Category: World

In President Donald Trump’s second term, the United States has called on allies and partners in Europe and Asia to hike defence expenditures to 5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

Vigorous debate on the merits of such a target has ensued, among top-ranking government officials and faceless social media commenters alike.

Those in favour point to countries embroiled in long-running tensions in their neighbourhood, such as South Korea; and cite Western countries spending close to the 5 per cent figure during the Cold War.

In the opposing camp, some note the US itself spending 3.4 per cent of GDP on defence last year, even if it was the top spender globally in absolute terms.

One particularly well-received online remark stated: “Why should someone tell you how and how much to spend for (your) defence?”

Asia was drawn into the conversation at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, when US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Indo-Pacific allies in particular should spend more on their defence needs to deter the likes of China and North Korea.

The Pentagon chief said China was a real and imminent threat seeking to “fundamentally alter the region’s status quo”.

He said it did not make sense for key Asian allies to spend less than European and American countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whom he claimed were pledging to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence – a figure first floated by Mr Trump in January.

In the president’s first term, he said NATO members should raise their defence spending to 4 per cent of GDP.

The need to match Europe’s pace and level of defence spending was brought up again by the US Defense Department in June.

Last week, NATO agreed to more than double its defence spending benchmark from 2 per cent to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 – with the exception of some countries like Spain.

The historic decision by the 32-member alliance comes amid a war in their backyard – the deadliest since World War II – prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But it is a different picture in Asia despite Korean tensions, the China-Taiwan issue, friction between India and Pakistan as well as Thai-Cambodian clashes along a shared border.

And in Southeast Asia, the posture of most countries towards China is markedly different from the US’ assessment of Beijing as a threat, experts say.

BALANCING OR LEANING?

To be sure, Southeast Asian ties with China are not entirely without strain. Most prominently, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia have overlapping claims with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Issues over the vital waterway for global trade topped a list of geopolitical concerns in the region according to a study by Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS) think-tank.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have long been in the process of negotiating a code of conduct to keep peace and security in the South China Sea.

The ISEAS survey, published in April, polled over 2,000 thought leaders across the region. Asked who they would side with if forced to, 52.3 per cent picked the US while 47.7 per cent chose China.

The narrow margin reflects the “delicate balancing act” ASEAN must maintain between the two superpowers, with economic dependence on China and security interests with the US, ISEAS noted in its report.

The think-tank concluded that China remains perceived as the most influential economic and political-strategic power in Southeast Asia, outpacing the US by “significant margins”.

In a Jun 24 piece for American magazine Foreign Affairs, veteran Singapore scholars Khong Yuen Foong and Joseph Chinyong Liow observed that Southeast Asia was “clearly leaning towards” Beijing.

This was based on their assessment of interactions between ASEAN countries and China and the US, though they also added that “alignment patterns are not set in stone”.

Hundreds of followers of the Dalai Lama have gathered in northern India for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s 90th birthday, amid growing anticipation that he could give a clue about his eventual successor.

The Dalai Lama is due to release a video message and a statement on Wednesday, his office has told the BBC, although there’s no clarity on what he will say.

The Dalai Lama fled across the border to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

He set up a government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala and has been seen as an alternative source of power for those who resent Beijing’s tight control of Tibet.

The milestone birthday on Sunday will be preceded by the three-day 15th Tibetan Religious Conference, starting on Wednesday morning. Celebrations began on Monday – the Dalai Lama’s birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. On Monday, photos showed the Dalai Lama blessing Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower.

The Dalai Lama, who had earlier said he would release details about his succession around his 90th birthday, told a gathering on Monday that “there will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lamas”. He did not elaborate.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has been torn between whether to continue with the 600-year-old institution or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he has also said that if there’s widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor would be born outside China, something that has angered Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule.

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said she did not expect “a clear-cut procedure would be laid down” this week.

“I think everyone is kind of anticipating some kind of revelation from His Holiness about his reincarnation. But I do not expect a very specific kind of revelation,” she told the BBC.

The present Dalai Lama, she said, “is a binding and unifying force for the Tibetan movement” and some Tibetans feel somebody should be recognised soon as his successor because they worry that there may be an impact on the community and the movement going forward.

“The Dalai Lama institution is very important for the Tibetan struggle. It’s also a symbol of Tibetan identity and a beacon of our spiritual refuge. That will continue. I think there will be a vacuum, but we have to continue, we don’t have a choice,” she said.

