Category: World

Donald Trump has filed a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s parent company Dow Jones and its owner Rupert Murdoch over claims that he wrote a “bawdy” note to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US president claims the publication slandered him and violated libel laws in an article alleging that a birthday greeting bearing Trump’s name was sent to the late financier in 2003, before he was charged with sex crimes.

Trump said the note, which the paper reported he had sent for Epstein’s 50th birthday, is “fake”.

It came as the US justice department asked a judge to unseal material related to Epstein, following intense criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the case.

Trump said on social media: “We have just filed a powerhouse Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, fake news ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal.

“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case.”

He said the newspaper and Murdoch – with whom Trump has had an up-and-down relationship for decades – were warned they would be sued if they printed the article.

A Dow Jones spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”

Murdoch, who was seen on Sunday attending the Fifa Club World Cup with Trump, founded a media empire which is credited by some with helping propel the president to the White House.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a letter bearing Trump’s name “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker”.

“Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person,” the paper reported.

It reportedly contained a joking reference that “enigmas never age” and allegedly ended with the words: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump denied writing the note after the article was published on Thursday, posting: “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

The US justice department request concerns transcripts from the grand jury involved in the government’s 2019 sex trafficking case against Epstein, materials that are typically kept secret and protected by law.

On Thursday, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of documents related to Epstein’s secretive grand jury testimony.

The justice department formally made the request to a judge in New York, arguing the materials related to the case – where he was charged with trafficking dozens of girls as young as 14 – “qualify as a matter of public interest”.

The department is also asking for disclosures in the case of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in the child sex trafficking conspiracy.

A grand jury – a panel of people who vet whether there is enough evidence to charge a person with a crime – can hear from confidential informants and those whose identities are protected for their safety. Materials in a grand jury are typically kept secret under the law, but a judge can unseal documents if they decide public interest outweighs the need for such legal protections in a case.

Either way, it is unclear when or if the documents will be released, or if they contain many of the details Trump’s supporters have been demanding to see.

The developments on Friday came amid a turbulent week for the president as some of his most loyal supporters demanded more transparency and public disclosure in the Epstein case.

Some Trump loyalists have even called for Attorney General Bondi to resign after she reversed course on releasing certain documents related to Epstein.

Chad Bianco, a Republican sheriff running for California governor, told BBC News that Trump’s handling of the Epstein files was not what he was “expecting” and that “millions” of his followers are disappointed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23g5xpggzmo

A recent controversy surrounding Italian luxury label Prada has put the spotlight on how global fashion giants engage with India – a country whose rich artistic traditions have often suffered because of its inability to cash in on them.

Prada got into trouble in June after its models walked the runway in Milan wearing a toe-braided sandal that looked like the Kolhapuri chappal, a handcrafted leather shoe made in India. The sandals are named after Kolhapur – a town in the western state of Maharashtra where they have been made for centuries – but the Prada collection did not mention this, prompting a backlash.

As the controversy grew, Prada issued a statement saying it acknowledged the sandals’ origins and that it was open to a “dialogue for meaningful exchange with local Indian artisans”.

Over the past few days, a team from Prada met the artisans and shopkeepers in Kolhapur who make and sell the sandals to understand the process.

Prada told the BBC that it held a “successful meeting” with the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture, a prominent industry trade group.

The statement also indicates that Prada may potentially collaborate in future with some manufacturers of Kolhapuri footwear.

While it’s not clear what form this collaboration may take, it’s a rare example of a global fashion giant acknowledging that it failed to credit local artisans and the craft it was piggybacking on.

Many big brands have been routinely accused of drawing inspiration from Indian, and wider South Asian, traditions in their quest to reinvent and stay relevant – but without crediting the source.

Earlier this year, spring designs from Reformation and H&M ignited a fiery debate on cultural appropriation after many said that their outfits appeared heavily inspired by South Asian garments. Both brands issued clarifications – while H&M denied the allegations, Reformation said its design was inspired by an outfit owned by a model with whom it had collaborated for the collection.

And just two weeks ago, Dior was criticised after its highly-anticipated Paris collection featured a gold and ivory houndstooth coat, which many pointed out was crafted with mukaish work, a centuries-old metal embroidery technique from northern India. The collection did not mention the roots of the craft or India at all.

The BBC has reached out to Dior for comment.

Some experts say that not every brand that draws inspiration from a culture does so with wrong intentions – designers around the world invoke aesthetics from different traditions all the time, spotlighting them on a global scale.

In the highly competitive landscape of fashion, some argue that brands also don’t get enough time to think through the cultural ramifications of their choices.

But critics point out that any borrowing needs to be underpinned by respect and acknowledgement, especially when these ideas are repurposed by powerful global brands to be sold at incredibly high prices.

“Giving due credit is a part of design responsibility, it’s taught to you in design school and brands need to educate themselves about it,” says Shefalee Vasudev, the editor-in-chief of Voice of Fashion. Not doing so, she adds, is “cultural neglect towards a part of the world which brands claim to love”.

Estimates vary about the size of India’s luxury market, but the region is widely seen as a big growth opportunity.

Analysts from Boston Consulting Group say the luxury retail market in India is expected to nearly double to $14bn by 2032. Powered by an expanding and affluent middle class, global luxury brands are increasingly eyeing India as a key market as they hope to make up for weaker demand elsewhere.

But not everyone shares the optimism.

Arvind Singhal, chairman of consultancy firm Technopak, says a big reason for the seeming indifference is that most brands still don’t consider India a significant market for high-end luxury fashion.

In recent years, many high-end malls with flagship luxury stores have opened up in big cities – but they rarely see significant footfall.

“Names like Prada still mean nothing to a majority of Indians. There is some demand among the super-rich, but hardly any first-time customers,” Mr Singhal says.

“And this is simply not enough to build a business, making it easy to neglect the region altogether.”

Anand Bhushan, a fashion designer from Delhi, agrees. He says that traditionally, India has always been a production hub rather than a potential market, with some of the most expensive brands in Paris and Milan employing Indian artisans to make or embroider their garments.

“But that still does not mean you can just blatantly lift a culture without understanding the history and context and brand it for millions of dollars,” he adds.

The frustration, he says, is not focused on any one label but has been building for years.

The most memorable misstep, according to him, took place during the Karl Lagerfeld “Paris-Bombay” Métiers d’Art collection, showcased in 2011. The collection featured sari-draped dresses, Nehru-collared jackets and ornate headpieces.

Many called it a fine example of cultural collaboration, but others argued it relied heavily on clichéd imagery and lacked authentic representation of India.

Others, however, say no brand can afford to write off India as insignificant.

“We might not be the fastest-growing luxury market like China, but a younger and more sophisticated generation of Indians with different tastes and aspirations is reshaping the landscape of luxury,” says Nonita Kalra, editor-in-chief of online luxury store Tata CliQ Luxury.

In the case of Prada, she says the brand seemed to have made a “genuine oversight”, evident from the lengths to which it has gone to rectify its mistake.

For Ms Kalra, the problem is a broader one – where brands based in the west and run by a homogenous group of people end up viewing consumers in other parts of the world through a foreign lens.

“The lack of diversity is the biggest blind spot of the fashion industry, and brands need to hire people from different parts of the world to change that,” she says.

“But their love and respect for Indian heritage is genuine.”

The question of cultural appropriation is complex, and the debates it sparks online can seem both overblown and eye-opening.

And while there are no simple answers, many feel the outrage around Prada has been a great starting point to demand better accountability from brands and designers who, until now, have largely remained unchallenged.

It is an opportunity for India, too, to reflect on the ways it can support its own heritage and uplift it.

Weavers toil for weeks or months to finish one masterpiece, but they often work in precarious conditions without adequate remuneration and with no protection for their work under international intellectual property laws.

“We don’t take enough pride and credit our own artisans, allowing others to walk all over it,” Ms Vasudev says.

“The trouble also is that in India we have simply too much. There are hundreds of different craft techniques and traditions – each with its constantly evolving motif directory going back centuries,” says Laila Tyabji, chairperson of Dastkar, which promotes crafts and craftspeople.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmwnlnrd1eo

Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan that he announced on social media on May 10 after Washington held talks with both sides.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday (Jul 18) up to five jets were shot down during recent India-Pakistan hostilities that began after an April militant attack in India-administered Kashmir, with the situation calming after a ceasefire in May.

Trump, who made his remarks at a dinner with some Republican US lawmakers at the White House, did not specify which side’s jets he was referring to.

“In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually,” Trump said while talking about the India-Pakistan hostilities, without elaborating or providing further detail.

Pakistan claimed it had downed five Indian planes in air-to-air combat. India’s highest-ranking general said in late May that India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of hostilities and established an advantage before a ceasefire was announced three days later.

India also claimed it had downed “a few planes” of Pakistan. Islamabad denied suffering any losses of planes but acknowledged its air bases suffered hits.

Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan that he announced on social media on May 10 after Washington held talks with both sides. India has differed with Trump’s claims that it resulted from his intervention and his threats to sever trade talks.

India’s position has been that New Delhi and Islamabad must resolve their problems directly and with no outside involvement.

India is an increasingly important US partner in Washington’s effort to counter China’s influence in Asia, while Pakistan is a US ally.

The April attack in India-administered Kashmir killed 26 men and sparked heavy fighting between the nuclear-armed Asian neighbours in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry.

New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan, which denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/trump-india-pakistan-5-jets-shot-down-ceasefire-5246926

Kang Jing has also previously illustrated Topps sketch cards for Star Wars and Marvel, and even personalised comic covers for a couple of Power Rangers stars.

At first glance, his illustrations may seem like digital compositions or even paintings. But look closer, and you will discover every detail is meticulously rendered in pencil strokes.

From as young as six, Kang Jing, 31, had a natural flair for drawing. He would spend hours sketching his favourite anime characters. And in 2021, the self-taught artist took the leap of faith and launched his comic brand, Chiral Comics.

What started as an Instagram page to showcase his work soon evolved into something bigger, opening doors to work on characters from major franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel. He has also illustrated comic covers for Power Rangers stars Catherine Sutherland, Nakia Burrise and Brennan Mejia.

Now, Jing has collaborated with American publisher Archie Comics – he has illustrated a special Singapore-themed cover in celebration of SG60.

Priced from S$25 onwards, pre-orders are open from Saturday (Jul 19), 12pm, on Jing’s website and through select comic retailers in Singapore – Kalibak Komiks and 1 to 3 Comics.

ARCHIE COMICS: AN SG60 EXCLUSIVE

In January this year, an idea struck him: What if he could blend his favourite pop culture icons with something local for Singapore’s 60th birthday?

“SG60 marks a big milestone for us as a nation,” he shared. “I wanted to find a way to celebrate it through the lens of something I love – by bringing together something iconic from Singapore with a franchise that many of us grew up with,” he shared.

In April, he pitched the idea to Archie Comics and landed an opportunity to design a variant cover for one of their editions.

A variant cover, Jing explained, is a term used in the comic industry, where the cover design is not related to the contents of the book.

While some might assume designing the cover is a minor role, Jing pointed out that cover designs are one of the key driving forces for revenue in the industry.

“To boost sales, publishers [often release] various cover arts of the same story to appeal to collectors with interest for different art styles and artists,” he explained.

He reimagined the original Archie characters as tourists exploring Singapore, with Gardens by the Bay as the central backdrop. He also added local touches: Archie in a SG60 T-shirt, Jughead munching on a durian, and Reggie wearing a Singapore football jersey.

Jing completed the rough sketches in a day before transferring his ideas to an 11 by 17-inch artboard, the standard size used for comic covers, before moving on to inking.

“Inking involves going over the penciled artwork with ink to enhance and finalise the lines,” Jing explained.

To bring the artwork to life, he worked with a colourist from Italy to digitally add the colours. Everything was completed in a month, and it was approved with no revisions needed.

STAR WARS TO STARDOM

When he was first starting out, Jing spent months cold-emailing organisations, sending out his portfolios, and taking on commission work for small businesses to get his name out there.

His big breakthrough came in March 2024, when Jing received a reply from Topps, the American trading company well-known for producing licensed collectibles for franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel.

“I still remember waking up one morning to an email from Topps inviting me to work on their upcoming Star Wars project and that they will be sending me 50 sketch cards to illustrate,” he said.

For the uninitiated, sketch cards are hand-drawn collectible cards created by licensed artists for trading or display purposes.

For Jing, each card was a labour of love. Unlike comic covers, he had to add colours himself using alcohol-based markers meant for comic illustrations.

Before the cards could be released, the final artwork had to be approved by Lucasfilm, the company that is home to the Star Wars franchise.

To date, he has worked on seven Star Wars-themed projects with Topps. One standout was his fifth project, titled Star Wars: Hyperspace, which required him to illustrate planet-themed sketch cards.

“I was provided cards with specific planets labelled on them such as Bespin, Hoth, Kashyyyk, and I had to illustrate characters specific to those planets,” he shared.

“For the planet Mustafar, I illustrated Anakin Skywalker by taking reference from the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith where there was a climactic battle that occurred on this planet between him and Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Soon after, he struck another deal with Topps. This time, he was commissioned to create 20 sketch cards for the 2025 Topps Marvel Chrome series.

“Working on Star Wars and Marvel properties honestly felt like a dream that was way out of reach, one of those things you admire from a far but never imagine happening to you,” he said.

The sketch cards were eventually randomised and sold on Topps website in their respective product lines – a place where customers around the world have the chance to pull one of Jing’s hand-drawn cards with the purchase of any products from the listing.

POWER RANGERS: DRAWING HIS MARK ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

The Archie comic cover was not Jing’s first foray into localised comic art.

Last year, Jing teamed up with Boom! Studios, the official comic publisher based in the USA for award-winning titles including Power Rangers, Brzrkr and Something is Killing the Children. He illustrated a Singapore-themed variant cover for one of their flagship titles: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

He unveiled the exclusive issue at Singapore Comic Con 2024, where all 525 pieces of the limited-edition copy were sold out. In fact, it was the success of this cover that fuelled his desire to work on the Archie Comic SG60 project.

The cover was not just a hit, but it was his lucky charm – one that scored him a backstage pass to work alongside the very stars who ignited his passion for comics.

In October 2024, he attended New York Comic Con, where he met the cast members of Power Rangers, Catherine Sutherland and Nakia Burrise, during a fan meet.

“I brought my very first Power Rangers comic cover I did and showed it to them. They loved it and right there they said, ‘Let’s collaborate’.”

The actresses wanted Jing to design a variant cover for them as an exclusive merchandise for their fans, as part of the Power Rangers Prime series, an ongoing title published by BOOM! Studios.

Sutherland also went on to post a picture with him on her Instagram following their meeting.

Working via email, Jing and the actresses exchanged ideas and eventually merged their visions into a single concept.

The entire process took around two months, and the final copies were published in May 2025.

Following the project, Jing also worked with another Power Rangers cast, Brennan Mejia for a variant cover.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/archie-comics-sg60-chiral-comics-kang-jing-468046

Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival opened as planned on Friday (July 18), debuting a hastily rebuilt main stage just two days after a fire destroyed its original centrepiece.

Organisers said the newly constructed stage was part of an “alternative setup” designed to replace the festival’s “beloved main stage”, which went up in flames on Wednesday. Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the blaze.

“Our teams are working day and night, with heart and soul, to turn the impossible into reality,” organisers said in a statement. “Tomorrowland will unite, stronger than ever!”

NEW STAGE ERECTED IN 48 HOURS

Local television footage showed hundreds of attendees entering the festival site in Boom, near Antwerp, on Friday afternoon. Fire and police officials gave clearance for the rebuilt stage to open at 4pm local time, two hours after the rest of the 16-stage event.

The new main stage, constructed in under 48 hours, is smaller in scale but designed for a more intimate experience.

“It’s a new concept, the artists will be very close to the audience, in a more intimate way,” said festival spokeswoman Debby Wilmsen.

FOOTAGE OF FIRE WENT VIRAL

The original stage featured elaborate set design, including a frozen fairytale theme with snow-covered castles and a towering ice lion. Videos of the blaze tearing through the structure spread widely on social media.

Despite the fire, organisers expect around 400,000 people to attend the two-weekend event, which features top electronic acts including David Guetta, Lost Frequencies and Charlotte de Witte.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/tomorrowland-main-stage-fire-destroyed-festival-opens-5246766

Food company Yunhaiyao has been fined S$7,000 (US$5,400) over a mass food poisoning incident at tech firm ByteDance’s Singapore office, which left 171 victims sick.

This was the maximum fine the company could have received. But online, some have suggested the penalty was too light, considering the number of people who fell ill.

What happened?

Yunhaiyao, which owns the Yun Nans chain of restaurants, catered lunch for staff of ByteDance at One Raffles Quay on Jul 30, 2024.

After their meals, 171 people suffered gastroenteritis symptoms, including fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomachache and headache.

Sixty were taken to the hospital, of whom 22 were warded.

They had eaten a wok-fried diced chicken dish that contained Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or staph, over 2,000 times above acceptable levels.

Investigations later uncovered a cockroach infestation in a Yun Nans outlet at Northpoint City, which had the catering licence.

This was the Northpoint City outlet’s first attempt at offering corporate catering. Yunhaiyao said in a statement that there were problems in “basic hygiene protocols” among others.

Yunhaiyao has since closed its Northpoint City outlet and its corporate catering business in Singapore.

Yunhaiyao Pte Ltd was liable for the offence, although it was CEO Lu Zhi Tao who appeared in court to plead guilty and receive the sentence on the company’s behalf.

What’s the punishment for food poisoning?

Yunhaiyao pleaded guilty to two charges.

The first charge was under Section 18 of the Sale of Food Act. This states that a person must not sell food that is not of the quality, nature or substance of food demanded by the purchaser.

For a first-time offender like Yunhaiyao, the maximum punishment is a S$5,000 fine. A repeat offender can be fined up to S$10,000 and jailed for up to three months.

The second charge was under Regulation 26(b) of the Environmental Public Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations.

This states that a person engaged in the sale of food shall ensure the premises are free of rodent, cockroach or other vermin infestation.

The maximum punishment is a S$2,000 fine. If the offence continues after conviction, there is a maximum fine of S$100 for each day it continues.

Yunhaiyao’s fine consisted of the maximum S$5,000 for selling food that was not of the quality demanded by ByteDance, and the maximum S$2,000 for the cockroach infestation.

The judge considered the number of victims to be “staggering” and said it was fortuitous that there were no deaths.

Aside from the actual harm caused to the victims, she also considered the high risk of potential harm caused by Yunhaiyao’s “lackadaisical attitude” towards food safety.

Food poisoning cases can also be dealt with under the Environment Public Health Act.

Section 40 of this Act states that food establishments must not sell any food intended for human consumption that is unsound or unfit for that purpose.

The maximum fine for a first-time offender is S$10,000. A repeat offender can be fined up to S$20,000 and jailed for up to three months.

How does this compare to other food poisoning cases?

In 2014, a four-year-old boy died after eating contaminated food at a food court in Northpoint Shopping Centre.

The stall operator was fined S$1,400 for two breaches – failing to register a food handler and failing to protect food in a covered container.

The stall operator’s licence was also suspended until it had thoroughly cleaned the stall and its food handlers were re-certified in food hygiene.

In another fatal food poisoning case, Spize restaurant in 2018 supplied bento boxes contaminated with Salmonella for a company event. Bacillus cereus and faecal coliforms were also found in a fried rice dish.

Seventy-three people fell ill, of whom 47 were hospitalised. A 38-year-old man who had a Salmonella infection died of sepsis and multi-organ failure following acute gastroenteritis.

Spize was fined the maximum S$10,000 under the Environment Public Health Act, for possessing food unfit for human consumption.

Together with related firm Spize Events, the fines came up to S$32,000. They were convicted of 14 offences, including hiring unregistered food handlers and having poor hygiene practices.

At the time, authorities said there was insufficient evidence linking the fatality to negligence by any particular person, so no individual was charged.

Mr Adrian Wee, managing partner of Lighthouse Law LLC, said the higher number of charges suggested that the conduct in the Spize case was more egregious.

There is also a distinction between incidents that arise from a single breach and from multiple breaches, he said.

For the latter, such as in the Spize case, the cumulative penalties can be significant.

Mr Josephus Tan, managing director of Invictus Law Corporation, said every case was different even if they may look similar on the surface.

Courts also consider factors like the severity of the injuries suffered by the victims, the degree of negligence and the duration of offending, he said.

So was Yunhaiyao’s punishment too light?

“Given the magnitude of the food poisoning in this case, it is not surprising that some may feel that harsher penalties may be warranted,” said Lighthouse’s Mr Wee.

But he noted that financial penalties, and imprisonment for repeat offenders, are not the only means of deterrence.

Offenders also face loss of reputation and the potential loss of their shop or catering licences, he pointed out.

Additionally, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) can issue directives to ensure food safety standards are met, and did so in Yunhaiyao’s case.

The company was required to throw away food, clean its premises and re-certify all food handlers in food safety. SFA suspended the Yun Nans outlet at Northpoint City until these measures were taken.

Mr Tan from Invictus believes however that the fines were insufficient in this case and food poisoning ones in general, even though the court could not have imposed more than what parliament legislated.

“A commercial operator must always carry a heavier responsibility if they are in the business of profiting from the masses where any subpar, unethical or illegal practices from their end may have tremendous (impact),” he said, citing the food, transport, healthcare, education and renovation sectors as examples.

He pointed to how, under the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA), workplace-related deaths can lead to fines of up to S$200,000 for individuals and and S$500,000 for companies.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/yunhaiyao-bytedance-food-poisoning-7000-fine-cna-explains-5245351

Jennifer Love Hewitt is finally addressing rumors of a feud between her and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

“I honestly don’t even know what that was or how that all came to be,” the actress, 46, told Vulture in a profile published Friday. “I just think people don’t want the narrative to be easy. Why do we always have to be against each other and out for each other?”

“I haven’t seen Sarah. Literally, we’ve not talked since I saw her at 18 years old when the first movie came out,” Hewitt explained, revealing they have not stayed in touch since the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer” released.

“That’s why it’s so funny to me. People were like, ‘Say something back.’ And I’m like, ‘What am I going to say? I’ve not seen her.’”

“On my side, we’re good. I have no idea where this is coming from,” she added.

Both actresses starred in the 1997 slasher alongside Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. — Gellar’s now-husband.

Hewitt and Prinze Jr. reprise their role as Julie James and Ray Bronson, respectively, in the latest sequel that hit theaters on Friday. Though the “Cruel Intentions” star’s character, Helen Shivers, was killed off in the first film, she shows up for a quick cameo via a dream sequence.

The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star and the “Ghost Whisperer” star were both in attendance at the July 14 premiere. However, they noticeably did not pose together on the red carpet — adding fuel to the feud rumors.

Following the event, Gellar shut down speculation from fans who claimed that the stars purposefully avoided each other at the premiere.

“The beef is real,” one person commented on her post from the event. “It makes me so sad there is ZERO recognition for Jennifer Lover Hewitt,” another eagle-eyed fan wrote on Instagram.

Gellar quickly responded to the critics in the comments, writing, “For everyone asking — I never got to see @jenniferlovehewitt who is fantastic in the movie.”

“I was inside with my kids when the big carpet happened,” she added. “And unfortunately JLH didn’t come to the after party.”

“If you have ever been to one of these it’s crazy. I sadly didn’t get pics with most of the cast. But that doesn’t change how amazing I think they all are. Unfortunately some things happen only in real life and not online,” she concluded.

Fans applauded Gellar for her explanation and responded back with kind messages in the comments.

“Thanks for clearing that up queen, was making me a little sad because I love you both so much!”

“Thanks queen, the fans deserved it ❤,” another chimed in.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/18/celebrity-news/jennifer-love-hewitt-breaks-silence-on-sarah-michelle-gellar-feud-rumors/

Kate Middleton’s former longtime assistant, Natasha Archer, has unfollowed Meghan Markle on Instagram.

Archer, who was the Princess of Wales’ right-hand woman for many years, recently made her Instagram page public — but has since made it private again — along with some changes.

Eagle-eyed royal fans noticed that Archer, who had followed the Duchess of Sussex’s As Ever brand, has since given them the heave-ho, according to People.

Markle’s account wasn’t the only one that Archer is no longer following.

She reportedly no longer receives updates from several Markle pals, including her makeup artist Daniel Martin, Deflina Blaquier and Heather Dorak.

Archer also hit unfollow on Highbrow Hippie, the page associated with Markle’s hair colorist, Kadi Lee.

However, not all of Markle’s inner circle were banished.

The former royal aide is still following Markle’s “Suits” co-stars, Abigail Spencer and Sarah Rafferty.

She follows the official accounts for her old bosses, as well as King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Other royal accounts made the cut, including Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice’s husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

Earlier this month, Archer unexpectedly resigned from royal service after working with Prince William and Middleton for 15 years.

She reportedly made the decision to leave Kensington Palace to set up her own private consultancy business.

She began working for the royal couple, both 43, in 2010 as a personal assistant.

Archer grew close to the Princess and became her unofficial stylist, encouraging her to be more adventurous with her sartorial choices.

“Initially, Kate was a reluctant fashion icon, but now she enjoys it. Tash helps source some of the clothes,” a source told Vanity Fair in 2014.

“She shops a lot for Kate online, and calls in hundreds of dresses for Kate to try on. She has persuaded Kate to take some more risks. The hemlines are shorter and Kate’s really pushing the boat out in the fashion stakes.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/18/royal-family/kate-middletons-former-personal-assistant-takes-swipe-at-meghan-markle/

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba faces an increasingly uphill battle in Sunday’s upper house election, and a loss could worsen political instability at a time of daunting challenges, such as rising prices and high U.S. tariffs.

A poor performance would not immediately trigger a change of government but it would deepen uncertainty over his fate and Japan’s future path.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered a humiliating loss in a lower house election in October as its usual supporters registered their unhappiness over past corruption scandals and high prices. Ishiba is struggling to regain voter confidence.

His minority government has since been forced into making concessions to the opposition to get legislation through the Diet, or parliament. That has hindered its ability to quickly deliver effective measures to curb rising prices and win wage increases. On top of shortages and soaring prices for rice, a traditional staple, Ishiba has been stymied by President Donald Trump’s tariff demands.

Frustrated voters are rapidly turning to emerging populist parties, including one that is promoting anti-foreign policies and backpedaling on gender equality and diversity.

Here’s a look at Sunday’s election:

Instability, win or lose

Ishiba has set a low bar for the vote — a simple majority. Half of the 248 seats for six-year terms in the upper house are being decided, and the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito would need to win a combined 50. Added to the 75 coalition-held seats that are not being contested in this election, it would be a big retreat from the 141 seats the coalition held before the election.

