 34 – are also the country’s first reported infections of the more serious clade 1b variant.

Singapore has confirmed its first locally transmitted cases of mpox, the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Thursday (Apr 2).

The two cases – both men aged 30 and 34 – are also the country’s first reported infections of the more serious clade 1b variant.

Both are believed to have been infected through sexual contact and are in stable condition.

“As mpox is predominantly transmitted through intimate or prolonged physical contact, including sexual contact, the risk to the general public is currently low,” CDA said in a media release.

The 30-year-old man had no recent travel history. He developed symptoms on Mar 25 and was admitted to hospital on Mar 30. His clade 1b infection was confirmed the following day.

He has since been discharged and placed on home isolation until Apr 20, pending further clinical review.

The 34-year-old man recently travelled and had prolonged physical contact with the first case, said CDA.

He developed symptoms on Mar 26 and sought medical care on Mar 31. His infection was confirmed on Apr 1. He has been placed on home isolation until Apr 21.

“Investigations and contact tracing are ongoing for both cases,” said CDA.

“Their close contacts have been advised to monitor their health and seek medical care if they are unwell. High-risk contacts will be recommended mpox vaccination as post-exposure prophylaxis.”

The clade 1b strain, which is typically more severe than clade 2 infections, first emerged in September 2023 and was initially detected among sex workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was behind a surge in cases in African countries in 2024.

According to data published on CDA’s website, there have been seven mpox cases this year, as of Mar 21. Twenty-three cases were reported in the whole of 2025.

Common mpox symptoms include rash, fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, and swollen lymph nodes. Serious complications or death may occur in medically vulnerable individuals.

“Mpox is predominantly transmitted through intimate or prolonged physical contact, including sexual contact. Population-wide vaccination is therefore not recommended,” said CDA.

The agency added that for groups at higher risk of exposure, the mpox vaccine is available at the Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Clinic, Tanjong Pagar Medical Clinic, Dr Jay Medical Centre and Anteh Dispensary.

The vaccine will also be available at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases from May.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mpox-clade-1b-infection-cases-communicable-diseases-agency-6033226

Patented medicines will face a 100% tariff entering the US – but companies can still avoid the taxes by striking deals with the administration, the White House has said.

US President Donald Trump ordered the long-threatened levies on Thursday. The White House said the aim of the tariffs was to reduce national security risks by boosting manufacturing of key medicines in the US.

The importance of the move may be largely symbolic at this point, as it does not apply to generic medicines – the most commonly used medicines in the US.

Many of the biggest drug-makers have also already struck agreements that will allow them to escape the levies, with more expected to do so in the weeks ahead.

“The goal is to bring the rest of the companies to the bargaining table,” said Sean Sullivan, professor at the University of Washington and London School of Economics. “It’s all about leverage.”

Companies that commit to launch new manufacturing in the US before the end of Trump’s term in January 2029 would face only a 20% tariff on their medicines, the White House said.

The tariff would drop to zero, if the firms strike pricing deals with the government. In previous agreements, companies have agreed to sell some of their medicines to government health insurance programmes such as Medicaid for prices comparable to those in certain overseas markets.

The US will also honour lower tariffs agreed as part of deals struck last year with key partners, including Europe, Switzerland, the UK, South Korea and Japan.

In December last year the UK and US agreed a deal to keep tariffs on UK pharmaceutical shipments into America at zero.

Under that agreement the UK will pay more for medicines through the NHS in return for a guarantee that US import taxes on pharmaceuticals made in the UK will remain at zero for three years.

On Thursday the UK government called the partnership “a win for British patients, British businesses and the British economy”.

It said pharmaceutical companies would have “stronger incentives” to launch treatments in the UK, meaning patients would benefit from treatments such as new cancer therapies sooner.

In a briefing for reporters, a senior US administration official said big companies would have 120 days to work out agreements with the administration. Small and medium-sized companies will have 180 days.

“They’ve had plenty of warning so we are going forward and executing,” the official said.

Richard Frank, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of its Center on Health Policy, said it was hard to judge the impact of the order given questions about its scope, including how many drugs might be able to win exemptions, and how many companies would end up striking deals.

While many of the biggest firms have signed deals already, smaller businesses are at risk of facing the tariff, which could drive up costs, he noted.

“Like so much of this stuff, the devil really is the details and what sounds really good in a press release may not look the same when it actually hits the ground,” he said.

While the Trump administration has said it wants to see more manufacturing in the US, that typically brings higher costs, he noted. And though pricing deals could help lower costs, agreements unveiled so far have been narrow.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx29kke01gpo

In an extreme environmental and political climate in the Colombian savannah, one maverick village has relied on its homegrown inventions to survive, down to adapting children’s see-saws to draw water for the community. None of the village’s inventions are patented, but they have nonetheless made their mark on the wider world.

Amid the vast, remote and sparsely populated plains of eastern Colombia, known as Los Llanos, about a day’s drive from the capital Bogotá, an 80 sq km (31 sq mile) patch of luscious man-made forest flourishes. There, for over half a century, a small and self-sustaining community called Gaviotas has been defying all odds, thriving on the inhospitable land, helped by a myriad of quirky, futuristic inventions.

The pioneering technologies range from low-cost solar water heaters to a children’s see-saw that doubles as a water pump, from edible forest gardening to biofuel. Some were inspired by traditional methods used by local indigenous communities, while others resulted from tireless, ingenious tinkering with the few available resources.

Once considered eccentric and outlandish, many of the village’s inventions have stood the test of time. Initially developed in response to the village’s very specific local needs, they have been successfully replicated elsewhere in Colombia and beyond. The philosophies born from these experiments have inspired other similar projects, and shown the world another way to approach sustainability.

And yet, the village itself, in its idiosyncratic approach to life in a harsh landscape, remains almost unique.

“I don’t understand why something so simple – so simple that Gaviotas has accomplished it in one of the harshest places on Earth – I don’t understand why it’s not being done elsewhere,” says Paolo Lugari, who founded the community in the 1960s.

As Gaviotas continues to adapt to a changing world, it also raises vital questions. How do you keep a sustainable community going in a world that shapeshifts so quickly? What does the community – and its ethos – win, and what does it lose, as it changes?

It was 1966 when Lugari, a 20-something Italian-Colombian from a prominent political family, travelled across Los Llanos by plane and was overcome by a fervent vision of creating a verdant, flourishing settlement here. For a couple of years following that first trip, he worked on the idea and recruited close ones who would build this community with him.

Finally, in 1971, Lugari bought a plot of land in the Vichada province under the ownership of a non-profit foundation, and the motley crew of about 20 people founded a new settlement. They called it Gaviotas, meaning seagulls in Spanish, in honour of the bright white river birds flying over them as they built their new homes.

From the beginning, they faced huge challenges. The climate in Los Llanos is notoriously brutal and ricochets between violent rains that flood the land and scorching sunshine. Over the years after their initial settlement, Los Llanos also became haunted by political violence, and different armed groups fighting for control of the land and profiting off drug trafficking and coca production.

But Lugari corralled people from different parts of his life. He travelled to Bogotá to recruit scientists and engineers, and persuaded young researchers to complete their theses by dreaming up sustainability projects in the savannah. He mingled with the nomadic, local indigenous communities and the llaneros, local farmers, offering them work. And by the late 1970s, the community grew to more than 200 self-sufficient inhabitants, Lugari says.

Living in ‘right relation’ with place

To carve out a life in these inhospitable conditions, the inhabitants of Gaviotas, including several newly graduated engineers, dreamed up a range of eco-friendly, low-cost and locally rooted solutions. Some ideas, such as ancestral longhouses and living quarters with roofs made from thick, thatched moriche palm fronds to withstand the rain and sun, came from the traditions of the indigenous Guahibo people, who had lived nomadically in Los Llanos long before the Gaviotas residents. From the Guahibo, the Gaviotans learned how to make nets and hammocks using the ribs of moriche leaves, how to extract a nutritious oil from the fruit, and how to craft canoes by digging them out of tree trunks.

To generate electricity, the Gaviotans relied on the scorching sun of the plains. To access drinking water, they crafted a variety of types of water pumps – including one that could reach 40m (130ft)underground, latching it to a children’s seesaw to make the most of their playtime. Lightweight wind turbines, capturing the soft, fleeting gusts of tropical winds that characterise the Colombian plains, were designed by local engineers after 57 prototype trials and errors.

“It felt really safe, it felt very welcoming. It felt very like when you are living in a community, there is a huge sense of belonging and sense that you know everyone around you,” says Natalia Gutierrez, who was born in Gaviotas in 1996. Her mother was the community’s teacher, and her father the community’s hydraulics engineer. “I definitely took advantage of living my best life outside, catching frogs,” she says.

Gutierrez now goes to university in Canada and is on her year abroad in Italy, but still keeps in touch with the community and recalls her time there fondly: “It was very quick from my house to my mom’s office, from my mom’s office to the community restaurant, the community restaurant to the river,” says Gutierrez, who attended a small school, run by her mother, with only about 10 other children.

She recalls studying the standard national curriculum, including mathematics, biology, and art, but also Gaviotas-specific classes focused on how to plant trees, and how to purify water and bottle it. In the community’s bottling plant, water was stored in containers that perfectly interlocked with each other: great for stacking, storing, and playing, like with makeshift Legos.

Gaviotas’ home-grown approach is a typical example of what’s known as the “appropriate technology movement”, according to Chelsea Schelly, a professor of sociology at Michigan Technological University, US.

“No one technology fits everybody’s needs in every place, so we should be developing technologies that are locally adapted and locally responsive,” says Schelly, who has studied sustainable communities and eco-villages in the United States that follow a similar ethos to Gaviotas. “Living in right relation with the place where you are is probably a lesson we can all learn from, and that you could bring that into design, no matter what you’re designing for, right?”

Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke out after being fired from her perch as the head of the Justice Department and teased her new private sector role, where she will “continue fighting for President Trump.”

“Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime, and easily the most consequential first year of the Department of Justice in American history,” she posted on X.

“I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again.”

Trump’s decision to axe Bondi came weeks after making the first cabinet-level firing of his administration, when he terminated former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who is now serving as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas.

Bondi is getting a new private sector role where she will be allied with the administration, but details of that position are not fully clear.

In the meantime, Trump has tapped Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as interim AG while he decides on a permanent replacement. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is considered a viable option.

“I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration,” Bondi added on X.

Trump told Bondi in person on Wednesday that she was on the outs, a source previously told The Post.

That conversation took place after the two attended the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case earlier that day.

See more

Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 2, 2026

Bondi, who served as Florida Attorney General from 2011 through 2019 and was a key ally of Trump’s in the 2020 election aftermath, had been the president’s second choice to helm the DOJ after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew.

She quickly faced controversy after claiming on Fox News last February that a list of late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s “clients” was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Later, MAGA influencers were welcomed to the White House and given binders titled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/02/us-news/pam-bondi-speaks-out-for-the-first-time-since-getting-youre-fired-treatment-from-trump/

 

The IRGC said the attacks were part of a broader retaliatory operation following strikes by the United States and Israel on key Iranian industrial sites.

Iran on Thursday claimed that it struck an Oracle data centre in Dubai, according to a state media report, marking a further escalation in tensions in the Gulf region.

In a statement carried by state media, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) navy command said that it had directly targeted Oracle’s data centre in Dubai.

However, Dubai Media Office rejected the claim and called it fake news.

See more

Fake News Alert pic.twitter.com/5JI4VLnxDL

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) April 2, 2026

IRGC also said that its latest wave of attacks on Thursday had targeted the UAE, Bahrain and Israel as part of a broader retaliatory operation following strikes by the United States and Israel on key Iranian industrial sites, including major steel plants.

The latest reported strike followed an earlier claim by the IRGC that it targeted an Amazon cloud computing centre in Bahrain. Iran’s ISNA news agency said the attack targeted critical digital infrastructure, highlighting how the conflict is expanding beyond conventional military targets to include technology assets.

“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that they had targeted an Amazon cloud computing centre in Bahrain in retaliation for attacks on Iran,” state media reported earlier.

Earlier this week, the IRGC had warned that several major US companies—including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing—could see their regional operations targeted as part of its response.

The group also warned employees of these firms to leave their workplaces, saying US-linked information technology and artificial intelligence companies would be treated as potential targets.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/after-amazon-in-bahrain-iran-claims-strike-on-oracle-data-centre-in-dubai-ws-l-10012148.html

 

Attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces have intensified in recent months in parts of Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province.

At least 43 people have been killed in an attack by a rebel group linked to ISIL (ISIS) in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the army.

Regional army spokesperson Lieutenant Jules Tshikudi Ngongo said on Thursday that at least “43 compatriots were killed and 44 houses torched” during the previous day’s attack in Bafwakoa, located in Mambasa territory, in the province of Ituri.

Authorities blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group led by former Ugandan rebels that has sworn allegiance to ISIL.

The army has struggled to contain the group, as it battles several other rebel groups in the east, the most prominent one being the Rwandan-backed M23, which last year seized Goma, the largest city in eastern DRC, as well as several other major cities.

Baptiste Munyapandi, territorial administrator of Mambasa, told the Reuters news agency that search operations were continuing and that the death toll could rise.

Houses were set on fire, some victims were killed with machetes, while others burned in their homes, and two people were abducted, Christian Alimasi, a local customary official in Mambasa territory, told Reuters.

The number of ADF fighters in DRC is unclear, but they are a significant presence in the region.

ADF attacks on civilians have intensified in recent months in parts of Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province, despite joint Congolese-Ugandan military operations against the group launched in 2021.

Last year, the ADF killed 66 people and abducted several more in a neighbouring area.

“The ADF avoids direct combat with the army and all its partners; that’s why they attack the population in a way that sabotages peace efforts and acts of revenge against the population, thus reprisals against our people,” Ngongo, the Congolese army spokesperson, told The Associated Press news agency.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/2/at-least-43-people-killed-in-adf-attack-in-northeast-dr-congo-army-says

U.S. President Donald Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday after mounting frustration with her performance, especially over the release of files ​on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump also felt Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries whom he wanted to face criminal charges, according to sources.

Deputy Attorney General Todd ‌Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, will lead the Justice Department temporarily, Trump said in a social media post.

In the post, Trump praised Bondi as a “Great American Patriot and a loyal friend” who had overseen a “massive crackdown in Crime.” Trump said she will soon move to a job in the private sector, but he gave no details.
In her own social media post, Bondi said: “Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime.”
She said she would spend the next month transitioning the ​role to Blanche. On social media, Blanche thanked Trump and praised Bondi, promising to do “everything in our power to keep America safe.”
During her tenure as the top U.S. law enforcement official, Bondi was a combative champion of ​Trump’s agenda and dismantled the Justice Department’s longstanding tradition of independence from the White House in its investigations.