“We have very, very big shoes to fill but we have to fill them, right? I think many people will have to get into that role, one person will not be enough.”

Experts, however, say if he does announce a successor, then China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama.

“China will argue that only the Communist Party of China based in Beijing has the authority to find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama,” Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, told the BBC.

“After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that.”

Ms Aukatsang says that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet”, Beijing has “completely failed”.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, she says, “will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn’t have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world.”

Tibetan Buddhists believe that their senior monks are reincarnated and a Dalai Lama is chosen by Buddhist officials if they are convinced that the one they are choosing harbours the soul of his predecessor.

The present – 14th – Dalai Lama was born on 6 July 1935 in a small Tibetan village in a farmer family and was named Lhamo Dhondub. When he was two years old, a search party of Buddhist officials recognised him as the reincarnation of the 13 previous Dalai Lamas.

According to his official biography, the clinching evidence came when the officials showed him a number of possessions that had belonged to his predecessor. The toddler correctly identified items belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama saying, “It’s mine. It’s mine”.

Enthroned before he turned four, he was educated at a Tibetan monastery and has a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

But in 1950, when he was 15, the troops of Mao Zedong’s newly-installed Communist government marched into Tibet. A year later, China drew up a 17-point agreement legitimising Tibet’s incorporation into China.

A Tibetan revolt in 1959, seeking an end to Chinese rule, was crushed and thousands of protesters were killed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvjjd7xw8go

 

U.S. Senate Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill on Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, advancing a package that would slash taxes, reduce social safety net programs and boost military and immigration enforcement spending while adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt.
The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for possible final approval, though a handful of Republicans there have already voiced opposition to some of the Senate provisions.

Trump wants to sign it into law by the July 4 Independence Day holiday, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said he aimed to meet that deadline.
The measure would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, give new tax breaks for income from tips and overtime pay and increase spending on the military and immigration enforcement. It also would cut about $930 billion of spending on the Medicaid health program and food aid for low-income Americans and repeal many of Democratic former President Joe Biden’s green-energy incentives.
The legislation, which has exposed Republican divides over the nation’s fast-growing $36.2 trillion debt, would raise the federal government’s self-imposed debt ceiling by $5 trillion. Congress must raise the cap in the coming months or risk a devastating default.

The Senate passed the measure in a 51-50 vote with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie after three Republicans – Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky – joined all 47 Democrats in voting against the bill.
The vote followed an all-night debate in which Republicans grappled with the bill’s price tag and its impact on the U.S. healthcare system.
Much of the late horse-trading was aimed at winning over Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who had signaled she would vote against the bill without significant alterations.
The final Senate bill included two provisions that helped secure her vote: one that sends more food-aid funding to Alaska and several other states, and another providing $50 billion to help rural hospitals cope with the sweeping cuts to Medicaid.

‘NOT FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY’

The vote in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority, is likely to be close.
Johnson, the House speaker, said during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Republican leadership would seek to move the legislation through the Rules Committee on Wednesday morning and get it before the entire House before Friday’s holiday, unless travel plans were upset by thunderstorms that have menaced the Washington area.
“Hopefully we’re voting on this by tomorrow or Thursday at latest, depending on the weather delays and travel and all the rest – that’s the wild card that we can’t control,” Johnson said.
A White House official told reporters that Trump would be “deeply involved” in pushing House Republicans to approve the bill.
“It’s a great bill. There is something for everyone,” Trump said at an event in Florida on Tuesday. “And I think it’s going to go very nicely in the House.”

An initial version passed with only two votes to spare in May, and several House Republicans have said they do not support the Senate version, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates will add $800 billion more to the national debt than the House version.
Republicans have struggled to balance conservatives’ demands for deeper spending cuts to reduce the impact on the deficit with moderate lawmakers’ concerns that the Medicaid cuts could hurt their constituents, including service cutbacks in rural areas.
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline conservatives who repeatedly threatened to withhold their support for the tax bill, has criticized the Senate version’s price tag.
“There’s a significant number who are concerned,” Republican Representative Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said of the Senate bill.
A group of more moderate House Republicans, especially those who represent lower-income areas, have objected to the steeper Medicaid cuts in the Senate’s plan.
Meanwhile, Republicans have faced separate concerns from a handful of House Republicans from high-tax states, including New York, New Jersey and California, who have demanded a larger tax break for state and local tax payments.
The legislation has also drawn criticism from billionaire Elon Musk, the former Trump ally who has railed against the bill’s enormous cost and vowed to back challengers to Republican lawmakers in next year’s midterm elections.
House Democrats are expected to remain unanimously opposed to the bill.
“This is the largest assault on American healthcare in history,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “It’s the largest assault on nutrition in American history.”