If the ruling coalition fails to secure a majority, “there will be a move within the LDP to dump Ishiba,” said Yu Uchiyama, a University of Tokyo professor of political science. “It makes a leadership very unstable.” Under any successor, the ruling coalition would be a minority in both houses, he said.

If Ishiba’s coalition secures a majority and he stays on, his leadership will remain weak, with little hope of improved support ratings, Uchiyama said. “Either way, it is essential for the minority government to seek opposition parties’ cooperation to achieve any policy.”

Trump, rice and price woes

Measures to mitigate soaring prices, lagging incomes and burdensome social security payments are the top focus of frustrated, cash-strapped voters.

Rice prices have doubled since last year due to supply shortages, overly complex distribution systems and other reasons related to Japan’s farming, causing panic buying as Ishiba has struggled to resolve the crisis.

Trump has added to that pressure, complaining about a lack of progress in trade negotiations, blaming a lack of sales of U.S. autos and American-grown rice to Japan despite a shortfall in domestic stocks of the grain. A 25% tariff due to take effect Aug. 1 has been another blow for Ishiba.

Ishiba has resisted any compromise before the election, but the prospect for a breakthrough after the election is just as unclear because the minority government would have difficulty forming a consensus with the opposition.

The rice issue has cost Ishiba one farm minister. Rice prices remain high even after the farm minister’s replacement, Shinjiro Koizumi, moved quickly and boldly to address the problem by ordering the emergency release of stored rice from reserves, helping to refill grocery store shelves in time for the election.

Koizumi, son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, is a potential challenger to Ishiba.

An emerging populist right and xenophobia

Stricter measures targeting foreign residents and visitors have suddenly emerged as a key issue.

The Sanseito party stands out with the toughest anti-foreigner stance with its “Japanese First” platform that proposes a new agency to centralize policies related to foreigners. It wants stricter screening for allowing Japanese citizenship and to exclude non-Japanese from welfare benefits. The party’s populist platform is also anti-vaccine, anti-globalism and favors traditional gender roles.

Its stance has encouraged the spread of xenophobic rhetoric in the election campaign and on social media, critics say. A typical claim is that a rapid increase in foreign workers has hurt Japanese workers’ wages and that foreigners use a large share of welfare benefits and have made Japanese society unsafe.

“Foreigners are used as targets to vent their discontent and unease,” Uchiyama said, comparing the scapegoating to that in Europe and the United States under Trump.

Experts say most of the rhetoric is disinformation aimed at frustrations among Japanese struggling to get by. Government statistics show foreign residents account for about 3% of both Japan’s total population and of welfare benefit recipients.

The Liberal Democrats, under a slogan “zero illegal immigrants,” have pledged to crack down on growing illegal employment of foreigners and against allowing them to default on social insurance payments or medical bills. The party also set up a task force to promote an orderly society, a move aimed at enforcing stricter measures on foreigners to address growing public unease. The rising conservative Democratic Party for the People, or the DPP, also is calling to restrict foreign ownership of Japanese real estate.

The move triggered protests by human rights activists and alarmed foreign residents.

Given that its population is rapidly aging and shrinking, Japan needs foreign workers. It should discuss immigration policy more strategically, Takahide Kiuchi, an executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, wrote in a recent analysis.

Still, the opposition is fractured

Conservative to centrist opposition groups, including the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, or CDPJ, the DPP, and Sanseito have gained significant ground at the Liberal Democrats’ expense.

They are believed to be raking in conservative supporters of the ruling party who are disappointed by Ishiba’s leadership and flip-flops on policies. Ishiba is caught between his party’s ultraconservatives and mainstream opposition leaders.

Still, the eight main opposition groups are too fractured to forge a common platform as a united front and gain voter support as a viable alternative.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-ishiba-parliament-election-us-tariff-8eae5abcb7c6f445f3251c934e08d246

The president revealed his wife as a source of counsel on matters of state as negotiations with Vladimir Putin grind on. This week, Donald Trump announced missiles systems for Ukraine and a ceasefire deadline for Russia.

Ukraine has, seemingly, a surprise advocate in the White House: first lady Melania Trump.

A flurry of laudatory posts shared across Ukrainian social media this week came after US President Donald Trump revealed that his wife had taken to pointing out the contradictions in his negotiations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, toward a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

“I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done,” Trump said on Monday.

“And I always hang up and say: ‘Well, that was a nice phone call,'” Trump said. “And then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city. After that happens three or four times, you say: ‘The talk doesn’t mean anything.'”

On Monday, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or risk substantial economic sanctions. The deadline, like others set by the president, appears flexible. On Tuesday he said that, though he didn’t think 50 days was a long time, “it could be sooner than that.”

‘Agent Melania Trumpenko’

“I go home, I tell the first lady: ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,'” Trump said. “She said: ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.'”

On platforms such as X and Telegram, Ukrainian social media users shared posts and memes welcoming Melania Trump’s apparent role.

“So all this time Melania was for us?” the prominent blogger Ihor Lachenkov posted.

“Melania for President of the United States 🙈” a Telegram account with 1.5 million followers wrote.

Many have dubbed her “Agent Melania Trumpenko” and modified photos of the first lady to attach Ukrainian iconography to her clothing.

Others have used memes to poke fun at the suggestion that the first lady was the crucial voice that changed the US position on Ukraine.

One such post shared by the national TV news program TSN shows a cartoon animal, a cinema detective and a picture of Melania Trump in a wide-brimmed hat at the 2025 inauguration with the text “Secret Agents: In cartoons, In movies, in real life.”

Another shows Godzilla marked as former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and King Kong marked as prime ministerial candidate Yulia Svyrydenko brawling, saying “A Woman Will Save Ukraine,” only for the Doge dog to attack both, saying: “It will be Melania Trump.”

First lady’s influence

Melania Trump is Slovenian and grew up in the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia has provided humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine.

She has voiced her support for Ukraine previously, notably in a 2022 social media post on the platform X (formerly Twitter) calling on people to support the International Committee of the Red Cross’s humanitarian efforts after Russia began its full-scale invasion.

In an interview with DW TV, Tanja Fajon, Slovenian minister of foreign affairs, said she “really [doesn’t] know what Melania’s influence on Donald Trump” is. But, Fajon added, it was “good to know we have a first lady” on Slovenia’s and Ukraine’s side.

Many Ukrainian users have noted that, because of her upbringing in Yugoslavia, which had a fraught relationship with Russia, she is the best-placed member of Trump’s circle when it comes to understanding the threat posed by Vladimir Putin.

US first ladies have often exercised influence within the White House. Melania Trump’s predecessors have involved themselves with social programs and tried to help achieve policy outcomes for their husbands.

In an interview with Ukrainian television Kanal 24, former state security service officer Ivan Stupak said he hoped that Melania Trump’s sympathies for his country were having an effect on US foreign policy.

“We’ve seen in the histories of different countries that first ladies … it’s not a 100% rule, but, in many cases, they don’t just exist in the background, as a formality,” Stupak said.

“I want to believe that she does have some influence,” Stupak said, “that she can say something, and Trump will listen to her.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/did-agent-melania-change-donald-trumps-mind-on-ukraine/a-73300763

TECH CEO Andy Byron had gushed about hiring HR chief Kristin Cabot months before they were caught cuddling at a Coldplay gig.

Byron and Cabot were left red-faced as they flashed up on a big screen in front of thousands in each other’s arms.

Married Byron dived to hide behind a barrier, while Cabot covered her face with her hands and turned her back to the crowd.

As he caught view of himself on the gargantuan screen, he appeared to say “f****** hell, it’s me”.

And now it has emerged that the Astronomer CEO had raved about the HR chief when she was hired a mere few months before they were caught on camera.

Byron called Cabot a “proven leader” when she joined the company in November last year.

He gushed: “Kristin’s exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement, and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory.

“She is a proven leader at multiple growth-stage companies and her passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces makes her a perfect fit for Astronomer.”

The press release added that Cabot “has a proven track record of preserving and enriching company culture at organizations experiencing rapid growth”.

Cabot released a similarly enthusiastic comment, saying she was “energised in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here”.

Her statement added: “I prefer to think of my role as people strategy versus traditional human resources, as the real magic happens when you align the people strategy with the business strategy.”

The pair were watching Coldplay perform in Boston, Massachusetts, on Wednesday night when frontman Chris Martin panned his ‘kiss cam’ onto them.

Yellow singer Martin exclaimed: “Oh look at these two.”

But, realising their grinning faces were being cast on a giant screen in front of thousands at Gillette Stadium, they both swiftly unlocked arms and shielded their faces.

As a chorus of laughter echoed around the jam-packed stadium, Martin said: “Oh what… either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy.”

Cabot was recruited as software development firm Astronomer’s Chief People Officer just nine months ago in November.

On her LinkedIn, she boasts: “I lead by example and win trust with employees of all levels, from CEOs to managers to assistants.”

Cabot – who has the second surname Thornby in brackets on her page – adds: “I’m a passionate people leader known for building award-winning cultures from the ground up for fast-growing startups and multi-national corporations.”

According to Byron’s LinkedIn, he has been CEO of Astronomer – understood to be worth more than £1 billion – since July 2023.

The cringeworthy footage has gone viral on social media – having been shared thousands of times on X and TikTok.

Hundreds have accused Byron of cheating on his wife, and have shared support for her.

One social media user commented: “Sorry for the wife but glad they’re being exposed and embarrassed.”

Another wrote: “How utterly sad.”

A third said: “They are both incredibly stupid, sorry. Why would you go to a concert of all places if you are having an affair.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14746240/andy-byron-kristin-cabot-coldplay-cuddling/

FELIX BAUMGARTNER has died aged 56 after crashing into a pool in a paragliding tragedy.

The Austrian skydiver became a household name when he jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in 2012.

He set world records for skydiving an estimated 24 miles and reaching an estimated top speed of Mach 1.25 (843.6mph), becoming the first person ever to break the sound barrier without vehicular power.

But Baumgartner’s latest adventure ended in tragedy as he plunged to his death while attempting another stunning feat.

According to Sky Austria, the extreme sports lover was in Porto Sant’Elpidio, Italy, when disaster struck.

Baumgartner had been flying in a motored paraglider when he suffered a “sudden onset of illness.”

This caused him to lose control, with Baumgartner’s glider crashing to the ground and into a hotel swimming pool.

He was reportedly killed instantly in the tragic accident.

Meanwhile, a hotel employee was also injured during Baumgartner’s fall.

They were said to be struck by the paraglider as it hit the ground.

The employee was rushed to hospital and is said to have suffered neck injuries.

Baumgartner’s accident came just hours after several tragic final posts on social media.

One showed him working on the glider that led to his death, with the ace captioning his post: “Man at work.”

While another, posted on Instagram Stories, showed a field with Baumgartner commenting: “Too much wind.”

Following the shock news of his death, fans quickly paid tribute to Baumgartner on social media.

One said: “RIP legend.”

Another declared: “Can’t believe, am so sorry for his friends and family.”

One noted: “We will all miss you Felix.”

Another added: “Shocked by the news, RIP.”

Baumgartner was renowned for his feats in parachuting and base jumping, having scaled the world’s tallest buildings and even skydiving across the English Channel.

But his biggest and most famous feat came in 2012 when he used a helium balloon to soar 24 miles in the air.

Millions tuned in to watch the incredible live stream, which was backed by energy drinks giant Red Bull.

And the world held its breath as Baumgartner jumped into the void before hurtling back to Earth at record-breaking speeds of 843mph.

It saw him hit a top speed of Mach 1.25 – making him the first person to break the sound barrier outside a vehicle.

Just before he jumped, Baumgartner declared: “I wish you could see what I can see.”

Immediately reflecting on his jump afterwards, he added: “When you’re standing on top of the world, you don’t think of records any more, all you think is that you want to come back alive.”

Speaking several years later, Baumgartner said: “I wanted to be the first human outside of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier.

“It’s very difficult to a perfect exit, do not over-rotate, there’s no air to use to slow down.

“First 25 seconds it looked like everything’s under control. Then after 34 seconds I hit Mach 1 and broke the speed of sound. That was our goal.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/14745500/felix-baumgartner-dead-paragliding-crash-earth-jump/

VIRGIN Atlantic passengers have been horrified to find their luggage covered in foul-smelling poop and urine in a travel nightmare.

The airline was forced to break its silence after a traveler shared a video of the nasty aftermath, saying, “They didn’t even tell us!!!”

Flyers made the disgusting discovery after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, a major international airport in Queens, New York City, on Monday.

After making the five-hour journey from London Heathrow Airport to New York, travelers stretched their legs and headed over to claim their suitcases at the baggage carousel.

That’s when they were met with the horrifying sights and smells of their luggage covered in what appeared to be human excrement.

“You arrive in New York on a Virgin Atlantic flight and they’ve emptied the plane toilet (poo & wee) on your suitcase,” shared TikTok user Sosan on her TikTok account under the handle @sosafoods.

The post has amassed over 3 million views and over 190,000 likes.

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever smelled in my life,” Sosan wrote.

“They didn’t even tell us!!!”

The video shows at least seven mid-sized suitcases splattered in a revolting brown substance.

It’s unclear if the material came from the plane like Sosan said.

Waste from airplane toilets are typically stored in tanks and then removed by ground crews with special vehicles, equipment, and disposal methods to avoid biohazards like these.

POINTING FINGERS

Virgin Atlantic insisted it’s not their fault and that the damage happened in the baggage tunnel at the airport.

“We’re aware of a New York JFK system failure that has affected the baggage of a small number of arriving customers,” a spokesperson for the airline told The U.S. Sun.

“We’re working closely with the team at JFK and local authorities to ensure the issue is resolved.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to affected customers.”

JFK didn’t return The U.S. Sun’s requests for comment.

Customers with damaged bags were told by officials how best to clean their baggage, the airline said.

Passengers were also said to have been given the option for their bags to be professionally cleaned by a biohazard team.

‘NO ANNOUNCEMENT’

However, Sosan claims there was no announcement made to the flyers.

“No announcement, no help, no gloves – NOTHING!!” she wrote in the comments of the post.

Another passenger shared a picture of their suitcase, covered in filth, on X with the same complaints.

“How are all these bags covered in human s**t!” the customer said.

“Floor staff saying they can’t provide wipes, new bags or hand sanitizer and that we have to ‘write an email to customer team.’

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14746251/virgin-atlantic-flight-poop-urine-jfk-airport-luggage/

The Karnataka High Court heard arguments from the Centre on the necessity for urgent regulation of digital platforms, particularly in light of rising cybercrime and digital surveillance. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta emphasized that platforms like X Corp should act responsibly and cannot claim the same rights as individuals.

Constant surveillance by social media, rising cybercrime, and the evolving threat landscape has made it necessary for urgent regulation in the digital space, the Centre told the Karnataka High Court during a hearing on the X Corp (formerly Twitter) case over content takedown directives.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union Government, argued that internet intermediaries like ‘X’ must act responsibly and cannot claim the same constitutional rights as individuals.
X Corp had approached the court challenging the applicability of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, often used to justify takedown directives. It said that blocking orders can only be issued through due process under Section 69A read with the IT Rules and not via direct instructions under Section 79.

“Today, even a smart TV with a camera is a potential surveillance tool. Many public figures ask visitors to leave their phones outside because these devices have effectively become recorders. We are being continuously monitored by social media,” he said, highlighting the extent of digital surveillance in people’s lives.
The Solicitor General also touched upon the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence, calling it a developmental boon but also a potential hazard.
He noted that legal frameworks must evolve to address the threats posed by technological advances.
Dismissing X Corp’s claim under Article 19 (Freedom of Speech and Expression), Mehta asserted that such protections are reserved for individuals, not platforms.
“X is simply a notice board. Only those who post content can claim Article 19 protections,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v Union of India had clarified that content on public platforms can be regulated in public interest.
Addressing the issue of intermediary liability, Mehta referred to Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules 2021, which requires intermediaries to remove unlawful content upon government or court notification. Failure to comply results in the loss of “safe harbour”, a legal immunity provided under Section 79 of the IT Act.
He clarified that Section 79 is not a penal provision, but a protective exception that intermediaries lose if they ignore legal notices. “Section 79 is an exception to the rule. You can’t claim exemption without accountability,” Mehta argued.
Backing the government’s push for regulation, Mehta said cybercrime complaints in the country rose from around 26,000 in 2019 to over 22.6 lakh in 2024–a staggering 401 per cent increase.
“This massive surge shows the internet is facing threats that endanger individuals, communities, and the nation. A coordinated response involving law enforcement, platforms, and regulators is essential,” he said.
Referring to a recent Supreme Court observation in the Ranveer Allahbadia case, Mehta stressed the need to regulate vulgar and harmful content while protecting free speech.
“The platform itself amplifies content through algorithmic sequencing. If you watch something repeatedly on YouTube, it appears on top–this is curated amplification,” he said.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/india/even-a-smart-tv-with-camera-is-potential-surveillance-tool-centre-tells-karnataka-hc-in-x-corp-case-article-152300211

Superstar attorney Mark Geragos has been ordered to pay $100,000 as part of the case that saw disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti jailed after a jury found Wednesday that he gave Avenatti “substantial assistance or encouragement.”

Stormy Daniels lawyer Avenatti famously attempted to blackmail Nike in 2019 while representing basketball coach, Gary Franklin.

Avenatti brought Geragos — who has represented Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Winona Ryder, and the Menéndez brothers among many others — onto the case, and Geragos was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the government’s case against Avenatti.

Franklin — who never saw any money from Nike, possibly because of the blackmail attempt — later filed a civil suit against Geragos for his part in the mess.

On Wednesday, the jury in the civil suit found that Geragos “had actual knowledge that Avenatti was committing wrongdoing” against Franklin, and that Geragos “provided knowlingly substantial assistance or encouragement to Avenatti in committing wrongdoing.”

It also found that he breached the professional standard of care or duty of loyalty” to Franklin.

But the jury decided that, overall, Geragos’s actions weren’t a “substantial factor in causing harm to Franklin.”

A rep for Geragos told Page Six the decision “amounts to about as close to vindication as one can get,” adding “we’re satisfied with the result and grateful the jury… got it right.”

Franklin’s attorney, Trent Copeland, told us, “Geragos has spent much of his career mastering the art of spin—but there’s no spinning what this jury just found. He may not have faced criminal charges, but a civil jury found him liable nonetheless.” He added, “No reasonable attorney would celebrate a verdict like that. He can’t run from this.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/17/society/superstar-attorney-mark-geragos-ordered-to-pay-100000-in-case-that-saw-disgraced-lawyer-michael-avenatti-jailed/

Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas were recently spotted enjoying a boat ride during a private Spanish getaway, according to pictures obtained by Hello! Thursday.

The Cuban actress, 37, could be seen wearing a flowy white midi dress while the “Mission: Impossible” star, 63, wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt. They both sported fedora hats while soaking up the sun.

De Armas flashed some leg at one point while sitting across from Cruise on a bean bag chair. In more photos, she walked around the boat while he continued to sit down and look at his phone.

The A-listers have been seen multiple times together, starting in February when they were first spotted at dinner in London for what was reportedly a professional meal.

But romance speculation between them began to gain traction when they were later spotted together on multiple occasions that appeared to no longer be in a strictly professional capacity.

Cozy sightings included the two helicoptering into London and having dinner for her 37th birthday, as well as attending David Beckham’s 50th birthday together.

A source told Page Six in June that the two have also dined in a private room at the swanky members-only club Annabel’s in London “a couple of times over the past two months.”

“Tom looks enchanted by her,” the eyewitness said. “And she looks very happy with him.”

While they’ve both stayed mum on their dating lives, de Armas — who previously dated Ben Affleck — did say they were working together on multiple projects during her appearance on “Good Morning America” in May.

“It’s so much fun. We’re definitely working on a lot of things,” she said. “Not just one, but a few projects with [filmmakers] Doug Liman and Christopher McQuarrie and, of course, Tom. And I’m so excited,” she replied.

The two are co-starring in Liman’s upcoming supernatural thriller “Deeper,” which is about an astronaut who encounters something terrifying in space.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/17/celebrity-news/tom-cruise-ana-de-armas-make-a-splash-with-private-spanish-getaway/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret after Israeli tank fire killed three people at a Catholic church in Gaza on Thursday (Jul 17), blaming a “stray” round for the deaths after a phone call with US President Donald Trump.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said 10 others were also wounded in the attack on the Holy Family Church in Gaza City – the territory’s only Catholic house of worship – including parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli.

Witnesses and the Latin Patriarch said a tank shell slammed directly into the church around 10.30am local time (7.30am GMT), but the Israeli military later said an initial inquiry “suggests that fragments from a shell … hit the church mistakenly”.

Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of life at Holy Family, which the late Pope Francis had kept in regular contact with throughout the war between Israel and Hamas militants.

Israel’s military maintained it made “every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures”, while Netanyahu promised an investigation.

“Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had called Netanyahu after having “not a positive reaction” to news of the strike.

“It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president,” she said.

AFP images showed the injured being treated at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with one receiving oxygen and blood while lying under a foil blanket. Father Romanelli could be seen with a bandage around his lower leg.

Mourners knelt next to two white body bags laid out on the floor.

“In the morning a tank shell targeted us and hit the church, and a number of civilians were killed and wounded,” said Shadi Abu Daoud, a displaced man whose 70-year-old mother was killed in the strike.

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed the deaths at the church.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Vatican News: “What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF (Israeli military) says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly.”

“SERIOUS ACT”

The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, said it “strongly condemns this strike and this targeting of innocent civilians”.

The site was sheltering around 600 displaced people, the majority of them children and 54 with special needs.

“The people in the Holy Family Compound are people who found in the Church a sanctuary – hoping that the horrors of war might at least spare their lives, after their homes, possessions and dignity had already been stripped away,” it said in a statement.

Foreign leaders, including from France and Italy, called the attack “unacceptable”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes elsewhere across the Palestinian territory killed at least 22 people on Thursday.

Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Pope Francis had repeatedly called for an end to the Gaza war, condemning in his final Easter message a day before his death the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory.

“TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”

Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, told AFP the raid was “totally unacceptable”.

“It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population,” he said.

“There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians.”

More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.

The war was triggered by the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-netanyahu-regret-three-killed-catholic-church-gaza-5244716

The new Singapore Oceanarium opens to the public on Jul 24 at Resorts World Sentosa. The revamped space is three times larger than the former SEA Aquarium.

formerly known as the SEA Aquarium – will officially reopen on Jul 24 after a three-month transformation. Located within Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), the revamped space features 22 zones dedicated to marine education, conservation and immersive storytelling.

The new attraction also features a Research and Learning Centre, offering immersive behind-the-scenes experiences, educational programmes and hands-on workshops to promote marine conservation. This space, along with select zones within the Singapore Oceanarium, can also be booked for private events.

To mark its opening, a range of complimentary programmes will be available with the purchase of a same-day admission ticket from Jul 24 to Aug 31. Visitors can view the full list of activities and book their slots online.

Tickets to the Singapore Oceanarium are now available on its official website. Prices start at S$50 for adults and S$42 for children aged three to 12, as well as for senior citizens aged 60 and above.

Singapore residents enjoy discounted rates, with tickets starting from S$42 for adults and S$35 for children and seniors.

CNA Lifestyle attended a media preview of the Singapore Oceanarium on Wednesday (Jul 16). Have your most comfortable pair of shoes on because it took us about three hours to explore the entire space – covering nearly 5km on foot.

But you don’t have to do that on an empty stomach because there are several places where you can grab a bite or a sip during your visit.

Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms (META.O), agreed on Thursday to settle claims seeking $8 billion for the damage they allegedly caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy, a lawyer for the shareholders told a Delaware judge on Thursday.
The parties did not disclose details of the settlement and defense lawyers did not address the judge, Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery. McCormick adjourned the trial just as it was to enter its second day and she congratulated the parties.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sam Closic, said the agreement just came together quickly.
Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a defendant in the trial and a Meta director, was scheduled to testify on Thursday.
Shareholders of Meta sued Zuckerberg, Andreessen and other former company officials including former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in hopes of holding them liable for billions of dollars in fines and legal costs the company paid in recent years.
The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion in 2019 after finding that it failed to comply with a 2012 agreement with the regulator to protect users’ data.

The shareholders wanted the 11 defendants to use their personal wealth to reimburse the company. The defendants denied the allegations, which they called “extreme claims.”
Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. The company was not a defendant and declined to comment.
On its website, the company has said it has invested billions of dollars into protecting user privacy since 2019.
A lawyer for the defendants declined to comment.
“This settlement may bring relief to the parties involved, but it’s a missed opportunity for public accountability,” said Jason Kint, the head of Digital Content Next, a trade group for content providers.

Zuckerberg was expected to take the stand on Monday and Sandberg on Wednesday. The trial was scheduled to run through the end of next week.
The case was also expected to include testimony from former Facebook board members Peter Thiel, Palantir Technologies (PLTR.O), co-founder, and Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix (NFLX.O).

By settling, Zuckerberg and other defendants avoid having to answer probing questions under oath. Sandberg was found during the litigation to have deleted what were likely her most sensitive emails and she was sanctioned, making it harder for her to tell her side of the story in court.
The settlement allows plaintiffs to avoid trying a very difficult case. Meta investors alleged that former and current board members completely failed to oversee the company’s compliance with the 2012 FTC agreement. The lawsuit also claimed that Zuckerberg and Sandberg knowingly ran Facebook as an illegal data harvesting operation.
The oversight allegations are known as Caremark claims, considered the most difficult to prove under Delaware corporate law. It was the first time Caremark claims went to trial, and even if the plaintiffs had gotten a judgment in their favor, the case would have been appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court. That court has reversed major shareholder victories in recent years.
The case followed revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump’s successful U.S. presidential campaign in 2016. Those revelations led to the FTC fine, which was a record at the time.
On Wednesday, an expert witness for the plaintiffs testified about what he called “gaps and weaknesses” in Facebook’s privacy policies but would not say if the company violated the 2012 agreement that Facebook reached with the FTC.
Jeffrey Zients, a former board member, testified on Wednesday that the company did not agree to the FTC fine to spare Zuckerberg legal liability, as shareholders alleged.
The defendants’ legal team also showed the court notes that Zients had taken when he was on the board that seemed to show he was urging the board to make user privacy a top priority, which would undercut plaintiffs’ claims.
The trial settlement marks the second time Zuckerberg avoided testifying in the court. In 2017, Facebook abandoned a plan to issue a new class of stock as a way for Zuckerberg to extend his control over the company while selling his shares. The decision came a week before Zuckerberg was expected to testify in the Court of Chancery to defend the stock plan.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/meta-investors-zuckerberg-reach-settlement-end-8-billion-trial-over-facebook-2025-07-17/

The AAIB slammed The Wall Street Journal over its report highlighting a pilot’s role in the Air India Flight 171 crash on June 12 in Ahmedabad, calling it unverified and saying it was too early to come to conclusions.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Thursday called out the US-based The Wall Street Journal for its report on a “pilot’s role” in the Air India Flight 171 crash that killed 260, calling it unverified and selective reporting. The bureau said it was too early to jump to conclusions and wait for the final report to be released.