But it was repeated criticism over the Epstein files, including from Trump ⁠allies and some Republican lawmakers, that came to dominate her tenure. Bondi was accused of covering up or mismanaging the release of records on the DOJ’s sex-trafficking investigations into Epstein, a financier who cultivated ties to wealthy and powerful figures.
Trump informed ​Bondi at a White House meeting on Wednesday that he was looking to replace her as attorney general, according to a source familiar with the matter. Trump allies had encouraged the president in recent days to “rip off the Band-Aid” and fire ​her, according to the source and one other person familiar with the matter.
Trump told Bondi multiple times over the past several months that he was unhappy with her performance, a senior White House official told Reuters. The official said Trump has contemplated replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, but has also discussed other candidates.

Bondi spent much of Wednesday with Trump, riding with him to the U.S. Supreme Court in the morning, attending an Easter lunch where he spoke and later watching his address to ​the nation on the Iran war. At the Supreme Court, Trump observed as one of Bondi’s top officials, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, was grilled by justices about the administration’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship.

POLITICAL HEADACHE

The Epstein files created political headaches ​for Trump and drew renewed scrutiny of his past friendship with Epstein, which he has said ended decades ago.
Bondi’s firing could lead to a shake-up in strategy at the Justice Department and potentially a renewed push to deploy the U.S. legal system against Trump’s ‌targets.

Bondi is ⁠the second senior Trump official to be ousted recently. Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5 following criticism of her management of the agency and Trump’s immigration agenda.
Bondi, a former Republican state attorney general in Florida, said she worked on restoring the Justice Department’s focus on violent crime and rebuilding trust with Trump’s supporters after federal prosecutors twice criminally charged Trump during his years out of power.
Bondi also faced criticism over the removal of dozens of career prosecutors who worked on investigations that Trump opposed, with critics accusing her of abandoning the DOJ’s traditional focus on even-handed justice.
“Pam Bondi took a sledgehammer to the Justice Department and its workforce,” said Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer and the head of Justice Connection, an advocacy organization formed ​to aid career staff who were expelled or resigned.
Bondi ​presided over a mass exodus of career lawyers from many crucial ⁠DOJ units and a near-total alignment between the Justice Department and Trump, whose image now adorns its Washington headquarters.

DOJ has pursued a slew of investigations against Trump antagonists, including bringing criminal charges last year against former FBI Director James Comey, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The cases encountered obstacles in court and were thrown out by a judge who found the Trump-nominated prosecutor ​who brought them, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
“Pam Bondi’s legacy will be the weaponization of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency for Donald Trump’s personal benefit, but apparently ​even she didn’t go far ⁠enough to appease him,” Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-fires-pam-bondi-us-attorney-general-cnn-fox-2026-04-02/

Dozens of countries sought ways to restart vital energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed more ​aggressive attacks on Iran, sending oil prices higher again and deepening strain on consumers.
After speculation proved untrue that Trump might discuss ending the war in a speech on Wednesday, the president persisted with ‌threats on Thursday, saying in a social media post: “IT IS TIME FOR IRAN TO MAKE A DEAL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE”.

He also posted video of the U.S. bombing a newly constructed bridge on Thursday between Tehran and the major northwest suburb of Karaj. The B1 bridge was scheduled to open to traffic this year. According to Iran’s state media, eight people were killed and 95 others were wounded in the U.S. attack.
“Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender,” Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement.
In the speech on Wednesday ​night, Trump repeated his threats against Iran’s civilian power plants and gave no clear timeline for ending hostilities, drawing vows of retaliation from Iran and depressing share prices.

“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to ​three weeks,” Trump said amid mounting domestic pressure to end the conflict. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”
Nearly five weeks after it started ⁠with a joint U.S.-Israeli aerial assault, the war in Iran continues to spread chaos across the region and roil financial markets, raising the pressure on Trump to find a quick resolution to the conflict.
Britain chaired a virtual meeting on ​Thursday of some 40 countries to explore ways to restore freedom of navigation that did not produce any specific agreement, although participants agreed that all nations should be able to use the waterway freely, one official said.
Iran has effectively shut down the ​Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world’s total oil trade, in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli attacks that began on February 28. The war has caused an increase in oil prices, inflation concerns, supply-chain problems and worries about the impact on the global economy.

Tehran offered a competing vision for future control of the strait, and said it was drafting a protocol with neighboring Oman that would require ships to obtain permits and licenses.
“These requirements will not mean restrictions, but rather to facilitate and ensure safe passage and provide better services to ships that pass through this route,” ​Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
An Iranian military spokesperson said the strait would remain closed “long term” to the U.S. and Israel.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas pushed back against Tehran’s plan, saying ​Iran cannot be allowed to charge countries a bounty to let ships pass. “International law doesn’t recognise pay-to-pass schemes,” wrote Kallas on social media.

OIL HITS $108

Benchmark Brent crude prices jumped by about 7% to around $108 per barrel, U.S. bond yields spiked and global equity markets gave back ‌gains.
“The key question ⁠in all investors’ minds is ‘When is this going to be over?'” said Russel Chesler, head of investments and capital markets at VanEck Australia.

Trump in Wednesday’s speech told countries that rely on fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to “just grab it”.
However, European and other states have said they will only help secure the strait if there is a ceasefire.
“It can only be done in consultation with Iran,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

IRAN THREATENS MORE ATTACKS

Iran’s armed forces responded to Trump with a warning of “more crushing, broader and more destructive” attacks in store.
The war will continue until the “permanent regret and surrender” of Iran’s enemies, said Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, in a statement carried by Iranian media.
Iran’s Fars news agency later ​listed several bridges in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and ​Jordan, which host U.S. military bases, as potential targets ⁠for Iran’s military in response to the U.S. attack on the B1 bridge. The Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted an Amazon cloud computing centre in Bahrain.
There are fears the conflict may leave Iran with a stranglehold over Middle East energy supplies now that it has shown that it can block the Strait of Hormuz by targeting oil tankers and attacking Gulf countries hosting U.S. ​troops.
Gulf states say they reserve the right to self-defence but have refrained from responding militarily to repeated Iranian attacks over the past month, seeking to avoid escalation into ​a far more devastating all-out ⁠Middle East war.
Iran’s parliament was reviewing a bill that would formalise the blocking of vessels from hostile countries passing through the strait and the charging of tolls for others wishing to pass, spokesperson Abbas Goodarzi said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hopes-dim-swift-end-iran-war-after-trump-speech-oil-prices-surge-anew-2026-04-02/

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed actor Blake Lively’s sexual harassment ​claims in her lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni, significantly narrowing her case over the filming of their 2024 romantic drama “It Ends With Us.”
U.S. District ‌Judge Lewis Liman’s 152-page decision followed more than a year of acrimonious litigation over the movie, in which Lively and Baldoni co-starred and which Baldoni directed.

During a January court hearing, Lively’s lawyer Esra Hudson had argued that Baldoni repeatedly went too far, including by deviating from the script by adding unnecessary sexual content.
Hudson alleged this included a dance sequence in which Baldoni “nuzzled” Lively without consent, and a scene when Lively’s character was giving birth and ​she was pressured to wear little clothing and simulate nudity.
Liman wrote that Baldoni’s alleged conduct appeared to be directed towards Lively’s character in the scene, rather than Lively herself.
“Creative ​artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear ⁠of being held liable for sexual harassment,” the judge wrote.

Liman said Lively can still try to convince jurors that Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios retaliated against her after she complained about ​misconduct on the movie set.
The judge said jurors could consider whether the defendants “impermissibly and materially altered” Lively’s career prospects, through what she called a smear campaign after Baldoni hired public relations and crisis ​management specialists.
“Certain conduct at least arguably crossed the line,” Liman said.
The case is scheduled to go to trial on May 18.

LIVELY LOOKS FORWARD TO TESTIFYING, LAWYER SAYS

Liman’s decision means jurors will not decide if Lively was sexually harassed, though some of her accusations of mistreatment could surface as she pursues her retaliation claim.
Lively “looks forward to testifying,” and showing the efforts made to destroy her reputation “because she stood up for safety on the set,” Sigrid ​McCawley, one of her lawyers, said in a statement.

Baldoni’s lawyers said they were pleased with the dismissal of the sexual harassment claims, and all claims against the five individual defendants, including Wayfarer ​Chief Executive Jamey Heath. The defendants have strongly denied wrongdoing.

“What’s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense,” defense lawyers Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach said in a joint ‌statement.
Lively’s case has ⁠been closely followed in Hollywood.
It has drawn in famous people like singer Taylor Swift, model Gigi Hadid and actor Hugh Jackman, all of whom, according to Lively, might have information supporting her claims.
Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, Wayfarer and others in December 2024, seeking damages for alleged harassment, defamation, invasion of privacy and violations of federal and state civil rights laws.
She complained that the defendants created a sexually charged atmosphere during the movie’s production, then schemed to silence her and others from speaking out about the hostile environment they created.
Baldoni, 42, countered that he resolved Lively’s concerns as soon ​as she raised them, and that he was ​entitled to hire a crisis management firm ⁠after Lively began disparaging him publicly.

LIVELY, BALDONI SUED EACH OTHER

In dismissing the sexual harassment claims, Liman said there would have been enough evidence for jurors to consider whether Lively’s beliefs had been sincere, including being uncomfortable because of comments over her physical appearance.
But he said Lively could not pursue ​those claims under a federal civil rights law because she was an independent contractor, not an employee. He also said Lively had ​sued under a California law ⁠but the alleged wrongful conduct took place elsewhere.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-dismisses-most-blake-livelys-claims-against-justin-baldoni-2026-04-02/

As dating gets more complicated, young professionals in China are seeking help to navigate love. CNA’s Chinese Matchmakers follows them and the experts reshaping the way they present themselves, right from their awkward first dates.

On paper, Zhao Xiangjie, 33, appears to have a lot going for him in China’s dating market.

He works as an information technology product manager, earning 300,000 yuan (US$43,000) a year. He owns a flat in Chengdu, while his parents own another that currently stands empty. He drives a car, keeps active and comes from a stable family.

So when he had a sit-down with matchmaker Jiang Ping, 43, she cut straight to the point. Seeing that he was also “pretty good-looking”, she asked: “Why are you still single?”

Zhao quipped: “People joke that those who shouldn’t be single are all unattached!”

But his situation is far from unusual. In a society where marriage has long been regarded as a key milestone in life, many young Chinese men are finding it difficult to find a partner.

Marriage registrations have fallen, with 6.76 million couples tying the knot last year, just over half the number a decade ago.

The decades-long one-child policy and a long-standing preference for sons have also left China with 30 million more men than women.

For men like Zhao, the search for a partner has become more competitive and uncertain. Increasingly, they are turning to matchmakers, whose centuries-old trade has evolved into a modern industry offering personalised coaching and dating events.

Across cities and towns, professionals in their 20s and 30s are signing up to matchmaking services or joining livestreams to meet potential partners.

CNA’s two-part series, Chinese Matchmakers, follows several of these men and the matchmakers guiding them. We find out why more young men are seeking help and offer a window into the way dating expectations have shifted.

WHY LOVE DOESN’T COME EASILY

The difficulty for many young men begins with meeting enough women. Shanghai-based matchmaker Meng Weili, 38, said demanding work schedules often leave singles with little time to socialise, limiting them to small circles of colleagues and existing friends.

That is the case for “Cong”, a 33-year-old engineer who works long hours. “You can meet more people through a matchmaker,” said Cong, who declined to reveal his real name. “In certain respects, it’s more efficient.”

At Meng’s agency, first meetings between clients last about 30 minutes, which keeps them focused and limits time lost on any potential mismatch. Matchmakers vet the profiles and arrange the introductions, allowing clients to meet several candidates quickly.

Even so, with fewer women in the dating pool, they can often be more selective. Expectations have also risen, and men have a high financial bar to clear.

Sun Guanle, 54, a matchmaker in Zhucheng, Shandong province, said women now expect a partner who owns a car and a “mortgage-free apartment” with at least three bedrooms.

Also, a job in a state-owned company — with an attendant income of “at least 12,000 yuan” a month, plus “generous benefits and a good pension” — is ideal.

One of her clients, however, falls short of those expectations: Machine tools salesman Sun Guoxu, 31, earns 78,000 yuan a year and is paying off a mortgage.

Both of his first two blind dates declined to meet him again and did not accept his requests to stay in touch on messaging platform WeChat.

“In the past, clients valued each other as people,” said his matchmaker. “Now everyone wants to find someone with good prospects. Everybody wants to marry up and skip years of struggle.”

Some men narrow the field for themselves through their own expectations. They tell matchmakers they are looking for partners who are younger, attractive and easy-going. Education is also valued, often seen as a sign of intelligence and compatibility.

“If you were to marry someone you didn’t know too well, a good education would be a kind of insurance,” said Cong, who is looking for someone under 28 with an understanding personality.

In practice, this can lead some men to pass over potential matches.

Chen Yukun, 29, a civil servant from Jiangxi province who said his intelligence was his biggest appeal — and called himself “down to earth” — rejected several suggested profiles as being not attractive or slim enough.

Given his modest salary and lack of property ownership, Jiang his matchmaker questioned whether he could afford to be so selective.

“What kind of woman would choose intelligence over money?” she asked, highlighting the gap between his expectations and the realities of modern dating.

HELPING MEN FIGURE OUT WOMEN

Even well-qualified men are not guaranteed success. Zhao, for example, meets many financial expectations, but his matchmaker said his challenge lies in understanding what women want — a gap that matchmakers are stepping in to address.

Acting as counsellors and coaches, they help shape the way clients present themselves and are perceived, guide them through each stage of dating and step in with advice, encouragement or hard truths when needed.

In Shanghai, Meng arranges for shy clients like Cong to meet potential partners in a low-pressure setting — her agency office — and receive feedback right after that. “Introverts need a lot of guidance and a familiar environment,” she said.

These meetings give clients room to learn from their missteps. On one of his first couple of blind dates, for instance, Cong asked the girl if she had ever been in a relationship. She got defensive, and the conversation stalled.

Afterwards Meng advised him to steer initial conversations to safer ground, while reassuring him about how it ended.

“Maybe you hit her sore spot. That was unfortunate,” she said. “If there’s no spark, then move on. There’s no need to dwell on it.”

Matchmakers also coach clients on pacing themselves. When Chen was preparing for a first date, he was told to focus on building momentum instead of jumping to conclusions.

“The goal of your first date is to get a second date,” Jiang told him.

The guidance continues as relationships develop. When Zhao found a girlfriend but the relationship began to falter, he turned to Jiang. After reviewing his messages, she told him he was coming across as overly eager.

“The more anxious you are, the more she’ll avoid you,” she said, urging him to hold back. She also encouraged him to address tensions over money and lifestyle expectations directly. “Don’t be afraid of losing her,” she added.

The relationship eventually ended, with the girl saying she did not truly like him, only how nice he was to her.