TAX BREAKS, IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN, TIGHTER BENEFITS

The Senate bill would deliver some of its biggest benefits to the top 1% of U.S. households, earning $663,000 or more in 2025, according to the Tax Foundation. These high earners would gain the most from the bill’s tax cuts, the CBO has said.
Independent analysts have said the bill’s tightening of eligibility for food and health safety net programs would effectively reduce poor Americans’ incomes and increase their costs for food and healthcare. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast that nearly 12 million more people would become uninsured under the Senate plan.
The bill’s increase in the national debt effectively serves as a wealth transfer from younger to older Americans, nonpartisan analysts have said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/senate-vote-a-rama-pass-trumps-33-trillion-bill-extends-into-second-day-2025-07-01/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday toured a remote migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as his Republican allies advanced a sweeping spending bill that could ramp up deportations.
The facility sits some 37 miles (60 km) from Miami in a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons, fearsome imagery the White House has leveraged to show its determination to purge migrants it says were wrongly allowed to stay in the country under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump raved about the facility’s quick construction as he scanned rows of dozens of empty bunk beds enclosed in cages and warned about the threatening conditions surrounding the facility.
“I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon,” Trump said at a roundtable event after his tour. “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is really deportation.”
The complex in southern Florida at the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport is estimated to cost $450 million annually and could house some 5,000 people, officials estimate.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said he will send 100 National Guard troops there and that people could start arriving at the facility as soon as Wednesday.

In promoting the opening of the facility, U.S. officials posted on social media images of alligators wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats. The Florida Republican Party is selling gator-themed clothing and beer koozies.
Two environmental groups filed a legal motion last week seeking to block further construction of the detention site, saying it violated federal, state and local environmental laws.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court, said construction will lead to traffic, artificial light and the use of large power generators, all of which would “significantly impact” the environment.
The groups, Friends of the Everglades and Center for Biological Diversity, said the site is located at or near the Big Cypress National Preserve, a protected area that is a habitat for endangered Florida panthers and other animals.

“Putting aside whether intractable political gridlock over immigration reform constitutes an ’emergency,’ it does not give license to the state and federal governments to simply disregard the laws that govern federal projects affecting environmentally sensitive lands, essential waterways, national parks and preserves, and endangered species,” the groups wrote.
Some local leaders, including from the nearby Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, have objected to the facility’s construction and the construction has drawn crowds of demonstrators.

Trump dismissed environmental concerns on Tuesday, saying in wide-ranging remarks that the wetlands’ wildlife would outlast the human species. He said the detention facility was a template for what he’d like to do nationwide.
“We’d like to see them in many states,” Trump said.

HARDLINE POLICIES

The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that adds tens of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement alongside several of the president’s other tax-and-spending plans.
Trump has lobbied fiercely to have the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday, and the measure still needs a final sign-off from the House of Representatives.
The Republican president, who maintains a home in Florida, has for a decade made hardline border policies central to his political agenda. One in eight 2024 U.S. election voters said immigration was the most important issue.
But Trump’s campaign pledges to deport as many as 1 million people per year have run up against protests by the affected communities, legal challenges, employer demands for cheap labor and a funding crunch for a government running chronic deficits.
Lawyers for some of the detained migrants have challenged the legality of the deportations and criticized the conditions in temporary detention facilities.
The numbers in federal immigration detention have risen sharply to 56,000 by June 15, from 39,000 when Trump took office, government data show, and his administration has pushed to find more space.
The White House has said the detentions are a necessary public safety measure, and some of the detained migrants have criminal records, though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention statistics also show an eight-fold increase in arrests of people charged only with immigration violations.
Trump has spoken admiringly of vast, isolated prisons, built by El Salvador and his administration has held some migrants at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, in Cuba, best known for housing foreign terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-play-up-alligator-alcatraz-deportations-florida-ahead-bill-deadline-2025-07-01/

For years, Rahim Suleman had reached out repeatedly to automakers and other potential clients to market the rare earth magnets from the plant his company was building in Estonia, one of just a handful outside dominant producer China.
But after April 4, when Beijing imposed new restrictions on the super-strong magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines, Suleman retired his sales pitch. He didn’t need it any more.