In a statement, the AAIB said that its preliminary findings into the Air India crash were to provide information about “what” happened and that an investigation into the tragedy was still not complete.

“It is essential to respect the sensitivity of the loss faced by family members of the passengers, crew of the aircraft and other persons on the ground who died. It has come to our attention that certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting. Such actions are irresponsible, especially while the investigation remains ongoing,” the AAIB said.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an assessment by US officials, said the black box recording indicated that Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, turned off the fuel control switches, seconds after AI 171 crashed into a resident doctors’ hostel in Ahmedabad after takeoff.

“We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,” AAIB said in the statement.

“The purpose of the AAIB’s investigation and preliminary report is to provide information about ‘what’ happened. The preliminary report has to be seen in this light. At this stage, it is too early to reach any definite conclusions. The investigation by the AAIB is still not complete. The final investigation report will come out with root causes and recommendations,” the body said.

The AAIB also said that the probe was being undertaken “in a rigorous and most professional manner in accordance with rules and international protocols”.

“While the accident of this dimension has drawn public attention and shock, however, it needs to be appreciated that this is not the time to create public anxiety or angst regarding the safety of the Indian aviation industry, particularly on the basis of unfounded facts,” the bureau further said.

WHAT DID THE WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORT SAY?

AI 171 was being commanded by 56-year-old Sabharwal, who had a total flying experience of 15,638 hours, and First Officer Clive Kunder, 32, who had 3,403 hours of total experience.

Moments after takeoff, the first officer asked the captain why he moved the switches from “run” to the “cutoff” position, the report said. After noticing it, the first officer panicked, while the captain seemed to remain calm, The Wall Street Journal report said.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was on its way to London, crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel building in Ahmedabad within seconds of takeoff. The tragedy left 260 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board and 19 others on the ground, dead.

The initial probe report, released by the AAIB, revealed that the fuel control switches of the Boeing 787 flipped from a “run” to a “cutoff” position within a second of each other after lift-off.

The fuel control switches regulate fuel flow into a plane’s engines. The AAIB report, however, does not mention if the switches were moved by either of the pilots to the “cutoff” position.

The report does mention one pilot asking the other why he cut off the fuel supply, with the other responding he did not. However, the full transcript of the conversation was never released, prompting several theories on social media.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/unverified-reporting-probe-agency-calls-out-us-media-report-on-pilots-role-in-air-india-crash-2757337-2025-07-17

The White House and Pakistan’s Foreign Office denied any such plans, calling the reports unverified. Trump is instead scheduled to visit the UK in September.

Two of Pakistan’s top news channels, Geo News and ARY News, have withdrawn reports they aired earlier, which claimed that US President Donald Trump was planning to visit Pakistan in September. The news caused quite a stir, but both channels later admitted they had broadcast the information without confirming it first.

Geo News issued an apology, saying, “Geo News apologises to its viewers for airing the news without a verification.” A senior official from ARY News told Reuters that the channel retracted the story after Pakistan’s Foreign Office clarified it had no knowledge of any such visit.

Earlier in the day, several TV stations claimed that Trump would arrive in Islamabad in September and possibly head to India afterward.

The White House stepped in to clear the air. A US official told media outlets, “A trip to Pakistan has not been scheduled at this time.” Similarly, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Islamabad told Reuters, “We have nothing to announce.”

Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan also responded, telling Dawn.com, “We have no information about this matter.”

NO PLANS FOR PAK VISIT

Though there is no official visit planned, US-Pakistan relations have recently improved. Last month, Donald Trump made headlines by hosting Pakistan’s Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at the White House — something no US president had done before.

It has been nearly two decades since a sitting US president last visited Pakistan. The last visit took place in 2006 when then-President George W. Bush paid a visit to the country.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/trump-not-visiting-pakistan-at-this-time-tv-channels-withdraw-false-reports-glbs-2757451-2025-07-18

On the face of it, the Afghan data breach is very bad indeed.

It is arguably the worst leak of secret UK government names since the former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson went rogue and published a list online containing dozens of names of MI6 officers in 1999.

For a case officer in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), having your name and details outed in public is potentially a career-killer.

That said, names can be changed, forged or disguised.

What cannot be is biometric data – something increasingly used in counter-intelligence to uncover and catch spies – and there is no indication so far that UK officers have had this data leaked as well.

For serving and former members of the highly secretive Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS), leaks like this one can, in theory, expose them to the risk of threat to life, given the lethal, covert operations some will have taken part in that may have involved the deaths or capture of individuals. The physical risk resulting from this leak to those members of UK Special Forces whose names were on the leaked dataset is judged to be minimal.

Those who face the greatest risk are Afghans still in Afghanistan.

The revelation that, in addition to the thousands of leaked names and details of potentially vulnerable Afghans, there are 100 or more involving British operatives is certainly shocking.

But this “unauthorised data breach” was – belatedly – discovered as far back as August 2023.

So that has given the UK intelligence and special forces communities nearly two years in which to come up with ways to mitigate this disaster and adopt whatever protective measures they can, for both Afghans and Brits on the leaked dataset.

Amongst the worse-case scenarios that MI6 in particular will have had to consider is that Russia, China, Iran or even North Korea may now also be in possession of those leaked names.

It is a fair assumption to make that the Taliban’s intelligence apparatus would have had little interest in the names of long-departed British soldiers and spies. But they would be canny enough to work out who would be interested: the UK’s global adversaries.

For now, those who have most to fear are the 600 former Afghan government soldiers and their estimated 1,800 relatives who are still in Afghanistan.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07dr898e3po

Indonesian police have uncovered an international baby trafficking syndicate which has allegedly sold at least 25 infants to buyers in Singapore since 2023.

Authorities made 13 arrests related to the syndicate in the Indonesian cities of Pontianak and Tangerang this week, and rescued six babies who were about to be trafficked – all of whom are around a year old.

“The babies were first housed in Pontianak and had their immigration documents arranged before being sent to Singapore,” West Java Police’s director of general criminal investigation, Surawan, told BBC News Indonesia.

BBC News has contacted Singapore Police and Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs for comment, but received no response.

The syndicate’s alleged modus operandi was to target parents or expectant mothers who allegedly did not want to raise their child – in some cases initiating contact via Facebook before pivoting to more private channels such as WhatsApp, according to police.

“Some babies were even reserved while still in the womb,” Surawan said. “Once born, the delivery costs were covered, then compensation money was given, and the baby was taken.”

Police said members of the group included recruiters who tracked down babies to be trafficked; caretakers and people who housed them; and others who prepared fraudulent civil documents such as family cards and passports, he explained.

After being taken from their mothers, the babies were given to caretakers for two to three months before being sent to Jakarta and then Pontianak, where their birth certificates, passports, and documents were prepared, police said.

The babies were sold for between 11 million Indonesian rupiah ($673; £502) and 16 million Indonesian rupiahs each, they added.

According to some of those arrested, the syndicate sold at least 12 male and 13 female babies domestically and abroad – most of them having come from various districts and cities in the Indonesian province of West Java.

Indonesian police on Thursday said that their “immediate task” was to find the adopters in Singapore.

“We will cross-check the data with the babies who departed, so we know exactly who departed, who accompanied them, when they departed, and who the adopters there are,” Surawan told reporters.

Most of the information gathered by police indicated that the babies had changed nationality, he added, noting that authorities were still looking for their passports.

Surawan earlier told BBC Indonesia that the babies were obtained through agreements between the traffickers and the parents, and that none so far had been taken by kidnapping. Parents who reported their child as kidnapped did so because the broker had failed to pay them, he said.

It is suspected that at least some parents may have agreed to sell their children due to financial hardship. They too could be charged with a criminal offence, Surawan said.

“If it is proven there was an agreement between the parents and the perpetrators, they can be charged with child protection crimes and human trafficking offenses,” he explained.

Police in Indonesia have requested assistance from Interpol and Singaporean police to arrest syndicate members who are still abroad, as well as buyers.

“We will list the perpetrators as wanted persons,” Surawan explained. “In addition, we will issue a red notice or request law enforcement in those countries to arrest them.”

Child trafficking syndicates typically target women in desperate situations, according to Ai Rahmayanti, commissioner of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI).

“For example, they became pregnant due to sexual violence, abandonment by the husband, or unwanted pregnancies from casual relationships,” she told BBC News Indonesia.

Abortion is illegal in Indonesia except under certain conditions, such as medical emergencies and pregnancies resulting from rape.

Ai Rahmayanti said baby or child trafficking syndicates often pose as maternity clinics, orphanages or social shelters that appear to care for vulnerable women and children.

“These clinics or shelters use language that sounds compassionate at first, such as ‘you can give birth and take your baby home’. But in reality, they offer money and illegally transfer custody of the baby,” she explains.

While there is no official data on the numbers of babies being sold in Indonesia, KPAI’s own data on human trafficking crimes indicates that the trend is persistent and growing.

While in 2020 KPAI recorded 11 cases of children as victims of illegal adoption, in 2023 it recorded 59 cases related to child abduction and trafficking under the guise of illegal adoption in 2023.

One of the most recent cases that KPAI advocated occurred in 2024, when babies were found in the process of being sold in locations such as Depok, West Java and Bali.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq536dew1l4o

Torrential rains in Pakistan’s Punjab province have killed at least 63 people and injured 290 in the 24 hours since downpours started on Wednesday morning.

Most of the victims were crushed by collapsing buildings, while the rest either drowned or were electrocuted, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Authorities in the city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital Islamabad, declared Thursday a public holiday to keep people at home, while those living near a swelling river which runs through the city have been asked to evacuate.

The latest deaths take the nationwide toll to nearly 180 since the monsoon started in late June. More than half of them were children.

The floods have closed several expressways throughout Punjab and either cancelled or delayed dozens of flights.

On Thursday, the province’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said an emergency had been declared in a number of areas. “Government institutions are working with utmost effort,” she wrote in a post on X, urging residents to abide by safety guidelines.

In Chakwal, a city deluged by 400mm of rainfall in the past day, photographs and video showed rescue boats trying to locate people stranded in floodwaters.

Military helicopters can also be seen circling heavily flooded areas.

Punjab authorities have warned that more rains and flash floods are expected throughout the weekend. Thousands of rescuers across the province have been put on standby.

Pakistan, which has a population of nearly 250 million, is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

It bears the brunt of two major weather systems – one can cause high temperatures and drought, while the other brings monsoon rains.

Pakistan is also home to more than 13,000 glaciers which have been melting at an accelerated pace.

In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people. They also left the country with economic damages exceeding $30bn.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gkygz3vg5o

The House is expected late Thursday to approve President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The White House had described the package as a test case and said that if Congress went along, more would come. The House’s approval would mark the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted a rescissions request to Congress. Trump undertook a similar effort in his first term, but the bill faltered in the Senate.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis are being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Two Republicans also voted no.

The House has already approved a previous version of the bill. But it now needs to take up the version that passed the Senate before it can be sent to Trump’s desk for his signature.

“We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters shortly after the chamber opened.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPR represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the cut in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies have voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

Later in the day Tuesday, as the Senate debated the bill, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Inside the cuts to foreign aid

Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations.

Democrats argued that the Republican administration’s animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America’s standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill.

“When we retreat from the world diplomatically and through our assistance to vulnerable people, America will be alone, without allies, in a less stable world,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. “And you know who will come out ahead? China. Russia. Iran.”

The White House argued that many of the cuts would incentivize other nations to step up and do more to respond to humanitarian crises and that the rescissions best served the American taxpayer.

“The money that we’re clawing back in this rescissions package is the people’s money. We ought not to forget that,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee.

After objections from several Republicans, Senate GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under Republican President George W. Bush.

Looking ahead to future spending fights

Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation’s priorities.

Triggered by the official rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote to advance instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines.

In the end, two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process.

“Let’s not make a habit of this,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn’t providing enough information on what exactly will be cut.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/pbs-npr-budget-cuts-trump-republicans-b0044285659ab708e23eb2dc2f3eabfa

The Los Angeles lowlife accused of killing “American Idol” executive Robin Kaye in cold blood was previously accused of pulling a knife on his stepfather and threatening his own mother and sister — but only spent six months in custody before his charges were dismissed.

Raymond Boodarian, 22, threatened his stepfather with a blade in November 2023 in the first in a series of busts in just eight months, according to KABC and court documents.

He was arrested in February 2023 for misdemeanor battery and threatening his mother and sister — and then again in June 2024, the network reported.

Details of the latter collar weren’t clear.

Despite pledging not to engage in conflict overseas, the US president has sharply escalated attacks

Donald Trump has overseen nearly as many air strikes in the first five months of his second term as Joe Biden launched in his entire presidency.

The US president’s onslaughts on Houthi militants in Yemen and jihadists in Somalia have been more ferocious than Mr Biden’s, and he has ordered strikes on Iraq, Syria and most recently, Iran.

After campaigning on a pledge to end American involvement in military conflicts, he has sharply escalated the country’s air campaigns, according to the data from Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data), which maps conflicts.

Mr Trump has overseen 529 air strikes since his inauguration, compared with 555 over the entire four years of the previous administration.

Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia were already being targeted by the previous administration, but Mr Trump opened up a new front with strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints,” said Prof Clionadh Raleigh, chief executive of Acled, highlighting the intensity of the bombing campaigns.

Mr Trump insists that his intense approach ensures “peace through strength”, an expression often attributed to Ronald Reagan.

“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. It’s called peace through strength,” Mr Trump said in a speech during his inaugural ball.

He has not struck Libya or Afghanistan, and air strikes are often seen as a more clinical alternative to putting US boots on the ground as Barack Obama did.

But the new data have been published amid tensions within Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) base over whether he should be pursuing foreign military interventions at all.

Prominent Maga figures, including Tucker Carlson, last month complained that striking Iran ran against Mr Trump’s “America First” isolationist promises.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a high-profile Maga loyalist and critic of intervention, said there was a “very big divide” in Mr Trump’s base over the issue and that she was “sick of” foreign entanglements.

She said last month: “I got elected on the exact same campaign promises that President Trump got elected on. We promised no more foreign wars, no more regime change.”

Yet polling at the time of the strikes showed Mr Trump’s base in fact strongly backed him, with 84 per cent of Maga supporters agreeing with the strikes, including 70 per cent who strongly supported them.

That compared with 72 per cent of traditional Republicans supporting the strikes, with 49 per cent strongly supporting them.

Prof Raleigh said the new data showed that America was not “stepping back” under Mr Trump.

She said: “Trump’s preference for engagement begs the question: does this contradict his promise to end America’s wars – or are the foreign strikes how he wishes to keep that promise?

“The recent air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites have been framed as a major turning point in US foreign policy. But if you take a step back, they don’t stand out – they fit.

“In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US air strikes as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration.

“The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isn’t about geography – it’s about frequency.”

The great majority of Mr Trump’s strikes have been in Yemen, where in March he dramatically escalated the US air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants menacing Red Sea shipping.

The militants have proven stubbornly resilient to US firepower and last week sank two ships, despite having been hit by 470 strikes since January, according to the Acled data. This came at a cost of more than $1 billion to the US military.

Mr Trump has also ramped up strikes in Somalia, where US forces have been hitting the local Islamic State group and also al-Shabaab.

In March, the White House announced that it had killed an Isis attack planner in Somalia.

Mr Trump said jubilantly: “Our Military has targeted this Isis attack planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done.

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/16/trump-airstrike-tally-matches-biden-four-year-total/

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, according to the US Geological Survey. The authorities initially issued a tsunami warning but later downgraded it to an advisory, and then withdrew it entirely.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

The earthquake took place at approximately 12:37pm local time (2037 GMT) with the epicenter situated some 54 miles (87 kilometers) south of the island town of Sand Point, with a depth of 20.1 kilometers, the USGS said.

Tsunami warning withdrawn
Authorities initially issued a tsunami warning, later downgraded it to an advisory, and eventually withdrew the advisory.

“The Tsunami Advisory is canceled for the coastal areas of South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula,” said the National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC) said two hours after the earthquake.

According to the USGS, the initial earthquake was followed by over a dozen aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 5.2 in magnitude.

A small tsunami, reaching a maximum height of 0.2 feet (6.1 centimeters), was recorded at Sand Point.

People advised to move away from bodies of water
The NTWC had earlier issued an advisory for “South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula, Pacific coasts from Kennedy Entrance, Alaska (40 miles southwest of Homer) to Unimak Pass, Alaska (80 miles northeast of Unalaska).”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/earthquake-strikes-off-alaska-prompting-tsunami-advisory/a-73305153

US Attorney General Pam Bondi had suggested in February that a supposed client list was sitting on her desk

A TOP Republican ally of President Donald Trump has called for the release of the files related to disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes as Trump insisted the much-hyped files are “pretty boring” amid a slew of conspiracies surrounding the death of Epstein – and his so-called client list.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) last week announced that Epstein died by suicide – although conspiracy theories are to the contrary.

The DoJ added that there was no “incriminating client list” to be revealed to the public – and no further revelations would be made regarding the case.

But Trump’s supporters have been left divided over a lack of clarity regarding the hyped records in Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.

Many within his MAGA movement allege that the files about the paedophile’s crimes have been withheld to protect big names.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he supported the release of the files – just days after the Justice Department said the matter was effectively closed.

Speaking on a podcast with Benny Johnson, the Republican said: “It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.

“I’m for transparency,” he added.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi had suggested in February that Epstein’s supposed client list was sitting on her desk waiting for review.

Though last week she appeared to suggest she’d been referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list.

Bondi said: “I did an interview on Fox, and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I said I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed.

“Meaning the file, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that.”

Conservative figures have since demanded to see all the documents related to Epstein’s crimes, even as Trump has tried to put the issue to bed.

Last night, Trump said the DoJ should release all “credible” information from its probe into the notorious sex criminal.

Though he repeated his claim that the so-called Epstein files were “made up” by his Democratic predecessors in the White House – even though he said multiple times during the election campaign that he would “probably” release them.

He told reporters in the White House: “I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.

“It’s pretty boring stuff.”

THE ‘EPSTEIN FILES’
One key theory centres on a rumoured client list of individuals who committed sex offences alongside Epstein.

The Trump administration has insisted that no such list exists.

Trump was himself dragged into the conspiracy theories after his former advisor Elon Musk claimed in June — in a now-deleted X post — that Trump was “in the Epstein files”.

His administration’s efforts to appease demands for a full disclosure of the files have largely fallen short.

A bundle released in February that promised to shed light on the Epstein case contained little new information.

Sceptics also allege suspicious circumstances in Epstein’s death, such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, alongside other irregularities.

An almost 11-hour video published this month to dispel theories that Epstein was murdered fell flat.

The camera angle showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died – but appeared to be missing a minute of footage, fueling more speculation online.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14723572/trump-ally-calls-release-epstein-files/

Interim leader Yunus says Awami League members committed ‘heinous act’ in attempt to disrupt rally of student-led NCP.

Violence broke out Wednesday in the southern town of Gopalganj when members of Hasina’s Awami League tried to disrupt a rally by the National Citizens Party (NCP), which is made up of students who spearheaded the unrest that toppled the leader last year.

TV footage showed pro-Hasina activists armed with sticks attacking police and setting vehicles on fire as NCP leaders arrived at the new party’s “March to Rebuild the Nation” programme commemorating the uprising.

Monoj Baral, a nurse at the Gopalganj District Hospital, told the news agency AFP that three people were killed. Local media, including the English-language Daily Star, said that four had died.

One of the dead was identified by Baral as Ramjan Sikdar. The other two were taken away from the hospital by their families, said Baral.

Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the district.

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who replaced Hasina three days after her overthrow last year, said that the attempt by the former leader’s supporters to foil the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”.

“This heinous act … will not go unpunished,” said a statement from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s office.

Hasnat Abdullah, an NCP coordinator, said rally attendees took refuge at a police station after being attacked. “We don’t feel safe at all. They threatened to burn us alive,” he told AFP.

New political force
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since Hasina was toppled nearly a year ago.

Hasina, who fled to India following a student-led uprising last August, faces several charges. This month, she was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison for contempt of court by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

Gopalganj is a politically sensitive district because the mausoleum of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is located there.

Rahman, the country’s founding president, was buried there after he was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1971.

Hasina would go on to contest elections from the constituency.

The NCP march was launched on July 1 across all districts in Bangladesh as part of its drive to position itself as a new force in Bangladeshi politics.

The country’s political landscape has been largely dominated by two dynastic families: Hasina’s Awami League party and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Yunus has said an election will be held in April next year.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/16/bangladesh-police-clash-with-pro-hasina-activists-at-least-three-dead

Tomorrowland’s main stage burns down 48 hours before opening; 1,000 staff evacuated safely. Firefighters battle blaze as festival’s future remains uncertain.

Tomorrowland featival fire: A massive fire destroyed Tomorrowland’s main stage just 48 hours before the world-famous electronic music festival was set to open in Boom, Belgium. Dramatic videos showed flames consuming the elaborate “World of Orbyz”-themed structure as fireworks exploded within the blaze, though their connection to the cause remains unclear.

Around 1,000 staff members were evacuated safely, with no injuries reported despite the stage being “completely destroyed” . Thick black smoke billowed over the town, prompting emergency warnings for residents to close windows and doors.

Watch the Viral Video of the Fire at Tomorrowland Mainstage

Over 50 firefighters from Boom and neighboring Antwerp rushed to contain the inferno, preventing it from spreading to nearby woods. Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen confirmed safety as the top priority, coordinating with emergency crews as Boom’s mayor, Jeroen Baert, cut short his German vacation to manage the crisis.

Fire officials assured locals the smoke wasn’t toxic, though structural damage appeared severe – social media images revealed only charred metal frames remained where the iconic stage once stood.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india-needs-1-5-trillion-to-meet-2030-climate-and-energy-goals-deloitte-11752761356895.html

Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT.O), will cut 500 jobs and add a serious warning on the label of its muscle-disorder gene therapy Elevidys, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, following the recent deaths of two patients who were on the medicine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Sarepta to include the “black-box” warning, its most serious, for the risk of acute liver injury and liver failure in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who can walk.

Sarepta shares shot up 33% in extended trading, as the company also said its restructuring efforts would reduce annual costs by about $400 million in 2026.
As part of the restructuring, the company promoted insider Ryan Wong as chief financial officer. Wong was serving as senior vice president of investor relations.
It has also halted development of several gene therapies for a group of muscle wasting disorders called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.
The company has faced heightened regulatory scrutiny after two patients treated with the muscle disorder therapy died from acute liver failure, casting doubts on the treatment’s safety and future demand. Both patients were non-ambulatory, or unable to walk independently.

“We saw some canceled appointments after the second event, and that obviously results in some hesitancy (among physicians),” CEO Doug Ingram said on a call with analysts.
The company said it plans to submit a proposal to the FDA to treat non-ambulatory patients with a drug that suppresses the immune system prior to infusion with Elevidys.
Evercore ISI analysts said the announcement removes the downside scenario of the therapy getting pulled from the market for ambulatory patients.
The company had suspended its Elevidys sales forecast for 2025 and halted shipments to non-ambulatory patients last month.
Sarepta said it has “more work to do and more dialogue to be had with the FDA” to continue shipping for non-ambulatory patients.
While it did not issue formal guidance on Wednesday, Sarepta forecast annual Elevidys revenues of at least $500 million from the ambulant population through 2027, calling it a “stress test”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/sarepta-cut-500-jobs-after-gene-therapy-setback-2025-07-16/

Sarah Michelle Gellar shut down Jennifer Love Hewitt feud rumors after the duo didn’t take photos together at the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” premiere.

The actress took to Instagram to address fan speculation after Hewitt was missing from Gellar’s photo dump with the cast, including her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., at the Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday night.

“The beef is real,” one person commented, as another added, “It makes me so sad there is ZERO recognition for Jennifer Lover Hewitt.”

Gellar, 48, swiftly responded to the critics in the comments, writing, “For everyone asking — I never got to see @jenniferlovehewitt who is fantastic in the movie.”

“I was inside with my kids when the big carpet happened,” she added. “And unfortunately JLH didn’t come to the after party.

“If you have ever been to one of these it’s crazy. I sadly didn’t get pics with most of the cast. But that doesn’t change how amazing I think they all are. Unfortunately some things happen only in real life and not online.”

Several fans praised Gellar for addressing feud speculation, with one chiming in, “Thanks for clearing that up queen, was making me a little sad because I love you both so much!”

“Thanks queen, the fans deserved it ❤,” another chimed in.

Others defended the “Scooby Doo” star, adding, “No need to explain. Some people just love to feed into false drama.”

“These people are very disturbing, you can take a picture with whoever you want, queen♥️,” a fan added.

Gellar showed her support for Prinze Jr., 49, in his role in the latest “IKWYDLS” film, which saw him and Hewitt, 46, reprise their roles as Ray Bronson and Julie James, respectively.

The trio starred alongside each other in the original 1997 film, but Gellar, who portrayed Helen Shivers, was killed off.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/16/celebrity-news/sarah-michelle-gellar-addresses-jennifer-love-hewitt-beef-rumors-after-ikwydls-premiere/

Israel’s military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus and government forces in southern Syria on Wednesday, as deadly sectarian fighting in the mostly Druze province of Suweida continued for a fourth day.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its forces were “working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime’s gangs”. The Syrian foreign ministry accused Israel of “treacherous aggression”.

More than 300 people are reported to have been killed in Suweida since Sunday, when clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes erupted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was “very worried” about the violence in the south but believed it would end within hours.

“We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” he wrote on X on Wednesday evening.

Syria’s foreign ministry said the country “welcomes the efforts made by the US and Arabian sides” to “resolve the current crisis” peacefully.

Israel has not yet commented on the ceasefire bid.

Syrian troops have started to withdraw from Suweida, according to Syria’s state news agency Sana.

It says the military is leaving the city as part of an agreement between the Syrian government and the Suweida’s religious leaders, following the “completion of the army’s pursuit of outlaw groups”.

The Israeli military began striking Syrian security forces and their weapons on Monday, after they were deployed to the city of Suweida for the first time since Sunni Islamist-led rebels overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Minority groups including the Druze – whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs – are suspicious of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his government, despite his pledges to protect them.

Their fears have been heightened by several outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past eight months, including one in May in which dozens of people were reportedly killed in clashes between Druze, security forces, and allied Islamist fighters in Damascus and Suweida.

In the wake of that fighting, the government reached an agreement with Druze militias to hire local security forces in Suweida province from their ranks.

Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday afternoon that “the warnings in Damascus” had ended and that the Israeli military would “continue to operate vigorously in Suweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until they withdraw completely”.