Jiang can trace a familiar pattern to such relationships. “If you’re looking for a comfortable, intimate relationship, you can’t base your choice only on looks,” she said.

A large part of her job is about recalibrating expectations. When Zhao said he wanted a partner who was a teacher or a doctor, Jiang cautioned against expecting such a wife to be the one taking care of the family.

“(Teachers and doctors) put in long hours too,” she said. “These jobs aren’t as easy as you think.”

In Fujian’s Changle district — where there are 109 men for every 100 women — matchmaker Jiang Xiaoling had a client with a clear list of what he wanted. But he struggled to articulate what he could offer.

“The women (he’s) going after,” she said, “already have everything they need.”

Getting clients to confront these mismatches can be uncomfortable. But matchmakers say it is necessary for men to understand how they are seen by the women they hope to attract.

As one practitioner put it: “Sometimes you just need to tell them to wake up.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/china-matchmakers-boom-men-rising-expectations-fewer-women-love-6026311

LILI Reinhart is opening up about a shocking note a director gave her on set.

The Riverdale star claimed an unnamed director told her to suck in her stomach during a scene.

Lili spoke about the incident in a video interview for Cosmopolitan with her Forbidden Fruits co-stars, Lola Tung, Alexandra Shipp, and Victoria Pedretti.

Victoria asked, “What is one acting note that you took personally?”

Lili replied: “When I had a male director come up to me and silently lean over and go, ‘Just suck in your stomach a little bit.’ “

“Oh my God. What is his name and what is his address?” Victoria answered.

The actress has previously opened up about her struggles with body image as far back as 2018.

Lili said then that she’s suffered from body dysmorphia her whole life after shooting down pregnancy rumors based on what she called “one unflattering photo of herself” shared online.

The actress also got vulnerable in a 2022 Instagram post.

“I didn’t think being in this industry, that is so obsessed with women’s bodies and weights, could ever mess with my own body acceptance and positivity… but it has,” she wrote.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/16168468/lili-reinhart-hollywood-director-demanded-suck-in-stomach/

The plane crashed in a mountainous forest area not far from Crimea’s capital, Simferopol. Since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, incidents involving Russian military planes have occurred frequently.

A Russian military plane crashed in the Russian-annexed Crimea, killing 29 people on board, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.

“According to reports from the scene, the six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” the TASS state news agency said, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Russia’s Investigative Committee also confirmed the crash, without providing details of the death toll.

“On 31 March 2026, an An-26 aircraft crashed whilst in flight near the village of Kuibyshevo in the Bakhchysaray district of the Republic of Crimea. There were 7 crew members and 23 passengers on board,” according to the committee.

The committee also said it has launched a criminal probe into a flight safety violation.

What else do we know about the Russian military plane crash in Crimea?

The Antonov An-26 military transport plane was carrying out a scheduled flight over the Crimean peninsula, according to media reports. Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since administered the territory on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

The military lost contact with the plane around 6 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) on Tuesday.

The crash was caused by a technical malfunction with no “damaging interference” with the plane, Russian news agency Interfax quoted the Defense Ministry as saying.

Sources at the site of the crash told state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti that the military transport plane crashed into a cliff.

Accidents involving Russian military planes since Moscow invaded Ukraine

There have been multiple crashes involving Russian military aircraft since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In December last year, an An-22 aircraft crashed in Russia’s Ivanovo region, northeast of Moscow, killing seven crew.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/crimea-russian-military-plane-crash-kills-at-least-29-people/a-76620125

Officials in Utah have formally closed a 51-year-old cold case after using new DNA technology to identify a murdered teenager as a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy.

Laura Ann Aime, 17, disappeared after leaving a party on Halloween in 1974. Her body was discovered about one month later by hikers in the American Fork Canyon.

On Wednesday, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office announced that new testing “confirmed irrefutably that DNA evidence recovered from Laura’s body verified the existence of DNA belonging to Bundy”.

Between February 1974 and February 1978 Bundy murdered at least 30 women. He has also been linked to many more killings throughout the country.

Before he was executed in Florida in 1989, Bundy confessed to Laura’s killing, but since he would not elaborate or give any detail to his actual involvement in her death, “the Sheriff’s Department elected to keep this case open until investigators could prove, without a shadow of doubt”, that he was her killer, the sheriff said in a statement.

“This case is now officially closed,” Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith declared during a news conference, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

The sheriff added that if Bundy were still alive, prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against him.

Bundy is among America’s most infamous serial killers, and began his spree by attacking victims throughout the Pacific Northwest of the US. He later killed victims in Colorado, Utah and Florida.

At the time of Laura’s death, he was living in Salt Lake City and studying law at the University of Utah.

The sheriff’s statement said Laura is remembered as an “outgoing free spirit who enjoyed outdoor activities and shared a passion for riding horses, hunting, and caring for her several siblings”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lendp6390o

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.

The company, which manufactures rockets, space exploration technology and Starlink satellites, is currently privately held. But on Wednesday it made a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering, which would allow shares to be traded in the stock market.

The value of SpaceX once it goes public is expected to surpass $1tn (£751bn). That would make its eventual stock market debut one of the most financially significant in history.

Musk’s own holding in SpaceX would put the billionaire on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.

The BBC has contacted SpaceX for comment.

The company is aiming to officially go public sometime in June, according to reports in Bloomberg, Reuters and the New York Times.

A confidential IPO filing with the SEC allows a company to avoid immediately revealing information to the public while it requests feedback from the regulator. The next step will be for company executives to hold “roadshows” – meetings with big investors to convince them to buy shares.

By making shares of SpaceX available for purchase by the public, the company is looking to raise $50bn or more, according to the reports.

Earlier this year, SpaceX took over xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture. After that all-stock merger, SpaceX is believed to have become the most valuable private company in the world, with an internal valuation of $1.25tn.

Recently, Musk’s various companies have been becoming increasingly intertwined.

Last year, xAI, best known for its chatbot Grok, took over X, the social media platform previously called Twitter that Musk bought in 2022.

This degree of consolidation was a clear sign to investors that SpaceX was preparing to go public.

Emily Zheng, a senior analyst at Pitchbook, earlier told the BBC that by bringing xAI under SpaceX, Musk could show potential investors that he was consolidating costs and able to easily share resources between his companies.

With its large-scale ambitions, SpaceX is in need of a massive cash infusion that going public can provide, Zheng added. The company is racing to keep up with the “sheer cost of compute, infrastructure, and energy” needed to expand, she said.

Earlier this year, Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company, revealed it had invested more than $2bn in xAI.

The billionaire said a significant share of Tesla’s manufacturing would begin to shift toward building robots, which would make use of xAI technology like Grok.

Grok is already included in some Teslas as an AI assistant.

SpaceX would also partner with Tesla and xAI in the massive chipmaking endeavour Musk announced last month, which he is calling Terafab.

“Tesla, xAI and SpaceX have all done amazing things that people did not think could be done before,” Musk said in a March presentation discussing Terafab.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2k35lg92dpo

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” alum Nate Richert had a rare reunion with his TV co-stars.

The ’90s heartthrob, who portrayed Harvey Kinkle, snapped a photo with his on-screen love interest, Melissa Joan Hart, and Beth Broderick, per an Instagram photo on Tuesday.

Kinkle, 47, smirked while posing alongside the duo in a hat and a button-up.

“When the magic fam comes together!” Hart, who played the role of Sabrina Spellman, captioned the snap.

While Broderick, who took on the role of Sabrina’s aunt Zelda Spellman, was in attendance, actress Caroline Rhea, who played Sabrina’s other aunt Hilda Spellman, wasn’t.

Fans gushed over the reunion, with one writing, “OMG this so ICONIC 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍.”

“Harvey, Sabrina, and Aunt Zelda!! ❤️❤️❤️,” another wrote.

The castmates have seemingly kept close ties and were last publicly seen together at dinner in March 2024.

That same month, the trio came together to attend ’90s Con.

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” aired for seven seasons from 1996 to 2003.

Richert, meanwhile, stepped away from the limelight after the hit series concluded.

The former actor has recently kept busy with his “The Nate and Curtis Podcast” alongside his co-host, Curtis Andersen. The latter, who portrayed Gordie, was a recurring character in the series.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/04/01/entertainment/90s-teen-heartthrob-unrecognizable-as-he-reunites-with-tv-show-co-stars/

The 7-month-old girl killed by a stray bullet in Brooklyn while her parents pushed her in a stroller Wednesday afternoon had just learned to say “mama,” the baby’s heartbroken family revealed.

The tragic tot, Kaori, was seated with her brother in a double stroller when “something went off” near Humboldt and Moore Streets in East Williamsburg, their mother, Lianna Charles-Moore, said in a phone interview.

Those loud blasts turned out to be gunshots fired by a thug on the back of a moped, but the distraught parents didn’t realize it at first.

“We thought it was fireworks, but my son jumped out of the stroller, and I picked him up and carried him,” Charles-Moore, 20, recalled.

“I was hugging him, and then when I looked to my left, my daughter was just there, lying there. She was shot in the head. She was just bleeding. It was just too much,” she said.

The tearful mother revealed that her 2-year-old son had also been grazed in his back by a bullet and has been asking for his sister ever since she was fatally shot.

“My daughter was innocent. She didn’t deserve that. We were just going outside to go get her a few things, and my son a few things. My son got impacted with everything that happened, yeah, so it was just too much, because they could have killed my son and my daughter,” Charles-Moore said.

Family members remembered the 7-month-old as a bubbly baby who was “always laughing” and said she just reached a heartbreaking milestone.

“She just started saying, ‘Mama,’ she just started, like, almost about to crawl, like it was just a whole bunch of stuff that she was just learning how to do,” her mother said.

Kaori’s grandmother, Linda Moore Oyinkoinyan, recalled collapsing at her job as a 3-K public school teacher after receiving a frantic call from her daughter about the tragic shooting.

“I was supposed to get them today or tomorrow. I’m a teacher, so I have off, and I was going to take them,” Oyinkoinyan said.

“My daughter called me at my job. She was screaming. I had to hang up on her. She was scaring me. She said, ‘They shot Kaori in the head.’ She was screaming. She was frantic. I just passed out in the class,” the grandmother recalled as her heartbroken grandson held her hand.

Oyinkoinyan remembered her slain granddaughter as a “beautiful spirit” who was always giggling.

“She was loving. She was caring. Always smiling. She was very smart. The baby was very beautiful. She brought a lot of people together,” Oyinkoinyan said.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she added.

The shooting, described as gang-related, took place around 1:20 p.m, when the gunmen pulled up on a moped and opened fire into a crowd before speeding off, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press briefing.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/01/us-news/7-month-old-girl-killed-by-stray-bullet-in-senseless-nyc-shooting-just-started-saying-mama-heartbroken-family-reveals/

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned Armenia, which aspires to join the European Union, that it won’t be able to be part of both the EU and a Moscow-led economic alliance.

Armenia, which signed a U.S.-brokered agreement last year ending decades of hostilities with Azerbaijan, has increasingly sought to forge closer ties with the U.S. and the EU. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared an intention to join the EU and his government has suspended the country’s participation in a Moscow-dominated security pact, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Speaking at the start of talks with Pashinyan in Moscow, Putin said Russia is “absolutely calm” about Armenia’s efforts to forge closer ties with the EU, but he noted that for Armenia ”it’s impossible to be in a customs union with the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union.”

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, created in 2015 and also including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, is a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capitals and labor.

Putin’s statement appeared to send a warning signal as prospects for Armenia’s EU membership look distant and no prospective tariff-free deal between Armenia and the EU has been discussed yet.

The Russian leader noted that the two blocs have widely different market regulations regarding various groups of goods and that reaching common ground is unlikely any time soon. He said that it’s up to Armenia to set its course, but he emphasized that the country is currently getting Russian natural gas at a much lower price compared to the European prices.

Pashinyan, in turn, said that he realizes that Armenia can’t simultaneously be a member of both blocs, but for now it can combine its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union with developing cooperation with the EU. “Ties with Russia are very deep and important for us,” he added.

Armenia’s relations with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region in 2023, ending decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/russia-armenia-putin-pashinyan-642f4d5863ab584e0dc1e9a894c8cd0b

Trump said that Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed. He added that Trump says he is going to “finish the job very fast” and will not let Middle East allies “get hurt”.

US President Donald Trump has claimed victory over the US-Israeli war against Iran, claiming US military action has destroyed Tehran’s military prowess and will ‘finish the job’ very soon, as ‘core strategic objectives are nearing completion’. Addressing the nation about his plans in the Middle East, the commander-in-chief said US forces will hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ for the next 2-3 weeks and again threatened Iranian power plants.

Trump also urged other nations, including US allies, to show ‘courage’ and ‘take care’ of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway under Iran’s chokehold.

Trump Claims Victory

The US president said it had been “just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran”, claiming rapid battlefield gains.

“Tonight, Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is in ruins, their leaders, most of them… are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is being decimated as we speak, their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons, factories, and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces,” he said.

“Our enemies are losing–and America, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning, and now, winning bigger than ever before.”

US To End War Soon

Trump said US objectives were to “systematically dismantle the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders”.

“Tonight I am pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he said, declaring the US is “nearing completion” of its various military objectives and vows to “finish the job very fast”. Trump also vowed to not let Middle East allies, including Israel, “get hurt” in the war or fail.

He warned of further escalation if negotiations fail.

“Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” he said, adding that US forces would meet all their battlefield goals “very, very shortly.” He also said that the US could target Iran’s electric infrastructure if no agreement is reached.

Why War Was Needed

Trump stated that regime change in Iran was not the stated goal of the war and suggested leadership shifts had already taken place. “Regime change was not our goal… but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths,” he said.

The US president explained the war against Iran was “necessary for the safety of America” and the world. Listing several attacks carried out by Iran or its proxies over the years, Trump called the Islamic regime running the country “thuggish and murderous”, also pointing to a recent crackdown on protest in the country which killed thousands of citizens.

He said leaders like that cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“From the very first day I announced my campaign, I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting “Death to America” for 47 years — and it should have been handled long before I arrived in office,” he said.

He also talked about the so-called steps he’s taken against Iran, such as the killing of Qasem Soleimani and his termination of Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. “Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do — they made mistakes, and I am correcting them.”

“My first preference was always the path of diplomacy. Yet, the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement,’ he claimed.

‘Iran On Doorstep Of Nukes’

Referring to earlier US strikes, he said, “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites,” citing “Operation Midnight Hammer,” and claimed Iran had attempted to rebuild its programme elsewhere.

He said Tehran was fast developing longer-range missiles and was “right at the doorstep” of developing a nuclear weapon.

A nuclear Iran was an ‘intolerable threat’, he added.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trumps-white-house-address-on-the-middle-east-war-irans-navy-gone-air-force-in-ruins-leaders-are-dead-11299610?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Donald Trump said that “Iran was laughing at us” after the deal (referring to JCPOA) while continuing its attempt to build a nuclear weapon.