Ever since China’s export controls tightened some rare earth exports to a trickle in the midst of a trade war with the U.S., causing chaos in supply chains and some auto plant shutdowns, “the phone is ringing off the hook”, said Suleman.
Companies starting new plants in Europe, the U.S. and Asia had previously reported difficult talks on deals that embedded the higher costs to make magnets outside China, which benefits from cheaper labour costs and economies of scale as well as government support via tax refunds.
But the crisis has led many customers to soften or drop objections about paying those premiums as they scramble to hammer out deals, according to a dozen industry participants including automakers, magnet makers, rare earth producers, consultants and government officials interviewed by Reuters.

While rare earths magnets from China are beginning to flow again, customers remain on edge about the threat of future shortages.
Suleman’s company, Neo Performance Materials (NEO.TO), launched output of permanent magnets at its Estonia plant in May. Now, he said, “everybody wants to talk about how (they can) satisfy their demand out of our facility”.
He said he has no worries about lining up enough customers who will pay a premium – $10 to $30 per kg, with EVs typically holding 2-4 kg of magnets per vehicle – over the price they usually pay for Chinese magnets.
Output at Neo’s factory in Estonia is starting small, providing samples to its first customer, which Suleman declined to identify. German auto parts supplier Schaeffler (SHAn.DE), told Reuters it is a customer of the plant, but declined to comment on how much it is paying.

In Korea, customers of NovaTech (285490.KQ), which produces magnets in China, are prepared to pay 15% to 20% more for magnets made in Vietnam, a company source told Reuters, adding there was “a growing sense of crisis among customers”.
The company, which sells China-made magnets used in Samsung’s phones and tablets, is investing at least 10 billion won ($7.39 million) in a plant in Vietnam launching early next year to make magnets using locally processed rare earths from a partner, the person and another company official told Reuters.
Britain’s Less Common Metals, one of the few firms outside China involved in a key step of rare earths processing – making rare earth metals and alloys – says it is battling to cope with new enquiries.
“Now, post-April 4, it’s like someone stuck a cattle prod into the whole industry,” said Grant Smith, its majority owner and chairman.

A FINE BALANCE

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce took their “love story” to Ohio.

The couple was spotted on a low-key lunch date at JoJo’s Bar in Chagrin Falls on Tuesday, per local outlet WKYC.

Photos circulating on social media from the outing in the Cleveland area showed the “Fortnight” hitmaker sitting at a table with two other people.

An eyewitness told the outlet that one of the men pictured was her athlete beau.

The singer, 35, was spotted wearing a loose-fitting long-sleeved white shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

The Kansas City Chiefs star made an appearance in Chardon, Ohio, on Monday for the Alex’s Way charity golf tournament at the Sand Ridge Golf Club, per a fan account.

The casual sighting of the lovebirds came after the Cleveland Heights native made a confession about his high-profile relationship with the pop star.

During his appearance on Tuesday’s episode of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, Kelce, 35, was asked whether he “miscalculate[d]” anything about dating the Grammy winner.

The NFL player admitted he was forced to adjust to the level of paparazzi scrutiny in his life.

“That’s probably the only thing I didn’t really grasp until you’re in it. That’s probably the craziest thing,” the tight end said.

“Like, I’m just playing golf and all of the sudden in the trees there’s just a f–king guy with a camera,” he continued. “Like, ah s–t. I gotta go to the restroom now. I can’t just go over here and take a piss.”

Kelce clarified with the hosts that he has “never been ashamed of slamming beers” before he name-dropped us on the episode.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/01/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce-spotted-on-low-key-lunch-in-ohio/

Prosecutors amassed a mountain of damning evidence and key legal victories against Bryan Kohberger in the weeks before they offered him a plea deal for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.

Kohberger’s defense pushed for delays, tried to block most of the evidence against him, and even suggested a list of “alternate perpetrators” who they claimed could have committed the killings.

But the judge denied most of their motions, allowing a tidal wave of evidence to be presented against the 30-year-old criminology Ph.D. student at his trial, which was scheduled for next month.