He later posted that “the painful blows have begun”, above a video clip showing a TV presenter diving under a desk live on camera as an Israeli air strike hit the nearby entrance to the Syrian defence ministry in Umayyad Square, in central Damascus.

Fadi Al Halabi, a London-based Syrian filmmaker who is visiting Damascus, said he was nearby when he heard the Israeli fighter jets approach.

“People’s faces were so afraid. Everyone started running [in] the street. No-one knew where to go. Suddenly the air strike[s] began, targeting some of the most crowded areas, including the ministry of defence,” he told the BBC.

The Israeli military said it also struck a “military target in the area” of the presidential palace in the capital, as well as armoured vehicles loaded with heavy machine guns and weapons on their way to Suweida, and firing posts and weapons storage facilities in southern Syria.

Syria’s foreign ministry said the strikes targeted government institutions and civilian facilities in Damascus and Suweida and killed “several innocent civilians”.

“This flagrant assault, which forms part of a deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli entity to inflame tensions, spread chaos, and undermine security and stability in Syria, constitutes a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law,” it added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, meanwhile reported that the humanitarian situation in Suweida city had rapidly deteriorated.

It cited sources as saying there were clashes in several area of the city and that tanks had attacked the national hospital, causing panic among the scores of casualties from the fighting being treated there. They also said there were acute shortages of water and medical supplies.

Later, the Syrian health ministry said government forces had entered the hospital and found “dozens of bodies” after “outlaw groups withdrew”, according to the official Sana news agency.

A man named Hosam told the BBC he was in the centre of Suweida city and had witnessed civilians coming under fire from artillery and snipers.

“I lost my neighbour today on the street. One of the snipers shot him. We tried to [get an] ambulance [to take] him to hospital, but we couldn’t,” he said.

The SOHR says more than 300 people have been killed since Sunday in Suweida province.

They include 69 Druze fighters and 40 civilians, 27 of whom were summarily killed by interior ministry and defence ministry forces, according to the group.

At least 165 members of the government forces and 18 Bedouin tribal fighters have also been killed in the clashes, while 10 members of government forces have been killed in Israeli strikes, it says.

The BBC is not able to verify the SOHR’s casualty figures.

The fighting between Bedouin tribes and Druze militias in Suweida is said to have been sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the highway to Damascus last Friday.

On Sunday, armed Druze fighters reportedly encircled and later seized a neighbourhood of Suweida city that is inhabited by Bedouin. The clashes soon spread into other parts of Suweida province, with tribesmen reportedly launching attacks on nearby Druze towns and villages.

Syria’s interior ministry later announced that its forces and those of the defence ministry would intervene and impose order, saying the “dangerous escalation comes in light of the absence of relevant official institutions”.

Earlier this year, Israel’s prime minister demanded the complete demilitarisation of Suweida and two other southern provinces. He said Israel saw President Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and UK, but no longer by the US.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp90l77187zo

A fresh wave of deadly sectarian violence has rocked Syria, putting into focus the country’s fragile security landscape as the new government attempts to impose its authority over the fractured territory.

On Sunday 13 July, the reported abduction of a merchant from the Druze minority sparked days of deadly clashes between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin fighters in southern Syria.

Later on Tuesday 15 July, Israel intervened militarily, saying its forces were seeking to protect the Druze and to eliminate pro-government forces accused of attacking them in Suweida. At least 300 people are reported to have been killed in Suweida since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The violence is the first in the Druze-majority province of Suweida since fighting in April and May between Druze fighters and Syria’s new security forces killed dozens of people. Prior to this, clashes in Syria’s coastal provinces in March were said to have killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority, to which former ruler Bashar al-Assad belongs.

The deadly unrest, along with the violent Israeli strikes, have re-ignited fears of a security breakdown in Syria, as the country grapples with the fallout from over a decade of civil war, and the recent Islamist-led rebel takeover of Damascus in December 2024. Syria’s current leader, former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa, has vowed to protect Syria’s minorities.

An “unbelievably rare” piece of Mars – the largest ever found on Earth – has sold for $4.3m (£3.2m) at a New York auction on Wednesday.

The meteorite known as NWA 16788 weighs 54lb (24.5kg) and is nearly 15in (38.1cm) long, according to Sotheby’s.

It was discovered in a remote region of Niger in November 2023 and is 70% larger than the next biggest piece of Mars that has been recovered, the auction house said.

Meteorites are the remains of rock left after an asteroid or comet passes through Earth’s atmosphere.

Sotheby’s auction house described the meteorite, a reddish brown rock, as “unbelievably rare”. Only about 400 Martian meteorites have ever been found on Earth.

“This is the largest piece of Mars on planet Earth. The odds of this getting from there to here are astronomically small,” Cassandra Hatton, vice-chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in a video posted online.

“Remember that approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water. So we’re incredibly lucky that this landed on dry land instead of the middle of the ocean where we could actually find it.”

It remains unclear where the meteorite will end up as information about the sale will remain private.

Additional taxes and fees brought the total price of the rock up to about $5.3m, Sotheby’s said.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5z34e3e6vo

Singapore tops the 2025 Julius Baer Lifestyle Index as the world’s most expensive city for luxury spending, followed by London and Hong Kong. The report analyses high-end spending habits of the ultra-wealthy, with rising costs driven by inflation and global economic shifts. New York, Zurich, Monaco, and Shanghai also feature among the top 10 luxury cities.

If your idea of a good time involves designer shopping sprees, Michelin-star meals, and the occasional diamond-studded indulgence, then you might want to check your bank balance before booking a flight to Singapore. In the ever-shifting game of global luxury, where cities compete not for affordability but for extravagance, Singapore has once again snagged the crown as the most expensive city in the world for luxury living. And this isn’t a one-time fluke — the city has now topped Julius Baer’s Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report for the third consecutive year. That’s three years of unrivalled opulence, where a pair of designer heels could set you back more than your rent, and a wellness retreat might cost as much as a small car.
But hold onto your tailored suits — there’s a twist in this year’s rankings. London, with all its rainy charm and understated elegance, has leapfrogged past Hong Kong to claim the second spot. Yes, the British capital has become dearer than ever for those looking to live lavishly. And let’s just say it’s not the cups of tea or black cabs that are pushing prices skyward.
The rankings come courtesy of Swiss private bank Julius Baer, whose annual Global Wealth and Lifestyle Index doesn’t just look at your typical cost-of-living metrics. Instead, it crunches the numbers on the lifestyle choices of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) — think private schooling, Botox, fine wine, luxury handbags, and yachts. In other words, it’s a peek into the spending habits of the 1% of the 1%.

A Republican US senator expressed concern for the 50-day period and said that “Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday warned that Brazil, China and India could be hit very hard by secondary sanctions if they continued to do business with Russia, something which US President Donald Trump had been repeating for a while. Rutte said this in a meeting with senators in the US Congress.
The remark came a day after President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened “biting” secondary tariffs of 100% on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days.
“My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard,” Rutte told reporters, after meeting Trump on Monday, reported Reuters.

“So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way,” Rutte warned.
Republican US Senator Thom Tillis expressed concern for the 50-day period and said that “Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground as a basis for negotiation”.

“So we should look at the current state of Ukraine today and say, no matter what you do over the next 50 days, any of your gains are off the table,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Rutte said Europe would find the money to ensure Ukraine was in the best possible position during the peace talks, adding that under the new agreement with Trump, the US would now “massively” supply Ukraine with weapons “not just air defense, also missiles, also ammunition paid for by the Europeans.”

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/india/nato-chief-mark-rutte-sanction-warning-vladimir-putin-to-india-brazil-china-donald-trump-make-a-call-article-152286855

Jennifer Lopez vowed to be done with marriage after going through four divorces.

While performing onstage for her “Up All Night” tour in Europe, the hitmaker appeared to be responding to a fan sign that read, “J Lo, marry me?”

“I think I’m done with that,” she quipped, per a fan video. “I’ve tried that a few times.”

While Lopez, 55, didn’t share specifics, she was famously first married to actor Ojani Noa, 51, from 1997 to 1998.

The “On the Floor” songstress then went on to tie the knot to Cris Judd, 55, in 2001 before they split in 2003.

Her longest marriage was her 10-year union to fellow singer Marc Anthony, 56, from 2004 to 2014, with whom she shares 17-year-old twins.

Similarly to Lopez, the “Vivir Mi Vida” crooner has been married four times, with his current wife being 26-year-old Nadia Ferreira.

Anthony, however, admitted to Page Six earlier this year that he was the wrong person to ask about the key to a successful marriage.

Lopez, meanwhile, went on to wed her fourth husband, Ben Affleck, in 2022, after breaking off her first engagement with the “Argo” star in 2004.

The “Selena” star pulled the plug on her marriage with Affleck, 52, in August 2024 after they had been quietly separated since that spring.

They finalized their divorce in January, though they’ve struggled to sell their $68 million marital home in Los Angeles, which they’ve since taken off the market.

Last week, Lopez kicked off the European leg of her tour and declared she was “better than … ever” following her bombshell split from the actor.

The Grammy nominee had been performing her new track “Wreckage of You,” which she shared, “came to [her] when [she] was up all night one night.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/16/celebrity-news/jennifer-lopez-makes-surprising-marriage-confession-after-going-through-four-divorces/?_gl=1*1q29f97*_ga*MTgwMjY4OTEzMy4xNzQ0ODU3NDg5*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*czE3NTI3MTcwMDckbzI0NSRnMSR0MTc1MjcxNzA0MCRqMjckbDAkaDA

Twenty-one little kids have been rescued from a California couple who allegedly farmed out their fertilized embryos to multiple surrogate mothers, and then hoarded the children inside a massive mansion — where they suffered repeated abuse, cops say.

Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, were recently found with 15 children in their Arcadia mansion. Another six of their kids had previously been moved out to other homes, WWNY 7News reported.

Xuan and Zhang own a surrogacy business, but cops say they were allegedly abusing the surrogacy program.

Seventeen of the kids are toddlers or infants, under three years old. The oldest is 13.

All 21 children have been taken in by the Department of Children and Family Services.

Zhang and Xuan have been charged with felony child endangerment and neglect. It was not immediately clear if further charges would be mounted against them for their deceptive arrangements with the surrogates.

Police found the youngsters while investigating complaints of a two-month-old who was brought to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Cops believe the baby was injured by the family’s nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, who is accused of committing alarming abuse.

Cops reviewed surveillance footage from inside the home, allegedly showing Li shaking and hitting the infant. The video also showed other nannies allegedly abusing all of the children, cops said.

“The discipline, both verbal and physical, was severe to the point where it supported the beliefs that child abuse was occurring inside the home,” said Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo.

Officials believe all of the children are the biological offspring of husband and wife Xuan and Zhang, and were primarily birthed through multiple women hired through their own surrogacy business.

But the surrogates — hired from around the country — weren’t aware they were carrying the couple’s embryos and that there were multiple other surrogates, according to police.

“Many of the children were birthed through surrogacy and then the male and female at the residence took legal guardianship of those kids,” Cieadlo said.

One of those surrogate mothers said she had no idea Zhang and Xuan were keeping the kids for themselves.

“It’s horrific, it’s disturbing, it’s damaging emotionally,” Pennsylvania surrogate mother Kayla Elliot told KABC.

Elliot has launched a fundraiser page to cover legal costs as she fights to get the baby girl she carried for the couple placed in a permanent home after she discovered the child ended up in foster care.

“These agencies, we’re supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency – that was not disclosed at all beforehand,” she added.

Two neighbors said Zhang and Xuan’s $4 million, 10,000-square-foot home had a similar layout to a hotel, the outlet reported.“It’s kind of set up like a hotel with a big, giant lobby, and all the rooms are like suites,” neighbor Hobart Young said.

“And like a round, what I can only describe as a hotel desk, and a gentleman sitting behind it like a clerk,” said Art Romero, another neighbor of Zhang and Xuan.

Police are still searching for the nannies involved.

Having so many kids through a surrogacy is not illegal, the executive director of the Center of Bioethics and Culture nonprofit told KABC, but could be easily seen as suspicious.

“That to me smells of trafficking, child trafficking,” director Kallie Fell told the outlet.

“What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?”

Zhang denied allegations she and her husband ran a baby smuggling operation, calling the claims “misguided and wrong.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/cops-seize-21-kids-including-17-toddlers-from-california-couple-who-had-them-all-via-surrogacy/

Most voters don’t like the way President Trump has dealt with an investigative review of the federal case against notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new poll out Wednesday.

A Quinnipiac University national survey found 63% of American voters disliked the Trump administration’s approach to the probe of Epstein, a onetime acquaintance of the president in the 1990s and early 2000s — who also associated with Hollywood celebrities, business titans and British royalty.

Just 17% approved of the administration’s actions in the Epstein matter, while said 20% they were undecided.

The “systematic review” concluded last week that the 66-year-old committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, after being charged with trafficking dozens of young girls for sex — and never had a “client list” of powerful associates allegedly implicated in his sickening crimes.

The two-page memo was unsigned but bore FBI and Department of Justice letterhead — despite bureau Deputy Director Dan Bongino clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi and even threatening to quit over the meager findings and public relations fallout.

“There was … no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the memo noted. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

Epstein harmed more than “one thousand victims,” according to the DOJ-FBI memo, many of whom were allegedly trafficked to his home in the US Virgin Islands.

The financier’s association with influential figures like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew has been the subject of frenzied online speculation since he was found dead in New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center almost six years ago.

The odd circumstances of Epstein’s demise included guards falling asleep and cameras outside of his cell not functioning.

Both former attorneys and medical examiners have also theorized that Epstein may not have committed suicide.

A majority of US voters (53%) disapprove of Bondi’s job performance, while 32% approve, the Quinnipiac survey found.

FBI Director Kash Patel is seen favorably by 36% of voters, but 47% disapprove of his job performance.

A slightly lower 41% disapprove of Bongino, and 34% approve of the job he’s doing.

The DOJ previously released records of flight logs and a contact list the financier kept before his second federal arrest in 2019, most of which had already been made public during the 2021 trial of his now-convicted madam Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein evaded more serious charges in the mid-2000s as part of a controversial plea deal for soliciting sex from a minor that was brokered by then-Miami US Attorney Alex Acosta, later Trump’s labor secretary in his first term. Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison as Epstein’s accomplice.

Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 following an incident with a club member’s teenage daughter — before he was first charged with sex crimes — but has rebuffed attacks from right-wing critics that his administration mishandled its probe of the deceased sex trafficker.

“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” the president told reporters outside Air Force One on Tuesday. “It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going.”

“Anything that’s credible, I would say, let them have it,” he added, suggesting Bondi — who before the memo’s release suggested the “client list” was on her desk at main DOJ — could disclose more information.

“In February, I did an interview on Fox, and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I said — I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, ‘it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the [Epstein] file along with the JFK and MLK files as well,” Bondi said during a Cabinet meeting July 8.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other Republicans have urged more transparency on the issue, which could lead to congressional subpoenas for federal records — something Democrats have already pushed in some committee votes.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, 40% of GOP voters approve of how Trump handled the disclosure of information about Epstein in federal files, 36% disapprove and 24% have no opinion.

A whopping 83% of Democrats disapprove of the president’s handling of the Epstein files, while 2% approve.

“Unlike Republicans, they [Democrats] stick together like glue. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls—,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/poll-reveals-how-americans-really-feel-about-trumps-handling-of-the-epstein-files/

Comedian Shane Gillis spared no one in his ESPY Awards opening monologue on Wednesday night, roasting everyone from Caitlin Clark to Aaron Rodgers to President Donald Trump to Mets star Juan Soto — and everyone in between.

The star of the Netflix show “Tires” drew some laughs — and boos — in his introduction that ended with an homage to the late comedian Norm Macdonald, who hosted the awards show in 1998.

In the same vein as Macdonald, Gillis kicked off his own hosting duties with a biting monologue.

Gillis’ jokes spanned across a wide variety of topics and at times made the usually buttoned-up crowd uncomfortable — even drawing jeers from the balcony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

His joke about University of North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick and girlfriend Jordon Hudson seemed to land the best with the crowd.

After making a bookie joke about Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, he pivoted to Belichick.

“A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bedtime,” Gillis said on stage. “They read, ‘Very horny caterpillar.’ ‘The Little Engine That Could But Needed A Pill First’ and of course, the classic, ‘Good Night Boobs.’”

However, other jokes seemed to divide the audience.

“Joe Rogan actually wanted me to be here to host this award show so that I could capture Adam Silver because Joe thinks he’s an alien,” Gillis joked at one point. “And Donald Trump wanted me to be here to capture Juan Soto for the same reason.”

One person from the upper level of the venue audibly booed the joke.

Jokes about WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark also were met with some hesitation, saying that he and the Fever sensation are similar because they’re “both whites from the Midwest who have nailed a bunch of 3s.”

“When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most, fist fighting black women,” he continued.

And he poked fun at Aaron Rodgers’ tenure with the Jets and the future Pro Football Hall of Famer’s reluctance to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Aaron Rodgers did not take the vaccine because he predicted that it would be bad for him and then he joined the New York Jets. So maybe he wasn’t right about everything,” he said.

Gillis ended his monologue by referencing an old Macdonald joke that he used when he hosted the ESPYs — taking aim at O.J. Simpson.

Gillis reworked the joke to fit into 2025.

“Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this year,” he started off. ”He’s the first defensive player since Charles Woodson to win the Heisman. Congratulations, Travis Hunter, winning the Heisman, that’s something they can never take away from you. Unless you kill your wife and a waiter, in which case, they can take that away from you.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/sports/shane-gillis-savage-espys-monologue-took-aim-at-everyone/

A rare oil portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, painted by British artist Clare Leighton in 1931 during the Indian leader’s London visit for the second Round Table Conference, sold for GBP 152,800 (Rs 1.75 crore). The oil portrait, believed to be the only one which Gandhi personally sat for, was auctioned at more than double its estimated price.

A rare portrait of Mahatma Gandhi – for which he agreed to pose while seated – has sold for GBP 152,800 (approximately Rs 1.75 crore) at an auction in London, more than double its initial estimate of GBP 50,000 to GBP 70,000 (approximately Rs 57 lakh to Rs 80 lakh). The portrait was painted in 1931 by British artist Clare Leighton.

According to the auction house, Bonhams, the painting is “thought to be the only oil portrait that Gandhi actually sat for”.

“The painting, thought to be the only oil portrait that Gandhi actually sat for, had never before been offered at auction. It had an estimate of GBP 50,000 – 70,000 and was the top lot of the Travel and Exploration sale, which ran from July 7-15 online,” the auction house said in a statement.

The rare oil painting was in Leighton’s personal collection until her death in 1989, after which it was inherited by her family.

The portrait was created during Gandhi’s 1931 visit to London for the second Round Table Conference, a series of conferences organised by the British government to discuss constitutional reforms in India.

Political journalist Henry Noel Brailsford introduced Leighton to Mahatma Gandhi when he visited London in 1931 to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Brailsford supported India’s Independence movement.

A BRITISH JOURNALIST’s ADULATION FOR GANDHI

President Trump was on a sugar high Wednesday, announcing that Coca-Cola would soon include the real sweet stuff in its US-sold beverages.

“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump, 79, revealed on Truth Social.

“I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!”

Coca-Cola uses high fructose corn syrup in its US production, in contrast to cane sugar in countries like Mexico and the United Kingdom

The soda maker switched to high fructose corn syrup in the 1980s over concerns about cost and agricultural requirements, but many Coke fans still prefer the taste with real sugar.

Trump is a well-known avid drinker of Diet Coke — which contains no sugar at all.

“I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke,” the future president famously tweeted in 2012.Trump’s discussions with food manufacturers have been in line with the Make America Healthy Again drive led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy announced Monday that artificial dyes would be phased out of ice cream produced in the US due to their potential role in what the administration has called the “chronic disease epidemic.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/trump-says-coca-cola-agrees-to-use-real-cane-sugar-in-us-drinks-its-just-better/

A female TV anchor in the Syrian capital city of Damascus was seen running for cover mid-broadcast following a huge explosion in the background of the studio as Israeli forces bombed the country’s Defence Ministry and General Staff headquarters on Wednesday.

The video clip shared by Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz on X, showed the anchor reading news about the latest strikes by the Jewish nation on Syria.

Moments later, a massive explosion is heard with huge plumes of smoke and a giant fireball seen in a building in the background of the building where the studio is situated.

“The painful blows have begun,” the Israeli defence minister wrote in Hebrew as he shared the clip. The anchor escaped unhurt in the incident though.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus.

The IDF confirmed that one of the main targets was the entrance to the Syrian regime’s military headquarters. Israel also launched airstrikes near the presidential palace.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/video-anchor-runs-for-cover-live-on-air-as-israel-launches-airstrikes-on-syria-2756840-2025-07-16

A MAJOR tax change could save car buyers up to $10,000 a year – but only if they meet six specific conditions.

The benefit comes from a sweeping tax cut and spending law signed last week by President Donald Trump.

Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” includes a new deduction for interest on loans used to buy eligible vehicles in the US.

The savings apply only to new cars, and only if they’re made in America.

Buyers can write off up to $10,000 per year in interest costs, a big deal, especially with current auto loan rates hovering above 6%.

To qualify, the vehicle must be purchased between 2025 and 2028.

It also must weigh under 14,000 pounds and be used only for personal, not business, purposes.

Only brand-new vehicles are eligible; used cars don’t count under the final law.

There’s also an income cap.

Single filers making $100,000 or less and joint filers making up to $200,000 can claim the full deduction, Spectrum News reported.

Above those income levels, the benefit drops by $200 for every extra $1,000 earned.

That means higher earners will see less – or none – of the deduction.

There is no official list yet of which vehicles qualify, but the rule requires final assembly in the US.

That means foreign cars won’t count, and even some domestic brands assembled overseas could miss the mark.

Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, who helped push the law through the Senate, said the goal is to boost US manufacturing.

“We want people driving new cars,” Moreno said.

“This means your fleet is younger. It’s safer. It’s better for the environment.”

Representative Dave Taylor, Republican, from Ohio, who introduced the original House version, said the Senate narrowed the bill.

“It started out with including new and used cars,” he said.

“That’s important for my district because it’s one of the poorest districts in Ohio.”

Taylor said the change limits the help for people who tend to buy used vehicles, about 75% of all buyers.

“Hopefully, that’s a change we can make down the road,” he added.

“But for now, it’s a great step forward.”

WHAT ABOUT POOR PEOPLE?

The law may not help lower-income buyers as much as expected, since 80% of cars under $30,000 are imported and won’t qualify.

Still, for those eligible, the deduction could cut deep into interest payments.

Data from Kelley Blue Book put the average new car price at $47,962 in March 2025.

Experian said the average new car loan rate was 6.73%, which adds up to over $8,600 in interest across five years.

That’s about $144 a month – money buyers could now write off, if they check all six boxes.

Moreno said the change would also help phase out the Biden-era $7,500 tax break on electric vehicles.

“We’re giving relief to working families, working Americans,” he said.

“That equals, by the way, almost an exact $7,500.”

But not everyone agrees it will offset price hikes triggered by rising tariffs.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/motors/14720880/new-tax-law-ev-car-loan-deductions/

Syrian government forces entered the majority Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday (July 15, 2025), the Interior Ministry said, aiming to end clashes with Bedouin tribes that have killed nearly 100 people.

The southern city had been under the control of armed factions from the Druze minority, whose religious leaders said they had approved the deployment of Damascus’s troops and called on fighters to hand over their weapons.

A curfew was to be imposed on the southern city in a bid to halt the violence, which erupted at the weekend and has since spread across Sweida governorate.

Government forces said they intervened to separate the two sides but ended up taking control of several Druze areas around Sweida, an AFP correspondent reported.

Military columns were seen advancing toward Sweida on Tuesday morning, with heavy artillery deployed nearby.

The Defence Ministry said later that they had entered the city, and urged people to “stay home and report any movements of outlaw groups”.

An AFP correspondent heard explosions and gunshots as soldiers moved into Sweida.

Troops had begun heading towards the city on Monday, taking control of at least one Druze village, with one Druze faction saying talks were underway with the Damascus government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 99 people killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday — 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel and seven unidentified people in military uniforms.

The Defence Ministry reported 18 deaths among the ranks of the armed forces.

While Druze religious authorities had called on Monday evening for a ceasefire and said they didn’t oppose the central government, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, opposed the arrival of the security forces and called for “international protection”.

Israel, which has attempted to portray itself as a protector of the Druze in Syria and sees them as potential allies, bombed several Syrian tanks on Monday.

The strikes were “a clear warning to the Syrian regime — we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze in Syria”, said Defence Minister Israel Katz, whose country has its own Druze population.

‘Extreme terror’

The fighting underscores the challenges facing interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil war.

Syria’s pre-war Druze population was estimated at around 700,000, many of them concentrated in Sweida province.

The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Following deadly clashes with government forces in April and May, local and religious leaders reached an agreement with Damascus under which Druze fighters had been providing security in the province.

“We lived in a state of extreme terror — the shells were falling randomly,” said Abu Taym, a 51-year-old father.

Amal, a 46-year-old woman, said: “We fear a repeat of the coastal scenario”, referring to massacres in March of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in northwest Syria, where groups affiliated with the government were blamed for most of the killings.

“We are not against the state, but we are against surrendering our weapons without a state that treats everyone the same,” she added.

In a post on X, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra urged his troops to “protect your fellow citizens” from “outlaw gangs”, and to “restore stability to Sweida”.

The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory kidnappings.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/syrian-forces-enter-druze-city-after-deadly-clashes/article69814002.ece

The Indian government on Tuesday reminded the Bangladesh interim government that renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s ancestral is a symbol of Bangla Rennaissance.

The Indian government on Tuesday reminded the Bangladesh interim government led by Muhammad Yunus that renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s home, whose demolition Yunus’ team ordered, is a symbol of Bangla Renaissance and offered help to repair, restore and reconstruct the landmark.

The historic landmark and the century-old property in Dhaka’s Horikishore Ray Chowdhury Road belonged to Ray’s grandfather, the renowned litterateur Upendra Kishore Ray Chowdhury, whose poems and short stories are taught to children in schools in India’s West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and also in Bangladesh, making it an intrinsic part of Bengali culture.

“We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Given the building’s landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh. The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose,” the ministry further added.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also criticised the decision taken by the interim Bangladesh goverment.

The demolition order by the Bangladesh government has also appeared to anger civil society in Bangladesh where the current interim government has appeared to be lax on Islamists and hardliners who want to erase Bangladesh’s secular credentials and erase its Bengali identity, steering towards a more radical Islamic path.