In his address to the nation, US President Donald Trump took a jibe at former US President Barack Obama, saying, “He made a mistake with Iran.” Without directly mentioning the Iran nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed during the Obama administration — Trump said it was a mistake and that he was “honoured to correct it” during his first term as President.

Trump added that “Iran was laughing at us” after the deal, referring to the JCPOA, while continuing its attempts to build a nuclear weapon. “I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal-a disaster. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash… in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty, but it didn’t work. They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb.”

He further said, “His (Obama’s) Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran. They would have had them years ago, and they would have used them. It would have been a different world. There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of great experts.”

To recall, the JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran and several world powers, including the United States. The deal placed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. However, Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, claiming it failed to curb Iran’s missile programme. He also claimed that Iran began ignoring limitations on its nuclear programme a year later.

In his address on Thursday (Indian time), Trump said, “From the very first day I announced my campaign, I vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting ‘Death to America’ for 47 years — and it should have been handled long before I arrived in office.”

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-laughing-at-us-proud-to-correct-barack-obamas-mistake-donald-trump-11299650?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

35 countries have signed a statement committing to work together on restoring maritime security to the key oil transport route.

The UK will host an international diplomatic conference this week on ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. He further stated that 35 countries have signed a statement committing to work together on restoring maritime security to the key oil transport route.

The meeting will “assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities”, Starmer said.

“Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” he added.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands are among those to have signed it.

The British PM said the impact of the war would “define us for a generation” and could be similar to ​the increase in energy prices in the 1970s.

Trump’s Criticism Of Allies

Starmer’s comments come after repeated criticism from US President Donald Trump and a day after the Republican leader told off countries that did not help America in strikes against Iran to “go get your own oil”.

“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT”, Trump wrote.

Trump criticised European countries that refused to join the war against Iran, calling out Britain and France, as transatlantic relations deteriorate ​from the conflict that has driven up energy prices.

The president warned Britain and other countries to “start learning ​how to fight for yourself” because the US “won’t be there to help you anymore”.

After Starmer refused to join the US-Israeli war on Iran, his relationship with Trump publicly deteriorated.

Starmer initially denied a request from the US to attack Iran from two British bases but later agreed to allow what he calls defensive missions aimed at ​protecting residents of the region, ​including British citizens.

Asked about ⁠Trump’s criticism, Starmer said, “the US and UK are close allies and have been for a very, very long time” and he would act in the British ​national interest “whatever the pressure on me.”

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/will-bring-together-35-nations-take-steps-to-reopen-hormuz-strait-uk-pm-11296722?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

NATO ​Secretary-General Mark Rutte will visit Washington next ‌week for what a spokesperson for the military alliance called a “long-planned visit” that comes after President Donald Trump blasted European ​allies over differences on the Iran war.
“I can ​confirm that the Secretary General will be in ⁠DC next week for a long-planned visit,” NATO ​spokesperson Allison Hart said. A White House official also ​confirmed the visit.

No further details of the trip were immediately available.
Trump said he was considering pulling the U.S. out of the ​Western military alliance due to the refusal of ​European members to send ships to unblock the Strait of ‌Hormuz.
In ⁠remarks on Wednesday to allies gathered for an Easter lunch at the White House, Trump criticized France and the United Kingdom, among other U.S. allies, ​as a “paper ​tiger.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/natos-rutte-visit-washington-next-week-long-planned-visit-2026-04-01/

With President Donald Trump present, U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled skepticism on Wednesday toward the legality of his directive to restrict birthright citizenship in the U.S., part of his hardline immigration approach that would upend the long-held understanding of a key constitutional provision.
In his historic visit to the top U.S. judicial body, Trump, wearing a red tie and dark suit, sat in the front row of the public gallery of the ornate courtroom after arriving ​by motorcade from the White House. The Republican president then left midway through the proceedings not long after the Justice Department lawyer arguing for his administration completed his presentation.

Most of the nine justices, conservatives and liberals alike, grilled the lawyer with questions about the legal validity of Trump’s executive order and ‌its practical implications. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
The justices heard more than two hours of arguments in the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that blocked his directive. Trump’s order had instructed U.S. agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, also called a “green card” holder.
Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Supreme Court oral argument, according to Clare Cushman, the Supreme Court Historical Society’s resident historian. Joined by White House Counsel David Warrington, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Trump was at the courthouse for a bit more than an hour and a half.

‘PRICELESS AND PROFOUND GIFT’

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the administration, told the justices that most nations do not grant automatic birthright citizenship.
“It demeans the priceless and profound gift of ​American citizenship,” Sauer said. “It operates as a powerful pull factor for illegal immigration and rewards illegal aliens who not only violate the immigration laws but also jump in front of those who follow the rules.”
The United States is among 33 countries with automatic birthright citizenship policies, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump wrote on social media shortly ​after the arguments that the United States is “STUPID” for having birthright citizenship. Trump later said during an event at the White House that the “Supreme Court’s not been acting very well,” and that some justices who he appointed want to show their independence. “Stupid people,” Trump called ⁠them.

The lower court found that Trump’s directive violated citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment as well as a federal law codifying birthright citizenship rights, acting in a class-action lawsuit by parents and children whose citizenship is threatened by the directive.
The 14th Amendment has long been interpreted as guaranteeing citizenship for babies born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions such ​as the children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.
The provision at issue, known as the Citizenship Clause, states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The administration has asserted that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means that being born in the United States is not enough for ​citizenship, and excludes the babies of immigrants who are in the country illegally or whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as university students or those on work visas.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts told Sauer that his arguments limiting who qualifies for citizenship at birth seemed “quirky.”
Noting that historically the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excluded the children of ambassadors or enemies during a hostile invasion, Roberts said Sauer is trying to expand those examples to everyone in the U.S. illegally.
“I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and sort of idiosyncratic examples,” Roberts said.
Roberts also challenged Sauer to provide evidence for the administration’s stated concern over “birth tourism,” by which foreigners travel to the United States to give birth and secure citizenship for their children.
“Do you have any information about how common that is or how significant a problem ​it is?” Roberts asked.
“No one knows for sure,” Sauer replied, while citing media reports of birth tourism companies abroad.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1861-1865 that ended slavery in the United States, and overturned a notorious 1857 Supreme Court decision that had declared that people of African descent could never be U.S. citizens.
Liberal Justice ​Elena Kagan said the administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment is not supported by the provision’s text.
“You’re using some pretty obscure sources to get to this concept,” Kagan told Sauer.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Cecillia Wang, arguing for the challengers, told the justices Trump’s order was unlawful.
“Ask any American what our citizenship rule is and they will tell you, ‘Everyone born here is a citizen, alike,'” Wang said. “That rule ‌was enshrined in the 14th ⁠Amendment to put it out of the reach of any government official to destroy.”

THE TARIFFS RULING

Trump has repeatedly criticized certain members of the court since it struck down on February 20 sweeping global tariffs he imposed last year under a law meant for national emergencies, going so far as to say he was “sickened” by two justices he appointed during his first term – Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett – and called them “an embarrassment to their families.”
Limiting who qualifies for citizenship at birth is a top priority for Trump, who issued the order last year on his first day back in office as part of a suite of policies to crack down on legal and illegal immigration. Critics have accused him of racial and religious discrimination in his approach to immigration.
The administration has argued that citizenship is granted only to the children of those whose “primary allegiance” is to the United States, including citizens and permanent residents. Such allegiance is established through “lawful domicile,” which lawyers for the administration define as “lawful, permanent residence within a nation, with intent to remain.”
Several justices probed this definition.
“Whose domicile matters?” Gorsuch asked Sauer. “Is it the husband? Is it the wife? What if ​they’re unmarried?”
Gorsuch added: “How are we going to determine domicile? … Do we have to do this ​for every single person?”
Barrett cited other examples, including how to determine parents’ intent to ⁠remain in the U.S., noting that in some cases the parents of a child are unknown.
“How would it work? How would you adjudicate these cases? You’re not going to know, at the time of birth, for some people, whether they have the intent to stay or not, including U.S. citizens by the way,” Barrett said.
The challengers argue the Supreme Court already settled the question of birthright citizenship in an 1898 case called United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which recognized that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship by birth on U.S. soil, including to the children of ​foreign nationals.
Gorsuch signaled that he does not think Trump’s position can be squared with that 1898 precedent.
“I’m not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark,” Gorsuch told Sauer.
Gorsuch also pointed out that the Supreme Court member who dissented in that ​ruling, Justice John Marshall Harlan, later said it covered ⁠even children of temporary visitors.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, posing a hypothetical scenario, asked Wang to address the administration’s argument that birthright citizenship should be understood in light of an 1866 civil rights law that excluded citizenship for those who are “subject to any foreign power.”
“A boy is born here to an Iranian father who has entered the country illegally. That boy is automatically an Iranian national at birth, and he has a duty to provide military service to the Iranian government,” Alito said in his hypothetical situation. “Is he not subject to any foreign power?”
The administration contends that the 1898 precedent supports Trump’s order because, according to the court’s ruling in that case, at the time of his birth, Wong Kim Ark’s parents had permanent domicile and residence in the United States.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-considers-trumps-effort-limit-birthright-citizenship-2026-04-01/

A technical team from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived in Cuba this week to launch an “independent investigation,” the U.S. Embassy in Havana ​said on Wednesday, following an incursion by 10 Cuban exiles accused of ‌provoking a deadly shootout at sea with the island`s border patrol.
On February 25, 10 Cuban nationals tried to enter Cuba by speedboat at night, armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 ​pistols, Havana has said.

Five were killed in the shootout that ensued. The others, ​who were wounded, are in Cuban custody and receiving medical attention, Cuba ⁠said.
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement the FBI trip to Cuba was part ​of a “thorough and independent investigation” into the incident.
An embassy official told Reuters the U.S. would ​verify Havana’s version of events.
“Consistent with U.S. policy, we do not make decisions in the United States on the basis of what Cuban authorities are saying,” the official said. “We will independently verify the facts ​and make decisions based solely on U.S. interest, U.S. law, and the protection U.S. ​citizens.”

Tensions have soared between the two nations since January, when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a virtual ‌oil ⁠blockade on the island after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban benefactor, on January 3.
Cuba said the assailants were Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously identified as accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent ​to sow chaos and ​attack military units.
A ⁠Cuban patrol of five border guard members on a nine-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel early that morning about one nautical mile ​off a remote channel on the Caribbean island’s northern coast, some ​100 miles (160 ⁠km) from Marathon, Florida.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/fbi-arrives-cuba-investigate-deadly-speedboat-shootout-2026-04-01/

The U.S. on Wednesday removed sanctions against Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez, according to the Treasury Department website, less than three months ​after U.S. forces seized the country’s then-President Nicolas Maduro in a raid on the ‌capital.
The Trump administration has closely engaged with the interim government led by former Vice President and Maduro ally Rodriguez, sending U.S. energy and interior secretaries on visits to Caracas with potential investors, making an agreement for the U.S. to ​sell Venezuelan oil, praising changes to the oil and mining sectors that are meant to attract ​foreign capital and issuing sanctions waivers.

Washington in March formally recognized Rodriguez as Venezuela’s ⁠leader, opening the door for her government to reopen embassies and consulates in the U.S. and ​regain control of Venezuela-owned companies abroad.
Rodriguez hailed the decision, saying in a post on X that it was “a step in the ​direction of normalizing and strengthening relations between our countries.”
“We trust that this progress will allow for the lifting of the sanctions currently in place on our country, enabling the building and guaranteeing of an effective bilateral ​cooperation agenda for the benefit of our peoples,” she said.

The announcement of the sanctions removal came ​after Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday that Rodriguez’s administration is getting ready to take over the boards of ‌state ⁠oil firm PDVSA’s U.S. subsidiaries, including Citgo Petroleum, citing four sources close to the preparations.
Citgo, the crown jewel of Venezuela’s foreign assets, has been run since 2019 by supervising boards appointed by an opposition-led congress that is no longer active.
It has repeatedly been rumored that Rodriguez was making preparations ​to travel to the ​U.S. to meet with ⁠Trump. Though she has met with high-level delegations from other countries, she has not yet met in person with a head of state in ​her current role.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-lifts-sanctions-venezuelas-interim-president-2026-04-01/

Japan’s first long-range missile was deployed at a southwestern army camp, officials said Tuesday, as the country pushes to bolster its offensive capabilities.

The upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles, developed and produced by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, became operational at Camp Kengun in Kumamoto prefecture.

“As Japan faces the most severe and complex security environment in the postwar era … it is an extremely important capability to strengthen Japan’s deterrence and responsiveness,” Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters. “It demonstrates Japan’s firm determination and capability to defend itself.”

The upgraded Type-12 missile has a range of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), a significant extension from the 200-kilometer (125-mile) range of the original that would allow it to reach mainland China.

The deployment of the long-range missile gives Japan a “standoff” capability, meaning it can strike enemy missile bases from afar, marking a break from the self-defense-only policy the country long followed under its pacifist constitution.

Residents opposing the deployment near the residential area staged protests outside the Kengun camp, saying it would escalate tension and increases risks the area could be targeted by potential enemies.

Japan rolls out more weapons systems to protect southwestern islands

Also Tuesday, a hypersonic glide vehicle, a new weapons system designed for island defense, was deployed to Camp Fuji in the Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo. Additional deployment of the upgraded Type-12 missiles and HGVs at other locations in Japan, including Hokkaido in the north and Miyazaki in the south, are planned by March 2028.

Japan also plans to deploy U.S.-made, 1,600-kilometer (990-mile)-range Tomahawk cruise missiles on Japanese destroyer JS Chokai later this year, and eventually on seven other destroyers.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-china-taiwan-missile-longrange-40322ab51735b2ce17ce6f02d224d14f

 

Tiger Woods revealed his plans to step away from golf and seek treatment after his headline-making DUI arrest in Jupiter, Florida.

“I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today,” the professional golfer shared via X on Tuesday.

“I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery.”

Woods, 50, shared he was “committed” to taking the necessary time he needs so he can “return in a healthier, stronger, and more focused place, both personally and professionally.”

“I appreciate your understanding and support, and ask for privacy for my family, loved ones and myself at this time,” he continued.

The athlete was arrested on March 27 and charged with DUI, property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test after he was involved in a car crash around 2 p.m. ET local time.

Woods allegedly attempted to pass a utility pressure cleaner truck when he accidentally hit the “back end” of the truck’s trailer.

The collision caused his “dark colored Land Rover” to roll over on the street, according to authorities.

He was able to climb out of the car unharmed and appeared to have been by himself during the shocking accident.

A source exclusively told Page Six that Woods’ girlfriend, Vanessa Trump — whom he’s been dating since March 2025, was not with him at the time of the crash, nor was her 18-year-old daughter, Kai.

