Category: World

FIFA is considering whether to expand the men’s World Cup to include 64 teams in 2030, a spokesperson has confirmed.

The football tournament has already expanded ahead of next year’s edition, with 48 teams set to compete – instead of the usual 32 – as the United States, Mexico and Canada share hosting duties.

The idea to have 64 teams compete as a one-off for the World Cup’s centenary year in 2030 was put forward this week.

The proposal was “spontaneously raised by a FIFA council member” near the end of a meeting held by world football’s governing body on Wednesday, a FIFA spokesperson said.

“The idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyse any proposal from one of its council members,” they added.

It was suggested by the elected delegate from Uruguay, Ignacio Alonso, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was confidential.

The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest edition of the tournament so far, with 104 games being played across 16 host cities in a six-week period.

Supersizing it even further would likely present fresh logistical challenges.

Also, it would mean hundreds more players going to the World Cup at a time when player unions have criticised a relentless expansion of games and competitions without consulting their members.

However, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said expansion raises revenue and gives more teams the chance to qualify, citing a need to develop football globally.

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham told Sky News: “I know that a huge amount of countries around the world have never had the opportunity to play in the World Cup finals and would like the opportunity to do that, but then you’ve got to balance that up with the tournament itself.

“So let’s see what the ideas are and then we can judge them.”

Planning is already well under way for the 2030 tournament, set to be hosted in six countries across three continents.

To mark 100 years since the first World Cup took place in Uruguay, the first match of the tournament will be played in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital.

Argentina, runners up in the first World Cup, and Paraguay – where South America’s football confederation, Conmebol, is based – will also host one match each to open the tournament.

The contest will then move east, with Spain and Portugal and Morocco serving as the main co-hosts.

On Wednesday, it was announced the four nations of the UK are planning a joint bid to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/fifa-considers-spontaneous-proposal-for-64-team-mens-world-cup-in-2030-13322884

MCDONALD’S is overhauling all 43,000 restaurants to cut wait times as one executive has admitted locations can be “very stressful.”

The fast-food giant is giving its restaurants an AI makeover in a bid to enhance customer and employee experience.

Starting with internet-connected kitchen equipment, artificial intelligence-enabled -drive-throughs and AI-powered tools for managers.

The target being to ensure order accuracy and help restaurants detect equipment issues before they fail.

Brian Rice, McDonald’s Chief Information Officer, told how workers face these issues repeatedly which can be “very stressful.”

He said: “Our restaurants, frankly, can be very stressful.

“We have customers at the counter, we have customers at our drive-through, couriers coming in for delivery, delivery at curbside.

“That’s a lot to deal with for our crew.”

He added: “Technology solutions will alleviate the stress.”

The restaurant hopes that better tech-enabled experiences will triumph in it growing its loyalty patrons from 175 million to 250 million by 2027.

To accomplish that, McDonald’s tapped Google Cloud in late 2023 to bring more computing power to each of its restaurants—enabling them to process and analyze data on-site.

The setup, known as edge computing, can be a faster, cheaper option than sending data to the cloud, especially in more far-flung locations with less reliable cloud connections.

Edge computing will enable applications like predicting when kitchen equipment is likely to break down

The burger chain said its suppliers have begun installing sensors on kitchen equipment that will give data to the edge computing system and allow franchisees a “real-time” view into how their restaurants are operating.

AI can then analyze that data for early signs of a maintenance problem.

McDonald’s is also exploring the use of computer vision, the form of AI behind facial recognition, in store-mounted cameras to determine whether orders are accurate before they’re handed to customers.

Additionally, the ability to tap edge computing will power voice AI at the drive-through, a capability McDonald’s is also working with Google’s cloud-computing arm to explore.

The company has been experimenting with voice-activated drive-throughs and robotic deep fryers since 2019.

But ended its partnership with International Business Machines to test automated order-taking at the drive-through in 2024.

Edge computing will also help McDonald’s restaurant managers oversee their in-store operations.

Rice also dropped the bombshell that the burger giant is looking to create a “generative AI virtual manager.”

Its job will be to carry out administrative tasks such as shift scheduling on managers’ behalf.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/money/13705108/mcdonalds-restaurants-wait-times-locations/

A total of 48 people were killed in fighting between Syrian security forces and pro-Assad fighters on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad ambushed and killed 16 police personnel. The response from Syrian security forces led to clashes that left 28 pro-Assad fighters and four civilians dead, according to the London-based SOHR.

The monitoring body called it “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled.”

What do we know about the clashes in Syria’s Latakia?

The incident took place around the town of Jableh, in the coastal province of Latakia — the heartland of Syria’s Alawite minority, of which Assad is a member.

Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints, targeting many of our patrols in the Jableh area.”

SOHR reported that security forces employed helicopter gunships to fire on the ambushers which reportedly included fighters loyal to former Syrian army General Suheil al-Hassan. It was not immediately clear if al-Hassan had been involved in the fighting.

State-run news agency SANA said that security forces had arrested former senior intelligence official Ibrahim Hweiji, believed to be responsible for organizing the assassination of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Joumblatt in 1977.

Sectarian violence reported in Alawite strongholds

Following the attacks, large numbers of military reinforcements were deployed to the area and overnight curfews were imposed on Alawite-populated areas including nearby Tartus and Syria’s third city Homs, SANA reported.

Sajed al-Deek, a security official, was quoted by local media as saying the situation is under control. He played down reports that the attacks had been carried out by Alawites, and called “for abstaining from raising sectarian sentiments.”

Tensions in the Alawite stronghold regions have been rising as Sunni militants carry out attacks on the formerly dominant group.

The Syrian government, led by the rebels who overthrew Assad in a lightning advance in December, has warned against collective punishment or sectarian violence.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/syria-sees-worst-day-of-violence-since-ouster-of-assad/a-71852125

The United States has withdrawn from the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP), a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched in 2021 to help emerging economies move away from coal and other non-renewable energy sources.

Other partners, including France, Germany, the European Union, the UK, the Netherlands, and Denmark, remain committed to the program.

The US exit will strongly affects South Africa and Indonesia, which are among the beneficiaries of the program.

According to a statement from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, grant projects that were previously funded ”and in planning or implementation phases have been canceled.”

Billions for projects in South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam

Indonesia’s JETP Secretariat head, Paul Butarbutar, confirmed that the US embassy in Jakarta informed him of Washington’s decision, citing an executive order from President Donald Trump.

He noted that while the $21.6 billion (€20.70 billion) pledge from private and public donors remains unchanged, the US withdrawal will impact transition studies and grant funding in Indonesia.

Under the South Africa agreement, the country was promised $56 million (€52.37 million) in grants and an additional $1 billion in potential commercial investments. Similar agreements were made with Indonesia and Vietnam.

UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte called the US withdrawal ”regrettable” but reassured South Africa that “the rest of the world moves on.”

Can South Africa afford a green transition?

South Africa is one of the world’s largest polluters, with coal generating 80% of its electricity. Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa stated, ”Our commitment to a just energy transition is not conditional on other sovereign powers.”

However, frequent power outages plaguing the country have fueled political opposition to closing coal plants.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-exits-93-billion-climate-deal-with-developing-nations/a-71847744

President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.

According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room.

The meeting followed a series of mass firings and threats to government workers from the billionaire Tesla founder, who helms the Department of Government Efficiency, that created broad uncertainty across the federal government and its workforce.

DOGE’s actions have faced ferocious resistance in court and criticism from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans.

The president’s message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy and the pacing of implementation.

Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump’s directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps — a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.

Trump stressed that he wants to keep good people in government and not to eject capable federal workers en masse. But his administration has in recent weeks fired tens of thousands of federal workers across numerous agencies in a series of blanket terminations. A federal judge and the chair of a federal civil service board have both concluded that the terminations were not tied to performance issues — and may have violated civil service laws.

It is unclear whether the new guidance will result in laid off workers getting rehired.

Trump posted about the meeting on Truth Social after this story posted, promising to hold similar meetings every two weeks.

“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” he wrote. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’ The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.”

The president later told reporters he wants Cabinet members to “keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.”

But he also said he wanted cuts, and that Musk would remain a power center: “If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

Musk later retweeted a Trump post and called it a “very productive meeting.”

The timing of the meeting was influenced by recent comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who said on CNN Tuesday that Cabinet secretaries should retain the full power to hire and fire, according to one official. The official said Trump has been flooded with similar concerns from other lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries.

The president’s admonition to agency heads could impact mounting legal scrutiny facing DOGE.

Judges have increasingly expressed frustration and bewilderment at the Trump administration’s inability to explain who is in charge of the bureaucracy-culling effort and whether Musk himself is playing any role in ordering up the steep cuts to programs and jobs.

Complicating the matter further, Trump declared during his address to Congress Tuesday that Musk is indeed the “head” of DOGE, a label that immediately reverberated in several of the Musk-focused court cases. Trump’s assertion conflicted with the White House’s representation in court last month that Musk had no independent authority to make policy decisions.

Judges will now have to decide whether Trump’s after-the-fact characterization of Musk’s role resolves the already-existing legal challenges to DOGE’s work.

It comes just as some of those lawsuits reach a new fact-finding phase that could produce more clarity on the SpaceX boss’ involvement in running the government.

Source : https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/trump-cabinet-musk-025093

President Donald Trump issued exemptions on tariffs for a variety of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada — just two days after he put the sweeping tariffs in place — leaving investors and businesses grappling with the whiplash of his back-and-forth trade policy.

The exemptions to the 25% tariffs enacted Tuesday would apply to about half of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and around 38% of goods from Canada that comply with the North American trade deal reached during Trump’s first term, according to a senior administration official.

It’s the second time in less than two months that Trump has announced and then backtracked on tariffs on the United States’ neighbors. The moves have rattled the stock market, with businesses warning that the added costs could drive prices higher and cut into their profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst week since September.

“The can keeps getting pushed, kicked down the road, and we don’t know what that means,” said Chuck Dardas, president of AlphaUSA, an auto parts manufacturer in Livonia, Michigan. He later added: “To make investments and to do things we need to do, we need some certainty. Not that we can have perfect certainty — but not be on a constant diet of, well, we’ll wait till next month to see if the ax is going to fall.”

“The only thing, I guess, to be certain is that we’ve got 30 more days to worry about it,” Dardas said.

The exemptions Trump issued Thursday will last until April 2, when Trump plans another round of retaliatory tariffs on goods from a range of countries. The exemptions apply to some things like potash, which is used in fertilizers, but some Canadian energy products won’t qualify and will be subjected to a 10% tariff. And all other goods, including computers from Mexico, will be subjected to the 25% tariff, the senior administration official said.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump heralded during his first term as a negotiating victory, allows goods to move among the three countries tariff-free if they follow certain rules. The rules require that a product be made entirely in North America or be substantially transformed in North America if it is made of components from other countries. For products like autos, 75% of the content must be from North America.

The tariffs for non-USMCA-compliant goods could address concerns past and current U.S. officials have raised about Chinese goods’ being shipped into Mexico and then sent to the United States tariff-free, without having met the USMCA requirement of having been substantially transformed in North America.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration began charging U.S.-based companies importing goods from Canada and Mexico a 25% tariff for bringing those goods into the country. Trump also increased the tariff on goods from China to 20%, on top of tariffs already in place from his first term.

Target, Best Buy and other companies warned the added costs from the tariffs could drive prices higher on thousands of products, including alcohol, fresh produce, cars and electronics.

“Tariffs hit families where it hurts: groceries, school supplies and apparel. This continuous tariff uncertainty increases pocketbook anxiety for families and also throws a wrench into future business planning and investment,” said Michael Hanson, executive vice president of public affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

A day after the tariffs went into effect, the White House said it would begin exempting autos if the companies complied by standards in the USMCA deal, which automakers said they have been doing. The tariffs could have added $4,000 to $10,000 to the cost of cars made in North America, according to estimates from Anderson Economic Group.

In announcing them, Trump said he was using the tariffs as a tool to pressure Canada and Mexico to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, though less than 1% of fentanyl seized at the U.S. border was coming from Canada. The United States recorded 87,000 drug overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, a decrease from 114,000 the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump said he decided to issue the exemptions after he spoke with U.S. automakers’ CEOs on Wednesday, giving them some time to adjust before he puts wider tariffs in place next month.

“There will always be a little short-term interruption. I don’t think it’s going to be big, but the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy, and again, there’ll be disruption.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a news conference Thursday that, in her call with Trump, she cited a graph from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing a drop in fentanyl seizures, which she said Trump hadn’t previously seen.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/trump-administration-floats-exemptions-tariffs-canadian-mexican-goods-rcna195110

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Ukraine should be granted the security of NATO without the actual membership in the military alliance.

Speaking on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, she said “we need to think about more durable solutions” than sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

Extending the provision of NATO’s Article 5 — the collective defense clause that commits members to protect each other — would be much more effective, she said.

The proposal comes as European leaders are seeking ways to shore up Kyiv as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes for a rapid end to the three-year war. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month ruled out Ukraine’s NATO membership.

It’s the first time Meloni has backed the idea in such clear terms. While the Italian prime minister has been seen as a potential conduit between Europe and Trump, the proposal is unlikely to find the support of the US.

Source : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meloni-backs-giving-ukraine-nato-201913863.html?guccounter=1

Just before his cryptocurrency empire crumbled in November 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried considered going on Tucker Carlson’s show to “come out as a republican” to rehabilitate his image. On Thursday, almost a year since Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding users of his cryptocurrency exchange, he finally fulfilled his plan.

From “a little side room” of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Bankman-Fried spent his 33rd birthday dishing to Carlson in a wide-ranging interview, which included new details about life in prison with his cellblock mate Sean “Diddy” Combs. As NBC has reported, Bankman-Fried and Combs, who has been charged with sex trafficking, are being housed in the same unit.

“I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison, and he’s been kind to people in the unit; he’s been kind to me,” Bankman-Fried said on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “It’s also — it’s a position no one wants to be in.”

Bankman-Fried, 33, was convicted in November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering for swindling customers of FTX and lenders of Alameda Research, its associated hedge fund. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

A chief public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Life behind bars

Bankman-Fried told Carlson that he has “made some friends” at the Brooklyn center, where, sources told NBC News, he is in a unit for detainees who need extra protection.

“It’s sort of dystopian,” Bankman-Fried said. “You know, the fortunate thing, the place I’m in, I’m not in … I’m not in physical danger.”

He said the unit has defendants from high-profile cases and “a lot of ex-gangsters — or alleged ex-gangsters.” Asked how cellblock mates feel about being housed with him and Combs, Bankman-Fried theorized that some of them think “this is a big opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet.”

“They’re good at chess. That’s one thing I learned,” he added. “Former armed robbers who don’t speak English and probably didn’t graduate middle school, a surprising number of them are fairly good at chess. I’m not saying they’re grandmasters, but I lose games to them all the time. I was not expecting that.”

In addition to playing chess and working on his appeal, he told Carlson, Bankman-Fried has started to read novels again. Carlson said Bankman-Fried seemed “less jumpy” and “healthier” after two years in prison. He then said it seemed Bankman-Fried was “flying high on Adderall” in his previous TV appearances.

Bankman-Fried denied ever being on the drug. “But I was pretty out of it. My mind was racing because there were, you know, a billion things to keep track of,” he added.

His changing political stance

Bankman-Fried described how his politics have evolved over the last five years, from being a major Biden donor to having a better relationship with Republicans than Democrats by the time he went to trial.

“One fact that might be relevant. In 2020, I was center-left, and I gave to Biden’s campaign,” he said. “I was optimistic he’d be a sort of solid center-left president. I spent the next few years in D.C. a lot. I made dozens of trips there and was really, really shocked by what I saw — not in a good direction — from the administration.

“By late 2022, I was giving to Republicans privately as much as Democrats. And that started becoming known right around FTX’s collapse, so that probably played a role,” he added, noting that he believed in ideas from both sides of the aisle.

In his trial, prosecutors showed a document in which he considered ways to rehabilitate his public image after FTX collapsed, including going on Carlson’s show to “come out against the woke agenda.” Carlson asked him whether he called in political favors during his trial, which Bankman-Fried denied, saying because he did not want to do “something inappropriate.”

His optimistic view on the future of crypto

Bankman-Fried said “hopefully” things are moving in the right direction for cryptocurrency under President Donald Trump, saying a lot of “good things” are already happening.

“So I think the big question is, you know, when rubber meets the road, like, will the administration do what needs to be done and figure out how to do it?” he said. “Right now, crypto is not at the point where it could become an everyday tool.”

Carlson also asked Bankman-Fried whether he believes “there is a lot of shady behavior in the crypto business.” Bankman-Fried said that a decade ago he might have agreed but that the business is now “a lot smaller” and more regulated.

Bankman-Fried’s financial status

Carlson asked Bankman-Fried whether he has “any money” left — and Bankman-Fried admitted “basically no.” In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture.

“The company that I used to own … had nothing intervened, today it would have about $15 billion of liabilities and about $93 billion of assets. So the answer should be, in theory, yes there was enough money to pay everyone back in kind,” he said. “But that’s not how things worked out. Instead, it all got roiled up in a bankruptcy.”

“It’s been a colossal disaster,” he said. “Not stopping that from happening is by far the biggest regret of my life.”

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sam-bankman-fried-calls-sean-diddy-combs-kind-jailhouse-interview-tuck-rcna195221

Adidas (ADSGn.DE), sold its last pair of Yeezy sneakers at the end of 2024, the sportswear brand said on Wednesday, ending the process of liquidating stock of the lucrative shoe partnership with rapper Ye after splitting from him in October 2022.
Adidas has been trying to put the Yeezy affair behind it since antisemitic rants by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, forced it to end the highly profitable partnership, denting revenues and driving the company to an annual loss in 2023.

“There is not one Yeezy shoe left, it has all been sold and that episode is behind us,” Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer told a press conference on Wednesday after Adidas reported results.
The company has felt the loss of Yeezy particularly in the United States, where the shoes were popular. In its results on Wednesday Adidas said North America sales fell 2% in 2024, “solely due to significantly lower Yeezy sales”.
The company started selling off its remaining stock of Yeezy shoes in May 2023, pledging to donate part of the proceeds to organisations combating antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League.

Adidas reported it sold 650 million euros ($696 million) worth of Yeezy sneakers last year, making a profit of around 200 million euros.
The year before, Adidas made 750 million euros in revenue from Yeezy inventory, generating 300 million euros in operating profit.
The company has set aside 260 million euros for charitable donations from the proceeds of Yeezy sales, CEO Bjorn Gulden told a press conference. That amounts to about half of the operating profit Adidas made on selling off its stock of the sneakers in 2023 and 2024.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/adidas-sold-last-pair-yeezy-sneakers-2025-03-05/

Hundreds of diplomats at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development have written a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio protesting the dismantling of USAID, saying its demise would undermine U.S. leadership and security and create a power vacuum which China and Russia could exploit.
In a cable expected to be filed with the department’s internal “dissent channel,” which allows diplomats to raise concerns about policy anonymously, the diplomats said the Trump administration’s January 20 freeze on almost all foreign aid also endangers American diplomats and forces overseas while putting at risk the lives of millions abroad that depend on U.S. assistance.

More than 700 people have signed onto the letter, a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.
“The decision to freeze and terminate foreign aid contracts and assistance awards without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence,” said the cable, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The Republican president, pursuing what he has called an “America First” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his January 20 return to office. The order halted USAID operations around the world, jeopardizing delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter said, adding that despite statements on waivers being issued for life-saving programs, the funding remained shut.
The president tasked billionaire and adviser Elon Musk with dismantling USAID as part of an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government over what both say is wasteful spending and abuse of funds.
“Foreign assistance is not charity. Instead, it is a strategic tool that stabilizes regions, prevents conflict, and advances U.S. interests,” the letter said.
A State Department spokesperson, when asked about the cable, said: “We do not comment on leaked internal communication.”
In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion of aid worldwide, on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.
Upon evaluating 6,200 multi-year awards, the administration decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54 billion in value, a 92% reduction, according to a State Department spokesperson. USAID fired or put on administrative leave thousands of staff and contractors.
The cable said the government’s failure to pay outstanding invoices to contractors and implementing partners has severe economic repercussions.
“The resulting financial strain not only undermines confidence in the U.S. government as a reliable partner, it also weakens domestic economic growth at a time of mounting global competition,” the cable said.

Organizations and companies that contract with USAID last month sued the administration, calling the dismantling of the agency unlawful and saying funding had been cut off for existing contracts, including hundreds of millions of dollars for work that is already done.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-diplomats-dissent-cable-rubio-protest-usaid-dismantling-cut-foreign-aid-2025-03-05/

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on Wednesday morning that U.S. President Donald Trump was lying when he said that the North American leader’s administration was “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.
Trump’s comments to Congress came after a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock (BLK.N), was announced earlier Tuesday to buy most of the $22.8 billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison (0001.HK), which includes assets along the Panama Canal.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/panama-president-says-trump-lied-about-panama-canals-reclaiming-2025-03-05/

France is open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners, President Emmanuel Macron said in a grave address to the nation on Wednesday, in which he warned that Europe must face up to the threat from Russia.
France and Britain are Europe’s only two nuclear powers.
“Our nuclear deterrent protects us: it’s complete, sovereign, French through and through,” Macron said on Wednesday in his televised speech.

“But, responding to the historic call of the future German Chancellor, I have decided to open the strategic debate on the protection of our allies on the European continent through our (nuclear) deterrence,” Macron said.
German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has questioned whether NATO would remain in its “current form” by June and advocated talks with France and Britain about an expansion of their nuclear protection.
France’s nuclear deterrence strategy has hitherto been defensive and meant to protect the country’s own vital interests.

In his televised speech, Macron also said France would have to spend more on defence and would continue to help Ukraine. He acknowledged voters’ concerns over Russia and over the new U.S. administration’s upending of the international order.
He said that he wanted to believe that the United States “will remain at our side,” while adding that Europe had to be ready if that was no longer the case.
“You are, I know, legitimately worried about the current events, which are disrupting the world order,” Macron told voters.
“Russia has become a threat for France and Europe,” he said, adding that “to watch and do nothing would be madness.”

European countries are scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine after President Donald Trump froze U.S. military aid to Kyiv and fuelled doubts about Washington’s commitment to its European NATO allies.

NUCLEAR DETERRENT

Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s (BFb.N)

CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking American liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.
Several Canadian provinces have taken U.S. liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Canadians are steering away from U.S. goods, sports events and trips following the recent imposition of tariffs, which have left them stirred, despite the deep ties between the two countries.

“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, (and) completely removing our products from the shelves,” Whiting said on a post-earnings call.
Canada accounted for only 1% of the company’s total sales, Whiting said, so the company can withstand the hit.
Canada on Tuesday also imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., including wine, spirits, and beer.
Whiting added the company would watch out for what happens in Mexico, which according to its annual report, made up 7% of its 2024 sales.

Canadians have been increasingly looking to support locals by adapting different ways such as boycotting alcohol brands from the U.S. to altering kitchen pantry with local products.
Shares of Brown-Forman were marginally down in extended trading.
The liquor maker reaffirmed its annual forecasts, which accounted for the impact of tariffs.
While Whiting warned of “continued uncertainty and headwinds in the external environment,” he said that he was confident of the company’s trajectory.
Brown-Forman has been reeling from a slowdown in demand so far this year, led by the U.S., Canada and Europe, which offset benefits from stronger sales in emerging markets such as Mexico and Poland.

The company has undertaken cost-cutting measures, including workforce reduction. Analysts have said this is a response to a more challenging environment both for the company and the broader spirits industry.
Net sales fell 3% from a year ago to $1.04 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $1.07 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/brown-forman-misses-quarterly-sales-estimates-muted-spirits-demand-2025-03-05/

U.S. President Donald Trump will exempt automakers from his punishing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for one month as long as they comply with existing free trade rules, the White House said on Wednesday, a development that halted at least for now Wall Street’s steepest skid in nearly three months.
Trump is also open to hearing about other products that should be exempted from the tariffs, which took effect Tuesday, the White House said.

But Trump made clear he was not calling off his trade war with Canada and Mexico as he pressures both countries to deter fentanyl smuggling. After a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump said he was not convinced the situation had improved.
“He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough,'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner!”
Public data shows only 0.2% of all fentanyl seized in the U.S. comes from across the Canadian border, while the vast majority originates from the southern border.