However, some Bangladeshi activists and citizens are also taking efforts to halt the demolition. “This is the historic house of the Ray family. Although it is not yet listed as an archaeological site, it is a century-old home linked to Satyajit Ray’s family. As part of our survey, such structures can be considered for listing as archaeological sites. That’s why I have appealed to the Shishu Academy for information regarding the demolition. Being a centennial structure, we want this house to be protected,” Sabina Yasmin, field officer of the Department of Archaeology’s Shashilaj Museum, was quoted as saying by Prothom Alo.

“The house was in a pity state for years, cracks developed on its roof… but the authorities concerned never cared for the rich history behind old buildings,” Shamim Ashraf, a poet, told the Dhaka Tribune.

The dilapidated building has remained unused since 2007. After the 1947 Partition, the property passed into government ownership and was converted into the Mymensingh Shishu Academy in 1989.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/india-offers-to-restore-satyajit-rays-ancestral-home-after-demolition-order-in-bangladesh-ws-kl-9442879.html

Activists are calling for a stay-at-home strike as they prepare for the next protest over rising fuel and transport prices. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas when protesters gathered in Luanda on July 12.

Anti-government protests in the Angolan capital Luanda on July 12 were met with a harsh crackdown, resulting in injuries and arrests.

“We recorded several injuries, some serious and requiring medical attention,” Adilson Manuel, an activist and one of the organizers, told DW.

“In addition to the injured, there were also arrests. One protester remains in police custody without a clear reason. He is currently held at the Nova Vida police station and will be handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for questioning.”

The protests began peacefully in Sao Paulo Square, a neighborhood in Luanda. Hundreds of citizens — activists, civil society members, taxi drivers, vendors, students and opposition party members — joined a march organized by a social movement against a government decree that raised fuel prices.

Chants filled the air, including the national anthem and improvised songs such as “First Angolan, second Angolan, always Angolan.” Protesters criticized the ruling MPLA party, carrying signs with slogans like “MPLA drank all the oil,” “We’re tired of eating from the trash,” and “The country is good, but the MPLA is no good.”

The MPLA, or People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola party, has governed Angola continuously since its independence 50 years ago.

Rising prices push Angolans to the limit

Taxi fares increased to 300 kwanzas per trip ($0.33, €0.28), and urban bus fares rose to 200 kwanzas on July 7. This followed a fuel price increase from 300 to 400 kwanzas per liter three days earlier in the country that is one of Africa’s largest oil producers.

In recent years, Angola has cut fuel subsidies, also under pressure from the International Monetary Fund , over the burden it was putting on the state budgets. Though Angola has some of the cheapest gasoline prices in the world even after the removal of the subsidies, street vendors and taxi drivers have borne the brunt of the price hikes, sparking frequent protests.

However, rising fuel prices are not the only critical issue for many Angolans. Just weeks ago, students mobilized to protest government policies.

Schools lack basic necessities such as chairs, desks and toilets. A new youth movement called the “Movimento dos Estudantes Angolanos” (MEA) organized protests and strikes, accusing President Joao Lourenco’s government of ignoring youth concerns. Instead of addressing their needs, the government recently raised university tuition fees.

The young protesters warned: “Either the government changes the situation, or it will be overthrown.”

Broader discontent with ruling party

Also, during the latest protests over fuel prices, many voiced frustrations against Lourenco and the ruling MPLA party. Protesters marching to Largo da Maianga, near the National Assembly, were blocked by police at Primeiro de Maio and Largo da Independencia squares.

“Please help us. We are hungry, the whole country is hungry, but our president is not paying attention to this situation,” Agostinho Kipanda, one of the protesters, told a DW reporter.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/angola-mass-protests-over-rising-prices/a-73271742

If Jensen Huang was hoping to reassure Washington that his company’s advanced artificial intelligence chips won’t be used to supercharge China’s military, his comments likely fell on deaf ears.

“We don’t have to worry about that,” the Nvidia CEO said of America’s greatest fear about his firm’s access to the China market in an interview with CNN. He argued Beijing knows it can’t rely on the US technology, which “could be limited at any time”.

It’s optimistic thinking on his part, given the national security concerns that have fuelled years of semiconductor restrictions.

This risk of China’s dependency on foreign tech was highlighted recently when the US imposed and then lifted export controls on chip design software within the span of a month. The abrupt policy U-turn suggests the restrictions were rolled out to be used as a bargaining chip in trade talks.

But it undoubtedly served as more evidence in Beijing’s mind that it is vulnerable to Washington’s ability to deploy such moves on a moment’s notice. This only spurs its desire to bolster self-reliance.

NVIDIA’S REIGN ON CHINA

Huang’s remarks, notably, came on the eve of a planned trip to China this week, where he is slated to meet senior officials and likely emphasise Nvidia’s commitment to the world’s largest market for semiconductors.

The Santa Clara-based firm plans to launch a new AI chip that has been further modified to meet the ever-tightening controls, the Financial Times reported last week, just months after its previous made-for-China H20 chips were banned.

Nvidia needs to move quickly if it hopes to maintain its reign on the mainland. Domestic giants from Alibaba to Tencent have reportedly been testing alternatives made by Huawei, but most still prefer Nvidia’s offerings. This is because of the difficulty of adopting Huawei’s unique software system after years of creating AI tools on Nvidia’s architecture.

But Huawei is planning a fundamental redesign of its next AI chip that would make it much easier for Chinese tech companies to switch, the Information reported last week. The rework is still in its early stages, but addresses a key hurdle that has prevented many firms from using local chips: It would allow code developers write for Nvidia’s systems to run on Huawei’s hardware.

It’s still a longshot, but if Huawei can pull this off, it would accelerate the local adoption of its tech stack. It also means Huang’s pitch to China would start to lose its allure.

Huawei has signalled global ambitions to unseat Nvidia’s dominance. While the Chinese player can still produce a limited amount of chips compared to the US rival, it is trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East and Southeast Asia to expand its reach.

US HAS FAILED TO STOP CHINA’S AI ASCENDANCY

Huang has complained about the multi-billion-dollar hit to his firm from the export controls, but Nvidia is doing just fine. It even hit a milestone last week, briefly becoming the first company in history to achieve a US$4 trillion market valuation.

In the near term, the chipmaker is the clearest winner in a global AI race marked by who can amass the most amount of computing resources the quickest. By this measure, US restrictions have been successful in slowing China’s AI ascendancy, but they have failed to stop it.

Huang’s top concern seems to be whether his firm can stay in China and maintain its market concentration while further stalling the adoption of Huawei’s products – at home and abroad.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether Huang is correct on the possibility of dual-use military applications for his chips. Tough-on-China tech policies have become a bipartisan rallying cry in Washington, and a spate of cyberattacks linked to Beijing isn’t earning it any goodwill. But there was another point in the wide-ranging CNN interview worth paying attention to.

When asked if it matters whether companies adopt American or Chinese models, Huang said: “In the end, I don’t think it does.” He praised DeepSeek’s open-source R1 model, and added it can be finetuned to address concerns about it being trained in China.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/nvidia-jensen-huang-chips-us-export-control-china-deepseek-5239186

Las Vegas Sands on Tuesday (Jul 15) held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of its US$8 billion (S$10.3 billion) expansion project for Marina Bay Sands.

The ceremony was officiated by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Also in attendance was Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations Grace Fu and key executives from Las Vegas Sands – co-founder Miriam Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer Robert Goldstein, as well as president and chief operating officer Patrick Dumont.

The project – dubbed IR2 for now – has been billed as an “ultra-luxurious resort and entertainment destination” that aims to “redefine industry standards further and push boundaries in the realms of luxury tourism, hospitality and entertainment”, the firm said in a press release.

Designed by Safdie Architects, the US-based firm behind the design of MBS, the new development will be an all-suite hotel tower with 570 suites.

The average suite size in the new 55-storey tower will be bigger than what’s currently available in MBS, said Mr Dumont in an earlier interview with CNA.

There will also be more luxury retail boutiques, high-end restaurants and wellness offerings, a new gaming area, about 200,000 sq ft of premium meeting space, as well as a 15,000-seater entertainment arena designed to host regional and international touring acts and large-scale live events.

Just as how the Marina Bay Sands is synonymous with its iconic skypark, the new tower will have its own multi-storey rooftop experience called “Skyloop”.

Spanning 76,000 sq ft and offering a 360-degree view of the Singapore skyline, this will be a mix of both public and private spaces.

On the lower floor, the “Skyloop” will offer several points of public access, including an observatory, restaurants and lush gardens.

Above, guests can look forward to “secluded experiences” ranging from private cabanas, infinity pools, as well as a wellness terrace designed for yoga, arts and specialty events, it said in its press release.

Plans for the new project at MBS were first announced in 2019 before being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Development costs have more than doubled from the initial US$3.3 billion estimated in 2019 due to factors such as inflation, the pandemic and higher labour and material costs.

The project is now expected to be completed by June 2030 with the estimated official opening set for January 2031, subject to approval from the Singapore government.

In its press release, Las Vegas Sands said sustainability will be “at the heart” of the project’s architecture and practices.

For example, it will use materials with reduced environment impact, such as low-carbon concrete and recycled steel, to lower the project’s upfront environmental footprint. A construction waste management plan has also been set in place.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister, said the Marina Bay area has now become “a symbol of the Singapore story” – representing a thriving financial and business hub, as well as a destination for meetings, conventions, tourism and entertainment.

He added that Tuesday’s groundbreaking event marked a “new chapter” for Marina Bay, and when the expansion is completed, it will introduce new attractions and refresh the Singapore skyline.

Additional convention and exhibition space will also help strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading destination for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions globally.

Mr Wong noted that beyond Marina Bay, the entire Southern waterfront – stretching from Bay East to Pasir Panjang – was undergoing a “broader and more ambitious transformation” with the potential introduction of more commercial, recreational, entertainment and housing options.

“When we decided to have the integrated resorts back in 2005, it was a bold move for Singapore – to reimagine our tourism landscape and to refresh our offerings,” said the prime minister.

“It was also a bold commitment from Las Vegas Sands – a major investment underpinned by confidence in Singapore and in Singapore’s future. We both had to take risks … but we together made it happen. I’m glad this partnership has flourished, and even happier that we are now taking it to the next level.”

Mr Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands, said the new hotel tower is “not an extension of MBS”. Instead, it will be a “brand new building with a brand new identity”.

“We’re very proud of MBS, but the goal here is to create something distinct, unique, mysterious and world-class. We’re here to take Singapore to yet another level of luxury tourism in Asia and be the leader for years to come,” he said.

Mr Goldstein added: “We were able to do this because this government allows people to dream and excel. It’s quite an amazing place, Singapore, and we’re very proud to be part of your success.”

To commemorate the ceremony, MBS was lit up in a wash of golden hues on Tuesday night.

More than 220 guests attended, with performances by local singer-songwriter Jasmine Sokko and Canadian pop star Henry Lau.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/las-vegas-sands-breaks-ground-us8b-expansion-project-marina-bay-sands-lawrence-wong-5238851

Six infants, with five allegedly intended to be sold to buyers in Singapore, have been rescued by local authorities in Indonesia after they busted a baby-trafficking ring that has reportedly carried out 24 such deals since 2023.

And of the 24 infants that have already been sold, 15 were taken to Singapore, Director of General Crime Investigation of West Java Police Department Surawan told CNA when contacted.

He added that of the six babies rescued, five were ready to be sent to buyers in Singapore, while one was to be sent to Pontianak.

He had earlier told local media that the six rescued babies were aged between two and three months old.

“According to the suspects’ statements, the babies were to be adopted in Singapore but we are still investigating this further,” Surawan was quoted as saying by news outlet CNN Indonesia.

Twelve people have been named suspects in the alleged human trafficking case and were arrested, Hendra Rochmawan, head of public relations for West Java Police, told local media on Monday. It is unclear when they were arrested.

He said the 12 suspects held different roles in the syndicate, including acting as initial recruiters to being caregivers to the babies as well as couriers who deliver the infants to the clients’ intended locations that include Singapore, local media Kompas reported.

CNA has reached out to Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Singapore Police Force for comments.

INVESTIGATIONS ONGOING

Authorities in Indonesia say the 12 suspects are undergoing interrogation for further investigations.

“We did not only detain the suspects, we also seized some evidence such as (fake) identity cards, passports and other documents identifying the victims,” Hendra was quoted as saying by local media.

Meanwhile, Surawan also confirmed that the babies were intended to be transported to Singapore.

“Through the suspects, we managed to rescue five babies in Pontianak that were supposed to be sent to Singapore and already had the necessary documents. We also rescued another baby in Tangerang a few days ago,” Surawan said.

He added: “We are still investigating the babies that are already in Singapore and will coordinate with the Interpol to pursue this case further.”

According to Surawan, the six infants rescued were sent to Bhayangkara Sartika Asih Hospital in Bandung for medical treatment.

“The plan is for all victims to be placed in the shelter of the West Java Social Service,” said Surawan, as quoted by Kompas.

He said that the baby trafficking syndicate came to light after a parent made a report that his child had been kidnapped by an unknown person.

“Most of the cases originate from West Java. The case started from a report made by a parent whose child was kidnapped and we developed the case based on the suspects in West Java,” Surawan was quoted as saying by CNN Indonesia.

Based on interrogations of the suspects, the police found that each baby successfully transported to Singapore was sold for the price of about tens of millions of rupiah per baby.

“The babies were bought from the biological mothers for about 11 million to 16 million rupiah,” said Surawan in another interview on Tuesday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

Surawan added that the suspects had obtained some of the babies from parents who voluntarily gave them up while others were allegedly kidnapped.

This is not the first time a baby smuggling ring to Singapore from Indonesia was reported.

In 2016, Indonesian authorities arrested three suspects in Batam for allegedly planning to sell a three-month-old baby boy to Singapore for about US$8,000.

ADOPTING FOREIGN-BORN CHILDREN IN SINGAPORE

According to the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), couples seeking to adopt must be both permanent residents (PRs), or have at least one of them as a Singapore citizen.

Those who would like to adopt a child as a sole applicant must either be a citizen or a PR.

When it comes to adopting a foreign child in Singapore, an applicant will need a dependant’s pass to bring the child into Singapore, according to the website of Singapore Family Lawyers – a law firm based in Singapore.

The dependant’s pass allows the child to remain in Singapore until the completion of the adoption process. To get the pass, the applicant must submit the child’s identity documents and notarised consent from the child’s birth parents or legal guardian.

The notarised consent means that the birth parents or legal guardian, upon the issuance of the adoption order, has given up all their duties, rights and obligations to the child.

In some cases, the adoptive parents may also be required to go to the child’s home country and comply with that country’s requirements before the Singapore’s Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will issue the dependant’s pass. Once the pass is granted, the applicant can proceed to file for adoption through the Family Court.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-singapore-baby-trafficking-west-java-adoption-5238996

Wedding bells might be in Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s future.

“She 100 percent would say yes if he asked her to marry him and his friends think that will happen sooner than later,” an insider told Us Weekly Tuesday.

“She would love to have kids one day and sees what a good father he is.”

The source gushed over Trump Jr. 47, and Anderson’s relationship, adding, “[they] are really cute and loving around each other.”

“He is very much a gentleman and pulls her chair out, lets her order first and treats her so well,” the insider continued.

The couple is also reportedly “so affectionate” with each other while out with their friends, but not “over the top” with their PDA.

“They hold hands and always sneak in little kisses,” the insider claimed. “He tells her how smart and gorgeous she is all the time.”

The source described Anderson, 38, and Trump Jr.’s vibe as “very in love” and comfortable with each other, saying how the latter can “get glammed up and look amazing, go fishing and golfing with [her beau], or get sweaty and be laid back.”

“She is more shy but funny and Don appreciates how she lets him talk to people and be around his guy friends,” the insider added, explaining that the socialite can “hold her own conversations and enjoy herself.”

Anderson’s also reportedly enjoys spending time with the businessman’s children: Kai, 18, Donald III, 16, Tristan, 13, Spencer, 12, and Chloe, 11.

Trump Jr. shares his five kids with his ex-wife, Vanessa Trump, to whom he was married from 2005 to 2018.

Reps for the couple weren’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.

In December 2024, Page Six confirmed that Trump Jr. and Anderson quietly started dating that summer, and the following month, we learned they “essentially” moved in together.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/15/celebrity-news/donald-trump-jr-and-bettina-andersons-marriage-plans-reportedly-revealed-sooner-than-later/

A PARANORMAL investigator has died while traveling across the US with the real purportedly haunted doll that inspired the horror movie series Annabelle.

Dan Rivera, 54, died of unknown causes on Sunday while handling the doll known as America’s most haunted object.

He had stopped in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during his Devils on the Run tour on Sunday evening, according to the Hanover Evening Sun.

Emergency services got a request for help for a man matching Rivera’s description being given CPR.

His death was confirmed by the New England Society for Psychic Research, which was hosting the tour.

Rivera’s official cause of death hasn’t been released.

The investigator has been remembered as a beloved friend who was passionate about educating others on paranormal activity.

All three of his shows scheduled for the Gettysburg stop were sold out.

“We are heartbroken and still processing this loss,” wrote the society.

“Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal.

“His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him.”

Rivera, who is a US Army veteran, was working as the lead investigator for the society when he died.

His death came just months after he achieved viral fame on TikTok by posting about his paranormal tour and findings on the historic doll.

The real Annabelle, a Raggedy Ann doll, has been blamed for several eerie paranormal attacks over the decades.

The toy was first given to a student nurse Donna in 1970 as a gift from her mother.

Donna claims that Annabelle would move from room to room without explanation, and wrote eerie notes that said “Help us.”

A friend of Donna’s mother named Lou even claimed that one time when staying at their home, he woke up to a feeling of being strangled and had scratches on his body.

He remembers watching his horror as Annabelle stared at him during the attack, according to the society.

HAUNTING HISTORY

Donna’s mom and her nurse called a medium, who told them the story of a girl named Annabelle Higgins who was found dead at the age of seven.

They then called paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who inspired The Conjuring films, to look into the eerie claims.

In a lecture given at Rutgers University in 1987, the Warrens claimed that Annabelle would “slash” people’s skin with her psychic powers.

They said that a priest threw the doll across the room once and said, “No doll or demon is stronger than God” before running his car into a tree.

The doll was being held at the Warrens’ Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, until 2019, when Lorraine died and the museum closed.

Legend has it that a man was killed by the doll after he banged on its case, despite being warned not to touch it.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14719546/annabelle-doll-dan-rivera-dies-paranormal-investigator/

The lone tree at Northumberland’s Sycamore Gap was one of the most photographed in the country before it was deliberately cut down in September 2023.

It had been an iconic symbol of the area, standing tall for about 300 years in a natural dip in the landscape alongside Hadrian’s Wall.

The tree was not just a beloved landmark, but held a special place in the hearts of many and decorated memorial pebbles were often left at the site.

Two men have now been jailed for illegally cutting down the tree and damaging Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site and protected monument. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were both sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

The judge, who described the tree as “symbol of the untamed beauty” of the landscape around Hadrian’s Wall, said she couldn’t be sure what the motive was but believed “bravado” and “thrill seeking” were a major factor.

News of the tree’s felling sent shockwaves around the world, especially among nature lovers and landscape photographers.

Kris Hodgetts, a photographer from Blyth in Northumberland, told the BBC he thought it was a hoax at first. “We haven’t just lost another tree but a symbol of something natural in its perfect form which can’t be replaced by a statue or a memorial.”

Mr Hodgetts took the two photographs below during a night visit to Sycamore Gap in 2019.

The beloved landmark was named Tree of the Year in 2016 and was hugely popular with photographers.

The incident was not the end of the iconic tree and shoots have started to appear at the stump, although it will be decades until it is a visible presence on the landscape again.

People can touch the old trunk at an exhibit at the Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre and seedlings grown from seeds collected from the fallen sycamore will be planted across the country.

Source : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-72c404c5-35f2-4d43-bed1-1f5f1f7208dc

A trio of cryptocurrency bills that had been expected to pass the House this week stalled Tuesday after a bloc of Republicans unexpectedly joined with Democrats to prevent the legislation from coming up for debate and votes.

The procedural snafu brought the House’s so-called “crypto week” to a standstill — and dealt a blow to President Donald Trump, who had strongly urged Republicans to pass the bills as part of his push to make the U.S. the “ crypto capital of the world.”

Trump intervened during a late evening meeting with Republicans at the White House, and appeared to put the bills back on track. He posted on social media that he expected votes as soon as Wednesday.

A group of 13 Republicans had joined all Democrats in opposition to a procedural vote needed to bring the crypto bills to the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it was just part of the “legislative process” and that negotiations were underway between the House, Senate and White House. He suggested they could try again Tuesday evening.

“We expected there might be some ‘no’ votes, but we thought it was important to put it on the floor to advance it because time’s of the essence on this,” Johnson said. “So stay tuned. We’ll have lots of discussions over the next few hours.”

But just hours later, House leadership canceled votes for the remainder of the day, potentially throwing the crypto bills into limbo.

Then, late in the evening, Trump posted that he was having a White House meeting with lawmakers and had won their support to vote for the procedural step.

“I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule,” Trump said on social media, referring to the step.

The president said that Johnson attended via telephone “and looks forward to taking the Vote as early as possible.”

The stalled legislation includes a Senate-passed bill to regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, along with far more sweeping measures aiming to address cryptocurrency market structure. Another bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency.

The disagreement blocking the bills from advancing centers on how the three bills would be passed. Johnson explained that “some of these guys insist that it needs to be all in one package.” Packaging the bills would require them to be sent back to the Senate, since the chamber has only taken up one of the three bills so far.

Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, a Republican co-sponsor of one of the cryptocurrency bills, told reporters that some of the Republicans wanted to package the bills together due to them “not having a lot of faith in the Senate moving our legislation.”

Trump and Republican leaders have called on the House to pass the bills individually, so that the stablecoin legislation can get to Trump’s desk for his signature before an August recess. The stablecoin legislation took the Senate nearly a month and half to pass, and the more sweeping market structure legislation is expected to take even longer.

In a post Tuesday morning on social media, Trump had called on Republicans to advance the crypto bills that afternoon, saying that “all Republicans should vote ‘yes.’” Asked Tuesday evening about the stalled legislation, Trump told reporters that Republicans who voted against it wanted it to be “stronger.”

Trump has pushed hard for the passage of the stablecoin legislation, with him and his family standing to profit from a boost to stablecoins. They hold a significant stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that recently launched its own stablecoin, USD1.

The stablecoin legislation passed by the Senate includes a provision that bars members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins. But notably, that prohibition does not apply to the president or his family, even as Trump builds what some are calling a crypto empire from the White House.

The cryptocurrency industry hopes the bills as a whole will aid in their push for legitimacy and increasing consumer trust. And road bumps like those seen Tuesday may not have been expected after spending heavily in the 2024 election to elect a large number of crypto-friendly lawmakers.

Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer of Coinbase, the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said in a statement after the failed procedural vote that “every few steps forward there’s inevitably a step back.”

“It’s in these moments we’ll see who is trying to get pro-crypto legislation done and who is not,” Shirzad said on social media.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-trump-house-c5615ca72cd77b5895bafac9d4cf1d79

Stephen King has a rule for anyone wanting to adapt one of his books for the big or small screen. It’s basically the Hippocratic oath for intellectual property — first, do no harm.

“When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk,” he says in a recent interview from his home in Maine. “I know what I’m doing and I’m not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.”

Not everyone has listened to King, who has enjoyed hit adaptations — “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Stand By Me,” “Misery,” “It” and “The Shining” — as well as flops — “Salem’s Lot,” “Graveyard Shift” and “The Lawnmower Man.”

The industrious novelist has lately watched as a wave of adaptations are crafted for theaters or streaming platforms, a list that includes “The Life of Chuck” and the upcoming “The Long Walk,” “The Running Man” and “It: Welcome to Derry.” It also includes the eight-episode series “The Institute,” which debuts on MGM+ on Sunday.

It’s about a secret government facility where kids with special talents — telekinesis and telepathy — are imprisoned and put to dark geopolitical uses. Their bedrooms are faithfully re-created and creepy posters — “Your Gift Is Important” and “I Choose to be Happy” — line the halls.

Does this small-screen adaptation of his 2019 book get King’s approval? “I’m talking to you which is a pretty good sign,” he says, laughing. He even signed on as executive producer.

“When I write a book, it’s a single-person sport and when these people do a TV show or a movie it becomes a team sport. So you expect some changes and, sometimes, man, they’re really good.”

What’s ‘The Institute’ about’?

“The Institute” stars Mary-Louise Parker as a sinister scientist and Ben Barnes as a small-town cop on opposite sides as the group of children are kidnapped and exploited. The series is faithful to the book, but includes some changes, like setting it entirely in Maine and aging the hero up so as not to appear too sadistic.

That hero — 14-year-old Luke Ellis, played winningly by Joe Freeman — is the latest youngster with special powers that King has manifested, a line that stretches back to the heroine of “Carrie,” Danny Torrance in “The Shining” and Charlie McGee in “Firestarter.”

“I thought to myself, what would happen if a bunch of kids that had psychic powers could see enough of the future to tell when certain moments were going to come along,” he says. “But the kids would be wrecked by this process and they would be kept in a place where they could serve the greater good. It was a moral problem that I really liked.”

King has a special respect for young adults, who he says can be brave and behave nobly under pressure but who can also be mean and petty.

He says he was inspired by William Golding, who wrote the iconic “Lord of the Flies,” a dystopian novel about a group of schoolboys who while trying to survive on a remote island unlock their own barbarism.

“He was talking to his wife before he wrote the book and he said, ‘What would it be like if I wrote a story about boys and the way that boys really acted?’ And so I tried to write a book about kids the way that kids really act,” says King.

Executive producer and co-writer Benjamin Cavell says King resists the impulse to be overly involved in the process, instead identifying people he trusts to do right by the material.

“So much of the pleasure of King’s writing is the access he gives his reader to the deepest, darkest, most private thoughts and dreams and desires of his characters; the adaptor’s task is to make all that external and cinematic,” says Cavell.

‘Monsters inside of us’

Jack Bender has become something of a King whisperer, helping adapt both King’s “Mr. Mercedes” and “The Outsider” to the screen. This time, he helped direct and executive produce “The Institute.”

“I count my blessings to be in the position of someone he creatively trusts,” says Bender. “He is a genius at tapping into the fears we all share of what’s hiding under our beds. For me, both ‘Mr. Mercedes’ and ‘The Institute’ deal with those fears by focusing on the monsters inside of us human beings, not just outside in the world around us.”

The first thing Bender and Cavell had to figure out was what form “The Institute” would take — a standalone film or a series.

“In the case of ‘The Institute,’ which was a 576-page novel packed with rich, fascinating characters that would need time to connect and be with each other, I didn’t want to shrink it into a 110 minute movie that would’ve become the ‘X-Kids,’” says Bender.