The pair were last publicly seen supporting the Masters champion at the Jupiter Links Golf Club tournament a few days prior.

Photos taken at the scene, meanwhile, showed Woods standing off to the side of his overturned vehicle as he proceeded to make a call.

Skid marks on the road revealed where the athlete lost control of the vehicle and veered to the side of the road before rolling over.

The crash apparently took place in the town where Woods currently resides, according to officers.

After he was taken into custody, the golfer was subjected to sobriety tests as he “showed signs of impairment.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/03/31/celebrity-news/tiger-woods-speaks-out-after-car-crash/

The tanker carrying some 730,000 barrels of crude oil is sanctioned by the US, the EU and the UK amid the war in Ukraine. It comes as Cuba struggles with severe shortages after Trump’s total oil blockade since January.

A Russian oil tanker carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil arrived in Cuba in the early hours of Tuesday, providing a small relief to the US-blockaded island nation.

The Anatoly Kolodkin docked in Cuba’s port of Matanzas east of Havana, carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil. It is the first crude shipment to the Caribbean country since the Trump administration kidnapped and ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Cuba’s primary benefactor.

Trump has since tightened a US blockade on Cuba, threatening countries sending oil to the communist country with tariffs. However, he has allowed access to the Russian tanker, despite it being under US, European Union and British sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday called the permission granted to the tanker “a decision that will continue to be made on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or otherwise,” adding that “there’s been no firm change in our sanctions policy.”

How did Cuban officials react to the tanker’s arrival?

The ship arrived in Cuba amid biting fuel and food shortages which have exacerbated a deep economic crisis and triggered several nationwide blackouts, including two in March alone.

“Our gratitude to the Government and People of Russia for all the support we are receiving. A valuable shipment that arrives amidst the complex energy situation we are facing,” Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy wrote on X.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/russian-oil-tanker-docks-in-cuba-the-1st-since-us-blockade/a-76611820

The campaign against Tehran is “not over”, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he vowed to continue to “crush Iran’s terror regime”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday (Mar 31) that Israel would press ahead with its military campaign against Tehran, declaring that it would continue to “crush Iran’s terror regime”.

“The campaign is not over,” he said in a televised statement. “We will continue to crush the terror regime.”

Netanyahu’s comments came shortly after Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had the “necessary will” to end the war with Israel and the United States, but was seeking guarantees that the conflict would not be repeated.

In his statement, delivered on the eve of the Jewish Passover holidays, Netanyahu said: “We had to act, and we acted.”

“We have remained steadfast in our mission and we have changed the face of the Middle East,” he added, asserting that despite the ongoing war, Israel had emerged as a “regional power”.

Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump launched a new war on Feb 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and setting off a wave of retaliatory attacks across the region.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/netanyahu-israel-us-war-iran-6029366

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar vowed to “make new efforts” toward advancing Iran peace talks during their meeting in Beijing.

China and Pakistan called on Tuesday (Mar 31) for an immediate end to the war in the Middle East, and for peace talks as soon as possible, as they agreed to boost their cooperation on Iran.

The two countries outlined a joint initiative “for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East region”, after a visit from senior Pakistani officials to Beijing.

Both countries have sought to mediate in the Middle East to prevent the conflict from escalating, with Islamabad saying it is ready to host “meaningful talks” between the United States and Iran.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and agreed to “strengthen strategic communication and coordination on the Iran situation and … make new efforts towards advocating for peace”, Beijing said.

Wang backed Pakistan’s mediation efforts as “in keeping with the common interests of all parties”, according to a Chinese readout of the meeting.

“China supports and looks forward to Pakistan playing a unique and important role in easing the situation and resuming peace talks,” Wang said.

Dar’s ministry said the two sides had agreed on a five-point plan, starting with the “immediate cessation of hostilities” and the “start of peace talks as soon as possible”.

On talks, which the United States claims are ongoing but Iran denies, the governments said dialogue and diplomacy were “the only viable option to resolve conflicts”.

“China and Pakistan support the relevant parties in initiating talks, with all parties committing to peaceful resolution of disputes, and refraining from the use or the threat of use of force during peace talks,” according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The plan also calls for an end to attacks on civilians and non-military targets, such as energy infrastructure and desalination plants.

Shipping lanes should be secured, allowing “the early and safe passage of civilian and commercial ships” through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, it added.

Both countries said a lasting peace should be based on the UN charter and international law.

Dar’s visit comes after he hosted his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Türkiye on Sunday for weekend talks about trying to end the war, which was triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb 28.

Concerns are running high about the impact of the fighting, including the choking of maritime traffic through the Strait.

China is a key partner of Iran but has not announced military assistance to Tehran, instead repeatedly calling for a ceasefire.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/pakistan-china-dar-yi-iran-us-israel-war-peace-talks-6029046

American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in broad daylight in Baghdad after armed men stopped her vehicle and abducted her. Iraqi security forces have arrested one suspect and launched ongoing operations to find her and the remaining kidnappers.

American journalist Shelly Kittleson has been kidnapped in central Baghdad, with Iraq’s Ministry of Interior confirming the incident in an official statement.

Authorities said armed men intercepted the vehicle she was traveling in on a busy street in broad daylight, forcibly removed her, and fled the scene. Video shared on social media show how Kittleson, who has worked with BBC, Politico, and Foreign Policy, was taken during the brazen abduction.

Security forces launched an immediate pursuit of the kidnappers, tracking their movements using precise intelligence and intensive field operations. The chase led to the interception of a vehicle linked to the suspects, which overturned as they attempted to escape. Officials confirmed that one suspect was arrested and one of the vehicles used in the crime was seized.

Investigations are ongoing as authorities work to locate Kittleson and apprehend the remaining perpetrators. Officials said efforts are focused on securing her release and taking legal action against all those involved.

More than 1.2 million people have been uprooted from their homes and villages across Lebanon – for a second time in 15 months. UNICEF says 19,000 children, boys and girls, are displaced every day.

Fatima is too young to understand the magnitude of tragedy that has hit her family as she finds a moment of joy while cycling in rainy Beirut. It is the second time in two years the four-year-old lost her home. With the war in Lebanon displacing more than a million people, thousands of children like Fatima face an uncertain future.

The family, living in a makeshift tent on the pavements of Beirut, said their hometown Kfarkela near the Lebanon-Israel border was the first to come under intense Israeli attack on March 2.

Six months before the village was razed, the child was admitted to a kindergarten. She will never be able to go back, because Israel has already raised its flag over the flattened Kfarkela.

More than 1.2 million people have been uprooted from their homes and villages across Lebanon – for a second time in 15 months. UNICEF says 19,000 children, boys and girls, are displaced every day. They are sleeping on pavements in makeshift tents. And, as Israel appears to be determined to annex South Lebanon, people are unsure if they will ever see their homes again.

At a refugee camp in Beirut, people are living in sub-human conditions – without sanitation, washing facilities and even food.

Sahira Dawood, a student of Class 9, said: “I am displaced from Khaim… there are no bathrooms, no place to change clothes. Tents are often blown away by wind and rain. We can’t eat and drink properly… There is no place to take a shower… We can’t pray… we don’t have proper clothes”.

“It is so difficult to live in such conditions,” she said.

Her home has been destroyed. She has no idea if her school still stands. Her last school was destroyed too – in the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023.

Even so, she hopes to return to home as soon as possible. “We used to live a good happy life. but after displacement, it is misery and hardship. my school has also been bombed,” she said.

In Beqqa valley, children appeared happy that they have found shelter inside a school building after their homes came under attack in south Lebanon.

After Khaim village, the Israel border has become a fierce battleground between Israel and Hezbollah.

Zaher Rhayel fled home with his wife and three children. Now, living in a small room, he is not sure if his family will ever be able to return.

Israel has officially declared that it will annex the land south of the Litani river and Khaim village. They want to demolish the houses and turn the area into a security buffer zone.

15-year-old Jawad said during last war in 2023 -2024, his school in Khaim was bombed. He is not sure if the new school where he was admitted exist anymore after fresh Israeli invasion.

“My earlier school was bombed. I have no idea if the present school is there or that too has been bombed,” said Jawad.

For lakhs of displaced people in Lebanon, there is literally no help or very little help coming. “No, no one from Hezbollah or the government has reached us with help,” Zaher said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/no-bathrooms-not-enough-food-children-displaced-by-attacks-in-lebanon-11293347?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the end of the war on Iran could be near, with Washington signaling ​potential for both direct talks with Tehran’s leadership and a winding down of the conflict even without a deal.
The remarks underscored the shifting and at times contradictory timelines and statements from Washington about how and ‌when the war, now in its fifth week, might end.

“We’ll be leaving very soon,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, saying the exit could take place “within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three.”
Asked if successful diplomacy was a prerequisite for the U.S. to end what it calls “Operation Epic Fury”, Trump said it was not.
“Iran doesn’t have to make a deal, no,” he said. “No, they don’t have to make a deal with me.”
Washington had previously threatened to intensify operations if Tehran did not accept a 15-point U.S. ceasefire framework that had among its core demands that Iran commit ​not to pursue nuclear weapons, halt all uranium enrichment and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The White House said Trump would address the nation “to provide an important update on Iran” at 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (0100 GMT on Thursday).
Rubio ​told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” program there was potential for a meeting between both sides “at some point” and the United States could “see the finish line”.
“It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it ⁠is coming,” Rubio added.

TANKER HIT OFF QATAR, BLAZES IN BAHRAIN, KUWAIT

Still, attacks were reported on both sides early on Wednesday, with drones hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport causing a big blaze and authorities in Bahrain reporting a fire at an undisclosed company facility ​from an Iranian attack.
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile near the Qatari capital Doha causing damage to the hull at the waterline, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, adding the crew were safe.

Explosions were heard in multiple areas of Tehran early ​Wednesday after U.S.-Israeli air attacks, Iranian state media reported, adding that its air defences were activated.
Shahid Haghani Port, Iran’s largest passenger terminal located in Bandar Abbas port on the Gulf, was hit by an overnight air strike but there were no casualties, the deputy governor Ahmad Nafisi told state media, calling it a “criminal” attack against civilian infrastructure.
Gulf countries, some home to U.S. bases, have been repeatedly fired on by Tehran during the U.S.-Israeli war, with concerns mounting about Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and ability to use the vital waterway, a conduit for a fifth of global oil ​and liquefied natural gas, as a bargaining chip.
Oil markets were subdued as trading resumed in Asia on Wednesday but stocks and bonds rallied at the start of the session on hopes of a de-escalation. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), was ​up 2.7% after a four-day losing streak as the Nikkei 225 (.N225), jumped 3.9% at one point after Trump’s latest remarks.
Stocks on Wall Street soared on Tuesday as traders bet on the potential off-ramp, sending the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab 2.9% higher.

U.S. MESSAGING IS NOT NEGOTIATIONS, IRAN SAYS

Higher oil and fuel ‌prices have started ⁠to weigh on U.S. household finances and are a political headache for Trump and his Republican Party before the November midterm elections.

Two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. should work to end its involvement in the Iran war quickly, even if that means not achieving the goals set out by the Trump administration, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The United Arab Emirates is preparing to help the U.S. and allies open the Strait of Hormuz by force, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Tuesday, in an effort to end its effective closure.
The UAE is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution for the action and suggested the U.S. occupy strategic islands, according to the report.
While the United States has said talks with Iran were ongoing, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday that he has ​been receiving direct messages from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff ​but those do not constitute “negotiations”, Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV cited ⁠him as saying.
The messages include threats or exchanged views delivered through “friends,” he added.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday hit back with a new threat against U.S. companies in the region starting on Wednesday.

It listed 18 businesses including Microsoft (MSFT.O), Google (GOOGL.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Intel (INTC.O), IBM (IBM.N), Tesla (TSLA.O), and Boeing (BA.N), that would be targeted from 8 p.m. Tehran time (1630 GMT).
When asked if he was concerned about threats to the companies, Trump ​said no.
Trump earlier on Tuesday also criticized countries that have not helped the U.S. war effort, such as NATO member Britain.
“NATO is a one-way street,” Secretary of State Rubio told ​the Fox news show, noting Europe ⁠was eager for the U.S. to defend it but had not stepped up to provide the help the U.S. sought.
“After this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship,” Rubio said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-us-could-end-iran-war-two-three-weeks-2026-03-31/

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank voiced fears on Tuesday that their jailed relatives could be hanged without due process after Israel adopted a new law making the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of ​lethal attacks.
The law would also apply to Israeli citizens, but by defining the lethal attacks in question as those “negating Israel’s existence” it would be very unlikely that it would be ‌used against Jewish Israelis, critics say.

The law, which passed late on Monday, is expected to be struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court following an appeal by rights groups as it has elements in breach of an international convention, Israeli legal experts said, adding it is unlikely that any executions will actually be carried out.
The U.N. rights chief on Tuesday said the legislation violated international humanitarian law.

MILITARY COURTS HAVE 96% CONVICTION RATE

The law mandates execution specifically by hanging, a provision experts said was included over concerns Israeli doctors would ​refuse to conduct lethal injections. It would generally require execution within 90 days of sentencing, with no right to clemency.

The law provides judges the option to choose life imprisonment over capital punishment, but ​only in unspecified “special circumstances”.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem says military courts in the West Bank, where only cases involving Palestinians are heard, have a 96% conviction rate and a ⁠history of extracting confessions under duress or even through torture. Israel denies this.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, the families of Palestinian prisoners held a protest on Tuesday where they called for the death penalty ​law to be repealed.
“I am afraid for my son and for all the prisoners. The news came down like a thunderbolt on the prisoners’ families,” said Maysoun Shawamreh, whose son, 29-year-old Mansour, has been imprisoned on attempted ​murder charges.
Abdel Fattah al-Himouni’s son Ahmed is in prison awaiting trial over a combined shooting and stabbing attack at a light-rail stop near Tel Aviv in October 2024. That attack killed seven people, including a woman who was clutching her baby.

He fears his son will now face a death penalty, if convicted, and voiced scepticism that he would face a fair trial.
“I appeal to human rights organizations to pressure the Israeli government so this law does not come into effect,” said al-Himouni.

SUPREME COURT LIKELY TO ​STRIKE DOWN LAW, EXPERTS SAY

The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 – which Israel has ratified – says that persons condemned to death cannot be deprived of the right of petition for pardon and lays down a minimum of six months ​between sentence and execution.
Mordechai Kremnitzer, a law professor with the Israel Democracy Institute, said the law is “a clear case that invites the Supreme Court to strike it down.”
“The likelihood of executions in the near future is not very high,” Kremnitzer ‌said. Judges are ⁠likely to show a negative attitude towards capital punishment because it runs against both universal morality and Jewish morality, he added.