Canada is willing to reduce its retaliation to U.S. tariffs if the Trump administration drops some of the tariffs it has imposed, a Canadian government source said.
Negotiations between Ottawa and Washington were continuing, and no deal had yet been reached, the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned.
The one-month reprieve sparked a rebound in auto stocks, but trade tensions have created uncertainty for U.S. corporations and sapped consumer confidence, leading to a selloff in stocks in recent days.
General Motors (GM.N), shares were up 7.2% and Ford (F.N), gained 5.8% on Wednesday, but both shares are still down on the year.
Trump’s tariffs pose extreme difficulties for automakers, which produce vehicles in all three countries and often ship parts across North American borders multiple times as they get built into systems and finished vehicles.

A one-month exemption for cars and trucks that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s complex content rules, as Trump has outlined, would be a boon for Ford, GM and Stellantis (STLAM.MI)

Trump also might eliminate the 10% tariff on Canadian energy imports, such as crude oil and gasoline, that comply with the USMCA rules of origin, a source familiar with the discussions said.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Bloomberg it was “to be determined” whether specific agricultural products such as potash and fertilizer might be carved out, saying “everything is on the table.”
Trump’s tariffs have damaged relations between the three trading partners. Canada has hit back with tariffs of its own on selected U.S. imports, while Mexico has vowed to retaliate as well.
Mexican state-run oil company Pemex is in talks with potential buyers in Europe and Asia, including China, as it seeks alternative markets for its crude after Trump’s tariffs, a senior Mexican government official said. Nearly 60% of Pemex’s exported barrels went to the U.S. last year.

BOON FOR DETROIT

At the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal questioned Musk’s chances, stating that Indian EV leaders Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are too deeply entrenched for Tesla to displace.
Tesla’s long-awaited entry into India is finally taking shape, with the company securing a showroom in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and hiring for key roles. The five-year lease, beginning in February 2025, will cost Tesla approximately $446,000 in the first year, increasing by 5 per cent annually. Hiring efforts are also underway for store managers, service staff, and customer engagement roles. However, not everyone is convinced of Tesla’s ability to thrive in India.

Jindal: ‘Musk Can’t Do What Tata and Mahindra Can’

Jindal expressed his scepticism, highlighting Musk’s lack of local presence and the strength of Indian automakers. “Elon Musk is not here. He is in the US,” he remarked. “We Indians are here. He cannot produce what Mahindra can do, what Tata can do—it’s not possible. He can do (it) under Trump’s shadow, in the US. He’s super smart, no question about it. He’s a maverick, doing spacecraft and all that. He’s done amazing work, so I don’t want to take anything from him. But to be successful in India is not an easy job.”

Jindal, whose company has a joint venture with Chinese automaker SAIC under the MG Motor brand, is also working on launching a fully owned EV business. “I’m putting my heart and soul into the auto business, and I’m 100 per cent sure it will be super successful; there’s nothing that can stop me. This country needs a huge amount of autos, huge amounts of good quality stuff,” he added.

India’s EV Tariffs: Tesla’s Biggest Challenge

A major hurdle for Tesla’s entry into India is the country’s steep import duties. Currently, fully assembled imported EVs attract tariffs exceeding 100 per cent. Musk has repeatedly criticised these duties, arguing that they make Tesla’s vehicles prohibitively expensive for Indian buyers.
The US government has been pushing India to lower car import duties as part of a trade deal, but Indian authorities remain cautious. New Delhi is promoting its domestic EV manufacturing through the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars (SMEC), which allows foreign companies to import EVs at a reduced 15 per cent tariff—provided they commit at least $500 million to local production.

This policy is designed to attract foreign investment, but Indian automakers argue that it places domestic players at a disadvantage. The government is considering an on-tap facility that would allow companies like Tesla to test the market before committing to full-scale production.

Tata Motors and Mahindra Brace for Tesla’s Entry

India’s leading EV manufacturers are not sitting idle. Tata Motors, which dominates the market with a 62 per cent share, recently celebrated 2 lakh EV sales by offering incentives such as exchange bonuses, 100 per cent financing, and free charging perks.
Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra’s Chairman Anand Mahindra has expressed confidence in his company’s ability to compete. Drawing a parallel to the 1991 economic liberalisation that brought global carmakers to India, he stated,“We have not just survived, but we continue working like maniacs to remain relevant even a century from now. With your support, we will make it happen.”
Mahindra’s latest electric models, the XEV 9e and BE 6e, have received a positive market response, further solidifying its position in the EV race.
Tesla is expected to enter the Indian market as early as April 2024, initially importing cars from its German plant. However, its success is far from guaranteed. With high import duties, strong domestic competition, and an evolving regulatory landscape, Tesla will need to navigate multiple challenges to establish itself in India.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/tesla-doesnt-stand-a-chance-jindal-doubts-musks-success-as-ev-giants-tata-mahindra-hold-firm-in-india-article-118748773

Ranya Rao had travelled to Dubai four times in 15 days, prompting authorities to conduct a targeted operation upon her return.

Ranya Rao, an actor and the daughter of a senior IPS officer, was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at Bengaluru International Airport after she was found in possession of 14.8 kg of gold. The DRI busted the major smuggling racket, termed to be the biggest seizure of gold at the Bengaluru airport, while Rao was just one step away from clearing the airport security.

Ranya Rao was presented before an economic offences court, which remanded her to 14 days in judicial custody.

Acting on specific intelligence, DRI officers intercepted Rao, who had arrived from Dubai to Bengaluru via Emirates flight on March 3, 2025. Upon examination, gold bars weighing 14.8 kg were found ingeniously concealed on the person. The contraband, valued at Rs. 12.56 crore, was seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

Following the interception, DRI officers conducted a search at her residential premises located at Lavelle Road, Bengaluru, where she resides with her husband, sources reported.

The search resulted in the seizure of gold jewelry worth Rs. 2.06 crore and Indian currency amounting to Rs. 2.67 crore.

The total seizure in the case stands at Rs. 17.29 crore, marking a significant blow to organised gold smuggling networks.

Travelled Multiple Times To Dubai

According to sources, Ranya Rao had travelled to Dubai four times in 15 days, prompting authorities to conduct a targeted operation upon her return. In addition to this, she was seen wearing the same clothes every time she travelled to Dubai.

The actress may have attempted to use her connections to bypass customs checks, preliminary investigations suggested.

China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.

The world’s top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on all Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products.

“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.

It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president and comes as leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress.

On Wednesday, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that “changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace.” This increase was expected and matches the figure announced last year.

Leaders in Beijing are trying to send a message to people in China that they are confident the country’s economy can grow, even with the threat of a trade war.

China has been keen to portray an image of being a stable, peaceful country in contrast to the US, which Beijing accuses of being embroiled in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

China may also hope to capitalise on Trump’s actions relating to US allies such as Canada and Mexico, which have also been hit by tariffs, and will not want to ramp up the rhetoric too far to scare off potential new global partners.

The Premier’s speech in Beijing on Wednesday emphasised that China would continue to open up and hoped to attract more foreign investment.

China has, in the past emphasised that it is ready to go to war. Last October, President Xi called for troops to strengthen their preparedness for war as they held military drills around the self-governing island of Taiwan. But there is a difference between military preparedness and a readiness to go to war.

The Chinese embassy in Washington’s post quoted a foreign ministry statement in English from the previous day, which also accused the US of blaming China for the influx of the drug fentanyl

“The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise US tariffs on Chinese imports,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” he added.

The US-China relationship is always one of the most contentious in the world. This post on X has been widely shared and could be used by the China hawks in Trump’s cabinet as evidence that Beijing is Washington’s biggest foreign policy and economic threat.

Officials in Beijing had been hopeful that US–China relations under Trump could get off to a more cordial start after he invited Xi to his inauguration. Trump also said the two leaders had “a great phone call” just a few days before he entered the White House.

There were reports that the two leaders were due to have another call last month. That did not happen.

Xi had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment.

China has pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy and its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp parliament, which passes decisions already made behind closed doors.

China has the world’s second-largest military budget at $245bn but it is far smaller than that of the US. Beijing spends 1.6% of GDP on its military, far less than the US or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmd3g2nzqo

Two years ago, on his bank adviser’s suggestion, Rajesh Kumar pulled out his savings – fixed deposits included – and shifted to mutual funds, stocks and bonds.

With India’s stock market booming, Mr Kumar, a Bihar-based engineer, joined millions investing in publicly traded companies. Six years ago, only one in 14 Indian households channelled their savings into the stock market – now, it’s one in five.

But the tide has turned.

For six months, India’s markets have slid as foreign investors pulled out, valuations remained high, earnings weakened and global capital shifted to China – wiping out $900bn in investor value since their September peak. While the decline began before US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, they have now become a bigger drag as more details emerge.

India’s benchmark Nifty 50 share index, which tracks the country’s top 50 publicly traded companies, is on its longest losing streak in 29 years, declining for five straight months. This is a significant slump in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. Stock brokers are reporting that their activity has dropped by a third.

“For more than six months now, my investments have been in the red. This is the worst experience in the last decade that I have been invested in stock market,” Mr Kumar says.

Mr Kumar, 55, now keeps little money in the bank, having shifted most of his savings to the stock market. With his son’s 1.8 million-rupee ($20,650; £16,150) private medical college fee due in July, he worries about selling investments at a loss to cover it. “Once the market recovers, I’m thinking of moving some money back to the bank,” he says.

His anxieties reflect those of millions of middle-class Indians who have poured into the stock market from cities big and small – part of a financial revolution.

The go-to investment route is Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), where funds collect fixed monthly contributions. The number of Indians investing through SIPs has soared past 100 million, nearly trebling from 34 million five years ago. Many first-time investors, lured by the promise of high returns, enter with limited risk awareness – often influenced by a wave of social media “finfluencers” on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, a mixed bag of experts and amateurs alike.

Meet Tarun Sircar, a retired marketing manager, and you get a glimpse of India’s new investor.

When his public provident fund – a government-backed tax-free investment – matured last year, he sought a way to secure his retirement. Burnt by past stock market losses, he turned to mutual funds – this time with an adviser’s help and a buoyant market.

“I’ve put 80% of my savings into mutual funds, keeping just 20% in the bank. Now my adviser warns me – Don’t check your investments for six months, unless you want a heart attack!”

For now, Mr Sircar isn’t entirely sure if moving his retirement fund into the stock market was the right decision. “I’m both ignorant and confident,” he says with wry candour. “Ignorant about what’s happening and why the market is reacting this way, yet confident because Instagram ‘experts’ make investing sound like a fast track to millions. At the same time, I know I might be caught in a web of deception and hype.”

Mr Sircar says he was drawn to the markets by TV shows hyping stocks and excited chatter in WhatsApp groups. “The TV anchors talk up the market and people in my WhatsApp group boast about their stock market gains,” he says.

In his sprawling apartment complex, even teenagers discuss investments – in fact, during a badminton game, a teenager gave him a hot tip on a telecom stock. “When you hear all this around you, you start thinking – why not give it a shot? So I did, and then the markets crashed.”

Mr Sircar lives in hope. “My fingers are crossed. I am sure the markets will recover, and my fund will be back in green.”

There are others who have taken more risks and already lost money. Lured by get-rich-quick videos, Ramesh (name changed), an accounting clerk from a small industrial town in western India, borrowed money to invest in stocks during the pandemic.

Hooked to YouTube influencers, he dived into risky penny stocks and trading in derivatives. This month, after losing over $1,800 – more than his annual salary – he shut his brokerage account and swore off the market.

“I borrowed this money, and now creditors are after me,” he says.

Ramesh is one of 11 million Indians who lost a combined $20bn in futures and options trades before regulators stepped in.

“This crash is unlike the one during the Covid pandemic,” says financial adviser Samir Doshi. “Back then, we had a clear path to recovery with vaccines on the horizon. But with the Trump factor in play, uncertainty looms – we simply don’t know what’s next.”

Fuelled by digital platforms, low-cost brokerages and government-driven financial inclusion, investing has become more accessible – smartphones and user-friendly apps have simplified market participation, drawing a broader, younger audience seeking alternatives to traditional assets.

On the flip side, many new Indian investors need a reality check. “The stock market isn’t a gambling den – you must manage expectations,” says Monika Halan, author and financial educator. “Invest in equity only what you won’t need for at least seven years. If you’re taking on risk, understand the downside: How much could I lose? Can I afford that loss?”

This market crash couldn’t have hit India’s middle class at a worse time. Economic growth is slowing, wages remain stagnant, private investment has been sluggish for years and job creation isn’t keeping pace. Amid these challenges, many new investors, lured by rising markets, are now grappling with unexpected losses.

“In normal times, savers can take short-term setbacks, because they have steady incomes, which keep adding to their savings,” noted Aunindyo Chakravarty, a financial analyst.

“Now, we are in the midst of a massive economic crisis for the middle-class. On the one side, white-collar job opportunities are reducing, and raises are low. On the other, the real inflation faced by middle-class households – as opposed to the average retail inflation that the government compiles – is at its highest in recent memory. A stock market correction at such a time is disastrous for middle-class household finances.”

Financial advisers like Jaideep Marathe believe that some people will start taking money out of the market and move them to safer bank deposits if the volatility continues for another six to eight months. “We are spending a lot of time telling clients not to liquidate their portfolios and to treat this as a cyclical event.”

But clearly, all hope is not lost – most believe that the market is correcting itself from previous highs.

Foreign investor selling has eased since February, suggesting the market downturn may be nearing its end, says veteran market expert Ajay Bagga. Following the correction, valuations for many stock market indices have dipped below their 10-year average, providing some respite.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7vlezv05no

Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has told the BBC she takes US President Donald Trump’s remarks on making Canada the 51st state of his country “very seriously”.

“This is not a joke anymore,” Joly told Newsnight. “There’s a reason why Canadians, when they go out on a hockey game, are booing the American national anthem… We’re insulted. We’re mad. We’re angry.”

Her comments come after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on products entering the US from Canada on Tuesday. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called that a “very dumb thing to do” and announced retaliatory tariffs.

However, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump would “probably” announce a deal to reduce tariffs on Wednesday.

In response, Joly told the BBC that “at the end of the day, the only one that really takes a decision is President Trump”.

She said no Trump administration secretaries had contacted their Canadian counterparts on Monday or Tuesday about tariffs.

Trump and Trudeau, however, are expected to speak over the phone on Wednesday morning, according to sources who spoke to CNN and the Toronto Star.

Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on 4 February, but delayed implementation until 4 March. Canadian energy imports face a 10% tariff.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford implemented a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states, and if tariffs escalated, said he would consider cutting Michigan, New York and Minnesota off from Canadian power.

Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on goods worth more than $800 (£645) from China in February, which doubled in March. China responded with its own tariffs.

The White House said when it introduced the tariffs that it was “taking bold action to hold [the three countries] accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country”.

Fentanyl is linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the US each year.

Trudeau said his country was responsible for less than 1% of fentanyl entering the US.

Canada had introduced new border security measures in December, in response to Trump’s tariff threats before he took office.

“We didn’t want this trade war. We did everything that was required under the executive order to make sure our border was safe and secure,” Joly told the BBC, but said “this is a bogus excuse on the part of the Trump administration against us”.

Joly said Canada was the “canary in the coal mine”, with the Europeans next, and the UK after that. Trump has threatened 25% tariffs on the European Union as well.

She said Canada and the UK should work together: “That’s also why I went to London to make sure that if there are tariffs imposed, we should work on counter-tariffs well.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg198xxy1xo

Scientists have discovered how aspirin may stop some cancers from spreading, describing it as a “Eureka moment”.

The new research builds on existing evidence suggesting aspirin supports a boost in the immune system to help catch deadly cancer cells.

Clinical trials in cancer patients, examining how aspirin could stop the disease coming back, are ongoing – but experts warn against routinely taking aspirin without speaking to a doctor.

The new research suggests a path for aspirin to become a cancer treatment, alongside the development of more effective drugs to prevent cancer spreading.

Researchers screened 810 genes in mice and found 15 that impact the spread of cancer.

Mice lacking a gene which produces a certain protein, called ARHGEF1, were less likely to have cancer spread to the lungs and liver, the study found.

Scientists found that ARHGEF1 suppresses a type of immune cell called a T cell, which is important for recognising and killing metastatic (spreading to other parts of the body) cancer cells.

They unexpectedly discovered the ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a particular clotting factor, a protein that prevents excessive bleeding.

The clotting factor, called thromboxane A2 (TXA2), is made by platelets in the blood – and aspirin is already known to cut its production.

By decreasing TXA2 production, aspirin can prevent certain cancers from spreading, researchers found.

In mice given aspirin, the frequency of metastases – the spread of cancer – was reduced compared with ones not on the drug, the research, published in the Nature journal and funded by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust, found.

Dr Jie Yang, from the team which led the study at the University of Cambridge, described the discovery about TXA2 as a “Eureka moment”.

“It was an entirely unexpected finding which sent us down quite a different path of inquiry than we had anticipated,” Dr Yang said.

“Aspirin, or other drugs that could target this pathway, have the potential to be less expensive than antibody-based therapies, and therefore more accessible globally.

Researchers are now working with Professor Ruth Langley at University College London, who is leading a study into whether aspirin can stop or delay early stage cancers from returning.

Prof Langley said: “This is an important discovery. It will enable us to interpret the results of ongoing clinical trials and work out who is most likely to benefit from aspirin after a cancer diagnosis.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/eureka-moment-as-scientists-discover-how-aspirin-could-stop-some-cancers-spreading-13322196

Scientists believe they have discovered how the cheap painkiller aspirin can stop cancers spreading.

In animal experiments they showed the drug enhanced the ability of the immune system to fight back.

The team at the University of Cambridge said it was an exciting and surprise discovery that could eventually lead to cancer patients being prescribed the drug – but not yet and people are advised against just taking the pills themselves.

Regular aspirin comes with risks and trials are still trying to figure out which patients are most likely to benefit.

Tantalising data from more than a decade ago showed people who were already taking a daily aspirin were more likely to survive if they were diagnosed with cancer.

But how?

It appears to centre on a moment of vulnerability for a cancer – when a lone cell breaks off from the original tumour and tries, like a seed on the wind, to spread elsewhere in the body.

This process is called metastasis and is the cause of the majority of deaths from cancer.

Part of our immune defences – a white blood cell called a T-cell – can swoop in and destroy the spreading cancer as it tries to take root.

But the study showed that another part of our blood – the platelets that normally stop bleeding – were suppressing the T-cells and making it harder for them to take out the cancer.

Aspirin disrupts the platelets and removes their influence over the T-cells so they can hunt out the cancer.

Prof Rahul Roychoudhuri, from the University of Cambridge, told me: “What we’ve discovered is that aspirin might work, surprisingly, by unleashing the power of the immune system to recognize and kill metastasizing cancer cells.”

He thinks the drug would work best in cancers that have been caught early and could be used after treatment such as surgery to help the immune system find any cancer that might already have spread.

US President Donald Trump has told Gazans to hand over Israeli hostages or “you are dead”.

The threat, made over social media, came hours after the White House confirmed that US officials had broken with tradition to hold direct talks with Hamas.

The US has previously avoided direct contact with the group owing to Washington’s longstanding position not to negotiate with terrorists – with Hamas having been designated as a terrorist group in the US since 1997.

In a press conference on Wednesday, White House press secretary Ms Keavitt said there had been “ongoing talks and discussions” between the US officials and Hamas.

But she would not be drawn on the substance of the talks – taking place in Doha, Qatar – between US officials and Hamas, but said Israel had been consulted.

Ms Leavitt continued: “Dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people, is something that the president has proven is what he believes is a good faith, effort to do what’s right for the American people.”

There are “American lives at stake,” she added.

Adam Boehler, Mr Trump’s pick to be special envoy for hostage affairs, participated in the direct talks with Hamas.

A spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas”.

Hours later, Mr Trump warned Hamas to hand over Israeli hostages or “it’s over for you” – adding: “This is your last warning”.

On his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote: “Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you.

“Only sick and twisted people keep bodies and you are sick and twisted. I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

Mr Trump met with freed Israeli hostages on Wednesday, something he referenced in his social media post, before adding: “This is your last warning. For the leadership of Hamas, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.

“Also, to the people of Gaza, a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead. Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later.”

Israel estimates about 24 living hostages, including American citizen Edan Alexander, and the bodies of at least 35 others, are still believed to be in Gaza.

The US has a long-held policy of not negotiating with terrorists – which it is breaking with these talks as Hamas has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government’s National Counterterrorism Center since 1997.

The discussions come as a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues to hold, but its future is uncertain.

Mr Trump has signalled he has no intention of pushing the Israeli prime minister away from a return to combat if Hamas does not agree to terms of a new ceasefire proposal – which, Israel says, has been drafted by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages – the group’s main bargaining chip – in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/trump-tells-gazans-you-are-dead-if-israeli-hostages-are-not-immediately-handed-over-13322252

A FORMER World’s Strongest Man competitor has become the second person to have nearly died by taking on a notorious CrossFit challenge after his muscles “blew up.”

Michael Congdon took on the infamous Murph Challenge, which includes huge amounts of runs, pull-ups, push-ups and squats, mistakenly thinking it would be less extreme than powerlifting.

The 32-year-old, who finished fourth in 2018’s World’s Strongest Man competition, admitted he didn’t sleep or drink enough before the event, so he was “borderline puking and delirious” during it.

Hulking 252-pound Congdon refused to give up and completed the challenge on May 27 last year in immense pain with his arm muscles feeling “inflated by a pump,” he said.

Two days later, he said his painful muscles looked like a balloon animal.

“I was in straight agony with tears streaming down my face,” he said.

“My fiance was putting ice packs under my back while I was laying on the floor of the bathroom because it was too much pain.”

He was rushed to hospital – where he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.

The condition is often caused by high-intensity exercise and causes muscles to break down and release harmful substances that can cause organ failure and death.

Video footage from the event in Saint Paul, Minnesota showed 5’9″ Michael just moments after completing the Murph challenge, dripping with sweat and so exhausted he struggled to speak.

The Murph challenge consists of a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run, all done while wearing a weighted vest.

Fitness enthusiast Jessica Johnson was also diagnosed with rhabdo while training for the exact same challenge in August 2024 after her muscles exploded from doing 50 pull-ups.

The 25-year-old was left looking like the hulk with sore and swollen arms and was forced to spend four days in hospital where doctors feared having to cut her arms open to release the pressure.

“I was very shocked. It felt embarrassing. I was admitted into the hospital for four days,” Johnson said.

“I thought, ‘I’m here because I did too hard of a workout and I’m literally one of the fittest people I know.’ I was definitely shocked and didn’t know that this could happen.”

Michael has since revealed he feared for his life during the scary ordeal and now wants to warn others that “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

My lats were so inflated and my elbows, biceps and forearms were so inflamed at this point I couldn’t straighten my arms. I was running like a complete ogre. I looked like an idiot but I was committed to finishing this thing

After spending 10 years pushing to be one of the strongest guys in America, his near-death experience pushed him to focus on fishing instead.

The Wisconsin native said, “I was really scared for my life.

“That moment alone terrified me so much that I rescinded any need to find any of my physical limits ever again.

“I was one of the strongest guys in the US then I went to CrossFit because I wanted to do something less extreme.”

He continued, “The nature of Strongman is extreme effort for a short amount of time and that’s what my body was built for.”

TERRIFYING WORKOUT

Congdon said he was unprepared for the Murph challenge because he had done only about four CrossFit workouts before taking on the event.

“I was dehydrated too because I think I only had a Gatorade before I got there without any food. It was raining outside and I barely slept,” he said.

“I ripped through 50 pull-ups in the first few sets and then it immediately felt like my lats, my forearms and my biceps were being inflated with an air hose.

“I thought, ‘Wow this is a really great pump.’

“When I had 50 more to do it just kept feeling like they were being inflated more and more and It started to hurt really bad.

“By the end of it I couldn’t bend my arms, they were stuck at 90 degrees.”

He said he tried to keep going through the push-ups but reached an intense level of pain, causing tears to roll down his face.

“Then I had 300 squats to do so I got through that and was borderline puking and delirious, he said.

“I thought, ‘Wow this is kind of fun, I’ve never pushed myself this hard.’

“My lats were so inflated and my elbows, biceps and forearms were so inflamed at this point I couldn’t straighten my arms.

“I was running like a complete ogre. I looked like an idiot but I was committed to finishing this thing.”

Congdon said the experience left him feeling “unsafe in his own body.”

STEPPING AWAY

Michael admitted the experience pushed him to step away from extreme physical challenges, and now he prioritizes fishing and potentially starting a family.