King says that while Hollywood has a seemingly insatiable appetite for his books, he hasn’t gotten more cinematic as a writer — he always has been.

“I am one of the first writers that was actually influenced by television as well as movies. “I grew up with the idea that things should be cinematic and that you should look at things in a visual way, a very sensory way.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/institute-stephen-king-series-interview-4d7e03ba7f8e113c03a382816d8e956b

He’s staying red.

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani stuck to his socialist guns during a highly anticipated powwow with Big Apple business leaders Tuesday — doubling down on his plan to raise their taxes, if elected.

Mamdani — who just last month said billionaires shouldn’t exist — schmoozed with roughly 100 CEOs convened by the powerful Partnership for New York City at his request, for the first of two days of scheduled meetings with business bigs.

The 90-minute meeting’s temperature remained low, even as Mamdani was grilled about his communist-tinged and anti-Israel comments, including his refusal to condemn the “globalize the intifada” rallying cry, one attendee told The Post.

Asked about his intent to slap the ultra-wealthy and corporations, Mamdani told the executives that taxes had been raised on those groups in the past without it resulting in an exodus of high-earners from the Big Apple, the source said.

“He didn’t back away from any policy position, though he did so in a non-confrontational manner,” the attendee dished.

“It shows he’s a good politician. He was very confident.”

The slick Mamdani also distanced himself from his past use of the phrase “seizing the means of production,” a Marxist concept, but in a roundabout way, chalking it up to a rookie mistake, another business bigwig in attendance said.

“It was very frustrating,” the source said.

“He talks so much and says so little.”

The sit-down — which was requested by Mamdani and will be followed by a Wednesday confab with tech industry leaders — was pointedly snubbed by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who sits on the Partnership’s board, and other Wall Street titans, many of whom sent non-executive underlings, sources said.

“Everyone is just in listening mode,” joked one banking bigwig.

Dimon — who branded Mamdani a “Marxist” at an event in Ireland last week — begged off with a vague scheduling “conflict,” according to bank reps.

Even with the brush-off, Mamdani’s move to engage business leaders shows the “tax the rich” firebrand shifting toward broader outreach ahead of November’s general election, where he’ll face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a stubborn ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden.

Those in attendance included Loews Corporation chair James Tisch, an ardent backer of Israel and the father of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch — whom Mamdani did not commit to keeping as top cop during the meeting.

A top rep from Louis Vuitton was also in the room for the confab, held at real estate company Tishman Speyer’s Rockefeller Plaza offices, sources said.

Mamdani, when pressed about the anti-Israel “globalize the intifada” cry by the business leaders, said he discouraged its use, according to attendees.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who is Jewish, pressed Mamdani for throwing around the word “genocide” about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza under Israel, the second source said.

But Mamdani evidently forged ahead smoothly.

“It was very frustrating. He speaks well,” the source said, recounting Mamdani’s response to a question about retail theft.

“He went into a lengthy discussion about people with mental illness. You scratch your head and say, ‘He didn’t answer the question. Unless you believe everyone who commits retail theft is mentally ill.’”

The source added: “(Mamdani) speaks very well, in paragraphs. He’s well organized. It’s easy to fall into the trap of not getting an answer to your question.”

The summit came as the Queens state Assemblyman shifts his campaign to the general election after his shocking win in last month’s Democratic primary.

Mamdani recently picked Jeffrey Lerner, a seasoned Democratic political veteran who once worked for top rival Cuomo, to lead his campaign.

He has been engaging with Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for NYC, as he tried to make nice with business leaders who’ve greeted his surprise primary win over Cuomo with serious concern verging into full-blown panic.

Mamdani has also extended lower profile olive branches, including meeting with many individual business leaders in one-on-ones, a source tied to the candidate said.

He met Monday with a dozen executives with the Black Economic Alliance, including chairman and techie investment honcho Charles Phillips, sources said.

“He’s proven himself to be a savvy campaigner,” a Democratic political operative said.

“The way you do it without angering your base is to quietly reach out to these people.”

And Mamdani has given tense tycoons plenty of ammunition to justify their fears.

He has pushed for a 2% tax hike on millionaires, a 4.5% increase on corporations and unhesitatingly said billionaires shouldn’t exist — all of which sparked fears a Mamdani mayoralty would cause an exodus of high earners from the Big Apple.

Some bigs have gone on offense against the leftist, such as billionaire hedge fund titan Bill Ackman, who publicly searched for an anti-Mamdani candidate before casting his lot with Adams.

Fellow billionaire John Catsimatidis likewise threatened to close or sell his Manhattan-based grocery chain Gristedes if Mamdani — who has proposed launching government-owned grocery shops — wins.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/15/us-news/zohran-mamdani-sticks-to-socialist-guns-tax-the-rich-plan-during-highly-anticipated-sitdown-with-nyc-big-business-leaders/

One disaster averted an even bigger one for this New Jersey family.

Lina Delgado-Ramos, her husband, sister, cousin and their golden retriever fled their North Plainfield home to escape Monday night’s deadly flash floods — only for the house to explode spectacularly just hours later.

“The storm saved our lives. We could have been inside, thinking that we are safe, and then — boom,” she told The Post Tuesday.

But not everyone was so lucky. Two women died a town over in Plainfield when their car was swept away in the deluge that battered the tri-state area late Monday.

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency as some towns like Mountainside in Union County saw more than 5.34 inches of rain, and the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings across the state.

Newark Liberty International Airport saw a ground stop until 8 p.m. and experienced multiple delays and cancelations, and startling videos making the rounds online showed sections of the New Jersey Turnpike completely submerged.

Delgado-Ramos, 36, said that when a flash flood warning hit, she packed up her family and got them to higher ground around 6 p.m. She said she had visions of the horrific Texas floods in her mind at the end.

“So we were all trying to save our cars and get them to higher ground. As we drove we got to higher ground and waited for the storm to pass,” she said.

They sought refuge on one of the hills in Green Brook Township in the Garden State, around three miles from their North Plainfield neighborhood.

She believes they were the only ones on their block to leave.

Around 9 p.m. they decided to head back to the house, but couldn’t get close in their cars because there was so much water in the streets. By 10 p.m., Delgado-Ramos’ husband and cousin were trying to access the property on foot to survey the extent of the damage.

The next thing she knew, her husband called around 11:30 p.m., telling her he heard a thunderous explosion. Their house went up in flames, which she could only watch helplessly from their elevated vantage point.

“Thank God we never came back, because our plan was to come back to the house to spend the night. The storm saved our lives. We could have been inside, thinking that we are safe, and then — boom,” she said.

“Thank God it happened to us and not the neighbors who were in the house when this happened.”

She said investigators are working to determine the cause of the blast, and that their next hurdle will be dealing with their insurance company.

The cause of the blast hasn’t been determined, but some neighbors reported smelling gas in the area.

“It’s kind of a shock, so we spent most of the morning camping outside the house, but now we’re shopping for a few different items and we’re going to spend the night with family.”

Nicola Gibbs, the across-the-street neighbor from Delgado-Ramos’ destroyed home, said she was sitting on her porch when it all went down.

“It was exactly at 11:20 and I’m sitting right here with my dog just watching the water recede. The water was all the way to my steps. and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the roof just flew up,” she said of the blast that leveled the family dwelling.

“And as soon as the roof went up, the house exploded underneath. And just the blast just pushed me and the dog into the house.”

She said she could feel the heat from the house fire from inside her home, and that she thought the family was still inside when she called the police and fire department.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/15/us-news/nj-woman-whose-family-narrowly-escaped-horrific-house-explosion-grateful-to-be-alive-the-storm-saved-our-lives/

When violent riots erupted across Los Angeles in defiance of President Trump’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law, the uprising was not as spontaneous as open-borders politicians would have you believe.

Far-left non-governmental organizations, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), helped provide transportation and services to those going to the protests in support of illegal immigration, many of which quickly devolved into brutal attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As it turns out, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in California state grants from June 2022 to June 2023.

From October 2021 to September 2024, under the Biden-Harris administration, the group also received $450,000 in grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

But this pattern of incentivizing lawless behavior at taxpayers’ expense isn’t an isolated case — it is an example of the extensive partnership of open-borders activists and their allies in the Biden-Harris administration, and Americans are still paying the cost.

On Wednesday, my Committee will examine this pattern and its impacts in a hearing featuring testimony from Mike Howell of the Oversight Project, human trafficking expert Ali Hopper, and veteran border and riot correspondent Julio Rosas.

Every one of these witnesses has seen up close how these organizations work with Democrat officials and open-borders policies to advance a pro-illegal immigration agenda — from how NGOs help incentivize cartel human smuggling across our borders and participate in the final mile of this illicit activity, to how they work with far-left rioters opposing ICE enforcement in our streets today.

Over the last four years, the Biden-Harris administration’s catch-and-release policies allowed more than 13 million to cross our borders, including gang members, criminals and suspected terrorists.

From the early days of the historic border crisis, Biden and Harris’ DHS released these inadmissible aliens to a vast network of NGOs, particularly those operating at the border.

These groups received billions of taxpayer dollars from DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide all manner of services to illegal aliens once they were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection or ICE custody including legal services, lodging, and transportation to the destination of their choice.

These NGOs not only incentivized illegal entry, however — they actively participated in completing the human smuggling chain begun by the cartels outside our borders.

The evidence of this NGO industrial complex is incontrovertible.

A groundbreaking 2022 study using mobile-device data showed that NGOs were serving as a launching pad for illegal aliens to disperse throughout the country.

In a 2023 transcribed interview with the Committee, then-Chief Patrol Agent for the Del Rio Sector Jason Owens described how NGOs were complicit in funneling millions of inadmissible aliens into the country, saying, “A large portion of [the aliens] were being given parole and … ICE would then turn them over to NGOs for them to travel to wherever they were going to go while they await their hearing.”

In March, the Committee opened an investigation into the mayors of Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago — sanctuary cities that helped funnel funding to numerous far-left NGOs during the border crisis.

Last month, the Committee expanded its probe to more than 200 NGOs across the country that are suspected of using taxpayer funds to support or benefit from illegal immigration.

NGOs like CHIRLA, Catholic Charities USA, Make the Road New York, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Global Refuge, Southwest Key Programs, and Endeavors all received letters requesting information on how they spent government funds during the crisis and how they may have used those dollars to encourage and facilitate illegal immigration.

The near-total lack of accountability for how the taxpayer dollars given to NGOs were spent under the Biden-Harris administration is unacceptable.

In March 2023, the DHS Office of Inspector General reported that an audit could not account for more than half of the DHS funding that the OIG reviewed, due to lack of proper documentation by these groups.

The overall funding to these NGOs was immense.

The Biden border crisis was good for business, as many NGOs saw their annual revenues rise significantly during the Biden-Harris administration.

For example, it was reported that three prominent NGOs that assisted illegal aliens went from making a combined $597 million in revenue in 2019 to $3 billion just three years later in 2022 — an increase of 400%.

One NGO, Southwest Key Programs, received more than $2 billion under the previous administration to provide services for unaccompanied alien children.

However, an HHS OIG report found that Southwest Key leadership may have improperly benefited from the deal, with one top employee receiving a 280% increase in salary by Fiscal Year 2023 to $1.2 million.

Last summer, the federal government sued Southwest Key, alleging that employees engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse and harassment against the children in its shelters and failed to take sufficient action to protect the children in its care.

Under the Trump administration, HHS has stopped all placement of unaccompanied alien children in Southwest Key facilities.

Another NGO, Endeavors, received sole-source, no-bid ICE contracts under Biden and Harris, despite having no experience as a lead contractor for shelter services.

The non-profit received more than $2 billion in federal contracts under the Biden-Harris administration.

In 2023, Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a senior director at Endeavors and former ICE employee under the Biden administration, admitted in an undercover video that he used his previous connections with Biden’s 2020 transition team to help facilitate the contacts.

While the Trump administration has successfully re-secured our borders and is working to put the abuse of taxpayer dollars under the Biden-Harris administration behind us, a lot of damage has already been done — and the money has already been spent.

American taxpayer dollars were laundered through Biden and Harris’ DHS to these “non-profits,” who then used those dollars to undermine the laws of the same government giving them funding.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/15/opinion/how-charities-funded-by-your-tax-dollars-helped-break-immigration-law/

Two gunshots.

That is how Yoo Seok-sul begins recounting the night of Friday, 26 October, 1979.

A former security guard in the Korea Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA, as the South’s spy division was known, Yoo has many stories to tell. But this is perhaps the most infamous.

He remembers the time – nearly 19:40 – and where he had been sitting – in the break room. He was resting after his shift guarding the entrance to the low-rise compound where President Park Chung-hee entertained his most trusted lieutenants. They called it the “safe house”.

In his 70s now, wiry with sharp eyes, Yoo speaks hesitantly at first – but it comes back to him quickly. After the first shots, more gunfire followed, he says. The guards were on high alert but they waited outside for orders. The president’s security detail was inside, along with the KCIA’s top agents.

Then Yoo’s boss, a KCIA officer who oversaw security for the safe house, stepped outside. “He came over and asked me to bury something in the garden.” It was two guns, bullets and a pair of shoes. Flustered, Yoo followed orders, he says.

He did not know who had been shot, and he didn’t ask.

“I never imagined that it was the president.”

The guns Yoo buried were used to assassinate Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea for the previous 18 years, longer than any president before or since. The man who shot him was his long-time friend Kim Jae-gyu, who ran the much-feared KCIA, a pillar of Park’s dictatorship.

That Friday shook South Korea, ending Park Chung-hee’s stifling rule and ushering in another decade under the military. Kim was executed for insurrection, along with five others.

Now, 46 years later, that night is back in the spotlight as a court retries Kim Jae-gyu to determine if his actions amounted to treason. He has remained a deeply polarising figure – some see him as a killer blinded by power and ambition, others as a patriot who sacrificed himself to set South Korea on the path to democracy. The president he killed is no less divisive, lauded for his country’s economic rise and reviled for his authoritarian rule.

Kim’s family fought for the retrial, arguing that he cannot be remembered as a traitor. They will now have their day in the Seoul High Court just as impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol goes on trial for the same charge that sent Kim to the gallows.

Yoon’s martial law order last December was short-lived but it threw up questions about South Korean democracy – and that may influence how the country sees a man who shot dead a dictator he claimed was on the brink of unleashing carnage.

Was Kim trying to seize power for himself or to spark a revolution, as he claimed in court?

When news of the shooting broke in the morning, it sent shockwaves through South Korea. Initial reports called it “accidental”.

What was left of Park’s coterie tried to make sense of what had happened. Kim had been a close ally since Park seized power in a coup in 1961. They shared a hometown and had started out together at the military academy.

Veteran journalist Cho Gab-je acknowledges that Kim seemed uncomfortable with some of Park’s actions, but “there’s no record that Kim actually acted on those concerns, no evidence he released political prisoners, clashed with Park, or submitted formal objections”.

Kim told the court he had thought about killing Park at least three times. But history shows he supported Park as he tightened his grip, abolishing direct presidential elections and term limits, allowing him to control the National Assembly and even suspend constitutional rights.

“My brother was never the kind of person who would commit such an act just to become president,” insists his sister Kim Jung-sook, who is now 86.

But he ran the KCIA, which was notorious for jailing, torturing and even framing innocent students, dissidents and opposition figures with false charges.

“They tortured people, fabricated charges, and imprisoned them… and if you criticised that, you’d get arrested too,” says Father Ham Se-woong, who was imprisoned twice in the 1970s for criticising the government.

Kim was not a saviour many could accept. But that is the mantle he took on, according to court transcripts that were not widely reported at the time. He told the judges he believed it was imperative to stop Park, whose ruthlessness could plunge South Korea into chaos and cost them a critical ally, the United States.

“I do not wish to beg for my life, as I have found a cause to die for,” he said, although he asked the court to spare his men who followed his orders – “innocent sheep”, he called them. He said he had hoped to pave the way for a peaceful transition of power, which had eluded his country so far.

On hearing about this back then, even a fierce critic like Father Ham tried launching a campaign for him. “He wanted to prevent further bloodshed. That’s why we had to save him,” he says.

Father Ham ended up in prison again for his efforts, as the trial became a sensitive subject. The country was under martial law. Days after the trial started – on December 12 – the man who led the investigation into the assassination, General Chun Doo-hwan, seized power in a coup.

Proceedings in the military court moved at lightning speed. On 20 December, it convicted Kim of trying to seize power through murder, and six others of aiding him. Yoo was sentenced to three years in prison for hiding the guns.

By 20 May the following year, Kim had lost his final appeal. Four days later he was hanged, along with four others. One was spared and another had been executed earlier. Kim died as the army brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising, killing 166 civilians in the city of Gwangju.

“I got the impression that Chun Doo-hwan was trying to quickly wrap up anything related to the previous regime in order to seize power for himself,” says Kim Jung-sook.

She says she saw her brother just once through all this, a week before he was executed: “I think he sensed it might be the last time. So he bowed deeply to my mother as a goodbye.”

Yoo survived but he says after he was free, he was followed for years: “I couldn’t get a job. Even when I returned to my hometown, they kept tailing me. I couldn’t say a word about the case.” He now works as an attendant in a private parking lot outside Seoul.

Ms Kim says her family did not speak up until about 10 years ago. After South Korea became a democracy, Park’s image recovered, improved by time and wealth. His daughter became president, often defending his legacy for its economic record.

It was her downfall – following massive protests over a corruption scandal – that threw open the door to revisit Kim Jae-gyu’s conviction.

“This case should never have gone to a military court because the assassination happened before martial law was declared,” says Lee Sang-hee, the lawyer in charge of his retrial. She adds that the “sloppy transcripts” would have influenced his appeal because the defence was not allowed to record the proceedings.

“When I reviewed the documents, I couldn’t understand how he could be convicted of insurrection when there was such little evidence. And above all, there was torture,” she says, which the court cited as a valid reason when it agreed in February to a retrial.

It accepted Kim’s statement, which he submitted in his unsuccessful appeal in 1980, alleging “the investigators beat me indiscriminately and used electric torture by wrapping an EE8 phone line around my fingers”.

Reports at the time alleged that Kim Jae-gyu’s wife had been detained and tortured too, along with her brother-in-law and brothers, which officials at the time denied.

Now in her 90s, his wife has always been opposed to a retrial.

“She never talked about what she had gone through and trembles even now,” Kim Jung-sook, the spy chief’s sister, says.

Ms Kim is resolute in her defence of her brother, repeatedly emphasising that “he was a man of integrity”.

“Because we believe that he did not kill the president and his security chief for personal gain, we have been able to endure all of this.”

The security chief was Cha Ji-cheol, who had been growing closer to Park, and often clashed with Kim as the two men vied for the president’s ear.

In the weeks before the assassination, they differed on how to deal with Kim Young-sam, an outspoken opposition leader who Park saw as a threat. In an interview with the New York Times, the opposition leader had called on the US to end Park’s dictatorship. The National Assembly, controlled by Park, expelled him.

The decision kicked off huge protests in Kim Young-Sam’s strongholds. Cha wanted to crush the uprising, while Kim Jae-gyu advised caution, which would also reassure a Washington that was growing impatient with Park’s rule.

Kim told the court he warned against firing at protesters, which would only ignite anger – to which Cha said, “three million died in Cambodia, and nothing happened. If we kill one million demonstrators, we’ll be fine”.

That evening at the safe house, the public broadcaster reported that the US ambassador was going to meet Kim Young-sam.

An angry Park criticised Kim Jae-gyu for not arresting the opposition leader. When Kim pushed back, the court heard, Park retorted: “The agency should be feared, it should prosecute those who deserve it.”

They sat across from each other, sipping Scotch and sharing a meal. Park sat between two women, a popular singer and a young model. Cha and Park’s chief of staff were also there.

The terse exchanges continued, and mid-way through a love song, Kim Jae-gyu said, he pulled out the gun, aimed it at Park and told him he needed to change his politics: “Sir, you should approach things with a more magnanimous vision.”

Turning to a shocked Cha, he cursed as he pulled the trigger, wounding him in the hand as Cha tried to block the shot. Then Kim fired into Park’s chest. Outside, acting on his orders, KCIA agents shot dead the president’s security detail – two were eating dinner, and two were on standby.

Kim tried shooting the president again, but the pistol malfunctioned. He ran out to one of his men, who gave him a revolver. Having returned, he killed a fleeing Cha, walked towards Park, who was leaning against the model as he bled, and shot him in the head.

The two women left unharmed after being paid to keep quiet. The president’s chief of staff was never targeted.

Kim then went to the next building, where the army chief he had summoned earlier was waiting. The men left in a car for KCIA headquarters.

It’s likely he didn’t argue with Kim – even a shoe-less, suspiciously rattled Kim was powerful, and his men guarded the compound. But en route he was persuaded to go to the army’s headquarters, where he was arrested soon after midnight.

Kim told the court he had planned to use the army, perhaps even impose martial law, to complete the “revolution” and transition to democracy.

This is the crux of the retrial. The prosecution had argued it was a premeditated coup, while Kim claimed far loftier motives.

But sceptics point to the lack of planning. The gun that jammed was plucked from a safe before dinner, there were enough witnesses to derail the plot, and he did not seem to have a strategy for his “revolution”. He did not even make it to the KCIA headquarters.

They say it may well have been an impulsive act of revenge by a man whose power was waning.

That’s what the army general investigating the murders alleged two days later – Kim, second only to the president, had so much to lose as Park sidelined him in favour of Cha Ji-cheol.

The following month, he also charged Kim with attempting a coup.

“For a charge of insurrection to be proved, the accused must forcibly halt the function of constitutional institutions, but that didn’t happen in this case,” says lawyer Lee Sang-hee.

Unlike in impeached president Yoon’s case – where the court will decide if he directed the military to block parliamentary proceedings – there is no evidence Kim Jae-gyu tried to seize control of state institutions, she argues.

For South Korea though, the retrial is more than that. Many see it as a defining moment to reflect on the trajectory of a democracy threatened just six months ago.

It is also an opportunity to re-evaluate Park Chung-hee, whose legacy some say is overstated. “His achievements were real, but so were his faults,” says Kim Duol, an economics professor at Myungji University. “Would South Korea’s growth have been possible without such an authoritarian regime?”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr5vp4q59lgo

China’s economy has beaten expectations even as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a prolonged crisis in the property market weigh on growth.

Official figures show the world’s second largest economy grew by 5.2% in the three months to the end of June, compared to the same time last year. That’s better than the 5.1% forecast by many economists but lower than the previous quarter.

The country has so far avoided a sharp downturn, partly due to measures announced by Beijing to help support the economy and a fragile trade truce with Washington.

The economy “withstood pressure and made steady improvement despite challenges”, said China’s National Bureau of Statistics in a statement.

Officials said economic growth was helped by a 6.4% expansion in manufacturing, with higher demand for 3D printing devices, electric vehicles and industrial robots.

The country’s services sector – which includes areas like transport, finance, and technology – also made gains.

But in June, retail sales growth slowed to 4.8% from a year earlier, compared with a 6.4% increase in May.

Also on Tuesday, official figures showed a drop in China’s new home prices in June, falling at the fastest monthly pace in eight months.

The data suggests the country’s real estate industry is continuing to struggle despite several rounds of measures to support property prices.

Analysts had expected a bigger impact from tariffs on China’s economy but the country remains “highly resilient”, said economist Gu Qingyang from the National University of Singapore.

Growth was boosted by exports, mainly due to firms rushing to ship goods before potential new tariffs or changes to China’s export strategy take effect, he added.

The second half of the year is likely be more uncertain though, Prof Gu said.

“As a result, stronger government stimulus might be needed. That said, achieving the 5% annual growth target still seems well within reach.”

But some economists expect China to miss its “around 5%” annual growth target this year.

“The real question is by how much. We believe it will defend a floor of 4%, which remains the minimum politically acceptable level,” Dan Wang, director for China at consultancy Eurasia Group told the BBC.

A tariffs war between China’s President Xi Jinping and Trump led to the US imposing a 145% levy on Chinese imports. In return, Beijing introduced a 125% duty on some US goods.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20r461g61xo

U.S. efforts to break China’s dominance of the rare earths market and to drive investment in its own industry have moved up a gear with a Washington-backed plan to create a separate, higher pricing system.
The West has struggled to weaken China’s grip on 90% of the supply of rare earths, in part because low prices set in China have removed the incentive for investment elsewhere.

Miners in the West have long called for a separate pricing system to help them compete in supplying the rare earths group of 17 metals needed to make super-strong magnets of strategic importance. They are used in military applications such as drone and fighter jets, as well as to power motors in EVs and wind turbines.

Under a deal made public last week, the U.S. Department of Defense will guarantee a minimum price for its sole domestic rare earth miner MP Materials (MP.N), opens new tab, at nearly twice the current market level.
Las Vegas-based MP already produces mined and processed rare earths and said it expects to start commercial magnet production at its Texas facility around the end of this year.
Analysts say the pricing deal, which takes effect immediately, should have global implications – positive for producers, but may increase costs for consumers, such as automakers and in turn their customers.
“This benchmark is now a new centre of gravity in the industry that will pull prices up,” said Ryan Castilloux, managing director of consultancy Adamas Intelligence.

The DoD will pay MP the difference between $110 per kilogram for the two most-popular rare earths and the market price, currently set by China, but if the price rises above $110, the DoD will get 30% of additional profits.
Castilloux said other indirect beneficiaries of the pricing system may include companies, such as Belgian chemicals group Solvay (SOLB.BR), opens new tab, which launched an expansion in April.
“It will give Solvay and others the impetus to command a similar price level. It will give them a floor to stand on, you could say,” Castilloux added.
While Solvay declined to comment, other rare earth miners, developers and their shareholders welcomed the news.
Aclara Resources (ARA.TO), opens new tab is developing rare earths mines in Chile and Brazil, as well as planning a separation plant in the United States. Alvaro Castellon, the company’s strategy and development manager, told Reuters the deal added “new strategic paths” for the company.

MP’S GRADUAL OUTPUT INCREASE
MP Materials, which suffered a net loss of $65.4 million last year largely because of China’s low pricing, will build up magnet production at its Texas plant initially to 1,000 metric tons a year, later expanding to 3,000 tons a year.
Under last Thursday’s deal, the DoD will become its largest shareholder with a 15% stake and MP will construct a second rare earth magnet manufacturing facility in the U.S., eventually adding 7,000 tons per year. In total, production would be 10,000 tons a year – equalling U.S. consumption of magnets in 2024.
That does not include, however, the 30,000 tons imported by the United States already installed in assembled products, Adamas consultancy said.
It predicts global demand for rare earth permanent magnets will more than double over the next decade to about 607,000 tons, with the U.S. seeing the strongest percentage annual growth rate in coming years at 17%.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-rare-earth-pricing-system-is-poised-challenge-chinas-dominance-2025-07-14/

During his visit to China, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasised the importance of normalising India-China relations for mutual benefit amidst a complex global landscape.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing where he conveyed that continued normalisation of India-China ties can produce mutually beneficial outcomes like the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Jaishankar, who is visiting China to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin, stated that an open exchange of views between the two sides is “very important” considering the “complex” global scenario.
“Our bilateral relationship, as you have pointed, has been steadily improving since the meeting between Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan last October,” Jaishankar said in his televised opening remarks in the meeting.
“I am confident that my discussions in this visit will maintain that positive trajectory,” he added.