SETTLER VIOLENCE

The legislation has drawn international criticism of Israel, which is already under scrutiny for increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and for its conduct of the war against militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli settlers’ frequent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank rarely end in military court indictments. Israeli monitoring organization Yesh Din said the last case they had recorded of an Israeli citizen indicted for killing a Palestinian was from an attack in 2018.
In Israel’s civilian courts, where Palestinians can also face trial, the law would also impose death ​or life imprisonment for homicide with the intention of “negating ​Israel’s existence” – a description unlikely to apply to ⁠a Jewish defendant.
“That’s how the law will only apply to Palestinians,” said attorney Debbie Gild-Hayo‏, of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which petitioned the Supreme Court over the measure.
Suhad Bishara, whose rights group Adalah co-wrote the appeal with ACRI, said that “military courts have no basic guarantees for a fair trial” and that Israel’s parliament ​did not have jurisdiction to legislate in occupied territory.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/jailed-palestinians-fear-death-by-hanging-without-due-process-under-new-israeli-2026-03-31/

Hackers linked to North Korea breached behind-the-scenes software that runs many common online functions in an effort to steal login information that could enable further cyber operations, ​Google said on Tuesday.
The hackers targeted Axios, a program that connects apps and ‌web services, by adding their own malicious software to an update issued Monday, Google and independent cyber researchers said after the hack came to light early on Tuesday.

“Every time you load a website, check your bank ​balance, or open an app on your phone, there’s a good chance Axios is ​running somewhere in the background making that work,” said Tom Hegel, a ⁠senior researcher at SentinelOne.
The malicious software, which has since been removed, could have given hackers ​access to a computer’s data including access credentials, which can then be used to carry out ​additional data theft or other kinds of attacks.
The developers of Axios could not immediately be reached for comment. Rather than a proprietary commercial product, the software is open source, meaning the code can be openly licensed and ​modified by users.

The cyber researchers described the breach as a supply chain attack, in which ​the hack could enable attacks on downstream entities.
“You don’t have to click anything or make a mistake,” Hegel ‌said. “The ⁠software you already trust did it for you.”
Google attributed the hack to a group it tracks as UNC1069. Google said in a February report, the group has operated since at least 2018 and is known for targeting the cryptocurrency and financial industries.
“North Korean hackers have deep experience with ​supply chain attacks, which ​they primarily use to ⁠steal cryptocurrency,” John Hultquist, chief analyst for Google’s threat intelligence group, said in a statement.
North Korea uses stolen crypto to fund its weapons and ​other programs, and evade sanctions, according to the U.S. government.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/north-korea-linked-hack-hits-largely-invisible-software-that-powers-online-2026-03-31/

Ukrainian drones on Tuesday struck Russia’s Baltic Sea port of ‌Ust-Luga for the fifth time in 10 days, and industry sources told Reuters an oil loading terminal was hit, likely adding to Russia’s difficulties in exporting crude.
Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russia’s oil export infrastructure over the past month, ​launching its heaviest drone strikes of the more than four-year war against the Baltic ports of Ust-Luga ​and Primorsk.

At least 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity has been halted due to drone ⁠attacks, a disputed strike on a major pipeline and the seizure of tankers, according to Reuters calculations ​based on market data.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that some of Kyiv’s allies had sent “signals” about the ​possibility of scaling back its long-range strikes on Russia’s oil sector as global energy prices have surged due to the Iran war.

TRANSNEFT OIL TERMINAL HIT

Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said three people, including two children, were treated for injuries, and several buildings had ​been damaged in the overnight attacks.

In a message on Telegram at 0409 GMT, he said air-raid alerts ​in the region had been lifted but gave no details on damage to the port.
He later said that the aftermath ‌of the ⁠attack on Ust-Luga had been “eliminated” or dealt with. He said the supply of hot water and heating to residential and other units in the region were restored.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the strikes “terrorist attacks,” adding that Russia was working on protecting its critical infrastructure.
“This doesn’t mean these facilities can be 100% protected from ​such terrorist attacks. However, intensive ​work is being carried ⁠out, and this applies not only to the port … but to all other critical infrastructure facilities,” he told a daily conference call with reporters.
Three industry sources told ​Reuters Ukrainian drones struck crude oil loading facilities operated by Russian pipeline monopoly ​Transneft (TRNF_p.MM), in ⁠the latest attack. Transneft did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-drones-damage-russias-ust-luga-port-again-governor-says-2026-03-31/

China announced Monday that it is sanctioning a conservative Japanese lawmaker close to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, accusing him of “colluding with” separatists in Taiwan, the latest incident that underlines growing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over the self-governed island.

Japan called the step unacceptable and regrettable and demanded that China retract it immediately.

“The one-sided action taken by China as if to intimidate those of different views than its own is absolutely unacceptable,” Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki said. “It is extremely regrettable from the perspective of the Japan-China relations.”

China’s Foreign Ministry earlier said the sanctions include banning the entry of Keiji Furuya to China, including to Hong Kong and Macao, and prohibiting his activities with organizations and individuals in China, effective immediately.

Furuya heads a bipartisan Japan-Taiwan lawmakers’ consultation council and has visited Taiwan regularly. He most recently visited Taiwan’s capital of Taipei, where he held talks with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in mid-March.

Furuya is a close ally of Takaichi who headed the election strategy for their governing Liberal Democratic Party ahead of the party’s electoral victory in February.

China accused Furuya of repeatedly visiting Taiwan despite China’s strong opposition and of “colluding with Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

The ministry said Furuya’s activities violate the one-China principle — which holds that Taiwan is a province of China — and “grossly interfere in China’s internal affairs and seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests, as well as the red line that must not be crossed,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.

Furuya said the notice came via the Japanese Foreign Ministry. He defended his actions, telling reporters that “it is only natural” for parliamentary groups to promote exchanges between ”countries” with shared values.

Furuya said he had not visited China for decades and had no personal assets in that country, “so I don’t think there is any impact” from the sanctions.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-china-taiwan-lawmaker-sanctioned-takaichi-dc6ad167ba0bf64a1ace8784961e56a9

China’s flag carrier resumed direct flights between Beijing and North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang on Monday not long after the restoration of passenger train services between the capitals.

The Air China flight was welcomed by the Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Wang Yajun, and other diplomats, according to Chinese state media.

Passenger train service from China to North Korea had resumed March 12.

Flights and passenger trains to North Korea had been suspended since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

North Korean carrier Air Koryo resumed flights between the capitals in 2023.

North Korea banned all foreign tourists during the pandemic but has started easing the restrictions, with a Russian tour group entering the country in 2024.

Chinese tour groups had made up 90% of all visitors to North Korea prior to the ban, and the delay on resuming Chinese tours surprised observers.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/air-china-flight-north-korea-tourism-83457241c49f3db4047f973d3f11396f

Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure that has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane.

The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a yearslong drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offenses against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person.

The law makes the death penalty — by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges — language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

It will not apply retroactively to any prisoners Israel currently holds, including the Hamas-led militants who attacked the country on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

After the final 62-48 vote in favor, lawmakers erupted into cheers and stood up in jubilation. Netanyahu, who remained in his seat, did not immediately react or speak.

Israel’s firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who spearheaded the push for the legislation, brandished a bottle in celebration. Far-right lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, one of the bill’s original sponsors whose first husband was killed in a Palestinian militant attack in the West Bank, smiled through tears.

The law will face legal challenges

The legislation, which says it will take effect in 30 days, is certain to face legal challenges that may stall its implementation.

Minutes after the bill passed, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it had already petitioned Israel’s highest court to challenge the law. It called the legislation “discriminatory by design” and said the parliament had enacted it “without legal authority” over West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens.

Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, said that under international law, Israel’s parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory.

Many in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition seek to annex the West Bank to Israel.

Concerns raised in the Knesset

The vote capped a daylong debate in the parliament. During earlier deliberations, lawmakers raised other concerns, including how the bill does not allow clemency, contradicting international conventions. Opposition lawmakers at times appeared to plead with their colleagues to vote against the bill.

Before the vote, Ben Gvir described the law as long overdue and a sign of strength and national pride.

“From today, every terrorist will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever takes a life, the State of Israel will take their life,” he told lawmakers. On his lapel, he wore a signature pin — a small metal noose.

Gilad Kariv, of the Labor Party, condemned the bill’s stipulation that a unanimous judgment is not required to impose the death sentence.

“A law in which a person can be sentenced to death without a unanimous conviction. Is this justice in your eyes? Is this the sanctity of life that Israeli tradition has taught us?” he asked.

The bill contravenes international law, he added, and risks turning Israeli soldiers and prison guards into “war criminals against their will.”

Some, like Aida Sliman of Hadash, the leftist Jewish-Arab political party, left the chamber in dismay before the votes were complete.

What does the bill say?

Experts say the legislation has two key elements that will effectively limit the death penalty to Palestinians.

First, the bill makes the death penalty a default punishment for nationalistic killings in military courts, which try only West Bank Palestinians and not Israeli citizens. It says that only in special circumstances can military judges change the sentence to life imprisonment.

It gives Israeli civilian courts a greater degree of leniency in sentencing, with judges having the option to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment.

The second element is how the bill defines the offense punishable by death: killing that rejects the existence of the state of Israel.

“It will apply in Israeli courts, but only to terrorist activities that are motivated by the wish to undermine the existence of Israel. That means Jews will not be indicted under this law,” Cohen said.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy released a statement Sunday urging Israel to abandon plans to pass the law, calling it “de facto discriminatory,” and saying the death penalty was unethical and had no “deterring effect.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-death-penalty-bill-knesset-ben-gvir-c67c1c14f218a4d67ed3d5011cd5cf8d

Ken Clay, who won World Series championships with the New York Yankees in 1977-78 to highlight his five-year major league career, has died at the age of 71.

Dr. Jim Warner, executive medical director for the Centra Heart & Vascular Institute in Lynchburg, Virginia, notified the Yankees on Sunday that Clay died Thursday at home in Lynchburg. Warner said Clay’s cause of death was heart and kidney issues.

A reliever for most of his career, Clay made his major league debut in June 1977 and appeared in two games in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1978, also against the Dodgers, he gave up a three-run homer to Davey Lopes in Game 1 in his only appearance.

His best postseason outing came in the opener of the 1978 American League Championship Series against Kansas City. The Yankees led 4-0 when Clay entered with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. Clay pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings and earned the save in a 7-1 win.

Clay was 1-7 in 1979 and finished the season in the minors. He was still in the minors when the Yankees traded him to the Texas Rangers for Gaylord Perry the next year. He made eight starts for the Rangers in 1980, going 2-3, and was traded to the Seattle Mariners after the season. The Mariners released him in spring training in 1982.

Clay made 111 appearances in the majors in his career, including 36 starts, and was 10-24 with three saves and a 4.68 ERA.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/03/30/sports/ken-clay-two-time-yankees-world-series-champ-dead-at-71/

Teens across the nation are wreaking havoc by holding “takeovers” — wild and often violent gatherings which are overwhelming local police forces.

People chasing internet notoriety organize the meetups online, which spread like wildfire, prompting mobs of hundreds to turn up unannounced at public spaces like shopping malls, city streets, parking lots and businesses and taking them over.

The planned events have spread across the country from Florida to Virginia to Chicago and Washington DC, with videos posted from one fueling the next, according to law enforcement sources.

On Saturday eight juveniles were arrested in Brandon, Florida, after hundreds of kids “overwhelmed” a trampoline park and refused to get off its equipment, even after it was forced to closed to deal with the takeover. All those arrested were charged with trespassing.

Other takeovers have turned violent. In February five people aged between 15 and 18 were shot shortly after cops broke up a takeover attended by some 130 revelers at Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Cops said they’d determined one of the organizers had also been behind another takeover two weeks earlier, which was largely organized through Instagram.

A teen takeover in Henrico County, Virginia, resulted in a mall closing early and some patrons locked in stores, as well as a “very large fight,” per local police. After that chaos, authorities the next county over took action to thwart a takeover planned at Chesterfield Towne Center mall’s parking lot.

“It’s a national trend in which people use social media to let others know about gathering to occupy an area, with or without cars,” Lt. Col. Frank Carpenter, chief of the Chesterfield County Police Department, told The Post. “They put out fliers on social media.

“It’s almost like they want to have free nights to do whatever they want, like in

‘Grand Theft Auto’ or ‘The Purge,’ ” he said, latterly referencing a dystopian horror movie where all crime is deemed permissible for 12 hours.
As Spring Break took hold last week, police departments across Florida were stretched to their limits. Daytona Beach Police said a stampede broke out at a “beach takeover” when people mistook the sound of plastic bottles being crushed for gunshots. The takeover resulted in 133 arrests and authorities turned the entire beach into a quarantine zone, with much stricter enforcement.

Other Florida departments issued paintball guns and pepper spray to officers to control crowds and banning twerking on beaches.

Carpenter claims getting ahead of a takeover is key. “We let everyone know we would be there in full force,” he said, referring to a video his department put out. Otherwise, “it can grow into altercations that turn into gunplay with potential fatalities,” he added.

A teen takeover at The Loop shopping district in Chicago last week led police to issue a curfew to get hundreds of teens to disperse. Seven juveniles aged between 13 and 16 were charged with reckless conduct and an eighth, a 16-year-old boy, was charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault of peace officers as a result.

Seven teens aged between 13 and 17 were shot at a similar teen takeover last November also in the Loop area.

Meanwhile, in February a “takeover” at the Bay Plaza Mall in the Bronx on Presidents Day left the shopping mall looking like a horror movie set. Fired-up teens stormed the mall, flipped displays, hurled furniture and tried to snatch merchandise as it all went down.

Police arrived on the scene, but not soon enough.

“[The kids] went into stores and beat the workers,” Alex Mohamed, manager of a nearby Munchies grocery who saw it all go down, told The Post.

“My cousin came in and told me what was happening; so, we shut down the store … They tried to get in but we wouldn’t allow it,” he added, noting there were around 300 kids in the Baychester neighborhood streets. Police made 18 arrests in total.

Even President Trump’s backyard is not immune to the lawless gatherings.

In Washington DC’s Navy Yard, teen takeovers have resulted in robberies, physical attacks and the kind of gunplay Carpenter warned about.

Jennine Pirro, US attorney for Washington DC, speaking at a community meeting earlier this month, came down hard. “Since I have been here, my mission has been to change the law to make some of the young punks criminally responsible for what they’re doing,” she said. “They’ve got to be made accountable.”

Speaking to The Post, Pirro added, “Too often, this behavior disrupts the livelihoods of businesses in DC, undermines residents’ quality of life and interferes with their right to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. That conduct cannot be tolerated.”

Although it’s hard to trace the origins of teen takeovers, they are thought to have spun off from street takeovers — where unruly mobs gather with their cars to illegally drag race, pull donuts and generally cause problems late at night, often resulting in injuries and damage to public and private property.