He said, “Pushing myself to the max and almost dying was the final straw. I only do enough to feel good now.

“I don’t train nearly as much, if at all. That was a truly life-changing, mind-changing moment.

“I was one of the strongest guys in America for my size in Strongman and it was the premise of pushing yourself to the absolute limit that I always loved.

“I thought ‘I’ve never died from going as hard as I possibly can so I can’t die.’

“I spent most of my adult life chasing this dream,” he said, adding he wanted to be the strongest man ever without drugs.

“I think I got really damn close.”

He added, “There’s a complete difference between pushing yourself and running yourself into the ground and for a long time I had this weird idea that ‘the more it hurt the better progress I would gain’.

“For certain events in Strongman you need extreme pain tolerance so some of that is true.

“But the cost of gaining that toughness is not what I desire anymore. Whether you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

“Life is precious and short and I understand, more than anyone, the desire to push yourself in the most extreme ways physically – but we don’t need to take things to the extremes.”

Congdon has lost about 34 pounds now as he tries to change his priorities.

“I’ve always loved ice fishing and I fish so that’s what and what I’m doing now outside of work,” he said.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13704742/bodybuilder-rhabdo-worlds-strongest-man-michael-congdon/

It’s just the latest emergency meeting of European Union (EU) heads of state and government, following Sunday’s gathering in London hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a couple of earlier ones called by French President Emmanuel Macron.

With the United States’ military and financial support for Ukraine suspended and its commitment to European security unclear, the EU has no choice but to get real on improving security self-sufficiency.

Ursula von der Leyen wanted to underscore that things really are worse than ever, writing in a letter to EU leaders that the continent “faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us have seen in our adult lifetime. The future of a free and sovereign Ukraine — of a safe and prosperous Europe — is on the line.”

More money for military

She hopes the ReArm Europe plan removes some of the economic excuses for low defense budgets that governments have used in the past. One way the plan aims to do this is by allowing governments to break the rules governing their maximum debt-to-GDP ratio when it comes to defense spending. Von der Leyen suggests if every member country spent 1.5% more, it would amount to nearly 650 billion euros more for military investment over the next four years.

ReArm Europe would also create a new mechanism to provide €150 billion for loans backed by the common EU budget, a concept that has been controversial among some countries. This money, an EU official explained, could be tapped into by two or three member states working together, or two plus Ukraine. It’s aimed at joint purchases of large-scale equipment and capabilities, such as air and missile defense, drones and cyber preparedness, and especially areas where Europe is currently dependent on the US.

A senior EU official speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity said the desired outcome of the summit is that leaders “indicate that those proposals should move forward very swiftly” to enable the EU to create its own credible defense.

Hungary-Slovakia hangup?

Hungary and Slovakia have signaled their traditional opposition to any moves to help Ukraine, with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico even releasing a letter leading with that principle.

But there is room for optimistic interepretation in this letter that Fico won’t block EU actions that don’t force Slovakia to contribute. And the primary goal of the plan is for countries to have access to financing to scale up their own defense first.

Giuseppe Spatafora, a research analyst with the EU Institute for Security Studies, believes von der Leyen’s plan will be able to achieve unanimous approval, even if not immediately at the summit, because the stakes have finally gotten so high. He’s just released a study on how US abandonment of Europe could play out.

Spatafora says the fact that the package contains a range of options — borrowing more, spending on joint procurement, shifting money from cohesion funds to defense spending — “is a way of maximizing consensus.”

He also interprets the relatively sparse mention of Ukraine in the plan as purposeful, “to avoid vetoes by some member states.”

Even with countries that have been uncomfortable with the EU playing a bigger role in what is usually left to national governments or NATO, “you need to start with money,” Spatafora points out. “And the EU’s role will be most welcome if it provides additional resources, primarily money.”

Switch in Sweden, green light in Germany

Sweden has been among those countries reluctant to accept a larger EU role in, and common funding of, defense.

But Calle Hakansson, a researcher with the Swedish Defense Research Agency, says there’s been a “change of tone and urgency these last few days” following the deterioration of relations between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, and the subsequent cut-off of US aid to Ukraine.

Now, Hakansson said, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told his parliament that he supports the ReArm Europe package in full, after other countries that previously had reservations, such as Finland, Denmark and Germany, changed their positions.

“Sweden didn’t want to be the last one standing,” Hakansson said. “This package has been developed for quite some time, but I think that the ambition probably was increased these past few weeks. There is a real kind of urgency and a real feeling that Europe could be left alone.”

Speaking of changed positions, just a few hours after von der Leyen unveiled her package of proposals, the likely next partners in a new German government led by expected chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that once in office, they intend to loosen Germany’s national brake on debt to allow for higher defense spending. Merz pledges €500 billion more for defense along with €500 billion more for infrastructure.

Jeremy Cliffe of the European Council on Foreign Relations called both the change in Germany and the “sheer fiscal firepower” it will unleash “mind-boggling.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/eu-leaders-seek-security-within-the-bloc-without-the-us/a-71833100

Holding up a lump of coal in the federal parliament in 2017, Australia’s then soon-to-be prime minister Scott Morrison said the fossil fuel was integral to a “certain energy future.” Yet the capital city he stood in was almost 100% powered by wind and the sun.

This goal was reached in 2020 when the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) — home to the nation’s half a million-strong capital, Canberra — had enough renewable electricity to make coal and gas obsolete.

It was the first state or city with a population above 100,000 to decarbonize its grid outside of Europe — the first being Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, a city with 70% clean hydroelectricity. In 2021, Canberra was judged the world’s most sustainable city by UK energy comparison website, Uswitch.

But at the same time, the broader Australian nation ranked bottom among OECD nations on clean energy investment, making the ACT a green outlier.

Still today, the average share of electricity generated by renewables in Australia is only around 35%. In Germany, by comparison, carbon-free electricity already powers some 60% of the national electricity grid. Yet as its coal-fired power plants close and the price of solar and wind plummet, sun-rich Australia is tipped to make up for lost time and achieve its 2030 target of 82% renewables powering the electricity grid.

So how was the nation’s capital able to become a clean energy island within a sea of fossil fuels?

Canberra’s revolutionary road to decarbonization

In the mid-2010s, when Australia’s ruling conservative government shut down clean energy initiatives nationally to maintain reliance on coal and gas, renewable energy investments ground to a halt, explained Geoffrey Rutledge, deputy director-general for environment, water and emissions reduction at the ACT government.

But ACT authorities were willing to go it alone and make large investments in new solar and wind projects to decarbonize its grid — the “easiest and cheapest” first step towards its goal of net zero emissions by 2045, Rutledge said.

It helped that the ACT had a pro-environment center-left government that has remained in power since 2001, in addition to a largely climate conscious population, explained energy expert Greg Bourne, a climate councillor with independent Australian climate organization, The Climate Council.

“They had a long-term vision,” he said, adding that an incumbent regional government allowed the ACT to avoid the climate politics that hindered ambition at the national level. “They could ignore the machinations of federal government and fossil-fuel lobbyists.”

The ACT also looked to countries in Europe, sending a delegation to Freiburg in Germany, a solar energy pioneer, as it created its own Renewables Hub in 2016 to drive clean energy innovation and investment.

Trailblazing research in photovoltaic solar panels at the Australian National University in Canberra was thrown into the mix, Bourne noted.

Soon enough, the ACT was offering contracts to renewable energy firms that would become the nation’s largest wind and solar projects both within the ACT, but mostly beyond in larger states. The power generated when the renewables went online gradually offset the fossil energy consumed by ACT residents, Rutledge explained.

The ACT was in a unique position to “make early moves when there was little appetite for renewables,” said Rutledge, since, unlike bigger Australian states, it had no existing investments in large and costly coal or gas power plants.

Apart from three solar farms located within the ACT’s borders, some 95% of its renewable power is generated by five wind farms located in suitable areas in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. This energy did not flow to Canberra directly, but simply went into the national grid to offset the ACT’s former reliance on coal-powered electricity.

Consolidating clean, green, decentralized energy

Canberra residents now pay between $257-385 (€245-367) less for their annual electricity bills than their neighbors in the state of New South Wales, according to Rutledge. This is because the fixed ACT renewable price is often lower than electricity powered by fossil fuels that are subject to volatile market swings.

Canberrans are also benefitting from a “highly distributed” or decentralized energy network where, in addition to solar and wind projects, citizens create energy when they drive their EVs or power their homes with the sun. While ACT residents have a high rooftop solar uptake, state subsidies across Australia means the nation has the most solar panels per capita in the world.

When the ACT set an ambitious 2045 net-zero target in 2018, its further goal was to move away from a 1960s model, whereby major metropolises relied on massive, centralized power plants.

“Energy is generated almost everywhere, is used everywhere, is stored everywhere,” said Bourne.

Battery storage projects are also being developed across the ACT to limit reliance on a centralized grid, including 5,000 storage batteries in homes and businesses.

A “vehicle to grid” trial is also underway in which electric car batteries — the ACT is also the EV capital of Australia through generous incentives — are used to charge homes and public hospitals, for example, to guard against blackouts, says Ruttledge.

All public housing will also be electrified within the next five years, meaning no gas or oil appliances — a gas phase-out is being gradually applied to all households.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/australian-capital-canberra-journey-to-renewable-power/a-71694896

Private meetings and group dinners with the leader of the most powerful country in the world are being sold for millions, according to Wired.

The tech publication revealed on Tuesday that it had received an invitation to reserve a seat at a dinner with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort for $1 million, with the most recent event occurring this past Saturday. It was listed on Trump’s official presidential schedule as the “MAGA INC. Candlelight Finance Dinner.”

“You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation read, according to Wired. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”

In addition to these intimate dinners, Trump is selling one-on-one meetings for $5 million, with one source referring to them as the “hot ticket” in the business community. The money is apparently “all going to the library,” a source told Wired, referring to the presidential library Trump plans on building after he leaves office.

Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said he does not recall a sitting president asking for millions of dollars in fundraising during the first few weeks of his term. Moynihan is one of many experts perturbed by Trump’s pricey gatherings.

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/private-meetings-president-trump-mar-lago-are-being-sold-millions-577640

Microplastics aren’t just polluting our oceans and landscapes; they’re infiltrating our bodies. Scientists have discovered that human brains can contain approximately a spoonful of microscopic plastic particles, with dementia patients showing three to five times higher concentrations. This unsettling finding raises urgent questions about how these tiny, pervasive pollutants might be affecting brain health.

A new review published in Brain Medicine examines the evidence about human exposure to these microscopic plastic particles. The paper looks at how they get into our tissues and what they might be doing to our health, especially to our brains.

“The dramatic increase in brain microplastic concentrations over just eight years, from 2016 to 2024, is particularly alarming,” says lead study author Dr. Nicholas Fabiano from the University of Ottawa, in a statement. “This jump reflects the exponential increase we’re seeing in environmental microplastic levels.”

Microplastics are tiny plastic fragments measuring from 5 millimeters down to 1 micrometer, while nanoplastics are even tinier at less than 1 micrometer. For context, a human hair is roughly 70 micrometers thick, meaning many of these particles can’t be seen without special equipment.

The research tells us that brain tissues contain 7-30 times more microplastics than organs like the liver or kidney. The brain particles are usually smaller (less than 200 nanometers) and mostly made of polyethylene, the same plastic used in shopping bags and water bottles.

Dr. Fabiano and his colleagues found these tiny particles accumulating in brain blood vessel walls and immune cells by examining post-mortem brains. Their minuscule size potentially allows them to cross the blood-brain barrier, the brain’s natural defense system, raising questions about their role in brain diseases.

Personal characteristics like age, sex, and race didn’t affect microplastic levels in brain tissue. However, the researchers noticed a disturbing pattern: a 50% increase in plastic concentration in samples from 2024 compared to 2016.

Growing Environmental Crisis

Each year, about 10-40 million tons of microplastics enter the environment, with this amount likely to double by 2040. These particles now exist everywhere, from ocean depths to mountain peaks, and in our food, water, and air.

Health Effects

Research suggests microplastic exposure may cause numerous health problems. These include inflammation, immune system disruption, metabolic changes, cell growth issues, and possibly cancer.

A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people with artery plaque containing microplastics faced higher risks of heart attack, stroke, and death. Another study showed that patients with inflammatory bowel disease had about 1.5 times more microplastics in their stool than healthy people.

Brain Impact

In the run-up to the Academy Awards, Neon took a unique approach to scoring the season’s top prize for “Anora.” While other studios spent their money on tried-and-true strategies, from tastemaker screenings to glossy ads, Neon pulled up a tow truck in front of a Los Angeles auto body shop for a pop-up “Anora” merchandise sale in November — complete with branded T-shirts and thongs. Some 300 fans queued up before the vehicle even arrived. And for its first screening of the film about a Brooklyn escort who marries a Russian oligarch’s kid, the boutique distributor filled the audience with sex workers rather than Oscar voters.

“We follow the beat of our own drum,” says Tom Quinn, Neon’s CEO. “The idea of pandering to the campaign as opposed to being who you are as a film is a big, stark difference. We never play to the campaign. We always play to the film, filmmaker and audience — in that order.”

The strategy may be unconventional, but it’s hard to beat the results. For the second time since it launched in 2017, Neon captured the best picture statuette. For context, neither the legacy studio Disney nor the deep-pocketed Netflix has ever landed a single best picture Oscar, never mind two. Neon, with a staff of 60 people, has pulled off the achievement twice in five years, making the indie film company the hottest label in town.

“They have climbed to the top of the mountain,” says Marc Simon, a veteran film finance attorney. “And they’ve reached the pinnacle by being disciplined and smart. They know when to take swings and how to manage risks.”

This year, Neon’s rivals spent lavishly, with one entertainment company said to have plunked down $60 million on a single film’s awards-season campaign. By his standards, Quinn spent a lot — $18 million on the marketing, distribution and awards campaign of “Anora.” In other words, three times the budget of Sean Baker’s movie itself. Still, it was slightly less than the $20 million that the company spent on “Parasite,” its first best picture winner.

Some of the coverage of “Anora’s” victory has focused on it being one of the lowest-grossing best picture winners in history, having earned $16.1 million domestically and $41.4 million globally to date. Neon controls domestic rights to the film, while Universal Pictures International handles most overseas territories. Quinn thinks the skeptical coverage of “Anora’s” box office results misses the point. The film will be profitable after digital rentals and licensing deals are considered.

“[Box office] is not the only revenue stream,” he says. “‘Anora’ is No. 1 across every entertainment platform — Amazon, Apple. That is massive.”

David Thion, the producer of “Anatomy of a Fall,” which Neon guided to a best picture nomination and an original screenplay Oscar in 2024, praised Quinn for being scrappy. Thion noted it was Quinn’s idea to make the film’s scene-stealing dog a central part of its campaign. He also appreciated Quinn’s candor.

“Tom told us from the very start, ‘We’re going to demand a lot from you’” Thion says. “‘It’s going to be very intense, you will have to set your own limits, and we will listen to the signs you will send us.’ That was an important message.”

In late 2023, Neon nearly sold itself to Steven Rales, a billionaire industrialist, for a reported $100 million, only to see the deal collapse at the eleventh hour. When the pact failed, there were rumors that the studio, like many other indies in the post-Covid era, was in trouble.

The narrative has clearly changed. In the past few months, Neon nabbed its fifth Palme d’Or in a row for “Anora” at Cannes while its low-budget horror movies “Longlegs” and the still-playing “The Monkey” became box office breakouts, earning $127 million and $31 million worldwide, respectively. The company says that 2024 was its most financially successful year to date.

“Neon has established themselves as one of the preeminent art-house distributors in a very short time and recently embraced one of the most consistent and profitable box office genres in the history of Hollywood — horror,” says analyst Jeff Bock at Exhibitor Relations. “This pivot could legitimately see the indie darling copy A24’s blueprint and expand their reach, boosting their bottom line exponentially.”

There’s been chatter that Neon and A24 are locked in an art-house death match to be the hippest player in cinema. But Quinn insists that’s not the case, saying the A24 team could not have been more gracious when “Anora” triumphed on Oscar night over its film, “The Brutalist.”

“The industry thinks there’s a rivalry, and there’s not,” he says. “It’s good headlines. I thought they might be our biggest competitor. But as it turns out, our biggest competitor has been Netflix. They desperately tried to beat us to buy ‘I, Tonya’ and ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire,’ and we ended up losing out to them on ‘Hit Man,’ ‘May December’ and ‘Fair Play.’ There’s a slew of movies where I’m the second-highest bidder [to Netflix].”

Netflix may have prevailed in several bidding wars, but it isn’t the only company Neon has failed to beat for certain films. Quinn says Neon tried to buy “The Brutalist,” which he hails as a “stone cold masterpiece.” But its director, Brady Corbet, ultimately went with A24 partly because of a disagreement over the release strategy. Corbet wanted the movie to be exhibited in 70 mm, which Quinn thought would be hard to pull off.

“I just thought, ‘Brady, you’ve spent eight years making this. Let’s make sure that you have enough time to build every theater 70 millimeter prints,’” Quinn says. “‘Let’s not sacrifice anything. And I feel that we’re going to be rushed.’ … As much as it hurt to say goodbye, I think Brady made the right decision. He wanted to go this year.”

At certain points during a tumultuous awards season, it seemed as though “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez” or “Conclave” might have the inside track at the Oscars, particularly after “Anora” lost out to these films at other ceremonies such as the Golden Globes and BAFTAs. But Quinn says he never despaired.

“You have to have the conviction and stamina to stick with the whole campaign,” Quinn says. “It’s tough; it’s arduous. Even though we went home completely empty handed at some of those shows, it didn’t change where we were going.”

Quinn never believed, as many pundits did, that “Emilia Pérez,” Jacques Audiard’s genre-spanning musical from Netflix, would prevail on Oscar night. The film’s awards campaign was derailed after a series of offensive social media posts from its star Karla Sofía Gascón resurfaced. The conventional wisdom is that “Emilia Pérez” was headed for a best picture win until the scandal hit. Quinn doesn’t buy it.

“I never did [think it had the momentum],” Quinn says. “And that’s from someone who from ‘Read My Lips’ to ‘The Beat My Heart Skips’ to ‘The Prophet’ and is a big Jacques Audiard fan. I think the movie is very entertaining. It’s no discredit to the film.”

Quinn expects Neon’s two best picture victories to make it easier to attract talent, among them Baker, with whom he’d love to reunite.

“We’re in a better position to be very intentional about who we want to work with,” he says. “We have a really clear idea of who we are and what we want to do in an industry that can be quite flawed and focused on the trend of the day, and approaches every film as a one size fits all.”

Given that Neon almost sold itself once before, is Quinn still entertaining offers?

“Every independent company is for sale,” he says. “We just have no exit plan. The mantra of this company is to support cinema from all over the world and to never have to make sacrifices in pursuit of that based on the P&L. I will do whatever I can do to make it more sustainable, to ensure that we work with exactly who we think is worthwhile to work with. That’s the company we’re building.”

Source : https://variety.com/2025/film/news/anora-oscar-win-neon-awards-strategy-sex-worker-screenings-thongs-1236327977/

The nation’s top public health agency says about 180 employees who were laid off two weeks ago can come back to work.

Emails went out Tuesday to some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention probationary employees who got termination notices last month, according to current and former CDC employees.

A message seen by the AP was sent with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately.” It said that “after further review and consideration,” a Feb. 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday. “You should return to duty under your previous work schedule,” it said. “We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”

About 180 people received reinstatement emails, according to two federal health officials who were briefed on the tally but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It’s not clear how many of the reinstated employees returned to work Wednesday. And it’s also unclear whether the employees would be spared from widespread job cuts that are expected soon across government agencies.

The CDC is the latest federal agency trying to coax back workers soon after they were dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting purge. Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons and national parks.

The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the job cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees.

Last month, Trump administration officials told the CDC that nearly 1,300 of the agency’s probationary employees would be let go. That tally quickly changed, as the number who actually got termination notices turned out to be 700 to 750.

With 180 more people now being told they can return, the actual number of CDC employees terminated so far would seem to stand somewhere around 550. But federal health officials haven’t confirmed any specifics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month pledged “ radical transparency ” at the department, but HHS officials have not provided detail about CDC staff changes and did not respond to emailed requests on Tuesday and Wednesday. An agency spokesman, Andrew Nixon, previously told the AP only that CDC had more full-time employees after the job cuts than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/cdc-reinstatements-c1f0b33d677e5a02a4df1210b82ca930

Nine students who disappeared on holiday have tragically been found dismembered by the side of the road along with a ‘bag of hands’.

Police in southern Mexico made the gruesome discovery at the weekend after the group of friends went missing during a trip to celebrate their graduation. Searches had gone on for days after the alarm was raised by their parents, who had believed they would be found alive.

But on Sunday, the bodies of the four women and five men, aged 19 to 30, were found in the boot of an abandoned car on a rural road between Puebla and Oaxaca, around 175 miles from Mexico City. Initial assessments showed bullet wounds and signs of torture on their bodies, according to Mexican newspaper El Financiero.

Filmmaker Dan Farah discusses his UFO/UAP documentary ‘The Age of Disclosure,’ which premieres at SXSW this weekend: “None of the government leadership I spoke to are debating whether this is real.”

The highly anticipated UFO documentary The Age of Disclosure has its world premiere at South by Southwest Film Festival on Sunday, and filmmaker Dan Farah is finally ready to talk about his years-long secretive effort to make the most credible nonfiction movie ever about the buzzy topic.

What makes The Age of Disclosure stand out among the thousands of previous UFO film and TV documentary efforts over the past several decades is that Farah only included on-record interviews with current and former senior members of the U.S. government, military and intelligence community with direct knowledge of unidentified anomalous phenomena (or UAPs). The result is a riveting look at a subject that’s being taken far more seriously in recent years as high-level officials make statements, release videos, hold hearings and take legislative action (like 2023’s bipartisan UAP Disclosure Act), which all lead to one conclusion: Something is going on.

In The Age of Disclosure, that something is boldly defined at the start of the film by several of its 34 interview subjects: That “non-human intelligent life” exists, that they’ve been visiting our planet for a long time, that the United States entered into an arms race with foreign adversaries to reverse engineer technology from crashed aircraft, and that if certain factions of our government continue to keep this information secret and sequestered, that the United States could face an intelligence failure like the one that led to 9/11 — or much worse.

From there, Disclosure spins a deft narrative that details an alleged 80-year cover-up of UFOs while attempting to answer several burning questions (such as how do the crafts work, why have they crashed, who is covering this up, and what do U.S. presidents know?). The film will doubtlessly convert many skeptics, while also generating some skepticism of its own.

“I hope I made a film that makes the public aware of a very serious situation that impacts us all,” Farah says. “I had multiple senators tell me that they thought my documentary would be one of the most effective tools for helping make the public aware of the truth in a way that could get the rest of the government to take this topic more seriously.”

Farah also hopes for more traditional metrics of filmmaking success, with his team currently on the hunt for a distributor. The movie’s trailer (below) hit 18 million viewers across all platforms, half of which were international. “There’s a universal audience that has been invested in the topic and it’s been growing since the 1940s,” says Farah, who points out that the UFO forum on Reddit has even more subscribers than the ones for Harry Potter and Marvel.

Below, Farah took our questions. The director is passionate about this subject and also exceedingly careful in selecting his words, which is understandable. Having your debut film premiere at a major film festival is cause for anxiety enough. To also have it also be a project that claims to answer one of mankind’s biggest existential questions while tackling sensitive national security issues is quite another. As a first-time director, Farah has jumped straight into the deep end of the pool — which might also contain aliens.

How were you able to convince so many of credentialed voices to go on camera to talk about this for your first film? 

I was researching this topic a few years ago and I met several very senior former intelligence officials through a friend of mine, who I will keep as an anonymous source. It started with [former Department of Defense official] Luis Elizondo and [former director of the U.S. government’s UAP task force] Jay Stratton, who were really key in opening doors for me. I told them I wanted to make the most serious and credible and sober documentary ever made about this topic. My goal was to only interview people who had direct knowledge of the UAP topic as a result of their work for the U.S. government and who would share what they can legally disclose. One by one, I would get introduced to another high-level person who had worked on this topic, and each would end up introducing me to someone else. I went down a rabbit hole, and what followed was the most revelatory and interesting experience of my life.

What kind of reactions did you get from officials when you approached them?

There was a consistent positive response to the goals I had — from intelligence officials to senators to military officials. Everyone felt it was important to bring this information to the public in a credible and serious fashion. They said they had never been presented with an opportunity like this. There was also strength in numbers. By participating in a documentary that interviewed so many credible people, it gave them all cover, essentially, so they didn’t have to go out on a limb by themselves to share this information.