This is Jaishankar’s first visit to China after ties were strained between the two nations following the 2020 military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. In the last few months, India and China have initiated a number of measures to repair the bilateral ties that had severely nosedived following the deadly clashes between the two militaries in June 2020.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/kailash-yatra-resumption-a-positive-step-jaishankar-tells-china-amid-push-for-normal-ties-article-152276175

The fire started late on Thursday night in her unit on the eighth floor of an 11-storey residential building. The flames did not spread to other apartments and were quickly brought under control.

A 46-year-old Indian woman died in a fire that broke out in her apartment in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, according to a report by Gulf News. The incident took place in the Al Majaz area last week while the woman was reportedly performing a special ritual at home. Authorities did not release her name but confirmed her nationality.

The fire started late on Thursday night in her unit on the eighth floor of an 11-storey residential building. The flames did not spread to other apartments and were quickly brought under control.

Emergency teams from Civil Defence and local police responded quickly after getting a call about the fire. The woman was found inside the apartment, and her body was sent for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

Authorities have launched an investigation to find out how the fire started and to check if there were any safety violations.

In another heartbreaking incident reported in Sharjah, a 20-year-old Indian woman allegedly killed her child and later ended her own life. The tragedy took place last Tuesday afternoon in the family’s apartment.

Initial investigations suggest that the young woman was responsible for the death of her over one-year-old baby, though the motive behind the act is still unclear.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/indian-woman-dies-in-uae-apartment-fire-while-performing-ritual-glbs-2755814-2025-07-15

A New Jersey man who once took Michael Jackson into his family home after the 9/11 terror attacks —and called the pop icon his “second family”— is now being accused of trying to extort $213 million from Jackson’s estate.

Frank Cascio, 44, has apparently threatened to go public with claims against the singer which he never voiced while Jackson was alive.

In a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the Michael Jackson Company and estate co-executors John Branca and John McClain allege that Frank Cascio and unidentified associates are attempting what they describe as a “civil extortion scheme,” leveraging the threat of sensational accusations to extract massive payouts.

For more than three decades, Cascio – whose father had struck up a friendship with Michael while working at a hotel in New York, leading the “Beat It” superstar to become a regular visitor to his home and to refer to the Cascios as his second family – was among Jackson’s most vocal defenders.

In dozens of public statements, TV interviews, and in his own 2011 book, “My Friend Michael”, Cascio praised Jackson in unequivocal terms. The star was twice accused of child abuse during his career, in 1993 and 2003, but settled the first case out of court and was acquitted in the second.

“I want to be precise and clear, on the record, so that everyone can read and understand: Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood,” Cascio wrote in the book. He added, “In all the years that I was close to him, I saw nothing that raised any red flags, not as a child and not as an adult.”

Cascio also declared that Jackson had been the victim of false allegations: “He was being attacked by liars… There was nothing ambiguous about the whole thing. These people were after Michael’s money. But he was innocent, and we were going to destroy them in court.”

In a 2005 “ABC Primetime Live” interview, he said: “If Michael ever laid a finger on me, I would not be in this chair right now.” When asked by Wendy Williams in 2011 if anything inappropriate ever occurred, he replied bluntly, “Nothing at all. And that’s what makes me so upset.”

The Cascio family appeared on “Oprah” in 2009 after Jackson’s death to talk about their close bond with the star, how they exchanged Christmas presents and how he even recorded songs in their home studio.

Cascio and his brothers insisted, “never,” when asked if there had been any improprieties by host Oprah Winfrey. One of them explained, “Michael was a target.”

According to the petition, that narrative changed in 2019 after the release of HBO’s controversial “Leaving Neverland” documentary, which featured detailed claims of child abuse against Michael by two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck.

After that aired, Cascio and his representatives approached the estate seeking a deal to sell personal materials and consult on projects. The estate claims that discussions soon turned into threats, with demands for large sums in exchange for not going public with the allegations.

Estate representatives described an unusual meeting at the Sunset Marquis Hotel pool in Los Angeles, where Cascio’s camp insisted participants wear only bathing suits “so that [Jackson’s] representatives could not wear a wire to record the conversation.”

In January 2020, the estate allegedly agreed to a confidential settlement to protect Jackson’s family from further pain. The agreement included payments over five years, strict non-disparagement terms, and a clause requiring all disputes to be handled in private arbitration.

However, in July 2024, Cascio’s attorney allegedly demanded an additional $213 million, threatening to “expand the circle of knowledge” to harm the estate’s business dealings. According to the lawsuit, in August his lawyer warned that if no payment was made, they would share their claims with the buyer of Jackson’s valuable music catalog, the estate claims.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/07/14/entertainment/michael-jackson-pal-frank-cascio-accused-of-shaking-his-estate-down-for-213m/

The makers of Sesame Street say hackers were behind “disgusting” antisemitic messages that appeared on Elmo’s X account.

A string of posts appeared on the verified page, which has about 650,000 followers, on Sunday.

Other messages attacked US President Donald Trump and called for files relating to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be released.

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organisation that makes the children’s programme, said an “unknown hacker” had gained access to the account.

“Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson said.

“We are working to restore full control of the account.”

‘Release the files’
The antisemitic posts appeared on Elmo’s account in quick succession.

They also made derogatory comments about Trump and allegations about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced financier had powerful connections and died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.

One of Elmo’s posts called on Trump to “RELEASE THE FILES” following an announcement last week that the US Department of Justice and FBI found no evidence of a list that could implicate high-profile associates of Epstein’s.

His death is at the centre of a number of conspiracy theories and while he was campaigning to be elected, Trump had promised to publish files about what happened.

The posts on Elmo’s account come after X’s boss, Linda Yaccarino, stepped down as the platform faced criticism for an increase in antisemitic content.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, also had to explain last week after its AI chatbot, Grok, praised Adolf Hitler.

The UK’s Action Fraud said there was a rise in social and email accounts being hacked last year, with more than 35,000 reports.

It advised users to set up two-step verification alongside a strong, unique password.

Elmo is one of Sesame Street’s best-known characters and has been teaching children about kindness since the 1980s.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04d25g9v6zo

The Club World Cup has been seen by many as a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup, when 48 teams will battle it out for the global crown across Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Five of the venues over the past month – Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Hard Rock Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field and Lumen Field – are also hosting matches next year.

So what has the Club World Cup taught us about what is to come? And are there any lessons Fifa can learn from it?

Former Manchester City and Tottenham midfielder Michael Brown, who was a co-commentator for DAZN at 10 games across five different cities, told BBC Sport: “I do feel like the tournament has been a really good test for the World Cup.”

US rules mean play is stopped when lightning is recorded within a 10-mile radius – and cannot restart until 30 minutes after it finishes.

Six games were delayed, with durations ranging from 40 minutes to two hours. Two Benfica games, against Auckland and Chelsea, were delayed for about 120 minutes.

There were only four minutes left when that Chelsea game was held up. The Blues were winning 1-0 but Benfica levelled before Chelsea won in extra time.

“I think it’s a joke, to be honest,” Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said at the time.

“It’s not football. It’s completely something new. I struggle to understand – if you suspend seven or eight games then it’s probably not the right place to do the competition.”

Fifa were fortunate storms didn’t impact evening games, which could have seen postponements until the following day, but it is a possibility for next year.

Chelsea were also one of many teams to struggle with the extreme heat.

Temperatures have soared to 39C in New York and humidity has made it feel even worse – more than 50C on the heat index.

Fifpro state that nine of next year’s 16 host cities have “very high” or “extremely high” risk of heat stress injuries during the tournament.

Clubs had to arrange shorter training sessions, with Maresca saying “otherwise you don’t save energy for the game”.

Ten Juventus players asked to be substituted during their defeat by Real Madrid, said their manager Igor Tudor.

Borussia Dortmund subs watched the first half of one game from the changing room to avoid the sun – and manager Niko Kovac said he was “sweating like I’ve just come out of a sauna”.

PSG boss Luis Enrique said: “It’s not good for the spectacle because it’s difficult to play in that position.”

Meanwhile, the sniffer dogs at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia were wearing Crocs due to the temperature of the concrete underfoot.

Brown told BBC Sport: “The weather has obviously been something all the teams have had to deal with. It’s affected the fans too – some of the days, the heat was so extreme.

“It was just ridiculous and it something that is going to affect everyone next year. Teams and fans will have to be ready for it.”

On the plus side, there will be five stadiums with roofs – as opposed to just one in Atlanta this summer – but the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams means significant risks remain.

Possible solutions are planning around kick-off times to avoid playing in hot cities in the middle of the day, as so often happened at the Club World Cup, while seven of the venues used this summer won’t be used in 2026.

“The weather has been hot but of course we can see about kick-off times, review and possibly look at hiding games earlier in the day at stadiums with roofs,” said former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, Fifa’s chief of global football development.

Will the crowds come out to USA 26?
The past month has brought a mixed bag when it comes to attendances – ranging from the sold-out to the embarrassingly sparse.

Four matches failed to get more than 10,000 fans – with the lowest attendance the 3,412 who watched Mamelodi Sundowns beat Ulsan HD 1-0.

But there have been 17 crowds of 60,000 or more – with the highest the 81,118 who saw Chelsea beat Paris St-Germain in Sunday’s final.

Most of the highest attendances were at games involving PSG or Real Madrid.

“We believe the attendances were projected as low and in reality were much higher,” said Wenger.

Another reason given for low attendances have been the kick-off times, with many being at noon or 3pm on a weekday.

American journalist Doug Roberson said after Chelsea’s opener against Los Angeles attracted just 22,000: “It’s not because people here don’t care about soccer. The people aren’t here because it’s Monday at 3pm. Frankly I am surprised there are as many as there are.

“It’s a tournament that doesn’t mean a lot to people in the US because it’s new. I would imagine paying to come to a tournament you don’t know didn’t appeal because the World Cup is coming next year and people are trying to save money for that.

“If I were Fifa, for the World Cup I would have game times where more people could come. It is something to think about – and the ticket prices were ridiculous.”

Jonathan Tannenwald, chief soccer correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, said: “We will all show up for the World Cup next summer but for the Club World Cup they needed to market it to explain.”

Fifa are expected to stick with the same kick-off times during next summer’s World Cup so will be relying on the appeal of the tournament to cut through and will be asking local fans to take time off work to attend matches.

The Gold Cup has also been going on over the past few weeks, played at non-Club World Cup venues in the US, attracting attention from TV audiences. This competing factor won’t be a problem next year.

Fifa’s policy of dynamic ticket pricing – where the cost of tickets can change regularly – has also been controversial and it is a policy they are expecting to carry into next year’s tournament.

Ticket prices for Chelsea’s semi-final against Fluminense reportedly dropped from almost £350 to less than £10 in the week before the game.

Tickets for the Blues’ quarter-final against Palmeiras ended up at £8 – with fans talking about having paid over £250 when they first went on sale.

Brown said: “When I’ve been travelling it feels like a lot of Americans are starting to speak about it now and know it is going on – whoever you speak to, they go ‘oh yeah it’s the football’.

“It is still growing, of course – the public’s awareness of it has got loads better than it was a few years ago but there is still a way to go, not just to spread the word that it is happening but to get people out here used to going to football games or watching matches on TV.

“It’s still not the main sport out here but that’s the next step. There is so much room for growth but if you go to a lot of bars and restaurants, then they are still showing a lot of baseball when the football is on.”

What have the stadiums and transport links been like?
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was played within a radius of 43 miles.

The air-conditioned public metro system, which was free to use for fans with tickets during the tournament, reached six of the eight stadiums, with road transportation needed for the other two.

But the sheer scale of the USA has brought up concern about the transport to various stadiums for the 2026 tournament, with some venues difficult to reach via public transport.

BBC Sport found this to be the case during the tournament, especially at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the Club World Cup final was held and where next year’s final is scheduled to take place.

The nearest train stop was Meadowlands Sports Complex station, requiring supporters to then walk 20 to 30 minutes in searing heat before reaching their relevant entry gate.

The semi-final between Real Madrid and PSG was also delayed at the same venue due to both teams being stuck in gridlocked traffic.

The opening match of the Club World Cup took place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which is set to host seven matches next year, including the third-fourth place play-off.

But the venue sits off a busy highway with no trains or metro system anywhere near the ground. Arriving three hours before kick-off allowed Uber drivers to drop off passengers close to the stadium before roads were closed off.

A post-match curfew meant no access for Uber or cab drivers within a certain distance and supporters had to walk for 20 minutes to a pick-up zone.

Manchester City played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, which is set to host six matches at the 2026 tournament and is serviced by a metro system to the incredible sports complex featuring the football/NFL stadium, as well as the baseball and NHL venues.

City also played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which is regarded as one of the best sporting stadiums in the world, featuring a retractable roof and giant LED screens.

Eight matches will be played inside the air-conditioned stadium next year, which has good transport links including a metro system close by and an Uber pick-up a 15-minute walk away.

A potential solution for some locations, which has been done at other tournaments, is free transport to fans with match tickets but special buses or trains will have to be arranged to make this happen.

Brown added: “The stadiums have been great and the logistics side, if it were done again, would be easier. They will have learned so much. I think it bodes well for next summer.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c23gp1l5gpeo

Jessica Alba’s mystery man has been identified.

The actress was photographed with “Captain America” star Danny Ramirez as the duo headed from Cancún, Mexico, to Los Angeles on Sunday.

TMZ named the actor the following day.

The 32-year-old kept a low profile while navigating the airport alongside the Honest Company founder, 44, over the weekend, with both wearing baseball caps.

The pair refrained from engaging in any PDA during the outing.

Reps for Alba and Ramirez did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

The pair initially sparked romance speculation in May when Alba was spotted holding hands with a man at a park in London.

“DANNY RAMIREZ AND JESSICA ALBA?!?!?!?” one fan wrote via X (per The News). “I mean, the article said mystery man. But it could be, lol.”

Other social media users supported the guess, while one argued that Ramirez had shorter hair than the man in question.

Although Alba was reportedly not “seeing anyone specific,” she congratulated Ramirez on his “Avenger: Doomsday” role via Instagram in March.

She reposted the announcement to her Story, tagging the “Top Gun” star and adding multiple exclamation points.

At the time, Alba was newly navigating her breakup from her husband of 17 years, Cash Warren.

The Golden Globe nominee filed for divorce in February, one month after news broke of their separation — which Alba confirmed in an Instagram statement.

“We … will forever be a family. Our children remain our highest priority,” she wrote in January, referencing daughter Honor, 17, daughter Haven, 13, and son Hayes, 7.

The “Dark Angel” alum had hinted at her and Warren’s relationship struggles before, admitting in 2021 that they were like “roommates … going through the motions” and “checking boxes.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/07/14/celebrity-news/jessica-albas-mystery-man-revealed-as-captain-america-star/

Only in the Hamptons, kids, only in the Hamptons…

Patriots owner Robert Kraft generously donated $10,000 to Texas flood victims in Southampton when he was strolling along and saw an opportunity to help out.

Said a spy: “Kraft turned heads in the Hamptons this week — not for football — but for a surprise act of generosity on behalf of Texas flood victims.”

The source further told Page Six that Kraft was walking along Main Street in Southampton after brunch at hotspot 75 Main, when he was stopped by Dan’s Papers co-publisher Vicky Schneps — who had just wrapped a press conference at the local Village Hall alongside a group of top Hamptons chefs and Southampton Mayor William Manger.

“Mr. Kraft — we’re raising money for families in Texas. Can you help?” Schneps called out.

Said our spy, “Kraft didn’t hesitate, pledging $10,000 on the spot to the Salvation Army’s Texas flood relief fund.”

“I’ve been a proud Jets fan for decades — but today, I’m officially a Patriots fan. Robert Kraft has a heart as big as Texas,” Schneps declared to cheers from the crowd.

The heartwarming moment came during the kickoff of a Hamptons-based culinary relief initiative that will continue at Dan’s Taste of the Hamptons on July 17, where a portion of proceeds from featured dishes will support Texas flood victims. There was even chili.

The devastating floods in the Lone Star State have already claimed at least 129 lives, with over 170 people still unaccounted for, and heavy rains and flash floods have returned, pounding Texas once more.

Kraft is known as a philanthropist: His Foundation to Combat Antisemitism created a $25 million “blue square” campaign, we’ve reported, as a “symbol of standing up to Jewish hate and all hate.”

In 2020, The Post reported, Kraft and his family spent $2 million on a 1.7 million-mask order during the COVID-19 pandemic to distribute the crucial supplies to Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island as the country grappled with the world’s worst recorded coronavirus outbreak at the time.

He’s also a generous Hamptons host. We reported this month that Kraft, 84, and his wife Dr. Dana Blumberg threw a starry Fourth of July party in the East End enclave where “Philadelphia Freedom” singer Elton John performed.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/07/14/society/robert-kraft-donates-10k-to-texas-flood-victims-in-hamptons/

Thailand’s anti-graft body will investigate suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for alleged ethics violations over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen, an official and local media said on Monday (Jul 14).

The investigation will be another blow to the beleaguered government of 38-year-old Paetongtarn, Thailand’s youngest premier, who the Constitutional Court suspended from duty earlier this month over the same issue.

The leaked Jun 15 call, during which Paetongtarn appeared to kowtow before Hun Sen and criticised a Thai army commander, triggered a major backlash at home, with allegations she had undermined Thailand’s integrity and sovereignty amid a heated territorial dispute with Cambodia.

Paetongtarn has since seen protests calling for her resignation and the exit from her coalition of its second-largest party, leaving her government with a razor-thin majority.

“The commission has set up an investigation panel. There is no timeframe,” said an official from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

The body has a broad remit to probe allegations of offences by state officials beyond graft.

Multiple Thai media outlets on Monday reported it had decided to investigate Pateongtarn.

The NACC secretary-general Sarote Phuengrampan told reporters he was not aware of the investigation or any decision by commissioners.

The complaint came from 36 senators who also petitioned the Constitutional Court alleging Paetongtarn, the daughter of politically influential billionaire had violated ethical standards and intentionally abused her power. She is suspended from duty until a verdict is delivered.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thai-anti-graft-body-launches-investigation-suspended-pm-paetongtarn-shinawatra-5237311

The killer was set to appear in court the next day

HORRIFYING details have been revealed about the Kentucky church shooting that killed two members of his ex’s family and injured another three.

The gunman declared, “Someone’s gonna have to die,” before opening fire as he hunted the mother of his three children.

Guy House, 47, burst into Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday afternoon.

Beverly Gumm, 72, and her daughter Star Rutherford were cooking lunch for the congregation in the church’s basement at the time, Rutherford told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

After House barged through the doors, he demanded to speak with one of Rutherford’s sisters, who was his ex, but Gumm and Rutherford told him she wasn’t there.

He then told them, “Well, someone’s gonna have to die, then,” and started shooting, Rutherford recalled.

Gumm ducked out of the way for House’s first shot, but was killed by the second.

House then left and fatally shot another of his ex’s sisters, Christina Combs, 32, outside of the church.

He then shot Gumm’s husband and the church’s longtime pastor, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs.

Cops then arrived on the scene and shot and killed House.

Jerry and Randy were rushed to a local hospital, where Jerry remains in critical condition.

Rutherford wrote on Facebook on Sunday night that Randy was awake, while Jerry was still “sedated from surgery.”

She told the Herald-Leader that she held Beverly, a mother of eight, as she died.

Christina leaves behind five children, including a six-month-old baby. She was planning to graduate from nursing school in December.

“They were both fantastic moms,” said Rachael Barnes, another sister, who added that her mom and sister were doing what they loved in “serving the Lord” when they died.

Barnes and Rutherford told the Herald-Leader they didn’t know a possible motive for House opening fire on the small, tight-knit church.

House’s violent spree started at around 11:30 am on Sunday at the Blue Grass Airport.

A state trooper stopped House’s car after receiving a “license plate reader alert,” according to Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers.

House then shot the trooper, who is now in stable condition.

He then carjacked a vehicle and fled the scene as cops tracked him.

House drove to the church, which is about 16 miles away and a 30-minute drive from the airport.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14708858/kentucky-church-shooting-guy-house-wife-dead-lexington/

GIRLS huddled inside their cabins as blood-curdling screams rang out in the dark – but they had no idea if the danger was real.

Campers had been assured that the youngest children had already been moved to safety.

In reality, the campers were battling for their lives, and at least 27 never made it out.

The disconnect was revealed by survivor Amelia Moore, 14, who said girls were told their friends were safe.

Camp Mystic counselors – many of whom are not much older than the campers themselves – told the girls the younger kids were playing games while, in reality, floodwaters were sweeping them away.

Deadly flooding tore through Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, on the morning of July 4, striking far earlier than previously believed.

More than 650 girls and staff were sleeping when a flash-flood warning with “catastrophic” potential was issued at 1:14 am.

The water hit hard around 3:00 am, engulfing cabins in a low-lying area near the Guadalupe River known as the Flats.

Amelia was first jolted awake by thunder at 2:00 am and heard screams from younger girls below soon after, she told the Wall Street Journal.

But instead of being urged to run, Amelia said they were told the noise was nothing to worry about and to stay put.

“A lot of counselors had been here for so long they thought it was nothing,” she said.

“So they were like, ‘Just stay in the cabin.’”

But as more girls flooded into their cabin soaking wet and terrified, the truth of the situation became harder to ignore.

Amelia eventually fell back asleep, but woke at 7 am to find their hilltop cabin totally cut off by water and fallen trees.

With no food or phones, which are banned under camp rules, they were stranded for hours.

“We were starving,” Amelia said.

“We were like, ‘Does anyone have food that they smuggled in? You won’t get in trouble. We just need food.’”

Throughout the morning, they were told the younger campers were fine.

However, the message may have been based on incomplete or outdated information.

“This is the part that makes me sick,” said Amelia.

“The whole time we were told the flats were safe and accounted for… playing games in Rec Hall and that they were perfectly fine.”

Campers from cabins like Chatterbox were climbing barefoot through windows and up steep rocky paths in pajamas as water rose behind them.

“We should have been a lot more panicked,” Amelia said. “But we genuinely didn’t know that anything was wrong.”

The first helicopter didn’t land until 3 pm, more than 12 hours after the flood began.

Camp Mystic was one of the areas hit the worst by flooding as it was located dangerously close to the flooding shores; as a result, the water rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.

Evacuation was painfully slow and, according to Amelia, there was no adult leadership.

“No one on that hill was over 21 years old,” she said.

Another camper, 16-year-old Callie McAlary, recalled the moment she knew the weather outside was not a normal thunderstorm.

“One minute you see lightning strike next to your cabin, and next to you, you hear water’s coming up,” she told Fox News.

“It was really bad thunder. We heard one of the campers run in and say, ‘Hey, our cabin is flooding.’

“I knew some girls slept on trunks that night, some girls had to share beds, some girls slept on floors because they couldn’t go back to their cabin because it was so flooded in three cabins,” she said.

Meanwhile, at another cabin known as “Giggle Box,” 19-year-old counselor Ainslie Bashara was going through the same terrifying realization.

She and two co-counselors had been in charge of 16 young girls, all between ages 8 and 10.

As water started seeping into the cabin, they had the kids put on their shoes and coats, moved belongings to top bunks, and blocked the door with trunks.

Ainslie climbed out a window first and stepped into the cold, rising floodwaters.

One by one, the counselors helped each girl out and led them through the water to a pavilion roughly 30 feet away.

“It’s going to be okay!” Ainslie told the children, all of them crying.

So far, at least 120 people have been confirmed dead in the floods across Texas, including 95 in Kerr County alone.

All 14 girls and their counselors in the Bubble Inn cabin, which housed the youngest campers at ages 8 and 9, are either dead or still missing.

Camp director Dick Eastland, who had owned the camp since 1974, also perished while trying to rescue children from the water.

WHAT WAS LOST
Photos show the once-lush camp now buried in sludge and debris, with twisted cabins and overturned trunks scattered across the grounds.

More chilling photos of the aftermath in Camp Mystic show empty bunkbeds covered in layers of mud and sediment left behind by the raging water.

Camp security guard Glenn Juenke said he had been throwing girls on top of floating mattresses to prevent them from drowning.

“Each of those sweet girls [were] cold, wet, and frightened – but they were also incredibly brave,” he told CNN.

Another 173 people remain missing as search teams work through the rubble.

Critics say the camp failed to act despite warnings, while some blame federal staffing cuts for slow alerts from the National Weather Service.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14705544/texas-floods-survivor-reason-camp-mystic-girls-heard-screams/

A NEW weather emergency is unfolding in Texas as more heavy rain pounds the already soaked Hill Country.

The bad weather has come just days after deadly flash floods killed at least 132 people in the area.

German backpacker Carolina Wilga thanked her “rescuer and angel” in a statement she issued Monday from the hospital where she’s recovering in Perth, the state capital of Western Australia.

Wilga, who is 26 years old, was found 11 nights after she was lost in the remote Outback of Australia, having survived dangerous terrain and harsh temperatures.

Her car was spotted a day before she was rescued by a member of the public in a chance encounter.

A Western Australian police inspector told reporters last week that it was a “miracle” to have found her car because of the rugged terrain.

Wilga’s family had last heard from her on June 29, and Australian farmer Tania Henley found her on July 11.

Henley told Australia’s public broadcaster that Wilga was waving at her from the side of a road she had been walking along.

How did Carolina Wilga get lost?

Wilga had walked barefoot in the remote reserve of Outback after abandoning her van away from any established track. She wrote in her statement that she had lost control of the car.

“Some people might wonder why I even left my car, even though I had water, food, and clothing there. The answer is: I lost control of the car and rolled down a slope. In the crash, I hit my head significantly. As a result of the accident, I left my car in a state of confusion and got lost,” she said.

Australian public broadcaster ABC reported that Wilga was ultimately found over 30 kilometers (over 18.6 miles) away from where she had left her car.

Western Australian police earlier said that the traveler had survived by drinking rainwater and water from puddles.

What did Wilga say about her ordeal in the wilderness?

Wilga thanked the Western Australia community for their help and said she was certain she survived because of the “outpouring of support” she received from people. Her statement in full is:

“First and foremost, I want to express a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart — a thank you that truly comes from the depth of my soul! For all the incredible support during the search for me.