One teen takeover gang has terrorized Los Angeles for at least a year. Last April they swooped upon a grocery store and ransacked shelves, sprayed pepper spray, terrorized shoppers, and assaulted a couple in the parking lot, according to security footage.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/03/30/us-news/teen-takeovers-turn-city-centers-into-scenes-from-the-purge-cops/

Tiger Woods’ ex Kristin Smith wrote a lengthy social media statement regarding the golfer’s “triggering” DUI arrest Friday.

The stylist told her Instagram followers Sunday that she dislikes “being dragged back into these moments and untrue narratives” now that she has “moved forward” from the romance.

“Beyond that, after traumatic unrelated incidents over the last couple of years, I don’t handle being unexpectedly approached or confront[ed] well, and it can be deeply unsettling for me,” she wrote on her Story over the weekend.

Smith added that she and her family members have been dealing with “anxiety and fear” of “being contacted, watched or followed, in hopes of provoking a reaction about something” that hasn’t involved her in “a very long time.”

The influencer explained that she has “taken the time to process” her personal experience with Woods, 50, and is “grateful for moments that have shaped her.”

Alluding to her ex, Smith continued, “I hope people will remember that the person they have celebrated and been entertained by is, above all, a human being, and deserving of decency too, just like anyone else.”

Smith doubled down on requesting privacy for her family before stating that she has “chosen silence around this situation” for nearly a decade, seemingly referencing their reported arbitration over an NDA.

“That decision wasn’t always easy,” she concluded. “Finally, not abandoning myself feels cathartic. Moving on.”

The businesswoman, who shares 18-year-old son Isaiah with retired NFL star Gerald Sensabaugh, dated Woods in 2016.

The duo split ahead of the latter’s DUI arrest the following year, which came to light after he fell asleep behind the wheel.

“Kristin Smith and I are no longer dating and haven’t since last year,” he wrote in August 2017, three months post-crash.

In the May 2017 accident, the PGA golfer had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC in his system.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving in a plea deal in October 2017.

Woods also crashed his car in 2009 while under the influence of sleeping pills, and again in 2021 when he fractured his legs in a nearly-fatal single-car crash.

Woods’ most recent rollover crash happened in Jupiter Island, Fla., as he attempted to pass a pressure cleaner truck and clipped its trailer.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/03/30/celebrity-news/tiger-woods-ex-kristin-smith-makes-rare-comment-about-golfer-after-triggering-dui-arrest/

LeAnn Rimes sobbed uncontrollably while undergoing “deep jaw release therapy.”

On Monday, self-care provider Human Garage shared an Instagram video of the country singer undergoing the 60-second procedure to relieve tension in her jaw.

In the clip, Rimes can be seen moaning in pain as the professional, Garry Lineham, places one of his hands inside her mouth while a second person holds her head.

As soon as the procedure was over, the songwriter burst into tears, shocked by the results.

“Say ‘that part of my life is over,’” Lineham instructed her, as she replied, “That part of my life better be over.”

“Oh my God, you just don’t realize how much tension is in there,” Rimes said once she calmed down and was able to catch her breath.

“You can see the exact moment the tension breaks and the emotional weight lifts, leaving her feeling visibly lighter and more aligned,” Human Garage wrote about the experience in the caption.

Although the procedure was very impactful and moving for the Grammy winner, 43, many fans in the comments section were disturbed by the vulnerable video.

“Oh my gosh, why do we need to see this!” one user questioned.

But the “How Do I Live” hitmaker clapped back at the haters in the comments.

“Why? I approved it. I’m human, just like everyone else and want to share my experience in hopes of us all healing together,” Rimes explained.

Her jaw procedure comes after the musician suffered a dental disaster on stage last summer.

While mid-song at The Skagit Casino Resort in Washington, her dental bridge became detached and her teeth fell out.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/03/30/celebrity-news/leann-rimes-sobs-while-undergoing-brutal-deep-jaw-release-therapy/

A US lawmaker is calling on King Charles to meet the survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when the monarch visits the US.

While not officially confirmed, the King and Queen Camilla are reportedly planning a visit at the end of April.

Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored a law that compelled the US justice department to release the Epstein files last year, is calling on the King to privately meet victims to hear from them directly about “how powerful individuals and institutions failed them”.

“As you are aware, this is not solely an American matter,” Khanna wrote in a letter to the King on Monday.

The Palace has previously expressed that the King’s “sympathies have been, and remain with, the victims of any and all forms of abuse”.

In his letter, Khanna said: “Epstein’s network had significant ties to the United Kingdom through Ghislaine Maxwell, through Epstein’s relationships with British public figures, and through the social and political circles in which he operated.”

These connections, he wrote, “raise broader questions about how Epstein was able to maintain influence, credibility, and protection across borders for so long”.

The California lawmaker also noted that members of Congress have sought testimony from the King’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as well as Peter Mandelson, the UK’s former ambassador to the US, about their ties to Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his titles last year due to his ties with Epstein, cannot be forced by a subpoena to go to the US and has not responded to the request.

He has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Epstein.

If the King’s US trip does happen, he and Queen Camilla are expected to visit Washington, where they will meet President Donald Trump, and according to US media reports, address Congress.

The visit would come ahead of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in July.

The BBC has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.

The King said last month that the Royal Family were “ready to support” police in their inquiries after his brother was arrested and then released on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn78xp0m75zo

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz says that he and the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa hope that 80% of the Syrians in Germany will return home in the next three years.

During the civil war in Syria, almost a million Syrians sought refuge in Germany.

Speaking after a meeting with Sharaa in Berlin, Chancellor Merz said that more than a year after the end of the war, the situation in Syria had “now changed fundamentally” and that “the need for protection must therefore be reassessed”.

But there was little detail as to how the returns would come about.

Merz’s government has taken a tougher line on refugees and migrants as support for the anti-immigration AfD party has surged.

He said initially the priority would be returning “those who no longer have a valid residence rights”, especially criminal offenders.

But he said more would follow.

“Looking ahead over the next three years – as Sharaa has expressed his hope – around 80% of Syrians currently residing in Germany are expected to return to their home country,” Merz said.

He added that many Syrian refugees had made a major contribution in Germany but that most wanted to return home, where they would play an important role in rebuilding Syria in the years ahead.

Both Merz and Sharaa conceded that some Syrians would stay in Germany.

Merz said it was in his country’s interest that Syrian doctors and carers would be able to remain if they wanted to.

Sharaa said Syria would never forget how Germany had opened its doors to refugees during the civil war.

“We are proud that Syrians have learned very quickly to contribute to society,” he said. “We are working with our friends in the German government to establish a ‘circular’ migration model.”

This would “enable Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland without giving up the stability and lives they have built here, for those who wish to stay”, Sharaa said.

But Franziska Brantner from Germany’s opposition Green Party said returning to Syria was not an option for many, because of the lack of infrastructure and the unstable security situation there.

She said many Syrians were “deeply anchored” in Germany, holding systemically important jobs and with children in school.

Sharaa’s visit has been accompanied by a number of protests.

The Kurdish Community in Germany (KGD) has called on Merz to demand binding commitments regarding the protection of minorities in Syria during the visit. It accuses Sharaa of human rights violations and war crimes.

Sharaa came to power in December 2024 after leading the Islamist rebel offensive that toppled former leader Bashar al-Assad, bringing an end to more than a decade of civil war.

He vowed to reunify Syria, but the country remains deeply divided and has been rocked by several waves of deadly sectarian violence – including recent clashes between government-aligned forces and Kurdish groups in the north-east.

Earlier this year, the government announced the formation of an interim parliamentary body, describing it as a step towards constitutional reform.

However, Kurdish representatives have said the body lacks meaningful representation and accuse Damascus of excluding them from negotiations over Syria’s future and failing to provide strong guarantees on minority rights.

This could also be a concern for other groups such as the Druze who are seeking greater autonomy.

Many of the Syrians in Germany came during the refugee crisis of 2015, when former Chancellor Angela Merkel made the decision not to close the borders to those fleeing the civil war.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy41vqx4pdzo

The death toll from a brutal gang attack in Haiti is much higher than initially thought, according to a human rights group.

At least 70 people were killed and 30 more injured in a brutal gang attack in Haiti’s Artibonite region, a human rights organization said on Monday — figures far higher than earlier official reports had suggested.

Police had first announced 16 fatalities and 10 injuries, while civil protection officials later estimated 17 dead and 19 wounded.

However, the Collective Defending Human Rights group reported a significantly larger death toll, describing the incident as a “massacre” and adding that nearly 6,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as a result.

In a statement, the group criticized local authorities, saying the lack of security response and the failure to protect the Artibonite region showed a neglect of responsibility.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack, noting that reported death toll estimates varied widely, ranging from 10 to 80 victims.

“This attack underscores the gravity of the security situation faced by the Haitian population,” said the spokesman, calling for a full investigation.

What do we know about the attack?

Local civil protection officials said armed members of the Gran Grif gang carried out the assault in the Jean-Denis area at around 3 a.m. on Sunday.

Artibonite, an important agricultural region, has experienced some of the worst violence in Haiti as gang activity spreads beyond the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The violence followed recent United Nations reports indicating that more than 2,000 people had already been displaced by similar gang raids in nearby Verrettes, which also caused residents of Petite-Rivière to flee.

In March, the United States announced a reward of up to $3 million for information on the financial operations of the Gran Grif and Viv Ansanm groups. Both groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by Washington.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/haiti-at-least-70-killed-in-massacre-says-rights-group/a-76600042

Air Canada has announced that CEO Michael Rousseau will retire later this year. This follows public criticism of his failure to voice condolences in French as well as English after two pilots were killed in a collision.

Air Canada’s CEO Michael Rousseau will retire later this year, the airline said on Monday, following criticism of his English-only message of condolence after the death of two pilots in a collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Canada’s largest airline, based in Montreal in French-speaking Quebec, said Rousseau told the board he would retire by the end of the third quarter.

The chairman of Air Canada’s board of directors, Vagn Sorenson, thanked Rousseau for his years of service as chief financial officer, deputy CEO and then CEO.

“We are grateful for the determined leadership he has provided not only in steering our company through the 2007-2008 financial crisis, COVID and other challenges, but also in capturing opportunities such as the acquisition of Aeroplan, in restoring the solvency of our pension plans, and in advancing customer centricity and employee well-being priorities,” Sorenson said.

Rousseau meanwhile said it had been “my great honor to work with the dedicated and talented people of Air Canada and to represent our outstanding organization,” adding that he looked forward to supporting the company “during this important transition period.”

Why had Rousseau come under fire in francophone Canada?

Rousseau had faced a backlash, including from Canada’s top politicians, after his response to a fatal collision after landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport that killed two pilots last week.

The CEO issued a condolence video in English only, with French subtitles, after the accident. One of the two pilots killed, Antoine Forest, was a French-speaking Quebecer, while his colleague Mackenzie Gunther’s first language was English.

Canada is an officially bilingual country, with Quebec about 80% French speaking.

Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault said that Rousseau had pledged to learn French when he was promoted to the airline’s most senior role in 2021, calling for the CEO to resign. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages received hundreds of complaints about the incident.

Prime Minister Mark Carney also said the lack of a French message showed a lack of compassion and judgment, saying people were right to be “very disappointed.”

Rousseau issued an apology, saying he was saddened that his limited French had “diverted attention from the profound grief” of the bereaved.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/air-canada-ceo-to-retire-after-french-condolence-furor/a-76595769

So far, eight Indian-flagged vessels have sailed out of the strait safely. These include two LPG carriers — BW TYR and BW ELM — carrying a combined LPG cargo of about 94,000 tonnes, which safely transited the war-hit zone in the last couple of days.

At least 10 foreign-flagged ships, carrying energy supplies bound for India, are stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to the government. This is in addition to 18 India-flagged vessels– with LPG, crude oil, and LNG– that are anchored to the west of the Strait of Hormuz– a crucial shipping route virtually paralysed by the Middle East war.

Speaking at a media briefing on the fallout of developments in West Asia, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, said of the 10 India-bound foreign-flagged ships, three are carrying critical liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), four are crude oil tankers, and three are liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

Among the 18 Indian-flagged vessels, three are LPG tankers, one is an LNG carrier, and four are crude oil tankers. One empty tanker is being filled with LPG, he said, adding that 485 seafarers are on these ships.

The vessels were among the 500-odd ships that were struck in the narrow strait amid the widening West Asia conflict.

“The government’s priority is to ensure that Indian-flagged vessels carrying India-bound cargo are allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Sinha stressed.

“The affected area is not just the Strait of Hormuz; areas outside of it also fall under the high-risk area (HRA),” he said, adding that commercial premiums that used to be 0.04 per cent of the insured value before the war have since gone up. “In one case, the premium now is 0.7 per cent of the insured value, and it could be even higher,” he said.

The war, which erupted on February 28 when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, has prompted Tehran to retaliate with strikes across the region and sharply restrict access to the strait– a critical passage through which a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes in peacetime.

Iran, however, last week said “non-hostile vessels” may transit the waterway after coordinating with Iranian authorities.

8 Ships Crossed Hormuz

So far, eight Indian-flagged vessels have sailed out of the strait safely. These include two LPG carriers — BW TYR and BW ELM — carrying a combined LPG cargo of about 94,000 tonnes, which safely transited the war-hit zone in the last couple of days, Sinha said.

According to the official, while BW TYR is proceeding towards Mumbai with an expected arrival on March 31, BW ELM is en route to New Mangalore with an estimated arrival date of April 1.

When asked if New Delhi was considering sending vessels that have already discharged cargo at domestic ports back to Gulf countries to lift additional supplies, Sinha said, “Our first priority is to get Indian-flagged vessels out… We are yet to reach the stage where we start sending back vessels (for refills).”

The official assured that the government has been closely monitoring the evolving situation in West Asia, particularly with regard to the safety of Indian seafarers, vessel movements, and port operations.

“All Indian seafarers in the region are safe, and no incident involving Indian-flagged vessels has been reported in the past 24 hours. The situation has remained stable over the last 72 hours as well,” he said.

India’s Energy Security Efforts Amid War

Since the war in Iran started, four Indian-flagged LPG tankers had safely sailed through the strait. Pine Gas and Jag Vasant, carrying 92,612 tonnes of LPG, reached Indian ports between March 26 and March 28. Before that, MT Shivalik and MT Nanda Devi, carrying about 92,712 tonnes of LPG, had reached Mundra Port in Gujarat on March 16 and Kandla Port on March 17, respectively.

Besides, the Indian-flagged oil tanker Jag Laadki, with 80,886 tonnes of crude oil from the UAE, reached Mundra on March 18. Another tanker, Jag Prakash, carrying gasoline from Oman to Africa, had previously safely crossed the strait and is en route to Tanzania.