Your film actually reminded me a bit of another documentary — Al Gore’s climate change film An Inconvenient Truth.

There’s some overlap [in that global warming was also] a topic that was considered pseudoscience and fringe, and there was a stigma around scientists talking about it. Then An Inconvenient Truth had credible people bringing attention to a very real and serious situation that has global stakes. It’s the same thing here, but arguably with higher states, frankly, because there are potential existential threats on multiple fronts — there’s what humans could do with this technology if it’s used for bad, and what the intentions are of non-human intelligence.

Were you nervous about making this? Did you take any secretive steps when filming? 

There are people who want the topic to continue to be kept from the public entirely. So I went to great lengths film to make this documentary in secret over the last two-and-a-half years. I kept it very under the radar, and everyone working on it was under NDAs.

It was a punishment for mutiny in colonial times, a way to discourage desertion during the Civil War and a dose of frontier justice in the Old West. In modern times, some consider it a more humane alternative to lethal injection. The firing squad has a long and thorny history in the U.S.

South Carolina on Friday is scheduled to put the first person to death by firing squad in the U.S. in 15 years. Brad Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, chose it over the two other methods in South Carolina — the electric chair and lethal injection. The state’s Supreme Court rejected what will likely be his final appeal Wednesday.

Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah. Only three have occurred since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a 10-year pause. The first of those, Gary Gilmore, caused a media sensation in part because he waived his appeals and volunteered to be executed. When asked for his last words, Gilmore replied, “Let’s do it.”

Five states — Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah — authorize the use of firing squads in certain circumstances.

Here’s a look at the history behind the death penalty method.

1608-1865: Jamestown, George Washington and the Civil War

The earliest recorded execution by shooting came in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. Capt. George Kendall came to be suspected of mutiny — and possibly of conspiring with Spain. Centuries later, in 1996, archaeologists discovered a bullet-ridden body buried in the fort’s walls that many suspect was Kendall.

In the American Revolution, public executions by firing squad were sometimes used to punish desertion.

In 1776, then-Gen. George Washington spared a Connecticut soldier, Ebenezer Leffingwell, who was sentenced to die after fighting with a superior, the Journal of the American Revolution recounted. Leffingwell had been bound, blindfolded and forced to kneel in front of a crowd when a chaplain involved in the proceedings announced he would live.

Mark Smith, a history professor at the University of South Carolina, said firing squads were used — not often — by both sides during the Civil War to create a “public spectacle, a vision of terror” to keep soldiers in line.

“A man could be sitting on his own coffin at times or blindfolded, shot by six or seven men, one of whom has a blank,” the professor said. “These were gatherings designed to shock and it worked.”

At least 185 men were executed by firing squad during the Civil War, according to Christopher Q. Cutler in a Cleveland State Law Review article.

1860s to 1915: Executions in the Old West

Firing squads were primarily used only in Utah, where the lawmakers in 1851 designated three possible punishments for murder: shooting, hanging or beheading. The first firing squad execution was carried out in a courthouse enclosure, disappointing a crowd waiting outside to see it.

Only one other state since 1900 has executed someone by shooting: Nevada, which in 1913 built a contraption that fired three guns by pulling strings because it had trouble finding volunteers to serve on a firing squad.

An 1877 sentencing in Utah gave rise to the first U.S. Supreme Court case challenging a specific execution method. Wallace Wilkerson, who shot a man to death during a heated game of cribbage, challenged authorities’ plans to kill him by firing squad. The court declined his appeal, finding that unlike some other bygone methods — drawing and quartering, for example — execution by firing squad would not bring the sort of “terror, pain and disgrace” that would violate the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

As it turned out, Wilkerson’s killing was botched, Cutler noted: Reportedly intoxicated and smoking a cigar, he moved slightly just before the executioners shot. Badly wounded, he fell to the ground, saying, “My God! They’ve missed it.” It took him an agonizing 15 minutes to die.

Among other famous firing squad executions in Utah was the 1915 death of labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill, who until the end insisted on his innocence in the murder of a grocer and his son.

Modern times: lethal injections vs firing squads

Police are appealing for more than 50 more victims to come forward after one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders was found guilty of drugging and raping 10 women.

Chinese PhD student Zhenhao Zou, 28, filmed nine of the attacks as “souvenirs”, and kept a trophy box of women’s belongings, Inner London Crown Court was told.

Jurors found him guilty of 11 counts of rape against 10 women, three in London and seven in China, between 2019 and 2023. Two of the victims have been identified and another eight have yet to be traced.

The Metropolitan Police believe Zou could be the “most substantial and prolific offender we’ve come across in recent times”, responsible for many more crimes.

Police believe more than 50 other women may have fallen prey to the engineering student, which would make him one of the worst sex offenders the UK has seen.

Officers have video material showing women who have not been identified and believe around 25 of those victims were raped in the UK and around 25 in China.

All of them are of Chinese heritage and an appeal is being launched for those women to come forward from that community.

The mechanical engineering student was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence, and four counts of possession of drugs with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Zou – who first moved to Belfast in 2017 to study mechanical engineering at Queen’s University before moving to London in 2019 – showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read out in court.

Catherine Farrelly KC, prosecuting, told jurors Zou “presents as a smart and charming young man” but is “also a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist”.

Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow Chinese students on WeChat and dating apps, before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his flats in London or an unknown location in China, the court heard.

The jury heard how he would secretly film his attacks using a mobile device and hidden cameras, and was shown evidence found on SD cards at his accommodation of him raping unconscious women in London and in China.

Senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Saira Pike thanked the “incredibly strong and brave” women who came forward to report his “heinous” crimes.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/phd-student-guilty-of-raping-10-women-in-london-and-china-13317429

Serbian opposition lawmakers threw smoke grenades and used pepper spray inside parliament on Tuesday to protest against the government and to support demonstrating students, with one legislator suffering a stroke during the chaos.
Four months of student-led demonstrations, sparked by the deaths of 15 people when a railway station roof collapsed, have drawn in teachers, farmers and others to become the biggest threat yet to President Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long rule, with many denouncing rampant corruption and incompetence in government.

At the legislative session, after the ruling coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) approved the agenda, some opposition politicians ran from their seats towards the parliamentary speaker and scuffled with security guards.
Others tossed smoke grenades and used pepper spray. A live TV broadcast showed black and pink smoke billowing inside the parliament, which has seen brawls before, in the decades since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990.
Vucic later said authorities would hold all those deputies involved in the fracas to account, calling it “hooliganism”.

Under Serbian law, parliamentary deputies enjoy immunity from prosecution but can lose it if they commit serious crimes.

POLITICIAN HURT

Speaker Ana Brnabic said three lawmakers were injured and one, Jasmina Obradovic of the SNS party, had suffered a stroke and was hospitalised.
Zlatibor Loncar, the Health Minister later said Obradovic was in a serious condition.

As the session continued, ruling coalition politicians debated while opposition lawmakers whistled and blew horns.
Opposition deputies also held signs reading “general strike” and “justice for those killed”, referring to those who died when the station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad last November.
Outside parliament hundreds of protesters stood in silence to honour those killed. Protest leaders called for a major rally in the capital Belgrade on March 15.

The ruling coalition says Western intelligence agencies are trying to destabilise Serbia and topple the government by backing the protests.
“We have a proposal … to have a transitional government,” Radomir Lazovic of the opposition Green-Left Front told supporters in front of the parliament.
The opposition says a transitional government should secure conditions for free and fair elections, but Vucic and his allies have so far rejected that demand.
“This was a failed attempt of the ruling coalition to show it is in control …, and (there’s) a potential for an escalation,” Radivoje Grujic, a Warsaw-based consultant told Reuters, commenting on the parliamentary session.
Parliament was due to adopt a law increasing funds for universities – one of the main demands of protesting students.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/serbian-opposition-deputies-throw-smoke-grenades-parliament-2025-03-04/

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday China would “firmly advance” the push for “reunification” with Taiwan while opposing external interference, and strive to work with regular Taiwanese to realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the objection of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up its military pressure against the island in recent years, including holding several rounds of major war games.

“We will firmly advance the cause of China’s reunification and work with our fellow Chinese in Taiwan to realise the glorious cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Li wrote in his annual work report to China’s parliament.
In his work report last year, Li reiterated a call for “reunification” with Taiwan, but added emphasis that it wants to “be firm” in doing so and dropped the descriptor “peaceful”, which had been used in previous reports.
Beijing has consistently pushed for reunification with Taiwan, and again said it would “resolutely oppose” separatist activities pushing for Taiwan independence. But its appeal to work with “fellow Chinese in Taiwan” to help rejuvenate the Chinese nation wasn’t mentioned in the work report last year.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. He has repeatedly offered talks with China, which has rebuffed him, saying he is a “separatist”.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Amid geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S. and as President Donald Trump ratchets up pressure on Beijing including through tariffs, China said it opposed “external interference” on the Taiwan issue. It said it was committed to a foreign policy of peace to “oppose hegemonism and power politics, oppose unilateralism and protectionism in all forms.”

Taiwan’s top China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council was not immediately available to comment.
A senior Taiwan official familiar with the government’s China policy said Beijing’s tone on Taiwan hadn’t changed much, signalling Taiwan wasn’t at the top of its political agenda which had prioritised the economy and relations with the U.S.
“They want to reiterate their agenda of the ‘big exchange across the strait’,” the official said, pointing out the paragraph on Taiwanese people as a sign of possible ramping up of China’s tactics to bolster Beijing’s reach abroad including co-opting Taiwanese through various exchanges including culture and religion.
“But they only allow cross-strait exchanges that serve their political agenda and block those who don’t. It’s obvious that those exchanges are just political means.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-will-work-firmly-advance-reunification-with-taiwan-premier-2025-03-05/

An investor group backed by BlackRock (BLK.N) agreed to buy a majority stake in the Hong Kong-based company that runs ports along either side of the Panama Canal, giving a U.S. firm control of key docks amid pressure from the White House to take them from China.

The $22.8 billion sale by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison (0001.HK) to U.S. and Swiss investors also includes dozens of ports in other countries, the companies announced Tuesday. The move appears to be a win for U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive diplomacy just hours before he is due to tout the successes of the first six tumultuous weeks of his second term in an address to the U.S. Congress.

He vowed to wrest control of the strategic canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during his January 20 inauguration speech, falsely claiming China is operating it. The transaction appears to hand command of the vital docks on both entrances of the canal to U.S. interests.
Trump refused to rule out military action to assert U.S. control over the canal, which is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous agency overseen by the Panamanian government, and surrounded by several ports.

The U.S. president has complained about the presence of Chinese and Hong Kong-based companies in Panama, and American officials and politicians have said CK Hutchison’s control of the ports represents a security risk for the operation.
Last year, about 12,000 ships used the canal, which connects 1,920 ports across 170 countries. But its position is strategic for Washington as over three-quarters of all vessels passing through the canal originate in or are bound for the U.S.
The sale of licenses will result in the consortium gaining a 90% stake in Panama Ports Company, which has been the operator of the Balboa and Cristobal ports in the Central American country for more than two decades, CK Hutchison said in a statement.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm based in New York, has briefed the White House and congressional leadership on the deal, a person familiar with the transaction said.

This would be BlackRock’s largest infrastructure investment to date, that person said.
In theory the deal, by showing the firm to be acting in Trump’s favor, could ease Republican pressure on BlackRock and its CEO, Larry Fink, over its past embrace of the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing.
But the company and Fink have remained under attack by Republicans and supporters of Trump’s MAGA movement on climate and diversity issues.
The U.S. State Department, White House, National Security Council and Panama’s government did not respond to requests for comment.

‘HUGE VICTORY’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met Princess Astrid of Belgium and said he looks forward to “unlocking limitless opportunities” for the people of the two countries through new partnerships in trade, technology, defence and agriculture.

Astrid is in India leading an economic mission that is aimed at shoring up bilateral trade and investment cooperation between the two nations.

“Pleased to meet HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium. Deeply appreciate her initiative to lead a 300-member Economic Mission to India,” PM Modi said on X.

“Look forward to unlocking limitless opportunities for our people through new partnerships in trade, technology, defence, agriculture, life sciences, innovation, skilling and academic exchanges,” the prime minister said.

The overall trajectory of India-Belgium ties has witnessed a steady expansion in the last few years. The focus of the relations has traditionally been on trade and investment.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/appreciate-her-initiative-to-pm-modi-meets-belgiums-princess-astrid-7848778

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his official visit to the UK and discussed advancing bilateral economic cooperation and enhancing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

The UK PM also shared his views on the Ukraine conflict with the EAM, Jaishankar said in a post on X. The EAM also met UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and other senior leaders.

In a post on X, Mr Jaishankar said, “”Delighted to call on Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer at @10DowningStreet today. Conveyed the warm greetings of PM @narendramodi. Discussed taking forward our bilateral, economic cooperation and enhancing people-to-people exchanges. PM Starmer also shared UK’s perspective on the Ukraine conflict.”

In another post on X, the EAM shared his meeting with the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, where he thanked him for the welcome and expressed optimism for the meeting.

“Thank you FS @DavidLammy for this extremely warm welcome at the Chevening House. Look forward to our discussions”, the EAM wrote on X.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Jaishankar held meetings with the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for the Department of Business and Trade of the UK.

Upon meeting Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Jaishankar noted that the two leaders held discussions on areas such as flow of talent and joint efforts between India and the UK to tackle “trafficking and extremism”.

He said on X, “A good meeting with Home Secretary @YvetteCooperMP today in London. We discussed the flow of talent, people to people exchanges, and joint efforts in tackling trafficking and extremism.”

In his meeting with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, Mr Jaishankar highlighted that discussions were held on the progress in the free trade agreement talks between India and the UK.

He said, “Pleased to meet Secretary of State for @biztradegovuk @jreynoldsMP today in London. Discussed the progress on our FTA talks.”

As per the Ministry of External Affairs statement, EAM Jaishankar is on an official visit to the United Kingdom and Ireland till March 9, during which he will hold discussions to provide renewed impetus to India’s friendly ties with both the UK and Ireland.

In Ireland, Mr Jaishankar will meet with his Irish counterpart Simon Harris, other dignitaries and members of Indian community. Jaishankar will visit Ireland on March 6 and 7.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/uk-eam-jaishankar-meets-pm-keir-starmer-foreign-secy-david-lammy-discussed-advancing-bilateral-ties-7849739

RUMOURS of Pope Francis’ resignation are gaining momentum as Cardinals start to gather, but an insider insists the Pontiff won’t be moved.

As the Pope spends his 19th day in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital with double pneumonia, pressure is building about the future of the church.

Francis penned a resignation letter 12 years ago, in case he became too ill to serve, but despite his ongoing health battle, he will not give up, a friend has said.

As the frail Pope continues to work from his sickbed and pass over other duties to senior officials, Cardinals are reportedly gathering to discuss his resignation.

But Argentine journalist Elisabetta Pique, a friend and biographer of Francis, is adamant that the Pontiff will not step down.

“He’s always been a fighter. He doesn’t give in under pressure,” she said.

“The more pressure they put on him, the more likely he won’t give in.”

The Vatican has been equally firm in denying rumours that the Pope is considering a resignation.

But French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, who is tipped to be one of the contenders to replace Francis, said at a press conference that “everything is possible.”

Despite growing fears about his health, the Pontiff has continued some of his work from his sickbed such as meeting with senior church members and conducting phone calls.

But, on Tuesday, the Vatican confirmed that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the former vicar of Rome, will replace him to lead the annual Ash Wednesday service on March 5.

It comes after the 88-year-old suffered a setback on Monday, which saw him put on a ventilator after two “acute respiratory failures”.

He suffered a “significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm,” The Vatican confirmed.

The Pontiff had to undergo two bronchoscopies where doctors examined his airways.

But on Tuesday, it was announced that Francis had been taken off the ventilator and is once again stable.

It added that the medical crises are believed to be the Pope’s body reacting to infection.

The White House Communications team got a special delivery ahead of President Donald Trump’s big speech to a joint session of Congress. Kaelan Dorr, a deputy communications director for the White House, posted a photo of McDonald’s fries, burgers, and nuggets on X. “White House Comms is pre-gaming the Joint Session the MAGA way,” he wrote. “Buckle up for Must See TV!” Trump is arguably one of the fast food giant’s most loyal customers. During his presidential campaign, Trump, who has a long-standing love affair with the fast food giant, staged a brief McDonald’s stunt where he served customers at a franchise drive-thru. The Washington Post later reported that he only spent five minutes working the fry station and no customers actually placed orders. First lady Melania Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have reportedly “ganged up” to wean the president off his fast food addiction. “Melania has, on occasion, been cooking family dinners at Trump Tower for the president and their son, Barron,” a source claimed to Page Six in November. “She’s also encouraging him to make healthier choices.”

Mikey Madison Texted With Demi Moore After Surprise Oscar Win

It’s all love between Hollywood darlings Mikey Madison and Demi Moore. Despite being the favorite to win Best Actress at the Oscars Sunday, Moore lost in a shocking upset to Madison, who took home the golden statue for her breakthrough role in Sean Baker’s Anora. While some rushed to pit the two actresses against each other, they each have since respectively quelled any chatter of tension, with Madison recently revealing Tuesday that she texted Moore after the ceremony. “I texted Demi, who I adore,” Madison told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Tuesday when asked if she spoke with any of her fellow Best Actress nominees. “She’s one of the sweetest, kindest women I’ve ever met, and I’m so grateful that I was able to meet her and witness her brilliance and talent in person.” “I adore her and I can’t wait to see what she does next, what kind of characters she brings us,” the Oscar winner continued. “I think we’re all so ready and excited to see that.”

This Meat Subscription Service Offers Locked-In Low Costs—and Free Burgers With Every Order

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Trump Makes Dig at Democrats for Not Cheering for a Kennedy

Donald Trump attempted to knock Democrats for their opposition to vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., commenting during his speech to Congress Tuesday that his name alone should make him more popular. Trump was introducing Kennedy when, after a round of applause, he gestured towards Democrats and said, “with the name ‘Kennedy’ you would’ve thought everybody over here would have been cheering. How quickly they forget.” In the last few months, many of Kennedy’s relatives openly opposed not only to his initial presidential candidacy, but his nomination to lead the the Department of Health and Human Services, saying his political ambitions were doing a disservice to his name. “I think if my dad were alive today, the real Robert Kennedy would have detested almost everything Donald Trump represents,” his sister, Kerry Kerry, said last August after he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. “I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump.”

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-dig-at-democrats-for-not-cheering-for-a-kennedy/

THE cops investigating Gene Hackman’s case have admitted a crucial error made while investigating the deaths of the actor and his wife.

Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, were found dead alongside one of their beloved dogs on February 26 – but cops initially misidentified which of their pets was found dead in its kennel.

The longtime couple’s bodies were discovered by a neighborhood caretaker who placed a frantic 911 call after seeing the dead pair unmoving through the windows of their sprawling mansion.

However, there were no obvious wounds on either of them, launching an investigation into the mysterious deaths as they had seemingly been dead for over a week.

Arakawa had signs of mummification on her hands and feet, cops said in a search warrant after they found her lying in the bathroom of her home with pills from an open prescription bottle scattered on the counter.

The classical pianist was found 10 to 15 feet away from one of the couple’s three dogs, deceased, which cops noted as bizarre as the other two dogs were found alive and healthy in the house.

The dog found dead in the bathroom of the couple’s home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was 12-year-old Zinna, a reddish Australian Kelpie mixed breed, according to USA Today.

However, cops first named the dog as the couple’s German Shepherd Bear.

Animal chiropractor Sherry Gaber, who knew the late couple as her clients and friends, said the mix-up didn’t make sense to her.

“I can’t handle that image,” Gaber told USA Today.

“That’s why this whole thing is so distressing. It just doesn’t add up.”

Bear is reportedly alive and well with the couple’s other dog, seven-year-old Akita-shepherd mix Nikita.

Nikita and Bear, who had access to a doggie door, are now at a pet daycare facility until lawyers determine where they’ll live.

It’s unclear how Zinna was misidentified in the police report.

“If only people knew how meticulous and amazing [Hackman and Arakawa] were with the dogs,” said animal trainer Joey Padilla.

Padilla trained and cared for Hackman and Arakawa’s dogs for many years.

He was called to transport the pets to his facility after their owners’ bodies were found last week.

“It breaks my heart,” he added.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t returned The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.

Denise Womack-Avila, a spokesperson for the SFCSO, told USA Today she didn’t know about the mix-up.

“Our deputies do not deal with canines on a daily basis and I cannot currently speak to the condition or state of the dog’s body upon discovery,” she told the outlet.

Zinna, whose body was found in a closed crate, once trained to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

The dog’s misidentification could spark speculation over the police’s investigation into Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths.

HEARTBREAKING MYSTERY

Cops found the beloved actor and his wife in their home on the afternoon of February 26.

Officials later found the couple had likely been dead for over nine days after Hackman’s last recorded activity on his Pacemaker was on February 17.

Cops found Hackman in a mudroom with his cane and sunglasses near his body.

Police noted the legendary actor looked like he fell to the ground suddenly.

NO GAS LEAK

Initial speculation in the case was centered around a potential gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning, but the fire department shot down the theories as there was no gas leak in the house.

On Tuesday, the SFCSO and City Fire Department confirmed toxic fumes didn’t kill Hackman, Arakawa, or their dog.

An extensive investigation by the New Mexico Gas Company confirmed no significant gas leak or carbon monoxide findings – only a “minuscule” leak near one of the house’s stove burners, cops said.

China will target economic growth of “around 5 per cent” this year for the third consecutive time, according to the annual work report – seen by CNA – that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will deliver at the opening of China’s annual Two Sessions.

China’s economy expanded by 5 per cent in 2024, with gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 134.9 trillion yuan (US$18.77 trillion).

While China has maintained the same growth target since 2023, achieving it this year will require overcoming mounting external threats and domestic pressures.

On the foreign front, a trade war is escalating, with the US doubling duties on Chinese goods to 20 per cent, effective Mar 4.

Beijing has retaliated with additional tariffs of up to 15 per cent on American agricultural and food products from Mar 10. This is on top of tariffs announced last month, including 15 per cent on US coal and liquefied natural gas.

Back home, the world’s second-largest economy is grappling with sluggish domestic demand, a prolonged property sector crisis, an ageing population and rising youth unemployment.

Analysts describe the around 5 per cent target as realistic yet cautious, signalling Beijing’s confidence in supporting economic growth despite global uncertainties.

Reflecting weak consumer demand, Beijing has slashed its consumer price index (CPI) target to around 2 per cent, markedly down from last year’s target of 3 per cent. This also marks the first time the CPI target is set below 3 per cent, since China started specifying the figure in the annual work report 20 years ago.

The adjustments come after its CPI, a key inflation measure, rose only 0.2 per cent in 2024 and 2023 – the lowest increase since 2009.

“Lower CPI targets suggest Beijing is not expecting a sharp rebound in consumer spending anytime soon,” said Dr Lizzi C Lee, a fellow on Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s (ASPI) Center for China Analysis (CCA).

The Chinese government also announced a budget deficit of around 4 per cent of GDP this year – the highest level in more than three decades.

Observers say this indicates a focus on helping households and boosting consumer spending, to counter a potential drop in tariff-sensitive exports.

AI TAKES THE LEAD

Unsurprisingly, AI is front and centre in China’s industrial strategy this year.

This comes as China accelerates efforts to establish itself as a global leader in AI development, following key breakthroughs such as DeepSeek’s AI model. Major companies, including Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, have also announced their own AI models, alongside the growing prominence of humanoid robots.

According to official government work reports, 21 out of 31 local governments have listed AI+ – an initiative to embed AI into both traditional and emerging industries – as part of their industrial policies to boost economic growth.

Analysts say the key takeaway is that China is fully committing to AI-driven industrial transformation, extending beyond finance and healthcare to manufacturing, smart logistics and industrial automation.

​China has more than 4,500 AI enterprises, with the core industry valued at nearly 600 billion yuan, according to data released in January by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

“PRIME TIME FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISES”

Supporting private businesses in China is a key theme, with a new private-economy promotion law expected to be discussed and potentially approved at this year’s legislative meeting.

The bill bans authorities from imposing fines on private businesses without a legal basis, and is designed to reassure the private sector after years of crackdown.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s high-profile meeting with private business leaders in February – the first such symposium since 2018 – sent a strong signal, with Xi emphasising the private sector’s critical role in economic growth.