Previously, I didn’t know where my place was in a culture on the other side of the world to my own, but now, I feel a part of it. I am deeply impressed by the courage, helpfulness, and warmth that has been shown to me here. Western Australia has taught me what it really means to be part of a true community. Here, humanity, solidarity, and care for one another are what truly matter — and in the end, that’s what counts most.

I am certain that I survived only thanks to this incredible outpouring of support. The thought of all the people who believed in me, searched for me, and kept hoping for me gave me the strength to carry on during my darkest moments. For this, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/german-backpacker-explains-how-she-got-lost-in-australia/a-73267142

The US Supreme Court on Monday (Jul 14) cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to proceed with plans to dismantle the Department of Education, part of his broader push to reduce the federal government’s role in education and return authority to the states.

The court lifted a federal judge’s order that had reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs and blocked the administration from transferring the department’s key responsibilities to other agencies. The legal battle remains ongoing in lower courts.

The justices issued a brief, unsigned order, with the court’s three liberal members dissenting.

Democracy Forward, a liberal legal group representing school districts and unions, said the decision “dealt a devastating blow to this nation’s promise of public education for all children”.

Its president and CEO, Skye Perryman, said: “We will aggressively pursue every legal option as this case proceeds to ensure that all children in this country have access to the public education they deserve.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle feel the need to broker a reconciliation with cancer-stricken King Charles before it’s too late, according to multiple sources.

Senior staff for the couple were spotted meeting Charles’ top PR aide in London last week in what was described as a secret peace summit.

Charles, 76, is still being treated for cancer, and Hugo Vickers, author and friend of the royal family, mused that Harry would feel “riddled with guilt” if he never saw his dad again.

“The ball is in Harry’s court. He is the one who has to apologize and beg for forgiveness, and not the other way around,” Vickers told Page Six.

The last time Harry, 40, saw Charles was when he flew to London after the king announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024 — and was only given a 30-minute meeting.

Sources told us previously that Charles — who, it was announced Monday, will host President Donald Trump for his second state visit in September — is not cured, but is getting the best possible treatment.

In May, Harry told the BBC he “would love a reconciliation” with the royal family, in an emotional interview in which he said he was “devastated” at losing a legal challenge over his security in the UK.

Harry revealed that Charles “won’t speak to me because of this security stuff,” but added that he did not want to fight any more and did “not know how much longer my father has.”

The Mail on Sunday published photos of Meredith Maines, chief communications officer for Harry and Meghan Markle, meeting with Charles’ communications secretary, Tobyn Andreae, last Wednesday.

Liam Maguire, who oversees UK press for the Sussexes, was also present for the informal chat at the private club Royal Over-Seas League.

“[The staff] may well have just been discussing routine things, which is more than likely, but at some point you have got to reconcile,” Vickers said. “I don’t think we’ll see Harry returning to royal duties, but on a personal level it will be good if he’s able to get on terms with his father.”

The trio sat outside in full view of onlookers, which Vickers called “odd.”

Sussex sources said both camps were “frustrated” that photos of the meeting were leaked.

Maines had flown from Los Angeles to London to meet with the Sussexes’ UK team as well as media, stakeholders and senior figures connected to the Duke’s patronages.

Other royal sources speculated that Harry, Markle and their children — Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, who have had barely any in-person time with their grandfather — may get an invite from Charles to Balmoral, the Scottish estate where he stays every August.

“It’s his house he can do whatever he likes,” said Vickers. “But there’s quite a lot of ground to be made up.”

Harry and his brother, Prince William — who appeared with wife Kate Middleton and their two eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the Wimbledon’s men’s finals on Sunday — has not spoken to his younger brother in years. Sources have told William he has no plans to mend bridges with Harry.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/14/royal-family/what-the-meeting-between-prince-harry-king-charles-staffs-means/

China’s moves in the Yellow Sea parallel its behaviour in the South China Sea, says Pusan National University’s Robert Kelly.

Since 2018, China has installed several marine structures in overlapping South Korean-Chinese waters in the Yellow Sea. There are now three of them, which Beijing refers to as “deep-sea fishery aquaculture facilities”.

This has been a point of contention between the two governments, but the issue has risen in South Korean public awareness after Chinese coast guard ships and civilian boats forced away a South Korean research vessel sent to investigate these structures in February. This led to a two-hour standoff, during which the South Korean coast guard was also deployed.

China has rejected requests from South Korea to relocate the structures outside of the shared area and in May unilaterally declared “no-sail zones” within the area, according to a report by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

The situation creates a tough dilemma for South Korea, especially its new progressive president, Lee Jae-myung.

Unlike his conservative predecessor, Mr Lee wants to pivot away from a United States-aligned hawkishness on China and pursue a more transactional relationship which does not tie South Korea into a camp in the emerging Sino-US cold war.

But that would almost certainly require appeasement of China – such as tolerating these Yellow Sea encroachments.

PARALLELS WITH SOUTH CHINA SEA
China’s moves in the Yellow Sea parallel its behaviour in the South China Sea.

There, for decades, China has steadily encroached on the maritime claims of the littoral states, most particularly Vietnam and the Philippines. China has justified these expansions via an ostensibly historical claim to the South China Sea – the nine-dash line.

Such claims are highly contestable, of course. Almost every nation can put forward historically based claims to adjacent but disputed territory. Indeed, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was promulgated precisely to adjudicate these sorts of irreconcilable assertions. And an UNCLOS arbitration panel ruled unanimously against the nine-dash line in 2016.

China has ignored that ruling and continued to assert its position by reclaiming land, building artificial islands, and ramping up its air and naval facilities and patrols.

To avoid the open perception of military expansion however, Chinese civilian fleets – fishing boats and the coast guard – have led this territorial creep. The military only shows up later, after other claimants have effectively given up trying to stop the Chinese takeover. Strategic theory calls this “grey zone tactics” – craftily changing facts on the ground (and water) without the explicit use of force.

China’s opponents then struggle to find an appropriate response. For example, the US is a security partner to both the Philippines and Vietnam, but America is unlikely to risk war with China over low stakes like coast guard vessels circling sand bars.

GREY ZONE TACTICS IN THE YELLOW SEA
China’s steady gains in the South China Sea have likely encouraged it to try the same strategy in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. Pushing into the East China Sea has been hard. Japan has the resources and naval capabilities, which the Philippines and Vietnam lack, to push back on Chinese maritime expansion.

But the Yellow Sea is a better domain for China. Its North Korean ally is one of the relevant littoral states, and it will do nothing to deter China.

South Korea, the other relevant party, has a capable but small navy. Most of South Korean defence spending goes into land power.

Although South Korea has a long coast, the North Koreans have built such a massive army – 1.5 million men – and stationed it so close to South Korea’s capital, that South Korea spends disproportionately on its army and air force to outgun the North Korean threat. The South, for example, recently considered building an aircraft carrier to challenge China’s maritime expansion, but the national legislature rejected it as too expensive.

At present, South Korea mostly relies on US naval power for maritime security. This arrangement has been feasible in the past, but the Chinese navy is expanding rapidly. The US is unlikely to risk war with China over indeterminate structures in the East China Sea – just as it has been reticent to help the Philippines directly over low stakes like shoals and coral reefs.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-yellow-sea-south-korea-disputed-waters-president-lee-jae-myung-5235286

Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson can’t keep their hands off one another.

The couple was snapped all over each other on Sunday as they waited for President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s arrival at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey en route to the FIFA Club World Cup final soccer match.

Don Jr., 47, and Bettina, 38, matched in white button-up shirts and kissed while she kept her arms around him.

The two seemed oblivious to the other people around them as they kissed and hugged.

Page Six confirmed in December 2024 that the businessman and the socialite had struck up a romantic relationship over the summer.

By January, a source told Page Six that the two were “essentially living” together.

Since then, Don Jr. and Bettina haven’t been shy about showing PDA.

She also publicly defended her man in March when he was labeled a “spoiled heir” and an “a–hole” in a New York Magazine profile.

“Rumors are started by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots,” Anderson hit back on her Instagram Stories.

She also said her boyfriend was the “finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful and brilliant person” she had ever known.

Don Jr. was previously in a six-year relationship with former Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle. The two got engaged in 2022 before splitting two years later.

Nevertheless, President Trump appointed Guilfoyle as his US Ambassador to Greece.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/07/13/celebrity-news/donald-trump-jr-and-bettina-anderson-cant-resist-excessive-pda/

Two children in China were rescued after their mother sold them for cash, using the money on livestreamers and luxury items.

A woman in China has been sentenced to over five years in prison after she sold both her biological sons to fund her obsession with tipping livestream hosts, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Mother sold babies to fund livestreaming obsession
The woman, identified by her surname Huang, is a 26-year-old from Guangxi province in southern China. With only a primary school education and no stable support system, she moved to Fuzhou in Fujian province and took up odd jobs to survive.

As per SCMP, in October 2020, she gave birth to her first son. Unable to raise the child due to financial constraints and the absence of the father, she chose to sell the baby. Her landlord, surnamed Wei, introduced her to a relative, surnamed Li, whose son was infertile and looking to adopt. The child was sold for 45,000 yuan (approx. US$6,300), all of which Huang spent on tipping livestreamers.

Deliberately conceived second child to sell
When the money ran out, Huang took even more extreme steps. According to the report, she actively sought out men with the intention of conceiving a second child solely to sell the baby. In 2022, she gave birth to another son, whom she named Guyu. She sold him to a broker for 38,000 yuan (US$5,300), who later resold the baby for 103,000 yuan (US$14,000). Once again, Huang spent the entire amount on lavish items, including online tips and clothing.

Authorities intervene, children rescued
On April 13, 2022, authorities were alerted about Huang’s actions. A police investigation uncovered chat records on her phone indicating child-selling negotiations. Both boys were successfully rescued in April 2022 and are now under the care of local civil affairs departments, awaiting adoption.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/chinese-mother-sold-sons-for-11-600-spent-it-all-on-livestream-hosts-and-shopping-101752410956063.html

Bundestag President Julia Klöckner has said rainbow Pride flags must be removed from deputies’ offices.

Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), has been engaging in fiery debates with deputies from the opposition Left and Green parties about whether political and cultural symbols have a place in the German legislature.

The Bundestag’s administration, which Klöckner oversees, has ordered deputies to immediately remove rainbow flags displayed in and around their parliamentary offices. The flag represents the LGBTQ+ communities. The reason given by the Bundestag’s administration is that displaying flags in parliament is “fundamentally prohibited, regardless of their symbolism.” A spokesperson added that there had been reports from deputies that rainbow flags displayed in office windows were clearly visible from outside.

Paragraph 4 of the Bundestag’s house rules states that “posting notices, in particular posters, signs, and stickers on doors, walls, or windows in generally accessible buildings of the German Bundestag, as well as on windows and facades of these buildings visible from the outside, is not permitted.”

In the past, flags were generally permitted. Now, Left party member Stella Meredino reported that federal police were called in because of a rainbow flag in her Bundestag office.

Banning Pride symbols
Klöckner, a former agriculture minister who has been the Bundestag president since late March, is a combative conservative. She holds the second-highest office in the country and is expected to chair Bundestag sessions as independently as possible — free from party interests — to ensure that debates are held in a factual and calm manner. She also represents the Bundestag at large, and thus all of the deputies within it. Klöckner has, however, been known to make provocative statements against the Greens and Left, as well as against the Social Democrats, the junior partner’s in the government led by her CDU.

She drew the ire of LGBTQ+ deputies and those who consider themselves allies queer communities when she opposed the rainbow flag’s being flown above the Bundestag on Christopher Street Day, as pride is known in Germany. Raising the flag for CSD had become a tradition since 2022. Klöckner justified her refusal on grounds of neutrality.

From now on, the flag will be raised on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. This is although traditionally, CSD marks the most important date of the year for the queer community. This year, CSD falls on July 26. No flag will be flying above the Bundestag. Not even a petition signed by some 220,000 people calling for a rethink changed Klöckner’s mind.

A ‘bigoted understanding’?
Critics say Klöckner fails to recognize the pressures facing queer communities at this moment. Green Party member Lamya Kaddor told DW that Klöckner shows a “bigoted understanding” of neutrality. “At a time when queer people, and thus liberal society, are increasingly targeted by attacks and hateful rhetoric, we cannot afford such a formalistic notion of neutrality. Political responsibility means protecting the freedom and dignity of all people.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a fellow member of the CDU, has expressed support for Klöckner. On the well-known Maischberger talk show aired by public broadcaster ARD, Merz said “the Bundestag is not a circus tent” where any flag could be raised at will. He said there was one day a year, May 17, when the rainbow flag would fly from the parliament building.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-bundestag-boss-orders-removal-of-all-rainbow-flags/a-73247774

PILOTS “waved to kids” at Southend Airport moments before crashing head first into the ground and erupting in a huge fireball.

The medical transport jet burst into flames after crashing shortly after taking off from the strip in Essex.

The Beech B200 Super King Air was set to travel to Lelystad in the Netherlands, with an estimated departure time of 3.45pm.

It was equipped with medical systems for transporting patients, although it is unclear whether a patient was onboard.

Witnesses described seeing a “huge fireball” just before 4pm, with Essex County Fire and Rescue called to the incident at 3.58pm.

They said the pilots of the plane had waved at children shortly before the collision.

The twin-engined turboprop plane can carry around 12 people, although it has not been confirmed how many were in the plane at the time of the crash.

John Johnson, who witnessed the crash with his family, said: “We all waved at the pilots, and they all waved back at us.

“The aircraft then turned 180 degrees to face its take-off, departure, powered up, rolled down the runway.

“It took off and about three or four seconds after taking off, it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more of less inverted and crashed just head first into the ground.

“There was a big fireball. Obviously, everybody was in shock in terms of witnessing it.

“All the kids saw it and the families saw it. I phoned 999, reported it.”

He added: “I’d say that we’re pretty shaken up.

“I just feel sad for the people who were on the plane and, of course, their loved ones and their family, our thoughts are with them.”

A bartender at the nearby golf club, which was evacuated following the crash, said he felt “a big heat wave” before seeing a “massive fireball” in the sky.

James Philpott told the BBC: “I was just basically in a hut like in the middle of the course and I didn’t even see any plane go down or anything and I just felt like a big heat wave come through and I looked up and there was just a massive fireball basically 100 foot in the sky.

“It was more the heat really just kind of hit me as I was sitting there, just like, feel like I’m baking.”

He continued: “I think everyone was just quite shocked to be honest.”

London Southend Airport said in a statement: “We can confirm there has been a serious incident at London Southend Airport this afternoon involving a general aviation aircraft.

“We are working closely with the local authorities and will be able to provide more information as soon as possible.”

The cause of the crash is currently unknown.

ESN Report wrote on X: “Just witnessed a Beechcraft crash on take-off at Southend airport about 40 minutes after a Cessna also left the runway. Thoughts are with those on the aircraft.

“Absolutely tragic. Was waving to the aircrew just moments before.”

A statement from Essex Police reads: “We remain on the scene of a serious incident at Southend Airport.

“We were alerted shortly before 4pm to reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane.

“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours.”

In an update Essex Police said that they have now opened a dedicated online portal and phone line for anyone with information.

They added: “Flights at the airport were quickly grounded to ensure work could immediately begin on extinguishing the flames as quickly as possible.

“We have put a wide cordon in place to ensure all our emergency service colleagues can carry out their work safely, and we will be doing so overnight and into tomorrow morning.”

Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said: “In these very early stages it is vital we gather the information we need, and continue supporting the people of Essex.

“Please help us keep our emergency lines open by using these specific channels if you’re contacting us about this incident.

“We are working closely with all at the scene, as well as the Air Accident Investigation Branch, to establish what has happened today and why.”

Essex Police have asked the public to avoid the area, and also evacuated the nearby Rochford Hundred Golf Club.

Two fire crews from Southend, two from Rayleigh Weir and Basildon, and off road vehicles from Billericay and Chelmsford attended the scene.

The East of England Ambulance service announced that they have sent four ambulances, a rapid response vehicle, four hazardous area response team vehicles, three senior paramedic cars and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance to the scene.

All flights from Southend Airport departing today have been cancelled or diverted to alternative airports.

EasyJet has cancelled this evening’s flights to Paris, Alicante, Faro and Palma de Mallorca.

Customers can either rebook their flights or receive a refund.

EasyJet told the Independent: “We advise anyone due to travel from London Southend tomorrow to check out Flight Tracker for the most up to date information on their flight.”

MP for Southend West & Leigh, David Burton-Sampson, wrote on X: “I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport.

“Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work. My thoughts are with everyone involved.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14697718/fireball-plane-crash-southend/

See what precautions are recommended to travelers if they visit

A TRAVEL warning has been added to a popular bucket-list destination in Asia.

As hundreds of people jet off for the summer, US officials have asked for caution over a possible risk to life.

The US State Department has requested travelers “exercise increased caution” if they are going to India.

A Level 2 advisory comes before officials recommend travelers reconsider their plans which is Level 3.

Level 4 where people are told not to travel.

The travel alert was issued “due to crime and terrorism” with specific areas at more risk than others, it stated.

Officials rolled out the Level 2 advisory on June 16 highlighting increased violent crime at tourist sites and other locations.

This includes sexual assault and rape which is “one of the fastest growing crimes in India”.

It added that “terrorists may attack with little or no warning”.

The alert noted that such attacks target tourist locations, transport hubs, markets and shopping malls, and government facilities.

As a result, anyone working for the US government must get special authorization before travelling to certain parts of the country, namely, rural areas from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal.

The State Department noted that the government is restricted in getting emergency services to any of its citizens that are in these remote areas.

Under the travel advisory there are four specific regions that have do not travel warnings and a fifth where reconsideration of travel is advised.

It lists the following:

• Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir: Do not travel to this area (except for visits to the eastern Ladakh region and its capital, Leh) due to terrorism and civil unrest.
• India-Pakistan Border: Do not travel to this area due to potential for armed conflict.
• Parts of Central and East India: Do not travel to this area due to terrorism.
• Manipur: Do not travel to Manipur due to the threat of violence and crime.
• Northeastern states: Reconsider travel to this area due to terrorism and violence.

As well as avoiding these areas, the millions of Americans who travel to India every year must take some extra precautions under the new guidance.

NASA and JAXA fired a hand-sized X-59 model through a Mach 1.4 wind tunnel, gathering proof that its needle-nose and tailored wings can scatter shock waves into a muted “thump.”

The data validate computer predictions, setting the stage for the full-scale jet’s first flight and Quesst’s mission to rewrite the rules of supersonic travel without rattling communities below.

Supersonic Noise Test Milestone
NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently placed a scaled-down version of the X-59 experimental jet inside a supersonic wind tunnel in Chofu, Japan to measure how much noise might reach listeners on the ground.

The experiment marked a key step for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which aims to break the sound barrier without producing the ear-shattering sonic boom typical of supersonic flight.

Because the sound that reaches the ground is tied to the plane’s pressure signature, understanding that acoustic footprint is essential.

Scaled Model Wind-Tunnel Insights
The full-size X-59 stretches 99.7 feet long with a wingspan of 29.7 feet, yet JAXA’s tunnel measures just over 3 feet on each side.

To fit the tunnel, engineers built a model only 1.62 percent of the aircraft’s actual size—about 19 inches nose to tail—and exposed it to airflow matching the jet’s planned cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (approximately 925 miles per hour).

Data from these trials allows NASA researchers to compare real-world results with their Computational Fluid Dynamics predictions, which map how air will flow around the aircraft.

Understanding Shock-Wave Quieting
This marked the third round of wind tunnel tests for the X-59 model, following a previous test at JAXA and at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio.

The data will help researchers understand the noise level that will be created by the shock waves the X-59 produces at supersonic speeds.

The shock waves from traditional supersonic aircraft typically merge together, producing a loud sonic boom. The X-59’s unique design works to keep shock waves from merging, which will result in a quieter sonic thump.

Source: https://scitechdaily.com/nasa-blasts-x-59-quiet-supersonic-mini-jet-to-mach-1-4-in-tokyo-tunnel/

TWO women have been killed and multiple others injured after a horror double shooting in Kentucky.

A gunman opened fire at a state trooper at around 11:35 am at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington before going on a shooting spree at a church.

The shooter then fled to the Richmond Road Baptist Church where they carried out a second horror shooting, gunning down multiple individuals.

“I’m heartbroken to share the shooting in Lexington at Richmond Road Baptist Church has taken the lives of two people,” Governor Andy Beshear said in a statement on X.

“Other injuries- including a Kentucky State Police trooper from the initial stop — are being treated at a nearby hospital.”

Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers said the suspect was pulled over by a state trooper near to the local airport.

He then went on a frenzied attack, first shooting the officer and leaving him wounded.

Moments later he carjacked a vehicle and fled to Richmond Road Baptist Church and began shooting at people there.

Two women, aged 72 and 32, were killed with two male parishioners also injured, according to police.

It is believed that the suspect may have had a connection to those he attacked at the church, Weathers added.

The suspected gunman was later killed at the church after he killed two women, the Lexington Police Department confirmed.

Preliminary information indicates that the suspect may have had a connection to the individuals at the church, Weathers said.

“Kentucky State Police is aware of a trooper-involved shooting incident that occurred on July 13, 2025, at 11:36 a.m. in Fayette County,” cops wrote on X.

“The suspect shot a trooper and then fled the scene, ending up at the Richmond Road Baptist Church, at which time KSP and Lexington Police Dept were able to secure the suspect.

“At this time, we can confirm that the trooper is receiving medical attention.”

EMS rushed to the scene where there were multiple victims.

The condition and exact number of those injured is not yet not known.

“KSP will provide more information as it becomes available,” the police statement added.

An investigation is ongoing which is impacting Terminal Drive meaning people using the airport are being directed to use other parking.

However all flights are running as scheduled.

“Kelley and I are praying for all the victims, the injured trooper, and their families,” Senator Rand Paul wrote on X.

“We are grateful for the brave first responders. Violence like this has no place.”

He added that he was “saddened to hear about the tragic shootings”.

Meanwhile, Gov Beshear asked for prayers for those who were injured.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14698573/kentucky-richmond-road-baptist-church-shooting-lexington/

Forget Florida — a new Times Square ad debuting Monday will encourage New Yorkers to “flee” Zohran Mamdani and move to Ohio, The Post has learned.

The digital billboard is paid for by “Vivek Super PAC — Victors, not Victims”, which supports Vivek Ramaswamy’s Republican gubernatorial candidacy in the Buckeye State.

The $50,000 splash in the iconic tourist zone positions Ramaswamy, 39, as a counterpoint to the 33-year-old socialist who won last month’s Democratic primary for New York City mayor. Both men are of Indian descent and are rising stars in their respective parties.

“Worried About Zohran? Ohio Is Waiting For You!” the ad says.

Andy Surabian, chief strategist to VPAC, told The Post that concerned New Yorkers should move to a state “that is about to elect a conservative trailblazer committed to liberty and prosperity for all.”

“While Mamadani will further crush New York City with his job-killing socialist tyranny, Vivek is ready to unleash freedom, supercharge the American dream and make Ohio a state of excellence,” Surabian said.

“We put this billboard up because we couldn’t think of two politicians in the country that represent such wildly different paths for the future of our nation. The Mamdani path of socialist totalitarianism versus the Vivek path of American freedom,” he continued.

“For those New Yorkers who have had enough, freedom and prosperity are waiting for you in Ohio.”

The billboard is set to remain on display in Times Square all week.

Despite its lower cost of living, Ohio was only the 20th most popular state for New Yorkers to move to as of 2022 data from the Census Bureau.

The pro-Ramaswamy super PAC has raised $17 million to support his 2026 run for governor.

The Ohio businessman emerged from obscurity with his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. At one point, he was running third in the polls, which were led handily by President Trump.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/13/us-news/times-square-ad-takes-aim-at-radical-socialist-mamdani-urges-nyers-to-flee-to-ohio/

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was reportedly injured by an Israeli airstrike targeting a high-profile meeting in Tehran during the 12-day war, according to state media reports.

Pezeshkian, who last week accused Israel of trying to assassinate him during the war, was one of the officials who gathered at an underground facility in Tehran on June 16 for an emergency meeting of the state’s Supreme National Security Council, according to the Fars news agency.

During the meeting, six bombs were dropped on the location, with Pezeshkian said to have suffered injuries to his leg as he and the other officials escaped through an emergency shaft.

The airstrikes were extremely precise, according to the state outlet, with the bombs blocking all six main entry and exit points, along with the ventilation system.

Although the attack left the underground facility without power, Pezeshkian and the other top officials managed to get out alive.

The report provides more details on Pezeshkian’s claim last week during an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson, where the Iranian president said he had been targeted by an airstrike during a high-stakes meeting.

“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said when asked if he had been an assassination target.

“I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to move forward, but thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting,” he recounted.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz denied the allegations, reiterating that a “regime change” had not been the goal of the 12-day war, which targeted Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

The plot to kill Pezeshkian has reportedly triggered an internal investigation over how Israeli agents came to know his movements and the location of the Supreme National Security Council’s meeting.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/13/world-news/iranian-president-masoud-pezeshkian-was-injured-in-israeli-airstrike-during-12-day-war-report/

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived at the FIFA Club World Cup final in MetLife Stadium Sunday, getting a preview of the even grander soccer tournament the US is set to host next year.

The president and first lady had trekked up from the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster to watch Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea square off in the showdown at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

FIFA Club World Cup is a global contest between club teams — not to be confused with the FIFA World Cup, which is the world’s premier soccer competition between national teams.

The president and first lady were seen waving to the crowd as they took their seats to watch the big game.

MetLife Stadium is also poised to host the men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup final, marking the first time the US will hold the feted event since 1994.

Next year will be the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.

Trump did not have any other major events on his schedule for Sunday other than observing the FIFA Club World Cup final and traveling.

The president’s visit to the FIFA Club World Cup final comes on the one-year anniversary of his brush with death in Butler, Pa., when a would-be assassin’s bullet came within a quarter inch of killing him.

Trump did not have any announced plans to mark that harrowing date, though he did sit for an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara, which aired on Fox News Saturday night, in which he reflected on the assassination attempt.

“Well, it was unforgettable,” the president reflected during an interview on Fox News’ “My View.” “I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I got whacked. There’s no question about that.”

“And fortunately, I got down quickly. People were screaming, and I got down quickly, fortunately, because I think they shot eight bullets.”

Throughout his second term, Trump has frequented blockbuster sporting events such as Super Bowl LIX and UFC fights, but Sunday marked his first foray of the year at a major FIFA game.

Trump has long been a sports fan, and during his second term, he has upped his attendance to major competitions, particularly the UFC, amid his friendly rapport with its CEO, Dana White.

Earlier this month, Trump unveiled plans to host a UFC fight at the White House within the next year as part of the festivities to herald America’s 250th birthday.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/13/us-news/president-trump-melania-arrive-at-fifa-club-world-cup-final-at-metlife-stadium/