Originally, there were 28 Indian-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz when the war in West Asia broke out. Of these, 24 were on the west side of the strait and four on the east side. In the last few days, six vessels from the west side and two from the east have managed to sail to safety.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-war-latest-news-18-india-flagged-ships-carrying-crude-oil-lpg-stranded-in-hormuz-amid-war-11288921?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The remarks came as the US Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on April 1 in the case of Trump v. Barbara, which challenges the Trump administration’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

US President Donald Trump launched a sharp attack on birthright citizenship early on Monday morning, arguing that the constitutional provision was intended for the “BABIES OF SLAVES” rather than for children of wealthy foreigners seeking US citizenship through payment.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!”

He continued: “We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion. Look at the dates of this long ago legislation – THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR! The World is getting rich selling citizenships to our Country, while at the same time laughing at how STUPID our U.S. Court System has become (TARIFFS!). ‘Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!'”

The remarks came as the US Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on April 1 in the case of Trump v. Barbara, which challenges the Trump administration’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

The Civil War ended in 1865. Birthright citizenship stems from the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. That amendment guaranteed certain rights for African Americans after the war. It rectified the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution did not extend citizenship to people of African descent.

The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

On his first day in office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that removed recognition of automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are present illegally or on temporary visas.

The order was not retroactive and was scheduled to take effect on February 19, 2025.The administration argued that individuals in the United States illegally or on temporary visas are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-us-birthright-babies-of-slaves-trumps-bizarre-birthright-citizenship-rant-11288146?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

BTS album ARIRANG and single SWIM debut at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 and 200, achieve global all kill and multiple sales records, RM thanks fans, world tour set for April

Comebacks are exciting, but some feel bigger than just music drops, they feel like moments. BTS’ latest return is one of those, the kind that has fans watching charts like it’s a live scoreboard.

The K-pop group has once again made global chart history with their latest album ARIRANG and its title track SWIM. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook have achieved a rare milestone, becoming the first group ever to debut both a song and an album at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 simultaneously on multiple occasions.

According to Billboard’s chart dated April 4, 2026, SWIM entered the Billboard Hot 100 directly at No. 1, while ARIRANG topped the Billboard 200. The group also secured the No. 1 position on the Artist 100 chart, continuing their dominance across platforms.

This achievement places BTS alongside Taylor Swift as the only artists to occupy nine out of the top ten spots on the Billboard Global 200. At the same time, the group extended its own record for the highest number of No. 1 debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 by a group, with a total of seven chart-toppers. These include SWIM, Dynamite, Savage Love Remix, Life Goes On, My Universe, Butter, and Permission To Dance.

The release has also delivered what fans describe as a “Global All Kill,” with BTS topping multiple charts worldwide. These include Billboard Hot 100, Apple Music Global, Spotify Global, Melon Top 100/Daily Chart, YouTube Music, Line Music Japan, Hanteo, Billboard 200, and Oricon Japan. The album recorded 641,000 units on the Billboard 200 and 541,000 units on Oricon Japan, while Hanteo reported 3.9 million sales.

Additionally, the group achieved its sixth “Billboard All Kill,” topping major Billboard charts including the Hot 100, Billboard 200, Artist 100, Global 200, and Global Excl. U.S., along with Digital Song Sales, World Digital Song Sales, Top Album Sales, and Vinyl Albums.

SWIM marks BTS’ first No. 1 on the Hot 100 since 2021, the year the group announced a hiatus due to military service commitments. The new album ARIRANG also becomes their seventh No. 1 on the Billboard 200, aligning with the group’s symbolic association with the number seven.

Reacting to the achievement, BTS leader RM shared his gratitude with fans on Instagram, writing, “Sendin my luv and gratitude.”

The announcement triggered a wave of reactions from fans across social media. One user wrote, “They don’t know bout us, oh bts you’re so right.” Another said, “That’s how we do do do do do.” A fan commented, “They are truly a global group and the biggest group in the world.” Another post read, “When BTS announced their hiatus, the media swore they were done. When they came back, everyone said the comeback would flop. BTS came back, dropped the comeback, and obliterated the charts~ a global all-kill. Unstoppable. Untouchable.” One more fan added, “We weren’t lying when we said they were coming to make history.”

The album, released on March 20, marked BTS’ fifth studio project. A day later, the group held a comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. All 14 tracks from ARIRANG debuted on the Global Spotify Weekly Top Songs Chart, each recording over 26.4 million streams at the time, marking the biggest debuts for K-pop acts in 2026.

Source : https://www.news18.com/movies/korean/bts-make-history-again-arirang-swim-debut-no-1-on-billboard-charts-ws-l-10006266.html

Benjamin Netanyahu says war on Iran is beyond halfway in missions, claims major damage to Irans military and nuclear capacity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the ongoing war against Iran has progressed “beyond the halfway point,” though he declined to specify when the conflict might end.

Speaking to Newsmax, Netanyahu clarified that his assessment referred to operational goals rather than time. “It’s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” he said, adding that the benchmark was based on “missions, not necessarily in terms of time.”

The Israeli leader further said that the campaign has already achieved significant objectives, including the killing of thousands of members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and major damage to Iran’s military and industrial infrastructure. He added that efforts to weaken Iran’s arms production and nuclear capabilities were nearing completion.

“Just the whole industrial base — wiping out all, you know, just plants, entire plants, and the nuclear program itself,” he said.

Netanyahu also expressed confidence that Iran’s current system of governance could eventually collapse from internal pressure, even as he stressed that the immediate goal remains degrading the country’s military strength.

“I think this regime will collapse internally. But at the moment, right now, what we’re doing is just degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside,” Netanyahu said.

These comments came as US President Donald Trump, who launched the military campaign alongside Israel on February 28, had earlier suggested the operation could last four to six weeks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the war would last “weeks” further instead of months, amid wide US public opposition to a conflict that has sent oil prices soaring.

Netanyahu and Trump have repeatedly alleged that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, a claim not supported by the UN nuclear watchdog and that comes despite Trump saying he “obliterated” key sites in attacks last year.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/beyond-the-halfway-point-israels-netanyahu-says-major-goals-achieved-in-iran-war-ws-l-10006189.html

Iran rejected Pakistan’s claims of mediating between Tehran and Washington regarding the ongoing Middle East conflict, asserting there are no direct US talks. The Iranian Consulate in Mumbai said that the US proposed “unreasonable” demands through intermediaries.

Iran on Monday denied Pakistan’s claims of mediation between Tehran and Washington to end the ongoing Middle East conflict. The Consulate General of Iran in Mumbai said that there are no direct talks with the US and Pakistan forums are their own and it did not participate in any such negotiations.

“No direct US talks; only excessive, unreasonable demands via intermediaries. US “diplomacy” flips constantly; our stance is clear. Pakistan’s forums are their own; we didn’t participate. Regional calls to end war are welcome, but remember who started it!” the Consulate General in Mumbai said in a statement on X.

See more

#Iran FM Spox: No direct US talks; only excessive, unreasonable demands via intermediaries.#US “diplomacy” flips constantly; our stance is clear.

Pakistan’s forums are their own; we didn’t participate.

Regional calls to end war are welcome, but remember who started it!#War pic.twitter.com/o9NDkZAAqN

— Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) March 30, 2026

Iran’s statement came a day after Pakistan hosted foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey for talks in Islamabad over the Iran war. Pakistan later said the diplomats had departed for their home countries. The talks were originally scheduled to continue on Monday.

“Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the US have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks. Pakistan will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days,,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a statement after the meeting.

 

Iran attacked and set ​ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Monday, as President Donald Trump warned the U.S. would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the Strait of ‌Hormuz.
The strike on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi is the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels by missiles or explosive air and sea drones in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin.
Crude oil prices briefly spiked anew after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices.
Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship’s owner, said the ​attack happened early on Tuesday, causing a fire and hull damage, but there were no reported injuries.
Authorities in Dubai later said they had been able to bring the fire under control following a drone attack on the ​tanker. No injuries have been reported, they said.

The jump in oil and fuel prices has started to weigh on U.S. household finances and become a political headache for Trump and his ⁠Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections, having vowed to lower energy prices and ramp up U.S. oil and gas production.
The U.S. national average retail price of gasoline crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in more than three years on ​Monday, data from price-tracking service GasBuddy showed, as tightening global supplies push U.S. crude prices above $101 a barrel.

TROOPS DEPLOY AS TALKS CONTINUE

Attacks by both sides is showing no signs of easing, with fears of a wider conflict growing.
Iran-aligned Houthis entered the war ​by firing missiles and drones at Israel in recent days and Turkey reported a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by NATO air and missile defenses.

Israel carried out missile strikes on what it called military infrastructure in Tehran and infrastructure used by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut, leaving black smoke hanging over the Lebanese capital.
Sounds of explosions were heard in parts of eastern and western Tehran minutes after Israel issued a warning of imminent strikes in the city, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday. Residents in the ​eastern Pirouzi district reported power outages after the blasts, while officials from Iran’s Energy Ministry began efforts to restore power, Tasnim added.
The Israeli military said early on Tuesday that four soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, the same area as ​three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed in two separate incidents in recent days.
Iran’s military spokesman said on state television that targets in the latest wave of Tehran’s missile and drone attacks included “hideouts” of U.S. military personnel in five bases in the region and in ‌Israel.

Thousands of soldiers ⁠from the U.S. Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, part of reinforcements that would expand Trump’s options to include a ground assault in Iran, even as he pursues talks with Tehran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wanted to reach a deal with Iranian leaders before a second deadline, now April 6, for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
Leavitt said talks with Iran were progressing, adding that what Tehran says publicly differs from what it tells U.S. officials in private.
Iran said earlier on Monday it had received U.S. peace proposals via intermediaries, following weekend talks between the foreign ​ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Iranian Foreign Ministry ​spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the proposals were “unrealistic, illogical and ⁠excessive”.
“Our position is clear. We are under military aggression. Therefore, all our efforts and strength are focused on defending ourselves,” he told a press conference.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/giant-oil-tanker-off-dubai-hit-by-iranian-strike-trump-threatens-obliterate-iran-2026-03-31/

Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved ​in attacks on Iran, a step beyond its ‌previous denial of use of jointly-operated military bases, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Monday.
“We don’t authorize either the use of military bases ​or the use of airspace for actions related ​to the war in Iran,” she told reporters ⁠in Madrid.

The closure of the airspace forces military ​planes to bypass NATO member Spain en route to their targets in the Middle East, but it does not include emergency situations, El ​Pais added.
“This decision is part of the decision already ​made by the Spanish government not to participate in or contribute ‌to ⁠a war which was initiated unilaterally and against international law,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said during an interview with radio Cadena Ser when asked if the decision ​to close Spain’s ​airspace could ⁠worsen relations with the United States.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spain-closes-airspace-us-planes-involved-iran-war-el-pais-says-2026-03-30/

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pronounced his tour of Middle Eastern countries a success on Monday and said a number of ​security cooperation accords had been clinched or were under discussion.
Zelenskiy ‌embarked on a tour of the region to offer Ukrainian expertise on how to counter attacks from drones fired by Iran in its conflict with the United States ​and Israel, which has spread across the Middle East.

He has promoted ​Ukrainian know-how acquired in its four-year-long war against Russia, which has long ⁠deployed Iranian-designed drones to strike Ukraine since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.
Speaking in ​his nightly video address after his return to Kyiv, Zelenskiy said “historic” security ​agreements had been reached with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Ukraine, he said, was also working with Jordan and Kuwait and two other countries – ​Bahrain and Oman – had also expressed interest.
“For Ukraine, this is ​not only about prestige and respect for our people,” Zelenskiy said.
“This is a very ‌concrete ⁠and practical matter. We are exporting our defence system, the skills of our warriors and the knowledge our state possesses.”

He said Ukraine expected “corresponding security cooperation”, which included discussions on air defence, development of ​defence production and ​energy cooperation.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-middle-east-visit-success-announces-accords-2026-03-30/

Afghanistan’s government accused Pakistan’s military of shelling the outskirts of an eastern Afghan city on Sunday, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen in the latest episode of renewed fighting between the two neighboring countries.

The fighting, which erupted in late February, has been the most severe between Afghanistan and Pakistan in decades.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven for militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially for the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the allegation.

Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that “mortars and other heavy weaponry” were used Sunday afternoon to strike rural areas and civilian homes on the outskirts of the city of Asadabad in Kunar Province.

In a post on X accompanied by photos of wounded children, Fitrat said that preliminary figures indicated that one person had been killed and 16 others were wounded, mostly women and children. There was no immediate response from Pakistan to the accusations.

The fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including several in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Earlier this month, Afghanistan said that a Pakistani airstrike had hit a drug treatment hospital in Kabul, killing more than 400 people. The U.N. humanitarian affairs office has said the total death toll is still under verification. Pakistan has disputed the claim and denied targeting civilians, saying that it struck an ammunition depot.

The fighting in February began when Afghanistan launched a cross-border raid into Pakistan, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas that it said had killed only civilians. Islamabad had said the strikes were targeting militants.

Last month, Pakistan declared that it was in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-asadabad-shelling-fighting-d6c9c6a99e2a80748fb2f9f1471810d6

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed a test of an upgraded solid-fuel engine for weapons capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, and called it a significant development boosting his country’s strategic military arsenal, state media reported Sunday.

While the test was in line with Kim’s stated goal of acquiring more agile, hard-to-detect missiles targeting the U.S. and its allies, some experts speculate North Korea’s claim may be an exaggeration. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and conceal their launches than liquid-fuel weapons, which in general must be fueled before liftoffs and cannot last long.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported Kim watched the ground jet test of the engine using a composite carbon fiber material. It said the engine’s maximum thrust is 2,500 kilonewtons, up from about 1,970 kilonewtons reported in a similar solid-fuel engine test in September.

KCNA reported the test was conducted as part of the country’s five-year arms build-up meant to upgrade “strategic strike means,” a term referring to nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and other weapons. Kim said the latest engine test had “great significance in putting the country’s strategic military muscle on the highest level,” according to KCNA. The agency did not say when or where the test occurred.

North Korea’s report on the latest test could be “bluffing” as it didn’t disclose some key information like the engine’s total combustion time, said Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.

When North Korea reported about the previous engine test in September, it described it as the ninth and final ground test of a solid-fuel engine that it earlier said would be used for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Observers predicted at the time North Korea would soon test-launch an ICBM loaded with that engine, but it hasn’t done so yet.

North Korea’s solid-fuel engine program may be facing some delays or the country might have determined to develop a better engine, possibly with Russian assistance, Lee said. Cooperation between the countries has deepened in recent years, with the North sending troops and conventional weapons to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.

In recent years, North Korea has test-fired a variety of ICBMs demonstrating the potential range to reach the U.S. mainland, including solid-fuel ones. But some of North Korea’s past claims about major weapons tests drew outside skepticism. In 2024, North Korea claimed to have successfully test-launched a multiwarhead missile, but South Korea quickly dismissed it as deception to cover up a failed launch.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-kim-missile-engine-test-us-bdc130f08bed4fd569bdd041ce2c67aa