“The private sector enjoys broad prospects and great potential on the new journey in the new era. It is a prime time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to give full play to their capabilities,” Xi was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

China’s central bank and top financial regulators signalled further support for private enterprises on Feb 28, with analysts viewing it as a step towards facilitating financing for private firms amid their growing role in innovation.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-two-sessions-2025-gdp-growth-4972616

There seems to be no stopping President Donald Trump from imposing more tariffs on Canada and Mexico, despite long-standing trade ties with both nations.

“No room left for Mexico or for Canada,” he said Monday in response to questions on whether new tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods will be in place Tuesday, triggering a plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and S&P 500.

Aside from tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, Trump has also gone hard on China, slapping an additional 10% tariff on certain Chinese goods last month, a move that drew sharp criticism from Beijing.

With the Trump trade war 2.0 in full swing — especially after he ordered a study into establishing reciprocal tariffs — affected countries are left with little choice but to threaten countermeasures.

Beijing blasts Trump’s alleged use of “fentanyl issue” in trade clash

The Chinese government was quick to criticize Trump since the additional tariffs were announced as soon as he took office for the second time. On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated that the country will fight back if necessary.

Lin said the Trump administration was using “the fentanyl issue as a pretext to threaten China with tariff hikes on its imports.”

The House Select Committee on China revealed in a 2024 report that the country was directly subsidizing production of illicit fentanyl precursors for sale overseas, helping drive the opioid crisis in the U.S.

For China, the fentanyl issue isn’t really related to the trade war, with Lin reiterating that tying the matter to tariffs was wrong.

“China opposes this move and will do what is necessary to firmly safeguard its legitimate interests,” Lin warned, indicating Beijing will be prepared to hit the U.S. with more tariffs if pushed to the limit.

China has done this in the past, and it is not new to retaliatory tariffs on American goods. It has even continued to challenge the U.S. in the tech arms race.

Canada puts its foot down on “unjustified” tariffs

Following Trump’s Tuesday remarks that the U.S. will impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods and another 10% on Canadian energy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came out with a firm statement.

“Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered. Should American tariffs come into effect tonight, Canada will, effective 12:01 a.m. EST tomorrow, respond with 25% tariffs against $155 billion of American goods,” he said.

He went on to note that the tariffs will be in place until the Trump government withdraws the levies on Canadian products and energy.

Trudeau also reminded Trump that it was him who successfully negotiated a trade agreement with Canada during his first term, a deal that has effectively been broken due to his tariffs on Canadian goods.

Mexico is ready for any tariff action

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country was ready should Trump push through with the tariffs.

She said the government has a “plan B, C, D,” though she didn’t go into full details, noting that her administration will wait and see how Trump moves before it takes any action.

On the other hand, Sheinbaum was more stern and detailed Sunday, when she delivered a powerful speech that drew claps from the audience in Colima during the delivery of welfare programs for the municipality.

“I have said it other times: the United States would not be what it is, if it were not for the Mexicans who work on the other side, if there were no countrymen working in the fields on the other side, the best workers in the fields, there would be no food on the table of Americans,” she said, as per a Google translation.

Unlike Canada, which has a clear plan on retaliation, Mexico may be planning to keep its retaliatory actions under wraps until the last minute.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-trade-war-how-china-canada-mexico-are-planning-retaliate-against-tariffs-3765096

The next time you encounter someone who firmly believes the moon landing was faked or climate change is a hoax, consider this: their stance might be driven less by ignorance and more by spite. Recent research from British universities suggests that conspiracy theories often serve as psychological equalizers, ways for people who feel disadvantaged to symbolically challenge those in power, even at their own expense.

The Spite Connection

Researchers from Staffordshire University and the University of Birmingham suggest that conspiracy theories aren’t just the result of misinformation. The study, published in the Journal of Social Issues, suggests that some people believe in conspiracy theories out of spite that emerges when people feel disadvantaged or threatened.

“Spiteful psychological motives tend to emerge when people feel at a competitive disadvantage, often when we feel uncertain, threatened or undervalued,” explains lead researcher David Gordon from Staffordshire University, in a statement. “Spite is the desire to ‘level the playing field’ by trying to knock someone else down because it feels like there is no other choice. Conspiracy theories can serve as a way for individuals to satisfy this desire through rejecting expert opinion and scientific consensus.”

Spite is behavior that harms both the person being spiteful and their target but changes the competitive balance between them. While it seems counterproductive, spite has historically played a role in society, especially in enforcing cooperation and fairness.

Researchers tested their hypothesis through three studies with over 1,000 participants. Their findings indicated that spite was a significant predictor of conspiracy beliefs, including COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

The first study with 301 UK residents measured spite levels, conspiracy beliefs, and various psychological factors linked to conspiracy thinking. These included feeling threatened by other groups, feeling politically powerless, and discomfort with uncertainty.

A second study with 405 UK residents confirmed these findings. Notably, when uncertainty was the main factor, spite accounted for a substantial portion of the effect, suggesting uncertainty is a strong trigger for spiteful reactions.

Why People Turn to Conspiracy Theories

“We are not suggesting that people consciously choose to be spiteful when believing and spreading conspiracy theories,” explains co-author Megan Birney from the University of Birmingham. “Instead, our findings suggest that feelings of disadvantage can provoke a common psychological – spiteful – response, one that makes individuals more receptive to believing conspiracy theories.”

This research challenges how we view conspiracy theorists. Rather than simply being misinformed, some may be responding to perceived disadvantages in ways that make psychological sense to them. By rejecting mainstream explanations, they attempt to reduce the gap between themselves and those they see as having unfair advantages.

When people lack scientific knowledge, they may feel at a disadvantage because they don’t understand complex phenomena as well as experts. Rather than accept this disadvantage, some individuals reject scientific consensus entirely, claiming climate scientists are conspiring or that medical experts are hiding “the truth” about vaccines. This rejection can create a sense of special knowledge, flipping the perceived power balance.

Similarly, when individuals feel politically powerless, conspiracy theories allow them to reject the legitimacy of powerful institutions. By viewing scientists, governments, or corporations as malevolent conspirators, believers can explain their disadvantage while undermining those they perceive as more powerful.

Previous research identified three main motivations behind conspiracy beliefs: understanding the world, feeling secure, and maintaining a positive self-image. This new study suggests that spite may unify these motives, showing that they are all manifestations of a common response to feeling disadvantaged. This could be addressed through better science communication and media literacy.

What This Means for Society

If spite plays a role in conspiracy beliefs and science denial, addressing these issues requires more than just providing accurate information. It means tackling the underlying feelings of disadvantage.

“If we understand conspiracy beliefs as a manifestation of spite – a reaction to real or perceived social and economic disadvantage – then tackling misinformation is inseparable from addressing broader societal issues such as financial insecurity and inequality,” adds Gordon.

This research could shift how we view conspiracy theorists, from seeing them as simply irrational to understanding that some may be responding to real social pressures. The problem isn’t just individual psychology but also broader issues like inequality, political disenfranchisement, and complex scientific information that is hard for non-experts to understand.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/conspiracy-theories-spite/

Demi Moore was not the only one shocked by her 2025 Oscars snub.

Jack Antonoff — who is married to the actress’ “Substance” co-star Margaret Qualley — was sitting behind Moore when Mikey Madison won the Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal in “Anora.”

Moore, 62, looked upset and tensed her jaw when she heard the 25-year-old’s name instead of her own, going on to utter something along the lines of, “Nice.”

But cameras also captured Antonoff’s reaction, which quickly went viral.

The Grammy-winning musician’s eyes bulged and his lips took an “O” shape as he turned to face Qualley, who was sitting beside him.

“jack antonoff’s reaction to mikey madison winning best actress over demi moore 😭😭,” one of many X users posted alongside a video of the awkward moment.

“no but jack antonoff’s reaction to mikey winning that oscar is so funny,” someone else echoed.

“JackAntonoff’s face when Demi lost pls 😭😭😭 #Oscars,” another added.

“Jack Antonoff is so real for this,” a fourth netizen argued.

Meanwhile, a source previously told Page Six that Moore “can’t help but feel heartbroken” after she suffered the blow Sunday night.

After winning the Golden Globe in the same category, the A-lister “was really hopeful that she had secured this win,” our insider explained.

“Demi is taking this loss very hard because she felt like this was finally her chance to take home an Academy Award.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/03/04/entertainment/jack-antonoffs-reaction-to-demi-moores-oscars-2025-snub-goes-viral/

An Indian woman who worked as a domestic helper in the United Arab Emirates has been executed after she was convicted of killing her employers’ baby.

Shahzadi Khan, who worked for an Indian couple, was executed last month, according to the Indian government.

According to Abu Dhabi court documents, Khan asphyxiated the boy, but a doctor who testified at the trial could not confirm this as he had not been allowed to perform a post-mortem.

Khan’s family maintain she was innocent and say the four-month-old died from an incorrect vaccination on the day of his death. They said Khan did not get “adequate representation” during her trial. The BBC contacted UAE authorities for comment.

The execution was carried out on 15 February, but the news was only confirmed by Indian authorities on 3 March after Khan’s parents petitioned the Delhi High Court seeking information about their daughter.

The secrecy surrounding the execution has made headlines in India, which has close ties with United Arab Emirates. Hundreds of thousands of Indians live and work in the country.

According to the petition filed by Khan’s family, she had moved to Abu Dhabi in December 2021 to work for the Indian family as a caregiver.

She was entrusted to look after the baby, who was born in August the following year. According to Khan’s father, she would often call her family back in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and show them the baby over video calls.

But the calls stopped after his death – and the family later learnt that Khan was in jail. According to Khan’s family, the baby died on 7 December 2022, just hours after he received a vaccine.

Police arrested Khan two months later. She insisted that a video recording showing her confessing to killing the baby had been forced, and that she had not received proper legal support in court.

She was sentenced to death in July 2023. Her appeal was rejected in February 2024.

Khan’s family said they last heard from her on 13 February this year when she called from prison, saying that she might be executed the next day.

“She kept crying and said she was put in a separate cell, and that she would not come out alive and that it might be her last call,” her father Shabbir Khan told the BBC.

When Khan’s family did not hear from her after that, they filed a petition with the Delhi High Court, seeking information from the Indian government on whether she had been executed.

Khan’s family said they felt she did not have “adequate representation” which resulted in her receiving the death sentence.

In an interview with the Press Trust of India, her father Shabbir Khan said: “She didn’t get justice. I have tried everywhere, running around since last year. But I didn’t have money to go there [Abu Dhabi] to hire a lawyer.”

In an earlier statement released to BBC Hindi following her conviction, Khan’s employer said: “Shahzadi brutally and intentionally killed my son which is already proven by the United Arab Emirates authorities in the light of all the evidence.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20lne76yp3o

China said Wednesday it will increase its defense budget 7.2% this year, as it continues its campaign to build a larger, more modern military to assert its territorial claims and challenge the U.S. defense lead in Asia.

China’s military spending remains the second largest behind the U.S. and it already has the world’s largest navy.

The budget, which adds up to about $245 billion, was announced at the National People’s Congress, the annual meeting of China’s legislature. The Pentagon and many experts say China’s total spending on defense may be 40% higher or more because of items included under other budgets.

The boost is the same percentage as last year, far below the double-digit percentage increases of previous years and reflecting an overall slowdown in the economy. The nation’s leaders have set a target of around 5% growth for this year.

Tensions with the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and neighbors who have overlapping claims to the crucial South China Sea are seen as driving spending on increasingly high-tech military technologies. Those include stealth fighters, the country’s three — soon to be four — aircraft carriers, and a broad expansion of its nuclear arsenal.

China generally ascribes the budget increases to exercises and maintenance and improving the lives of its 2 million service people.

The People’s Liberation Army — the military branch of the ruling Communist Party— has build bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea but its main objective is asserting Chinese control over Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own territory that has close ties to the U.S.

China sent a relatively small contingent of just five planes and seven into territory near Taiwan on Wednesday, just days after sending dozens of aircraft. Such missions are intended to demoralize and wear down Taiwan’s defenses, which have been bolstered by upgraded U.S. F-16s, tanks and missiles, along with domestically developed armaments.

In his comments at the Congress, Premier Li Qiang told the nearly 3,000 party loyalists that China still preferred a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue, but “resolutely opposes” those pushing for Taiwan’s formal independence and their foreign supporters.

“We will firmly advance the cause of China’s reunification and work with our fellow Chinese in Taiwan to realize the glorious cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Li said.

Taiwan’s defense minister this week said the island is planning to boost military spending in the face of the “rapidly changing international situation and the escalating threats from adversaries.”

Faced with slower growth, China will likely prioritize key strategic goals over social and economic reforms, said Antonia Hmaidi, a senior analyst with the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-defense-budget-taiwan-4ac7cbdc7d5b889732cd55916ff7eb36

A truck traveling on a highway in southern Bolivia collided with a bus early on Monday morning, forcing the bus off the road and killing at least 31 people, police said.
Speaking to reporters, police spokesperson Limbert Choque confirmed the death toll, which he said included both men and women, as ambulances and emergency vehicles arrived at the scene of the accident. Another 22 people suffered injuries.

President Luis Arce expressed condolences for the victims on social media.
“This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook. “We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”
Police said the bus rolled some 500 meters (1,640 feet) down a ravine after the collision, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bus-crash-bolivia-leaves-least-15-dead-2025-03-03/

Pope Francis suffered two episodes of “acute respiratory insufficiency” on Monday, the Vatican said, a setback for the 88-year-old pontiff as he battles double pneumonia.
Francis, who has been in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since February 14, is again receiving “non-invasive, mechanical ventilation” to help with his breathing.
“Today, the Holy Father experienced two episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency, caused by a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus,” the latest detailed medical update said.

The pope also suffered a bronchospasm, akin to an asthma attack, which required doctors to perform two bronchoscopies, or procedures to inspect his air passages.
The pope’s prognosis remained “guarded”, the statement said, which means Francis is not out of danger.
A Vatican official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorised to discuss the pope’s health, said the pontiff’s blood tests on Monday had remained stable.
The pope’s doctors believe the respiratory episode was part of his body’s normal response in fighting infection, the official added.

There had been relatively upbeat statements about Francis’ condition over the weekend, after a previous bronchospasm on Friday.
The pope received ventilation after that earlier episode, but switched on Sunday to receiving oxygen from a small tube placed under his nose.
Francis has experienced several bouts of ill health over the last two years and is prone to lung infections because he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
Double pneumonia is a serious infection in both lungs that can inflame and scar them, making it difficult to breathe.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-francis-rested-well-overnight-vatican-says-2025-03-03/

A plan for Gaza drawn up by Egypt as a counter to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera would sideline Hamas and replace it with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim and Western states, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
The Egyptian vision for Gaza, which is due to be presented at an Arab League summit on Tuesday, does not specify whether the proposal would be implemented before or after any permanent peace deal to end the war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Trump’s plan, which envisioned clearing Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants, appeared to back away from long-standing U.S. Middle East policy focused on a two-state solution and sparked anger among Palestinians and Arab nations.
Who will run Gaza after the conflict remains the great unanswered question in negotiations over the future of the enclave. Hamas has so far rejected the idea of any proposal being imposed on Palestinians by other states.
Cairo’s plan does not tackle critical issues such as who will foot the bill for Gaza’s reconstruction or outline any specific details around how Gaza would be governed, nor how an armed group as powerful as Hamas would be pushed aside.

Under the Egyptian plan, a Governance Assistance Mission would replace the Hamas-run government in Gaza for an unspecified interim period and would be responsible for humanitarian aid and for kick-starting reconstruction of the enclave, which has been devastated by the war.
“There will be no major international funding for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza if Hamas remains the dominant and armed political element on the ground controlling local governance,” a preamble outlining the draft Egyptian plan’s objectives said.
Details of Egypt’s proposed framework for Gaza’s future have not been previously reported.

Egypt, Jordan and Gulf Arab states have for almost a month been scrambling to formulate a diplomatic offensive to counter Trump’s plan. A number of ideas have been proposed, with Egypt’s considered the frontrunner.
Reuters was unable to determine whether Arab leaders would support the plan presented by Egypt.
The plan does not specify who would run the governance mission. It said it would, “draw on the expertise of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere to help Gaza recover as quickly as possible”.
The draft proposal was shared with Reuters by an official involved in Gaza negotiations who wished to remain anonymous because the draft has not yet been made public.
The plan firmly rejects the U.S. proposal for mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, which Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan see as a security threat.

“President Trump has been clear that Hamas cannot continue to govern Gaza,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said when asked about Egypt’s Gaza plan and whether the U.S. would support it.
“While the President stands by his bold vision for a post-war Gaza, he welcomes input from our Arab partners in the region. It’s clear his proposals have driven the region to come to the table rather than allow this issue to devolve into further crisis,” Hughes said.

STABILISATION FORCE

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group knows of no such proposal by Egypt.
“The day after in Gaza must only be decided by the Palestinians,” he said. “Hamas rejects any attempt to impose projects or any form of non-Palestinian administration, or the presence of any foreign forces on the land of the Gaza Strip.”
The Egyptian draft does not mention future elections.
Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of Israel’s prime minister, whose support for any plan is seen as vital to secure a commitment that any future reconstruction will not be destroyed again.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has ruled the coastal enclave since 2007. It launched the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and started the Gaza war.
A January 19 ceasefire brought a temporary end to the fighting but the first phase of the deal expired on Saturday with no sign of an agreement to move to the second phase.
The Egyptian draft does not tackle the issue of what actions could be taken if Hamas refuses to disarm or step aside from politics.
The proposal envisions an International Stabilisation Force drawn primarily from Arab states that would take over the role of providing security from the militant group, with the eventual establishment of a new local police force.
Both security and governance bodies would be “arranged, guided and supervised” by a steering board. The draft said the board would comprise key Arab countries, members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the United States, Britain, the European Union and its member states, and others.
The plan does not detail a central governing role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which opinion polls show has little support among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
A Palestinian official told Reuters that, like the West Bank, Gaza falls under the PA’s jurisdiction – and it must be run by Palestinians.
“We agreed with the Egyptians on a committee made of Palestinian experts that will help the Palestinian Authority in running the Gaza Strip for six months. The committee is made of Palestinian experts and coordinates with the PA, and doesn’t answer to non-Palestinian bodies,” said the official, who asked not to be named for sensitivity.

RECONSTRUCTION BILL

Since Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza after a brief civil war in 2007, it has crushed all opposition there. Supported by Iran, it built an extensive security apparatus and military organization based around a vast network of tunnels – much of which Israel says it has now destroyed.
The plan does not say who would pay to rebuild Gaza, a bill estimated by the U.N. at more than $53 billion. Two sources have told Reuters that Gulf and Arab states would need to commit at least $20 billion in the initial phase of reconstruction.
Egypt’s proposal envisions that states on the steering board could establish a fund to support the interim governing body and arrange donor conferences to seek contributions for a longer-term reconstruction and development plan for Gaza.
The plan does not contain any specific financial pledges.
Oil- and gas-producing Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates could be vital sources of funding from the region.
The United Arab Emirates, for instance, sees Hamas and other militant groups as an existential threat and is unlikely to offer any funding until Hamas has been sidelined.
The foreign ministries in Qatar and the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s international media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Egypt’s plan, or to questions about their willingness to commit funds to rebuild Gaza.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/egypts-alternative-trumps-gaza-riviera-aims-sideline-hamas-2025-03-03/

China retaliated swiftly on Tuesday against fresh U.S. tariffs with hikes to import levies covering $21 billion worth of American agricultural and food products, moving the world’s top two economies a step closer towards an all-out trade war.
Beijing also slapped export and investment curbs on 25 U.S. firms, on grounds of national security, but avoided punishing any household names as when it retaliated against the Trump administration’s February 4 tariffs.

“Trying to exert extreme pressure on China is a miscalculation and a mistake,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told a press conference in Beijing, adding that China had never succumbed to bullying or coercion.
The latest retaliatory measures came as the extra duty of 10% U.S. President Donald Trump threatened for the world’s second-largest economy took effect at 0501 GMT on March 4.
That makes for a cumulative 20% tariff in response to what the White House considers Chinese inaction over drug flows.

China has accused the White House of “blackmail” over its tariff hike, saying it has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug policies.
Analysts say Beijing still hopes to negotiate a truce on tariffs, deliberately setting its hikes below 20% to leave its negotiators room to hash out a deal, but each escalation reduces the chance of a rapprochement.
“China’s government is signalling that they do not want to escalate,” said Even Pay, an agriculture analyst at Trivium China.
“It’s fair to say we’re in the early days of Trade War 2.0,” Pay said, adding there was still time to avoid a protracted trade war if Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were able to strike a deal.
Later on Tuesday, China said it would investigate U.S. producers of a type of optical fibre for circumventing anti-dumping measures, suspended the import licences of three U.S. exporters, and halted China-bound shipments of U.S. lumber.

The new U.S. tariffs represent an additional hike to pre-existing levies on thousands of Chinese goods.
Some of these products took the brunt of sharply higher U.S. tariffs last year under then President Joe Biden, including a doubling of duties on semiconductors to 50% and a quadrupling of tariffs on electric vehicles to more than 100%.
The 20% tariff will hit several major U.S. consumer electronics imports from China that had previously escaped untouched, from smartphones and laptops to videogame consoles, smartwatches, speakers and Bluetooth devices.
China responded immediately after the deadline, with an additional tariff of 15% tariff on U.S. chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and an extra levy of 10% on U.S. soybeans, sorghum, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits and vegetables and dairy imports from March. 10.
The additional levies will hit about 15% of U.S. exports to China or $21 billion worth of trade, according to Reuters calculations based on U.S. census data for 2024.
Beijing also added 15 U.S. companies to its export control list, that bars Chinese firms from supplying American companies with dual-use technologies.

It also put 10 U.S. companies on its Unreliable Entity List for selling arms to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, although the self-governing island rejects that.
“We’re still on track to 60% (tariffs),” said Cameron Johnson, a supply chain expert at Tidalwave Solutions, referring to Trump’s campaign trail threat.
“At the moment, with 20%, it just barely moves the needle for companies wanting to move potential supply chains out of the country,” he added.
“At 35%, we start to see that companies will start to move or consider other strategies.”
China is the biggest market for U.S. agricultural products, and the sector has long been vulnerable to being used as a punching bag at times of trade tension.
Chinese imports of U.S agriculture goods fell for a second year to $29.25 billion in 2024, from $42.8 billion in 2022.
China’s futures markets were steady on the news.
The most actively traded soymeal and rapeseed meal futures in the world’s biggest agricultural importer rose 2.5% on Monday after the Global Times said Beijing planned to target U.S. agricultural exports.

SUPPLY-CHAIN SHIFTS

Trade tension risks exacerbating U.S. inflation and China’s efforts to ensure a durable post-COVID economic recovery, which has been heavily reliant on exports.
On Tuesday, the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) applauded Trump’s goal of tackling illegal trade in fentanyl, but said raising tariffs on Chinese products was not the way to achieve that goal.
“Across-the-board tariffs will hurt U.S. businesses, consumers, and farmers and undermine our global competitiveness,” its president, Sean Stein, said in a statement.
All the same, the China-U.S. trade war could benefit third countries.
Since the United States and China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs during Trump’s first term, Beijing has moved to cut its reliance on American farm goods by spurring domestic production and buying more from countries like Brazil.
U.S. agricultural exporters could also step up efforts to replace the China market by shipping more to Southeast Asia, Africa and India.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-vows-countermeasures-against-us-tariffs-linked-fentanyl-2025-03-04/

Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, signed a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump expressing “horror” at his argument with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winner posted the text of the letter, which was signed by 39 Polish former political prisoners, on Facebook on Monday.

In an extraordinary meeting that was broadcast live on Friday, Trump accused Zelenskiy of being ungrateful for U.S. aid, of showing disrespect to his country and of risking World War Three, casting into doubt Washington’s ongoing support for Ukraine in its three-year-long war with Russia.

“We watched your conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy with horror and distaste,” the letter said.
“We consider your expectations regarding showing respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States to Ukraine in its fight with Russia to be offensive,” the letter continued.
“Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed blood in defence of the values ​​of the free world.”
Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelenskiy during the meeting, driving relations with Kyiv’s most important wartime ally to a new low. The Ukrainian leader was told to leave, a U.S. official said.

The letter signed by Walesa compared the atmosphere during the meeting to that found in “interrogations by the Security Service and… in communist courts”.
It also called on the United States to fulfill the security guarantees given to Ukraine in 1994 after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
“These guarantees are unconditional: there is not a word there about treating such aid as economic exchange,” the letter said.
The U.S. embassy in Warsaw said questions on the letter should be directed to the White House press office, which did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/polish-cold-war-hero-walesa-writes-trump-expressing-horror-zelenskiy-spat-2025-03-03/

U.S. President Donald Trump paused military aid to Ukraine following last week’s clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, potentially hampering Ukraine’s efforts to fend off Russia as he pivots towards warmer relations with Moscow.
Trump upended U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia upon taking office in January, opening talks with Moscow. The reversal culminated in an explosive confrontation with Zelenskiy at the White House on Friday, in which Trump upbraided him for being insufficiently grateful for Washington’s backing.

“President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a U.S. official said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The White House had no immediate comment on the scope and amount of aid affected or how long the pause would last.
Military experts say it could take time for the impact of missing U.S. aid to be felt on the battlefield. When U.S. assistance was held up for several months last year by Republicans in Congress, the most notable initial impact was shortages of air defences to shoot down incoming Russian missiles and drones. Later, Ukrainian forces in the east complained of shortages of ammunition, including for artillery.

The announcement was met initially on Tuesday by silence from the Ukrainian government and Zelenskiy. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said it looked like Trump was “pushing us towards capitulation”.
The Kremlin said pausing U.S. military aid would be the best contribution towards peace, although it still had to confirm details of Trump’s move.
Reuters also reported on Monday that Washington was drawing up a plan to potentially ease sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin said lifting sanctions was needed to normalise relations.
The cut-off of U.S. aid to Kyiv puts more pressure on European allies, led by Britain and France, whose leaders both visited the White House last week and have publicly embraced Zelenskiy since the Oval Office blow-up.

Europeans are racing to boost their own military spending and provide alternative support for Kyiv, including a plan to put troops on the ground to support any ceasefire, though they say they still need some form of U.S. support.

France condemned Washington’s cut-off of aid, while Britain was more circumspect.
Suspending arms to Ukraine made peace “more distant, because it only strengthens the hand of the aggressor on the ground, which is Russia,” said French junior minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad.
A British government spokesperson said: “We remain absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine and are engaging with key allies in support of this effort.”
Ukrainians on the streets of Kyiv said they felt abandoned.

“Yes, it is betrayal, let’s call it like it is,” said lawyer Olena Bilova, 47. “But let’s hope that American civil society and the elites of the European Union will not leave us alone.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled proposals to boost spending on defence in the EU, which she said could mobilise up to 800 billion euros ($840 billion). The EU is holding an emergency summit on Thursday.
On Monday, Trump again said Zelenskiy should be more appreciative of American support after earlier responding angrily to a report quoting Zelenskiy as saying the war’s end was “very, very far away”.
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

MINERALS DEAL NOT DEAD, SAYS TRUMP

Since Russia’s invasion three years ago, the U.S. Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance for Ukraine, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Trump administration inherited $3.85 billion worth of Congressionally approved authority to dip into U.S. arms stocks for Ukraine. Monday’s move also appeared to halt deliveries of military equipment approved by former President Joe Biden, including munitions, missiles and other systems.
Democrats in the U.S. Congress were furious about Trump’s announcement.
“By freezing military aid to Ukraine, President Trump has kicked the door wide open for Putin to escalate his violent aggression against innocent Ukrainians,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Still, Trump suggested on Monday that a deal to open up Ukraine’s minerals to U.S. investment could still be agreed. The deal was meant to be signed in Washington on Friday before Zelenskiy departed after the Oval Office bust-up.
When asked on Monday if the deal was dead, Trump said: “No, I don’t think so.”
In an interview on Fox News, Vice President JD Vance called on Zelenskiy to accept it.
“If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said.
Zelenskiy has made clear that a ceasefire must carry explicit security guarantees from the West to ensure that Russia, which holds about 20% of Ukraine’s land, does not attack again. Trump has so far refused to give any such guarantees.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-halts-all-us-military-aid-ukraine-white-house-official-says-2025-03-04/

One of the craziest awards seasons in Oscar history concluded on Sunday with the coronation of Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comedy about an outer-boroughs sex worker that was shot in guerrilla fashion for just $6 million. Despite its art-house origins, this most independent of indie films was celebrated as the year’s best by the Hollywood establishment. That’s a credit to Baker’s talent and to Neon, the studio that guided 2019’s “Parasite” to a similarly unorthodox victory when it became the first non-English-language film to take the best picture prize. By choosing “Anora,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, once dismissed as old and out of touch, has demonstrated that it is open to movies that push the envelope, in terms of both language (there are more than 400 uses of the F-word in the film) and sexuality.

It was a fitting end to an Oscar race that took a dizzying number of twists and turns on the way to Baker and company accepting their five Oscars. As the dust settles and we close the book on this Hollywood chapter, what lessons can we take from this year’s Academy Awards?

Category Fraud Was Alive and Well

For perhaps the first time in history, four “leading” acting nominees won Oscars — despite two of those victories coming for “supporting” roles. This was a direct result of some of the most blatant category fraud in recent memory.

Zoe Saldaña had the most screen time in “Emilia Pérez,” surpassing Karla Sofía Gascón, who played the titular role. Meanwhile Kieran Culkin’s appearance in “A Real Pain” was only four minutes shorter than that of ostensible star Jesse Eisenberg. Both Saldaña and Culkin clearly gave lead performances and easily could have been nominated alongside Mikey Madison (“Anora”) and Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) for the top acting prizes.

There’s also a strong case that supporting actress nominee Ariana Grande was a co-lead in “Wicked” with Cynthia Erivo. Even Margaret Qualley, who was snubbed for “The Substance,” had only one minute and 41 seconds less screen time than lead actress nominee Demi Moore.

Films like “Thelma & Louise” and “Terms of Endearment” have shown that co-leading characters exist. Studios should stop playing it safe and encourage their actors to compete where they belong.

The Social Media Scrub Will Now be a Standard Practice

The Karla Sofía Gascón controversy will have lasting effects on the awards complex. Multiple studio and PR sources say that while social media scrubbing was once an afterthought, it will now be seen as an essential component of every campaign.

Netflix poured millions into promoting “Emilia Pérez,” and briefly seemed poised to secure its first best picture win. Whether or not it would have gotten there without the scandal is unclear, but the historic number of nominations and strong momentum suggested it had a good shot. That is, until Gascón’s resurfaced social media posts derailed its campaign.

The lesson? If you’re hoping to be an awards contender — whether it’s for the Oscars, the Emmys or the Tonys — it’s best to start scrubbing now, before journalists and online detectives unearth something you’d prefer remain hidden.

Independent cinema got a much-needed lifeline.

Sean Baker’s “Anora” prevailed in five of the six categories where it was in contention. COVID, Hollywood strikes and the L.A. wildfires have devastated the entertainment industry and made it harder than ever to get movies made. Yet, some artists are still finding a way. Baker, an independent filmmaker since the early 2000s, isn’t chasing a Marvel project next. He’s the proof that gritty, dreamer-driven filmmaking continues to have a place in Hollywood. His win is a glimmer of hope for those who don’t live in mansions but just want to make movies.

Delayed Festival Releases Are a Risky Gamble

“Sing Sing” and Azazel Jacobs’ family drama “His Three Daughters” premiered at TIFF 2023 but weren’t released until nearly a year later. Both struggled to maintain awards momentum.

Few films survive a long delay and still secure major nominations. A rare success is “Sound of Metal” (2020), which premiered at TIFF 2019 but still earned six Oscar nods and two wins. However, that was during the pandemic — an utterly unconventional season.

A yearlong awards campaign is unsustainable for most films unless you have a clear strategy for the long road ahead.

Diversity isn’t just about the actors.

At the Oscars, a Dominican actress, a Brazilian auteur, Palestinian and Iranian filmmakers and a Black costume designer all won awards. The ceremony also saw the third Asian woman producer win best picture alongside her husband.

The Oscars aren’t perfect. The show hasn’t always done enough to elevate underrepresented actors and filmmakers. And there are reasons to worry that studios’ abandonment of DEI could impact future awards races.

Source : https://variety.com/2025/film/awards/oscars-season-analysis-category-fraud-social-media-1236326363/

Japan has deployed more than 2,000 firefighters to battle the country’s biggest forest fire in three decades.

At least one person has died in the blaze, which has torched more than 5,200 acres around the northern Japanese city of Ofunato since Thursday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA).

Although January to March is typically Ofunato’s driest season, the area saw less rainfall last month than any February in more than 20 years – recording just 2.5 millimetres, compared to the usual average of 41.

About 4,600 people remain under government-issued evacuation orders as the fire continues to burn.

Some 2,000 have already left the area to stay with friends or relatives, and more than 1,200 have evacuated to shelters, officials said.

The fires are burning in a forest area of Iwate Prefecture, which is Japan’s second largest prefecture and has the country’s second-lowest population density.

More than 80 buildings are estimated to have been damaged so far, although FDMA noted that details are still being assessed.

“Although it is inevitable that the fire will spread to some extent, we will take all possible measures to ensure there will be no impact on people’s homes,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in parliament.

Thousands of firefighters from 14 prefectures, including Tokyo, have been dispatched to fight the fires. At least 16 helicopters are also being used, with images showing the aircraft dumping water onto the smouldering hills.

Like many other countries, Japan in 2024 recorded its hottest year since records began.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89ypkq72d0o

Mixue Ice Cream and Tea may be unfamiliar to many of us but the Chinese firm has more outlets than McDonald’s and Starbucks.

On Monday, the bubble tea chain’s shares jumped by more than 40% in their Hong Kong Stock Exchange debut.

The company raised $444m (£352m) in the financial hub’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of the year.

Mixue’s popularity comes as many people in China are grappling with the country’s economic challenges – including a property crisis, and weak consumer and business confidence. It sells ice creams and drinks for an average of six Chinese yuan ($0.82; £0.65).

The company was founded in 1997 by Zhang Hongchao, a student at Henan University of Finance and Economics, as a part time job to help his family’s finances.

Its full name Mìxuě Bīngchéng means “honey snow ice city”, with its stores adorned with its Snow King mascot and playing the firm’s official theme tune on a loop.

According to Mixue, it has more than 45,000 stores across China and 11 other countries, including Singapore and Thailand. The firm has also said it plans to continue expanding.

That compares to “over 43,000 locations” for McDonald’s and Starbucks’ 40,576 outlets.

While it is often seen as China’s biggest bubble tea, iced drinks, and ice cream chain, it operates more like a raw-materials supplier than a traditional brand.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c625n63epyzo

Protests have erupted nationwide against billionaire Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance following the heated confrontation between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Outside Tesla stores in New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston, protestors congregated to voice their displeasure at Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) policies, which have led to thousands of federal staff being fired.

There were nine arrested at the protests, where signs were on display that read: “No Dictators in the USA” and “Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy.” Similarly, there were protests against Vice President Vance, who has been blasted as a traitor.

Vacationing with his family in Vermont, hundreds of protestors gathered to proclaim that “Vermont stands with Ukraine” and to tell Vance to go “ski in Russia.”

Videos captured protesters expressing their anger towards the Republican politician by gathering along the snow-covered streets of Waitsfield, chanting loudly. Other signs created by the enraged demonstrators included messages that read: “Join the right side of history,” “Vance = Putin’s Pawn = Traitor,” and “Moms for a caring country.”

The furious protest followed Vance’s public reprimand of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday, where he criticized him for “disrespecting the U.S.’s generosity.” Vance also claimed that the wartime leader had used “propaganda tours” to gain support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

Despite the tense moments, the meeting between Zelenskyy, Trump, and other top U.S. officials began on a respectful note. The two presidents exchanged polite words, with Trump even mentioning the potential for military aid to Ukraine before a peace agreement with Russia.

However, when Zelenskyy expressed skepticism about the reliability of Putin’s ceasefire proposals, Vance contended that such concerns should have remained private. This surprising reaction changed the tone of the discussion, causing the meeting to spiral into chaos.

“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?” Zelenskyy said, citing examples of Russia’s broken ceasefire promises. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance responded. He continued: “Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Source : https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/elon-musk-jd-vance-protests-34785996

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has captured a gorgeous shot of sunrise on the moon as it begins its workday on the lunar surface.

Blue Ghost aced its lunar landing attempt on Sunday (March 2), setting down close to Mons Latreille, a solitary lunar peak in the vast basin Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) in the northeastern region of the moon’s near side.

And the spacecraft is already getting to work, starting up its science payloads and capturing amazing images of its surroundings and the distant Earth from the lunar surface.

‘The latest image, posted by Firefly on the social media platform X on Monday (March 3), shows a dramatic sunrise, with the intensely bright sun contrasting with shadowed craters on an uneven lunar surface.

“Rise and shine! Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured its first sunrise on the moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home,” the post reads.

Related: ‘We’re on the moon!’ Private Blue Ghost moon lander aces historic lunar landing for NASA

Firefly added that many of the 10 NASA science payloads aboard the lander have begun operating and will continue operations for the next two weeks and into the lunar night, when the solar-powered mission is set to conclude. The instruments will contribute to studies in a range of areas, including lunar composition, geology and heat flow on the moon and space weather. Blue Ghost will also test drilling technology, and its camera aims to capture how lunar dust levitates on the surface at sunset.

The landing, which came 46 days after Blue Ghost’s Jan. 15 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marked a tremendous success for the company,

“Firefly is literally and figuratively over the moon,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said in a post-landing statement on Sunday.

“This bold, unstoppable team has proven we’re well equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the moon, and we won’t stop there,” Kim continued. “With annual lunar missions, Firefly is paving the way for a lasting lunar presence that will help unlock access to the rest of the solar system for our nation, our partners and the world.”

Blue Ghost was selected through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which contracts private landers to put the agency’s science and technology instruments on the moon in support of the Artemis program.

Source : https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/sunrise-on-the-moon-private-blue-ghost-lander-captures-amazing-shot-after-historic-lunar-touchdown-photo

Elon Musk called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme” in a discussion with podcaster Joe Rogan that was released online Friday. And it’s just the latest rhetorical assault by a member of the Trump regime on America’s social safety net as Musk continues to lay off thousands of federal workers and illegally stop payments at several government agencies.

“Social Security is the biggest Ponzi Scheme of all time,” Musk told Rogan, who asked the billionaire to explain.

“Right, so people pay in through Social Security and the money goes out of Social Security immediately but the obligation for Social Security is your entire retirement career,” Musk said, as though he was explaining something scandalous.

“So, you’re paying.. the kind…” Musk said, stammering. “You’re paying. Like, like if you look at the future obligations of Social Security it far exceeds the tax revenue. Far.”

Yes, people who are working now pay for the Social Security that retirees are now enjoying. That’s not a Ponzi Scheme, it’s how most social programs work. The people of the 20th century created a system to ensure that elderly people in the wealthiest country the world has ever known wouldn’t starve to death after they stopped working.

Then Musk pivoted into national debt, asking Rogan, “Have you ever looked at the debt clock,” clearly trying to change the subject into something that sounds more scary than “Social Security is funded by taxpayers like other social programs.”

Musk also claimed that there were 20 million people marked as “alive” in the Social Security database who were actually dead, but didn’t present any evidence that there was widespread fraud occurring. People do try to hide the deaths of loved ones so that they can continue to receive Social Security checks, but those those kinds of investigations are rare and there’s nothing to suggest millions of people are receiving fraudulent payments.

Rogan said it was an “interesting narrative” that Musk shouldn’t be allowed access to the most highly sensitive data at the Social Security office. And Musk insisted that every member of DOGE who had been given access had gone through the proper channels and been vetted properly. Again, like everything that Musk says, there was no evidence presented to prove the people at DOGE had been vetted properly. There has been, however, many reports that staff at DOGE have not received the proper clearances to view the data they’ve viewed. In fact, one story emerged of the DOGE team trying to access a SCIF at the U.S. Treasury.

Source : https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-calls-social-security-a-ponzi-scheme-as-he-destroys-the-u-s-government-2000570350

Donald Trump ‘s recent appearance has yet again evoked speculation about his deteriorating health . The President could be seen limping in the recent video that was taken at an event at the Mar-a-lago. This comes after netizens spotted a peculiar detail during Trump’s meeting with the French President.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently visited the White House to meet with Donald Trump. People were quick to notice Trump’s “bruised” hand in the photos taken during the official meeting.

The pictures immediately raised alarm amongst the netizens as speculation on the matter started. A user took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to note that the marks on Donald Trump’s hand resemble an IV bruise.

“There are a lot of pics with bandages and bruises. You would think our press would be inquiring about his health,” the same user wrote. A few people also noted that the 78-year-old’s bruised hand looked eerily similar to the Queen of England’s hand.

What raised even more alarm was when someone made a concerning observation about Queen Elizabeth’s bruises. Someone noted that the bruise on the Queen’s hand had started appearing more prominent a week before she passed away.

The recent video that has gained attention has led to rumors about Trump’s health deteriorating. In the clip, Trump walks up on stage to join his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump . The President’s limp was so obvious it was caught on the camera. He can be seen dragging one of his legs behind the other one while he walks up on the stage.

“Trump has DISASTER SUNDAY as he LIMPS AROUND,” read the caption that accompanied the video posted to Reddit. Another clip of the moment was posted to X, where netizens discussed Trump’s evident limp.

“He’s limping?” one user questioned. “Trump is old, pale, weak & limping on his right leg,” another noted while reposting the clip. “There is a definite stagger/limp in Trump’s gait. Is his health failing?” a third questioned.

Another video of the President getting out of a gold cart while he drags his leg has also gained traction on social media. A user in the comments section speculated that the President’s strange stride might be due to a “pulled muscle.” While others were adamant that the limp seemed very permanent.

Several users also noted that Donald Trump’s age was a probably a factor for the strange walk. “Actually, this is what happens when you get old… nothing more,” one user wrote. “Old age. Happens to everyone,” another person defended. “Hes old!! Very old!!” a third added.

Source : https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3837831157866-donald-trump-s-limp-raises-alarms-is-he-hiding-any-serious-health-condition

Two people have died and 11 others have been injured after a car was deliberately rammed into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim, before the driver shot himself.

Among those hurt, five people are in a serious condition after a black vehicle hit pedestrians on Monday, according to German police and prosecutors.

At a news conference, reporters were told the driver intentionally rammed his car into people and is being investigated for murder and attempted murder.

They said the man shot himself in the mouth when he was arrested and is in a stable condition in hospital. Investigators are examining the possibility he may have psychological issues.

The state’s interior minister Thomas Strobl said a 40-year-old man from the nearby state of Rhineland-Palatinate had been detained.

“As far as the specific motivation of the crime is concerned, we have no indication of an extremist or religious background at the moment,” he said.

Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm said the incident unfolded on Monday at around 12.15pm local time in a pedestrianised part of Mannheim’s Paradeplatz area.

Armed police and forensic investigators were seen examining a black vehicle with smashed windows near the city’s Rhine bridge.

Local officials added that the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) would be leading the investigation in cooperation with the Mannheim Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Police initially described the incident as “a life-threatening deployment situation” in Mannheim, in the area of Wasserturm/Plankenkopf.

An alert was issued on the Katwarn smartphone app – used in major emergencies – telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city centre due to a big police deployment.

Earlier Mannheim University Hospital said it was prepared for a possible “mass casualty incident”, implementing its disaster and emergency plan, and increasing intensive care capacity, according to German news agency DPA.

A total of eight trauma teams have been made available – for both adults and children, according to the agency.

“Postponable operations that had not yet begun were immediately removed from the operation plan in order to create additional operating capacity,” the hospital said in a statement.

Crowds have been gathering in cities across Germany, including its Rhineland region, for parades to mark the country’s carnival season.

Police were on high alert after social media accounts connected to Islamic extremist groups called for attacks on events planned in Cologne and Nuremberg.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/two-dead-11-injured-in-germany-as-driver-rams-into-crowds-then-shoots-himself-13320770

While she may not have taken home the Oscar, Demi Moore is still thankful for the “ride of lifetime” following her unexpected Best Actress loss Sunday night to Anora star Mikey Madison.

Moore made her first public statement following the ceremony Monday, congratulating Madison and thanking her colleagues for the opportunity to star in Coralie Fargeat’s gender-charged body-horror The Substance, which provided the longtime A-lister with a career resurgence at the age of 62.

“As this awards season comes to a close, I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude for this journey. It’s been the ride of a lifetime and we’re just getting started!” she wrote on Instagram.

“Thank you to the cast, crew, and fans of @trythesubstance — @isimostar and @coralie_fargeat it’s been such an honor to work alongside you, learn from you, and celebrate this film with you,” the actress continued. “And a huge congratulations to #MikeyMadison — can’t wait to see what you do next,” she concluded along with a red-heart emoji.

Moore was on a winning streak this awards season, collecting accolades at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Critics Choice Awards. Her near-perfect run led many to believe that she was a shoo-in for the Oscar, but Anora’s stunning (and for some, surprising) sweep Sunday put an end to those chances.

While many screamed snub on social media, others noted the pointed parallels between Moore’s loss and The Substance’s own plot.

A first-time Oscar nominee and first-time winner, Madison starred in Sean Baker’s Anora—a whirlwind slice-of-life portrayal of a sex worker’s harried love affair with a Russian oligarch’s son—that largely reigned Sunday night.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/demi-moore-breaks-her-silence-on-surprise-oscars-loss/

Legendary Polish anti-Communist Lech Wałęsa has slammed Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, comparing it to Soviet secret police tactics.

Wałęsa, 81, signed a letter along with 38 other Poles who had been held captive by the Communist regime, telling Trump that the Friday spectacle filled them “with horror and distaste.”

The former Polish president previously revealed that he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2010, and attached a photo of the two of them to the letter, which he posted on Facebook on Monday.

The letter was signed by Wałęsa and 38 former Polish political prisoners, who said “the atmosphere in the Oval Office” reminded them of “Security Service interrogations and from the courtrooms in communist courts.”

“Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the omnipotent communist political police, also explained to us that they had all the cards in their hands, and we had none,” they write in the letter, referencing President Donald Trump’s comment that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not in a position to negotiate.

“You don’t have the cards right now,” he told Zelensky during their tense Oval Office meeting.

Wałęsa’s and the other signatories said they were “shocked” by Trump treatment of Zelensky, drawing parallels between the meeting and their own experiences under Poland’s former communist regime. In particular, they condemned Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance’s demands that Zelensky express more gratitude for the material assistance the U.S. has given Ukraine while it defends itself against Russia’s invasion, calling it “insulting.”

“Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed blood in defense of the values of the free world. They are the ones who have been dying on the front lines,” they said. “We do not understand how the leader of a country that is the symbol of the free world cannot see it.”

Wałęsa was a founder of Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement when he was a shipyard worker in the port city of Gdansk. When martial law was declared in 1981, he was imprisoned for 11 months. In 1989, he negotiated with the Moscow-backed communist regime for Poland to hold parliamentary elections, which eventually led to the peaceful ouster of communism from Poland.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/cold-war-hero-lech-walesa-writes-angry-letter-to-trump-after-his-attack-on-zelensky/

DOLLY Parton’s husband Carl Dean has died aged 82.

The country icon confirmed the news through a heartbreaking tribute, after nearly 60 years of marriage.

Another mystery disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has emerged, resulting in at least 60 deaths, health officials say.

It follows a similar event in September 2024, referred to as “Disease X” before the World Health Organization (WHO) identified it as a cocktail of several known acute respiratory illnesses complicated by malaria and malnutrition.

These new outbreaks could have similar origins, but it will likely take time to determine exactly what the cause is.

Toxic contamination is also considered a possible cause.

What is the current situation in the DR Congo?

More than 1,000 cases have been reported across the DR Congo’s Equateur province and 141 cases of a disease have been reported in Basankusu’s health zone. A separate outbreak in early February consisted of 158 cases and 58 deaths.

In January, Bolamba village reported 12 cases and eight deaths.

What have initial tests shown?

Health authorities in the DR Congo and WHO experts are carrying out investigations to determine the cause of the illness and deaths.

Early lab tests ruled out Ebola and Marburg disease. Half of those tested have tested positive for malaria.

“We’re not really satisfied with the sampling, so we’ve sent two WHO epidemiologists up there,” Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson, told DW News.

“They’re up there now and they’re overseeing the sampling and getting them back to the laboratories in [DR Congo’s capital] Kinshasa.”

Further testing is being undertaken for meningitis and potential toxic contamination.

WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan, along with local health authorities, favor the latter as a cause.

“It would appear that we have some kind of poisoning event,” Ryan told reporters.

Do officials know the source of the outbreak?

The cause of the disease — and whether the illnesses in different regions are connected — remains unknown.

Early reports suggested the first cases were among a group of children who may have eaten a bat, though this incident is not yet confirmed as the cause of the outbreak.

Bats are known reservoirs of viruses and other disease-causing pathogens. Global health advice recommends people steer clear of exposure to dead animals.

Although the main outbreak villages of Basankusu and Bolomba are 116 miles (186 kilometers) apart, it’s unclear if the disease outbreaks share the same cause.

What are the symptoms of the mystery disease?

The WHO’s latest memo says symptoms are broad, and include fever, headaches, chills, sweating, stiffness in the neck, muscular aches, joint and body pain, coughing, vomiting and diarrhea.

The broadness of these symptoms and their potential to apply to many diseases makes it impossible to pinpoint the cause without analysis of biological samples from patients.

Some health experts believe the mystery disease is likely caused by several known pathogens acting together.

That malaria has been found in one in two cases already is important information for health authorities, but the addition of further sampling and analysis by WHO officials in conjunction with local teams will help narrow the search for a cause.

“Tests are never 100% accurate, and it is likely that with increased testing, we will have a confirmed pathogen in some of those samples,” said Michael Head, an epidemiologist at the University of Southampton, UK.

Could the disease spread further?

Health infrastructure in this region of the DR Congo is limited, and there are concerns that the disease could spread. As with the malaria-respiratory infections that caused the 2024 outbreak, malnutrition and other underlying conditions can increase the chances of death.

Local health authorities have been addressing Mpox and Ebola outbreaks in recent years, so Head suggests the challenges of limited infrastructure to manage new diseases can be offset by their “experience at addressing infectious disease epidemics.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/another-mystery-disease-outbreak-in-dr-congo-what-we-know/a-71783032

Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday he is running to become mayor of New York City, more than three years after he resigned in disgrace as governor of New York after being accused of sexually harassing a number of women who worked for him and misleading the public about COVID-19 deaths.
Cuomo, 67, denies the allegations. He is among the most well-known of a number of candidates challenging embattled Mayor Eric Adams to become the Democratic Party’s nominee in the primary election in June.

“I know what needs to be done and I know how to do it,” Cuomo said in a video message, saying the city needs a bold plan to address crime, mental illness and other concerns, and calling for a permanent increase in police numbers and the construction of thousands of affordable homes.
Adams is seeking a second term even as he faces calls to resign by senior Democrats after he was indicted last year on corruption charges and then courted U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, as he seeks to have the indictment dismissed. Adams, 64, has pleaded not guilty.

Cuomo entered politics in the 1980s helping his father, Mario Cuomo, win three terms as New York governor, an office he himself won in 2010. He also served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as U.S. housing secretary, and, before becoming governor, served a term as New York’s attorney general.
As governor, Cuomo signed bills legalizing same-sex marriage and recreational marijuana, and in New York City he oversaw an expansion of Pennsylvania Station and an overhaul of LaGuardia Airport.
He was known for making daily public briefings in the early days of the COVID pandemic, which killed thousands of New Yorkers, but his response to the crisis became the beginning of his political downfall.
In an audit, New York state’s comptroller found Cuomo’s administration had pressured the Health Department to deliberately undercount, COVID deaths of state nursing home residents. Cuomo had signed a $5.1 million deal for a book about his leadership during the pandemic, but the state ethics board revoked its approval after saying Cuomo wrongly used state employees and resources to write it. Cuomo has said he did nothing wrong or unethical, and has sued the ethics board, which has sought the $5.1 million from him, in litigation that continues.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/andrew-cuomo-running-new-york-city-mayor-after-resigning-governor-post-2025-03-01/

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his priority in talks with King Charles on Monday will be protecting his country’s sovereignty after U.S. President Donald Trump recently suggested making Canada the 51st U.S. state.
Trudeau said nothing is more important to his citizens than “standing up for our sovereignty and our independence”, ahead of the meeting with Charles, who is Canada’s head of state.

Last week, Charles invited Trump to what would be a historic second state visit to Britain, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer handing over the invitation during a meeting before the world’s media in the Oval Office.

“I look forward to sitting down with His Majesty tomorrow, as always we will discuss matters of importance to Canada and Canadians, and I can tell you that nothing seems more important to Canadians than standing up for our sovereignty and our independence as a nation,” Trudeau told reporters.

Trudeau, the outgoing prime minister, said last month that Trump’s talk about absorbing Canada “is a real thing” and is linked to the country’s rich natural resources.
Trump has repeatedly suggested Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st U.S. state.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/canada-pm-trudeau-says-protecting-independence-is-his-priority-talks-with-king-2025-03-02/

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday European leaders had agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to present to the United States, a vital step for Washington to be able to offer security guarantees that Kyiv says are essential to deter Russia.
At a summit in London just two days after Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump and cut short a visit to Washington, European leaders offered a strong show of support to the Ukrainian president and promised to do more to help his nation.

European leaders agreed they must spend more on defence to show Trump the continent can protect itself, and the European Commission chief suggested the bloc could ease rules that limit debt levels.
Starmer, who welcomed a visibly shaken Zelenskiy on Saturday with a warm hug, said Britain, Ukraine, France and some other nations would form a “coalition of the willing” and draw up a peace plan to take to Trump.
“This is not a moment for more talk. It’s time to act. Time to step up and lead and to unite around a new plan for a just and enduring peace,” Starmer said.

Leaders did not provide details of their plan. Before the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron told newspaper Le Figaro that the plan would involve a one-month ceasefire that would apply to air and sea attacks but not to ground combat.
European troops would be deployed if a more substantial peace agreement was reached, he said. It was not clear whether other nations had agreed to the terms.
Zelenskiy said after the meeting that he left London with “Europe’s clear support” and readiness to cooperate.
“There will be diplomacy for the sake of peace,” he said in his nightly video address. “And for the sake of us all being together – Ukraine, all of Europe and definitely, definitely America.”
Earlier, Zelenskiy told reporters that Ukraine would not cede any territory to Russia as part of a peace agreement and said he was still willing to sign a minerals deal with the United States.

Zelenskiy said he believed he could salvage his relationship with Trump after Friday’s shouting match, but that talks would have to take place behind closed doors.
“The format of what happened, I don’t think it brought something positive or additional to us as partners,” he said.
Europe is scrambling to ensure that Kyiv is not squeezed out of any talks after the Oval Office clash raised fears that the U.S. could pull support for Ukraine and impose a peace plan negotiated with Russia.
Several European leaders said they must increase defence spending – something that could help bring Trump on side to offer a U.S. security guarantee in the event of peace.
“After a long time of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to step up the defence investment for a prolonged period of time,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, told reporters.
Europe needs to turn “Ukraine into a steel porcupine that is indigestible for potential invaders,” she said.

LACKING WEAPONRY, STOCKS

Europe, which lacks the weaponry and depth of ammunition stocks of the U.S., hopes to convince Trump that it can defend itself but that Russia will only adhere to a peace deal if it comes with the backing of the United States.
Talks with the U.S. have centred on Washington providing a so-called backstop for a European peacekeeping role, possibly in the form of air cover, intelligence and surveillance and a greater but unspecified threat if Russian President Vladimir Putin again sought to take more territory.
Crucial to getting any agreement from Trump is for European nations to increase defence spending and signal they would take part in any peacekeeping role – something Starmer acknowledged was difficult to get unanimity on.
Starmer increased the UK’s defence spending before his visit to Washington last week, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said some European leaders had privately set out new plans on defence spending at the meeting but he declined to give details.

‘UNCOMFORTABLE VIEWING’

Oversharing. Trauma-dumping. Floodlighting. It’s all the same—at least to me. But apparently, some of these behaviors might be driven by harmful intentions.

In the media, we constantly hear new buzzwords labeling “toxic” patterns that oftentimes just point to us being, well, humans. However, whether consciously or not, these actions can be manipulative in nature.

“Floodlighting,” in particular, is a recent example of this, which is gaining traction online.

According to Brené Brown, author of The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage, floodlight occurs when we share too much information about ourselves and our lives in an attempt to protect ourselves from real vulnerability.

“Oversharing? Not vulnerability,” she said. “I call it floodlighting.”

Is Floodlighting Dangerous?

However, a dating app expert shared the darker side of this behavior.

“Floodlighting in dating is about using vulnerability as a high-intensity spotlight,” Jessica Alderson, co-founder of the dating app So Synced, told Glamour. “It involves sharing a lot of personal details all at once — to test the waters, speed up intimacy, or see if the other person can ‘handle’ these parts of you.”

On one hand, I view this as some sort of reassurance-seeking compulsion rather than an intentionally manipulative tactic. On the other hand, I can see some people using it as a way to force or rush intimacy with another person.

According to Alderson, some signs of floodlighting include quick and early disclosure of detailed personal information, an unbalanced exchange of said information, a fast and intense emotional connection, and a close analysis of reactions to shared information.

For example, say you meet someone from a dating app and grab drinks a few days after connecting. On the date, you begin to talk about your childhood, sharing details about your parents’ divorce and other traumas. You then drain on about how this impacts you today, e.g. makes you doubt love and loyalty, causes insecurities in dating, etc. All the while, you’re closely reading the other person’s reactions to determine whether they can “handle” you, testing their boundaries and how much they’re willing to accept.

Source : https://www.vice.com/en/article/floodlighting-is-the-new-toxic-dating-trend/

YouTuber Asmita Patel’s mission was to “make India trade”.

The wildly popular financial influencer called herself the “She-Wolf of the stock market” – her take on the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street. At last count, she had clocked upwards of half a million subscribers on YouTube and hundreds of thousands on Instagram. Fees for her stock trading courses ran into thousands of rupees.

Last month, the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) put a spanner in the works. It barred her and six others from trading, alleging she was selling illegal stock tips disguised as investor education and making millions of rupees in the bargain.

The regulator’s crackdown on Patel is its latest attempt to tighten the noose around social media influencers offering quick money schemes and trading advice disguised as education.

India’s post-pandemic market boom attracted a wave of new mom-and-pop investors. Online trading accounts grew from merely 36 million in 2019 to more than 150 million last year, data from the brokerage Zerodha shows.

Many of these first-time market entrants relied on social media for trading tips which, in turn, birthed a new breed of self-styled “investment gurus” or “financial influencers” like Ms Patel, promising quick money.

With only 950 registered investment advisors and 1,400 financial advisors in the country, these influencers quickly filled the void, amassing hundreds of thousands of subscribers and followers.

Most operated without regulatory registration, blurring the line between investment advice and stock market education. This prompted Sebi to crack down, banning at least a dozen influencers, including a Bollywood actor, from offering trading advice.

The regulator has also barred brokerages and market players from partnering with influencers who peddle illegal stock tips or make misleading return claims.

The regulator found Ms Patel and her husband, Jitesh, directing students and investors to trade specific stocks through their advisory firm. She allegedly used private Telegram channels, Zoom calls and courses to sell tips without mandatory registration.

Sebi acted in Ms Patel’s case after 42 participants complained of trading losses and demanded compensation. It is now moving to seize millions of rupees that Patel and her associates earned from course fees between 2021 and 2024.

As markets correct, the economy slows and regulators crack down, other influencers face a credibility test.

Thousands of angry investors have recently accused high-profile influencers of faking their success to sell trading courses and earn millions in brokerage referrals.

Sebi’s order in Ms Patel’s case too revealed she made just over $13,700 (£10,800) as trading profits in the past five years but earned more than $11.4m (£9m) by selling courses.

Ms Patel didn’t respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

While Sebi’s drive to protect small investors is well intentioned, its recent regulatory actions have drawn criticism for being delayed and lacking clarity.

The regulator has been both a “selective” and “reluctant regulator”, Sucheta Dalal, veteran financial journalist and author, told the BBC.

“It should have acted a few years ago when trading sites started paying influencers to promote their products. Now this phenomenon has become too big.”

Sumit Agrawal, a former officer with Sebi, says the regulator singled out a few as an example instead of enforcing a clear, comprehensive policy.

“Curbing unregulated stock tips is necessary, but requiring trading schools to use three-month-old data for educational purposes and not teaching practical experience of trading strategies on live market crosses into over-regulation,” he says.

Manish Singh, a chartered accountant and YouTuber with half a million followers, makes market analysis videos. He says Sebi’s new rules have created confusion over what’s allowed.

“Even genuine content creators who are trying to guide people in the right direction will lose subscribers and the monetary incentive of brand deals as confidence to work with creators is shaken,” Singh told the BBC.

Balancing this will be tough for the regulator, says Mr Agrawal.

Technology is inherently disruptive and the law is always “playing catch-up”. Sebi’s real challenge, he adds, is to monitor online content effectively without over-regulating. Notably, the Indian regulator wields broader powers than its counterparts in advanced markets like the US.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddyye3zplno

Mixue Ice Cream and Tea may be unfamiliar to many of us but the Chinese firm has more outlets than McDonald’s and Starbucks.

On Monday, the bubble tea chain’s shares jumped by 40% as they started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company raised $444m (£352m) in the financial hub’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of the year.

Mixue’s popularity comes as many people in China are grappling with the country’s economic challenges – including a property crisis, and weak consumer and business confidence. It sells ice creams and drinks for an average of six Chinese yuan ($0.82; £0.65).

The company was founded in 1997 by Zhang Hongchao, a student at Henan University of Finance and Economics, as a part time job to help his family’s finances.

Its full name Mìxuě Bīngchéng means “honey snow ice city”, with its stores adorned with its Snow King mascot and playing the firm’s official theme tune on a loop.

According to Mixue, it has more than 45,000 stores across China and 11 other countries, including Singapore and Thailand. The firm has also said it plans to continue expanding.

That compares to “over 43,000 locations” for McDonald’s and Starbucks’ 40,576 outlets.

While it is often seen as China’s biggest bubble tea, iced drinks, and ice cream chain, it operates more like a raw-materials supplier than a traditional brand.

Unlike Starbucks, which operates more than half of its stores directly, almost all of Mixue’s outlets are run by franchisees.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c625n63epyzo

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is “exchangeable” for Ukrainian membership of NATO, indicating he would be prepared to step down as president if his country was allowed to join the military alliance.

He also suggested he was ready to sign a minerals deal with the US that was put on hold after his heated meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.

Mr Zelenskyy was speaking to reporters on Sunday evening after earlier talks with other world leaders at a London summit hosted by Sir Keir Starmer, who suggested a coalition of European allies could step up to defend Ukraine and “guarantee the peace”.

Asked by Sky News’ lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim about his previous comments that he could resign in the event that his country becomes a NATO member, he said: “I am exchangeable for NATO.”

The Ukraine president added: “I have said that I am exchanging for NATO membership, then it means I have fulfilled my mission. NATO means I have fulfilled my mission.”

But, he also said: “To change me, it will not be easy because it is not enough to simply hold elections. You would need to prevent me from participating. And it will be a bit more difficult.”

As the three-year full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, Mr Zelenskyy has also rebuffed US officials calling for him to resign.

His comments at Stansted Airport come after Republicans including senator Lindsay Graham and speaker Mike Johnson suggested he should step down from his position following the fiery White House exchange with President Trump.

Mr Zelenskyy spoke to journalists shortly before leaving the UK on Sunday evening.

In response to a question from Yalda Hakim, Mr Zelenskyy said: “I can give [Lindsay Graham] citizenship of Ukraine and he will become a citizen of our country.

“And then his voice will start to gain weight, and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president.”

“The president of Ukraine will have to be chosen not in Lindsay Graham’s home but in Ukraine,” he added.

Mr Zelenskyy confirmed there has been communication between Ukraine and the Trump administration since the clash on Friday, but “not on my level”.

Mr Graham – a Republican senator and close Trump ally – labelled the meeting a “complete, utter disaster” at a press briefing on Friday.

Asked whether Mr Zelenskyy should step aside, he said: “He either needs to resign or send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”

After the London summit on Sunday, the prime minister unveiled a four-step plan discussed by leaders, including a pledge to “develop a coalition of the willing” to defend a deal in Ukraine and guarantee a peace settlement.

Sir Keir said Europe “must do the heavy lifting”, and the UK “is prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air, together with others”.

He also announced a new deal which will allow Ukraine to use £1.6bn of UK export finance to buy 5,000 more air defence missiles.

Zelenskyy’s meeting with the King

The Ukrainian president’s 90-minute sit down with the media came shortly after he wrapped up a tough week with a visit to see the King at Sandringham.

Mr Zelenskyy flew to Norfolk in a helicopter on Sunday afternoon after attending the security summit in central London.

People – some holding Ukraine flags – gathered outside Sandringham to try to witness his arrival. A military helicopter could be seen flying low before descending over the estate.

Pictures released after the meeting show Charles and Mr Zelenskyy shaking hands by the entrance to the royal home. The pair chatted briefly before heading inside, where they posed for more photographs.

Their meeting lasted just under an hour, Sky News understands.

A difficult week for Ukrainian president

Mr Zelenskyy’s difficult few days began on Friday, when his day at the White House with Mr Trump was cut short after their meeting in the Oval Office descended into a shouting match.

The pair had been due to sign a minerals deal and hold a joint press conference – but both events were called off after their tense exchange, fuelled in part by comments from vice president JD Vance.

As White House officials scrapped the day’s schedule, Mr Trump described the meeting as “very meaningful” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/zelenskyy-tells-sky-news-i-am-exchangeable-for-nato-membership-after-pm-announces-missile-plan-for-ukraine-13320559

Hamas has rejected an Israeli request to extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, a senior official has said.

The militant group will only release the remaining Israeli hostages under the terms of the already agreed-upon phased deal, Mahmoud Mardawi told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Under a plan put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel has accepted, the first phase of the ceasefire deal would continue through Ramadan and Passover, or until 20 April.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier Israel would stop all goods and supplies into Gaza after claiming Hamas was refusing to “accept the Witkoff outline for continuing the talks, which Israel agreed to”.

Hamas condemned the decision to block aid to the enclave, calling it “a war crime and a blatant attack” on a truce that took a year of negotiations before taking hold in January.

The foreign minister of Egypt, a key mediator in the conflict, said Israel’s actions were an attempt to use “starvation as a weapon” and “a flagrant and clear violation of humanitarian law”.

Saudi Arabia called Israel’s decision “a tool of extortion”.

The first phase of the ceasefire, which expired on Saturday, saw a surge in humanitarian aid after months of growing hunger.

Negotiations on the second phase were meant to start a month ago but haven’t begun.

Israel warned of “additional consequences” if Hamas refused to agree to its proposal.

Under the US proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, Mr Netanyahu said.

Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 35 of them believed to be dead, after taking an estimated 250 people captive back to Gaza after its 7 October 2023 raid on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed.

Israel’s military counter-offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population and destroyed the territory’s infrastructure and health system.

Washington made no immediate comment but Mr Netanyahu said Israel is fully coordinated with the Trump administration and the ceasefire will only continue as long as Hamas keeps releasing hostages.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that “any unraveling of the forward momentum created over the last six weeks risks plunging people back into despair”.

The ceasefire has saved countless lives, the humanitarian organisation said.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Israel’s decision “alarming,” noting that aid access is enshrined in international humanitarian law.

Most of Gaza’s two million-plus residents depend on international aid because of the privations caused by the war.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/hamas-rejects-israeli-request-to-extend-first-phase-of-gaza-ceasefire-deal-13320519

TikTok, Reddit and Imgur are to be investigated by the UK’s data protection watchdog over how they use teenage users’ personal information.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it wants to look into how video-sharing app TikTok uses information from users aged 13 to 17 to deliver content recommendations to them.

The investigations into online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur will focus on their use of age assurance measures, such as how they estimate and verify children’s ages, and how they use their personal information.

The regulator is taking action amid growing concerns about how social media platforms use data generated by children’s online activity in their recommendation algorithms – and the potential for young people to be served harmful or inappropriate content as a result.

TikTok’s algorithm powers the For You Page, which recommends videos to users based on the content they engage with on the app.

A study previously found the app was suggesting eating disorder and self-harm content to some new teen accounts within minutes.

Information commissioner John Edwards said the regulator wants to ensure the sites’ processes are “robust”.

Mr Edwards said he expects “to find that there will be many benign and positive uses of children’s data in their recommender systems”, as well as “elements that are designed to keep children safe”.

“What I am concerned about is whether they are sufficiently robust to prevent children being exposed to harm, either from addictive practices on the device or the platform, or from content that they see, or from other unhealthy practices,” he continued.

He insisted the regular is not “picking on TikTok” by including it in the investigation and said the choice was motivated by “the direction of growth travel in relation to young users, market dominance and potential for harm”.

“We’ve got to choose one – we can’t spread ourselves too thinly,” he said. “We hope to learn lessons that the whole industry will be able to adopt.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/tiktok-and-reddit-investigated-over-use-of-childrens-data-13320288

Anora has dominated the Academy Awards, winning five gongs including best picture.

The film’s star, Mikey Madison, took home the best actress award – something of a suprise win, with many expecting Demi Moore to scoop the prize for her performance in The Substance.

Anora filmmaker Sean Baker was also named best director, and used his acceptance speech to make a plea for audiences to support cinemas, which he said were “a vital part of our culture” and at risk of being lost.

Both also thanked the sex workers in the industry, without the help of whom they said they could never have made the film.

Anora also won the Oscars for best original screenplay and best editing.

Winning all four awards he was up for, Baker tied with Walt Disney’s record for the most Oscar wins by a single person in a single night – although Disney won his awards for multiple films, rather than a single film as Baker has done.

Adrien Brody won the best actor Oscar for playing Hungarian architect Lazlo Toth in architectural epic The Brutalist.

It’s his second Academy Award win in the category some 22 years after his first, for The Pianist back in 2003.

Accepting his award in a lengthy speech, he paid tribute to his partner Georgina Chapman, Harvey Weinstein’s ex-wife, who he said had “re-invigorated” his “self-worth” and “sense of value”, as well as calling for an end to antisemitism.

Best cinematography also went to Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour epic, as well as a win for best original score.

Papal thriller Conclave took just one prize, for best adapted screenplay.

The night was led by comedian and late-night chat host Conan O’Brien.

Kieran Culkin took the first award of the night, best supporting actor, for his role in comedy drama A Real Pain.

Costume Design was awarded to Wicked’s Paul Tazewell – the first black man to ever receive the award. The Wizard Of Oz prequel also won best production design.

Best supporting actress was won by Zoe Saldana, her first Oscar win and nomination.

One of the highest-grossing actresses ever, she cried out: “Mommy, mommy,” explaining her entire family was there with her, becoming tearful at the end of her speech as she spoke of being “a proud child of immigrant parents”.

First American of Dominican origin to win an Oscar, she finished by dedicating it to her grandmother, who came to the US in 1961, fleeing dictatorship in her country.

Announced by Mick Jagger, best song went to Emilia Perez’s El Mal (which translates as “Evil”).

Brazilian director Walter Salles won best international feature for Portuguese-language film I’m Still Here, set in the 1970s in the midst of the Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship.

A word-of-mouth hit, the film’s Brazilian star Fernanda Torres has gone from an unknown to a much-talked-about actress in the US over the last month.

Make-up and hairstyling was awarded to body horror The Substance, a film which showcased extreme prosthetics, make up and gore throughout. It was the film’s only win of the night.

The documentary categories went to The Only Girl In The Orchestra and No Other Land – made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective – for short film and feature film respectively.

Accepting the prize, it’s makers Basel Dra and Yuval Abraham, made a political plea to the US: “The foreign policy in this country is helping to block [the path of peace]. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living.”

Best sound and best visual effects went to Dune: Part Two, directed by Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

A night where independent and unusual filmmaking was rewarded, best animated feature went to Latvian computer-generated film Flow, while best animated short film was won by Iranian entry The Shadow Of The Cypress. Both international productions are dialogue-free.

Live action short film went to I’m Not A Robot, a study in an AI-fueled identity crisis.

During the ceremony’s in memoriam section, Morgan Freeman paid tribute to two-time Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead in his home along with his wife and dog earlier this week.

A video montage honoured Academy members who have passed away over the last year, including British stars Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Joan Plowwright and Donald Sutherland, and US performers James Earl Jones, Kris Kristofferson and David Lynch.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/anora-sweeps-the-oscars-with-five-awards-including-best-picture-13320599

On 7 November 2024, days after Donald Trump was elected president, Andrew Tate posted a prediction on X.

In response to a tweet asking what could come next, he replied: “My case being dismissed. Watch this space 😉”.

Then, on 12 February, he posted again. “The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back,” read the post.

Two weeks later, on 27 February, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport from Bucharest, Romania, after a Romanian court ruled they could leave the country. The brothers had been barred from travelling for over two years over criminal investigations.

Mr Trump denies knowing about the lifted travel ban, but an analysis of links on social media shows deepening ties between Andrew Tate and several people close to the US president.

The 38-year-old former kickboxer and his brother, both dual US-UK nationals who face criminal civil proceedings in Britain and the US and deny all allegations against them, haven’t been shy about their support for Mr Trump.

Speaking to the media outside a courthouse in Romania in January, Tate said: “Donald Trump is the future of the western world, everybody knows it, and everybody needs to get in line and obey him. He runs the world. He’s a good friend of mine and I’m going to help him.”

Key members of the Trump administration have been vocal in their support of the alleged human trafficker and sex offender online, an alliance that experts say could benefit both sides.

“In the political climate, Tate should serve as a valuable influencer for political movements. And he’s got a huge ability to mobilise large online followings, and that’s a big potential political asset,” said social media consultant Matt Navarra.

“Social media is the new battleground and influencers are the new generals and Tate is perfectly aligned to Trump’s mission.”

Mr Trump himself hasn’t openly spoken out in support of the Tates, and denies having any knowledge about the brothers’ return to the US. “I know nothing about that,” he said in a press conference during a visit by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

But some of his closest advisors have been vocal in their support of the Tates. This includes Elon Musk, who in January responded to a video of Andrew Tate talking about running for prime minister of the UK, commenting, “he’s not wrong”.

Musk was responsible for reinstating Tate’s X account after he bought the platform in 2022. Tate now has nearly 11 million followers on X.

Another recent endorsement came from Alina Habba, a counselor to the president and previous legal spokesperson for Mr Trump.

On 12 January this year she spoke to Tate on The Benny Show podcast – saying she was a “big fan” and telling him “I got your back over here”.

In response, Mr Tate replied: “If I ever get back state side, and I think I will sooner or later, if I ever need a lawyer I’ll be calling your phone.”

But this support isn’t new. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, has long been a fan of Andrew Tate. The two met at Trump Tower in New York in 2017, and in May 2023 he showed his support in a post on X where Tate vented about his house arrest – calling it “absolute insanity”.

Paul Ingrassia, the newly appointed White House liaison for the Department of Justice, was one of the lawyers Andrew Tate hired to fight his human trafficking case. He’s often praised Tate, posting his support publicly on X.

Dan Bongino, the Trump-appointed deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has promoted Tate’s account on Rumble – one of the few social video platforms where Tate isn’t banned.

Now, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are back in Florida, after a Romanian court ruled they could leave the country.

This decision came soon after Richard Grenell, a special envoy for the U.S. and a close ally of Trump, urged Romanian officials to lift travel restrictions on the brothers, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Mr Grenell had spoken to Romania’s foreign minister, Emil Hurezeanu, at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.

After the Tates left Romania for Florida, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu denied that the country faced any pressure from the US.

The Tate brothers both face a series of criminal charges in Romania, including human trafficking, sexual misconduct and money laundering, which they deny, and are fighting a series of legal battles in the UK and the US.

Mr Grenell seems aligned with some of the Tates’ thinking too. At the start of February, he joined a conversation on X started by Tristan Tate.

Tate mused about whether any USAID money had gone into supporting legal investigations in Romania, a thought which suggests his suspicions that American government funding was being used in the case against him.

Mr Grenell weighed in, saying: “USAID programs were weaponized against people and politicians who weren’t woke.”

But not all members of the Trump administration are pro-Tate.

Some close to Trump have been vocal in their dislike of him. Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s deputy assistant and senior director for counter terrorism, has called Tate “scum” and a “pervert”, and posted multiple mocking posts about him on X.

Vice president JD Vance has kept relatively quiet in speaking directly about Andrew Tate. But the two have voiced similar views about women’s rights in the recent past.

In a 2021 Fox News interview, Vance complained the US was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

This echoes comments by Tate, who was recorded on the Fresh and Fit podcast in 2022 saying “life without children […] is inane and it’s pointless,” going on to say: “If you sit here and genuinely think you’re going to work your ass off through your fertile years and by the age of 54, you’re not going to be suicidal, alone with a cat, then you are dumb.”

“The cultural narrative is a common thread for both sides positioning themselves as defenders of traditional values,” said Matt Navarra, the social media expert.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/the-tates-and-trumps-inner-circle-how-the-deepening-ties-led-to-controversial-influencers-flying-to-freedom-13318676

THE Academy Awards ceremony has paid tribute to Hollywood legend Gene Hackman as his former co-star Morgan Freeman mourns his late dear friend.

Gene, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, along with one of their dogs, were found dead in their New Mexico home on Wednesday.

The unusual circumstances have forced the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office to rule the death as “suspicious,” as they continue to investigate what caused the tragedy.

But on Sunday evening, the Academy Awards focused on remembering the Hollywood icon, as well as actors, filmmakers, and Hollywood-industry individuals who died over the past year during its Memoriam Segment.

Freeman, who starred alongside Gene in the films Unforgiven and Under Suspicion, paid tribute to his “dear friend.”

‘REST IN PEACE, MY FRIEND”

“This week, our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,” Freeman said fighting back tears as the Dolby Theatre erupted in applause.

“I had the pleasure of working alongside Gene on two films – Unforgiven and Under Suspicion.

“Like everyone who has ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work.

“He received two Oscars, but more importantly, he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”

Freeman continued, “Gene always said, I don’t think about legacy, I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work.

“So, I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that and for so much more.

“Rest in peace, my friend.”

REMEMBERING GENE

Gene had a vast film career that spanned decades.

Gene’s breakout role was Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde in 1967.

He is known for starring in Superman movies, and hit films like Mississippi Burning and Unforgiven.

He played the supervillain Lex Luthor in Superman, Superman II and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Gene also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgiven and The Conversation.

In 1972, he won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection years before appearing in the movie’s 1975 sequel.

In 1993, Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the western Unforgiven.

Hackman appeared in four westerns during the 1990s.

His final film appearance was in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, where he played Monroe Cole.

In his decades-long career, he received five Academy Award nominations.

He won two BAFTA nominations and three Golden Globes.

Hackman was nominated for eight Golden Globe awards during his career.

Thousands of South Carolina residents have been told to leave their homes as a wildfire, believed to cover at least 1,200 acres, rages on. Governor Henry McMaster has declared a State of Emergency to bolster the response to the scorching fires.

A ban on outdoor burning is in place until further notice. “This State of Emergency ensures that our first responders, who are working tirelessly and risking their lives to protect our communities from these wildfires, have the resources they need,” Governor Henry McMaster stated.

“Dangerous wildfire conditions require that a statewide burning ban remain in effect until further notice. Those who violate this ban will be subject to criminal prosecution.”

The State Fire Marshal reports that over 175 wildfires are being fought, affecting around 4,200 acres, especially in Horry, Spartanburg, Oconee, Union, and Pickens Counties.

These fires are largely due to arid and windy conditions. On March 1, 2025, the South Carolina Forestry Commission issued a State Forester’s Burning Ban for all counties, prohibiting all forms of outdoor burning, from yard waste to campfires.

“While a majority of the current wildfire activity is concentrated in the Pee Dee region, the rest of the state is experiencing a dramatic uptick in wildfires, straining the capacity of Forestry Commission firefighters and local emergency response personnel to respond,” said Darryl Jones, Forest Protection Chief for the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

South Carolinians are urged to stay informed through official emergency sources and dial 911 to report any immediate threats, reports the Mirror US.

Meanwhile, Trump hit the golf course at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.

This comes as President Donald Trump’s administration delays funding for wildfire mitigation projects funded through legislation championed by his Democratic predecessor, threatening efforts to prevent catastrophic fires like those that recently devastated Southern California.

The decision contradicts Trump’s repeated insistence that communities need to clear combustible materials like fallen branches and undergrowth—”It’s called management of the floor,” he stated during a visit to Los Angeles last month—to protect against wildfires.

In response to the LA wildfires, the president ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California’s Central Valley, more than 100 miles from the fire zones.

Trump claimed California withheld water supplies that could have helped fight the flames. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials disputed those claims.

California Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said the release of the water also presented a risk of flooding.

“I think even the water managers got only a short bit of notice to say, ‘Please don’t. You can’t do that. That’s way too much water,'” he said. “And frankly, had they not talked the Army Corps off the ledge, there would’ve been serious flooding. It would have been an even bigger problem.”

Source : https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/south-carolina-declares-state-emergency-34781628

King Charles greeted hero Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a historic show of support at Sandringham.

The monarch shook hands with Mr Zelensky less than 48 hours after an ugly spat saw Donald Trump and JD Vance round on him in the White House. Mr Zelensky wore his customary dark trousers and sweatshirt as he met the King.

They talked for nearly an hour after Mr Zelensky travelled to Norfolk following a crunch summit in central London. The warm welcome was a far cry from his reception in Washington, when a pro-Trump reporter accused him of disrespecting the occassion by not wearing a suit.

The Ukrainian President has said his choice of clothing demonstrates solidarity with the brave heroes fighting on the frontline against Vladimir Putin’s army. A royal source said: “The Ukrainian President was warmly received and the meeting lasted just under an hour.

“Prior to his visit to the UK, Mr Zelenskyy asked for the meeting with His Majesty and the government agreed for it to go ahead.”

The meeting came amid growing uncertainty about Ukraine’s fate amid growing questions about the US commitment to standing up to Vladimir Putin. In an astonishing tirade Mr Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of “gambling with World War Three”, telling him to “make a deal or we are out”.

The aggressive attack led to an outpouring of support around the world, but was welcomed in the Kremlin. Mr Trump, whose affection for the royal family is well known, will have been watching on from across the Atlantic. He gleefully received an invite for a state visit from the King last week when Keir Starmer visited Washington.

The monarch will have agreed to host Mr Zelensky in a carefully calculated show of solidarity. He has spoken in the past about the need for nations to stick together following Putin’s 2022 invasion.

And he will be aware that Mr Trump is watching on from the other side of the Atlantic. The US President was presented with a letter from the King in a diplomatic coup for Keir Starmer ahead of what could have been a difficult meeting.

Making his first trip to the White House since Mr Trump’s return, he made a point of handing the invite over in the full glare of the world’s cameras. In his letter the King suggested meeting the President at either Dumfries House in Ayrshire or Balmoral Castle.

It stated that the bond between the UK and US “has a vital role to play” in promoting the “values which matter so much to us all”. A delighted Mr Trump said it would be an “honour” to receive a second state visit.

The King has previously voiced solidarity with Ukraine. In an address last year he said: “The determination and strength of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire, as the unprovoked attack on their land, their lives and livelihoods enters a third tragic year.

“Despite the tremendous hardship and pain inflicted upon them, Ukrainians continue to show the heroism with which the world associates them so closely. Theirs is true valour, in the face of indescribable aggression.”

He said at the time that it was important that the UK and its allies “remain at the forefront of international efforts to support Ukraine”.

Mr Starmer was earlier challenged about whether Donald Trump should be given a state visit after tens of thousands demanded his invite is torn up. The PM said it is a “matter for the King” when pressed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

A petition calling for the invite to be rescinded has attracted nearly 70,000 signatures, while former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood said such a visit would be “inappropriate”. Ms Kuenssberg asked the PM: “It’s clearly very valuable to you and clearly you’ve made a bond of sorts with Donald Trump in the time that you’ve been in office.

“Lots of people, though, look at how Donald Trump behaves in this country and don’t like it very much. There are people like the SNP, for example, other public figures saying he shouldn’t be given a second state visit.

“That’s an unprecedented thing… Why does Donald Trump deserve a second state visit? Or frankly, was it a diplomatic enticement so that you could get him on board?”

Mr Starmer responded: “Well, that’s a matter for the King.” But the BBC journalist pointed out the invite would not have happened without Government backing.

The PM said: “This is a moment of real fragility in Europe. It’s a very serious moment.” He continued: “What drives me is – is what I’m saying or doing more likely to bring about peace, a lasting peace or not? If the answer is yes, I’ll do it. If the answer is not, I won’t do it.

“So I’ve seen people ramping up their rhetoric and taking to Twitter and saying what they would do – good for them. I’m not that interested in that.

“I’m interested in what are the practical steps, what are the bridge building that I could do? What are the relationships that I can mend and take forward and use to take us to lasting peace in Europe? And in the end, that’s my central concern.

Source : https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/zelensky-wears-solidarity-outfit-meet-34779520

Tech baron Elon Musk backed calls for the US to withdraw from NATO and the United Nations after months of badmouthing the two international organizations.

“I agree,” Musk, 53, wrote on X in reply late Saturday to MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman’s suggestion that “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.”

Musk did not elaborate on the specifics of why he wants the US to pull out of NATO and the UN, but the suggestion came after several social media users pointed to Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) call to pull out of both.

Last month, Lee, 53, who has drawn frequent reposts and interactions from Musk on X, introduced legislation alongside other lawmakers to pull out of the UN and decried it as “a platform for tyrants and a venue to attack America and her allies.”

On Saturday, Lee publicly suggested that the US pull out of NATO, pointing to Norwegian fuel supplier Haltbakk Bunkers’ announcement that it would stop helping the US Navy refuel in protest of President Trump’s confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.

“Europe doesn’t love us,” Lee chided on X Saturday. “Let’s leave NATO.”

Norway, a NATO ally, publicly announced that it would continue to help refuel US military ships despite Haltbakk Bunkers’ announcement and call for a boycott of helping out US military ships.

The US helped form NATO in the aftermath of World War II as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, and the powerful military alliance — the core of which is that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all members — now has 32 members.

The UN was also formed after WWII as a successor to the League of Nations to promote dialogue between nations.

Trump, 78, and other conservative figures have publicly groused that NATO allies don’t pull enough of their own weight and that elements of the UN have been overly harsh to the US.

Musk is known to have Trump’s ear, serving as a “special employee” at the White House and informal boss of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), despite the administration arguing in court documents that he is not formally in charge or even an employee of the cost-cutting entity.

While Musk didn’t delve into his rationale on Saturday, in the past, Musk has argued that the US makes up a disproportionate amount of NATO’s power and has questioned why NATO continued to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/03/02/us-news/elon-musk-appears-to-back-us-withdrawing-from-nato-the-un/

If you thought Kanye West couldn’t shock us anymore with his Nazi-loving opinions, think again — he was spotted wearing one of the swastika T-shirts he was selling on his site before it went dark.

Check out the video — the rapper was dressed in the shirt while out in L.A. Thursday, chatting with a group of guys. He then noticed the camera and made sure to stroll farther into the frame, ensuring a full, uninterrupted view of him in the shirt.

It’s a disturbing sight — Kanye standing there alone in the shirt, staring at the camera and scanning his surroundings like he’s completely oblivious to the weight of what he’s doing.

He doubled down on the intention behind his actions, tweeting Friday, “It was always a dream of mine to walk around with a Swastika T on”.

The troubling sighting comes just weeks after he started selling merch with the symbol directly linked to Hitler and Nazis on his Yeezy website, and even took out a Super Bowl TV ad hyping his site … following his claim he was a Nazi and calling Hitler “so fresh.” Days later, he tweeted he wasn’t a Nazi anymore … but then deleted that and a bunch of other posts. But it looks like he’s back courting controversy again.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/02/28/kanye-west-wears-swastika-shirt-on-street-in-public/

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer greeted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with a warm embrace on Saturday after the Ukrainian leader flew to London for talks following his clash at the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an extraordinary Oval Office meeting on Friday, Trump threatened to withdraw support for Ukraine, three years after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Zelenskiy and Trump on Saturday and called for calm in an interview following Friday’s White House clash.

“We stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take,” Starmer said.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday he had “important and warm” talks with Starmer, with a discussion on strengthening Ukraine’s position and obtaining reliable security guarantees.
“During our talks we discussed the challenges standing before Ukraine and all of Europe, coordination with our partners, concrete steps to strengthen Ukraine’s position and ending the war in a just fashion, with reliable security guarantees,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Other European leaders also issued messages of support for Zelenskiy and Ukraine after his meeting with Trump, highlighting differences between traditional allies the United States and Europe over the war since Trump returned to office.
Senior Russian politicians have reacted with glee to what they see as Zelenskiy’s White House humiliation, saying the Ukrainian leader got what he deserved and that U.S. military aid to Kyiv must now be cut.

MACRON: “EVERYBODY NEEDS TO CALM DOWN”

The French presidency said Macron had also spoken to British Starmer, European Council President Antonio Costa and NATO chief Mark Rutte, on the eve of the London summit.

“I think that beyond the frayed nerves, everybody needs to calm down, show respect and gratitude, so we can move forward concretely, because what’s at stake is too important,” Macron said in an interview with several Sunday newspapers.

Macron said Zelenskiy had told him he was willing to “restore dialogue” with the United States, including on a deal giving U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources, but did not say what Trump told him in the call.

The White House had no immediate comment.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Zelenskiy to “apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became.”

In an interview with Fox News on Friday Zelenskiy said he believed his relationship with Trump could be salvaged and appeared to express some regret, saying “I’m sorry for this.”

The falling-out meant that Ukraine and the United States failed to sign a much-vaunted minerals deal Kyiv hoped would spur Trump to back Ukraine’s war effort and potentially win support from Republicans in Congress for a new round of aid.

Trump is not interested in revisiting the minerals deal at the moment, a senior White House official told Reuters on Friday evening.

Starmer spoke to both Trump and Zelenskiy on Friday, and French President Emmanuel Macron also visited Trump in Washington this week.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-zelenskiy-meet-uk-pm-starmer-saturday-2025-03-01/

Tens of thousands of people flocked to the southern town of Nis on Saturday to commemorate victims of a railway station disaster and take part in a student-led protest that has become the biggest threat yet to the Serbian president’s grip on power.
Mass demonstrations have gathered momentum in the four months since 15 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-biggest city.

“This is the way to make a revolution,” said Tarek, a 22-year-old graphic designer from the city of Novi Pazar. “It is the right way to achieve the change, to create a better future, a functional state without corruption.”
Hundreds of students marched to Nis for the protest and were joined by about 1,500 people on motor bikes.

Among the protesters were Anja and Ana, 20-year-old students who walked to Nis from the town of Bor about 130 km (80 miles) away.
“Walking to Nis, I think, we managed to wake up Serbia. We feel good because of that and we could walk back another 130 kilometres,” said Anja, who did not give her full name.
“This is not the society we would like to live in. We want a better future.
Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and two other ministers have resigned over the protests, which have taken place in the capital Belgrade and in towns across the country.

Prosecutors have charged 13 people in connection with the roof collapse.

But the students have continued daily protests, pressing their demands that authorities publish documents relating to the station roof collapse and justice for those responsible. They also want charges against the protesting students to be dismissed, and an increased budget for higher education.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/serbians-hold-silent-protest-honour-railway-station-victims-2025-03-01/

Nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab dealership on Saturday, protesting owner Elon Musk’s role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of President Donald Trump.
The protest, which police said involved hundreds of people, was one of a wave of “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations staged across the country targeting billionaire Musk, who is spearheading the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Throngs of protesters also descended on the electric vehicle maker’s showrooms in Jacksonville, Florida, Tucson, Arizona, and other cities, blocking traffic, chanting and waving signs reading “Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy,” and “No Dictators in the USA.”
Musk, the world’s richest person, is leading an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government that has resulted in the firing of thousands of employees and the termination of hundreds of aid contracts and federal leases.
Tesla and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to attempts to seek comment by phone and email on Saturday night.

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has joined forces with the Danish toy brick-maker LEGO to create a build-your-own version of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”.
Standing in front of Van Gogh’s 1889 masterpiece, one of the series of sunflower paintings for which the painter is most renowned, museum curator Nienke Bakker told Reuters she hoped the LEGO version would help more people to become familiar with his life and work.

The Oval Office blow up between Zelenskiy and Trump laid bare for many Europeans that something critical has broken in their relationship with Washington

European leaders are confronting their worst-case scenario: maybe they really are going to be dealing with a bellicose Russia alone.

When the US lined up alongside Russia and North Korea earlier this week to oppose a UN motion condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, some European officials knew that the transatlantic relationship was in deep trouble. Then they watched in horror as Donald Trump gave Volodymyr Zelenskiy a public dressing down in the Oval Office and something broke.

In interviews with Bloomberg, more than half a dozen officials who’ve maintained their composure through wars and financial crises reacted with visceral anger. For them, the scene showed the trust and values that have bound Europe and the US together since the end of World War II are no longer shared.

“President Trump and his administration raised a more fundamental challenge to the transatlantic alliance than it has faced in many decades,” said Graham Allison, a professor of government at Harvard University, who studied with Henry Kissinger and served in both the Clinton and Reagan administrations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have all described this moment as a generational challenge for the continent. They’ll meet with Zelenskiy and other European leaders in London on Sunday to work out what their next move should be.

The European Union is aiming to follow up with an emergency package of €20 billion ($21 billion) in military aid for Ukraine at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday. But that’s just a down payment on the hundreds of billions they will need to mobilize for defense in the coming months if they are to take over responsibility for their own security from the US for the first time in 80 years.

After years of hand-wringing and debates over the EU’s problems and weaknesses, doing that will require forging a political will that has little precedent in the history of the bloc.

“While I would like to imagine that Europe will step up to fill the gap, and do so in time, I’d bet 3-1 against it,” Allison said, adding that he expects Ukraine will accept a bitter peace settlement by the end of the summer.

Read More About the Breakdown in the Transatlantic Relationship:Zelenskiy’s Blowup With Trump Leaves Allies Facing DisasterTrump Is Rushing Toward a Deal With Putin as Europe Left in DustUS Asks Europe What Kyiv Peacekeepers Should Do If Attacked Trump’s Ukraine Plans Mean $3 Trillion Bill for European Allies

The transatlantic relationship, and the US’s broader network of alliances, was arguably unique in the post-war world because common values and trust allowed nations to share secrets and rely on each other at critical moments. The foundations of that relationship were laid down during World War II and deepened when eastern European nations were welcomed into NATO and the EU after the fall of the iron curtain.

It’s that history that makes the current crisis so painful.

Many European diplomats grew up during the Cold War – some spent their childhoods in the Soviet bloc or under occupation. When they read of the atrocities perpetrated on Ukraine – the massacres in places like Bucha, thousands of children deported to Russia, the aerial attacks on civilians – they see echoes of their own families’ stories.

For all the cynicism in parts of the West and the Global South, the US really was a symbol of freedom for eastern Europeans and they aspired to the principles running through American politics.

To be sure, the US has at times persuaded allies to do things they didn’t want to do. But Trump’s Republicans are the party of Ronald Reagan, the president who told the Soviet Union to “tear down” the Berlin Wall in the name of freedom. Now they are lining up with the Russian aggressors’ attempts to deprive the Ukrainians of their lives and liberty.

After Friday’s quarrel in the Oval Office, EU leaders lined up to voice their support for Zelenskiy and make clear whose side they were on. Trump is putting the Europeans into a position where they have to choose between the US and Ukraine, several officials said, and most, if not all, will pick Ukraine. For Europe, it is existential.

“A new era of barbarity has begun,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Saturday in a statement to reporters in Berlin. “An era of barbarity in which the rules-based international order and the rule of law must defend themselves more than ever before against the power of the mighty.”

@ZelenskyyUa, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) February 28, 2025

Going it alone would pose an unprecedented challenge to European nations, but it will also likely be damaging to US prosperity and security too.

The trading relationship between the US and the EU is the most important in the world, reaching €1.6 trillion in 2023, according to the European Commission, while EU and US firms have €5.3 trillion worth of investment in each other’s markets. The European Commission is already preparing lists of goods to target if Trump follows through with his threat to impose tariffs on EU exports.

Beyond that, the alliance between Europe and the US – and by extension much of America’s global power – lasted so long because it was based on trust and the fact allies chose to buy into it. Allies were in a pact that was essentially voluntary and Trump has broken the trust that underpinned it.

Source: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/europes-nightmare-is-here-they-have-to-fight-putin-without-the-us

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a UK loan of over 2 billion pounds would be used for weapons production in Ukraine. The deal in London came after the Ukrainian leader’s tumultuous meeting with Donald Trump.

Free world must stand up to evil, Czech president says
Czech President Petr Pavel said in a post on X that it was time “to start considering a broad coalition of willing for just peace in Ukraine.”