The families of victims Kaylee Gonclaves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, slammed the decision to spare Kohberger a trial — and the chance of death by firing squad.

The mother of Ethan Chapin, 20, has said they support the plea deal, while Madison Mogen’s family has not publicly weighed in.

Here are the few of the biggest pieces of evidence prosecutors would have used at Kohberger’s trial.

A man with “bushy eyebrows”

One of the two survivors of the Moscow, Idaho attack reported spotting a masked man with “bushy eyebrows” prowling around the house around 4 a.m., when the stabbings occurred.

The description was bad news for Kohberger, whose own brows are replete with wool.

His defense asked Judge Steven Hippler to bar testimony and evidence related to “bushy eyebrows,” calling the witness’s description irrelevant and unreliable.

Hippler denied that motion, as well as a motion to block the survivors’ initial 911 call in which one mentions seeing a strange man in the house.

A white Hyundai

Security camera footage showed a white Hyundai Elantra circling the area around the victims’ house in the early morning hours on the day of the murders and finally speeding away just after 4 a.m.

Police began looking into local Hyundai Elantra drivers and landed on Kohberger, a PhD criminology student at the nearby Washington State University.

Cell phone tower records

Cell phone tower records showed that Kohberger – or at least his phone – had been up and about during the morning of the stabbings.

His phone disconnected from the network around 2:30 a.m. in Pullman, Wash., then reconnected around 4:30 a.m. near Blaine, a town outside Moscow.

Records also placed Kohberger near the house a dozen times in the days before the murder. He was also nearby around five hours after the slayings, suggesting he cased the property and returned to the crime scene.

A bloody, DNA-laced knife sheath

And perhaps most damning of all — prosecutors has physical evidence that put Kohberger inside the house.

Investigators found a bloody sheath for a Ka-Bar knife at the murder scene. His DNA was found on the button strap of the sheath.

Kohberger’s Amazon.com purchase history also showed he bought a Ka-Bar ahead of the attack.

Detectives recovered trash from Kohberger’s Pennsylvania family home to obtain genetic samples to match the DNA.

Some of the samples were actually recovered from the house next door, as officers watching the suspect observed him dropping off bags of trash in his neighbors’ trash cans.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/01/us-news/prosecutors-had-mountain-of-damning-evidence-against-bryan-kohberger/

Hockey Hall of Famer and Red Wings great Alex Delvecchio died Tuesday, the team announced.

He was 93 years old.

Delvecchio was a three-time Stanley Cup champion and spent 24 years in the NHL as one of the game’s best centers while playing alongside another NHL legend, Gordie Howe.

“Alex was more than a Hockey icon, he was a devoted husband, loving father, grandfather, great grandfather, cherished friend, and respected teammate to so many,” the Delvecchio family said in a statement. “While the world knew him as an incredible hockey player with numerous accomplishments on the ice, we knew him as someone whose humility, strength, competitiveness, kindness and heart were even greater than his professional achievements.

“For decades, your love and support meant everything to Alex and to all of us. We are deeply grateful and thankful to everyone.”

Outside of Howe, no player in Red Wings history may encompass playing for Detroit more than Delvecchio.

Delvecchio played the second-most seasons with the franchise, spending 12 as team captain — an honor only Steve Yzerman had held for longer.

Over the course of his NHL career, Delvecchio recorded 456 goals and 825 assists for 1,281 points in 1,550 games.

“When you think of the Red Wings, you think of Howe,” Bruins legend Phil Esposito told Sport magazine in 1971. “But Alex is the most underrated player in the game today — underrated by everyone but the players.”

Delvecchio became a mainstay on the Red Wings roster by the 1951-52 season, recording 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) during his rookie campaign as the Red Wings went on to win the Stanley Cup.

He would go on to become a key piece of the “Production Line” between Howe and Ted Lindsay, winning another two cups in 1954 and ’55.

After retiring 11 games into the 1973-74 season, Delvecchio would go on to coach and serve as general manager of the franchise at various points through the 1976-77 season.

“Alex was a cherished part of the Red Wings family, and I’m grateful for the years my husband Mike and I shared with him, as well as the remarkable legacy he leaves behind—both in the rafters of the arena and in the hearts of Red Wings fans everywhere. My heartfelt condolences go out to the Delvecchio family during this time of loss,” Red Wings co-owner Marian Ilitch said in a statement.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/01/sports/alex-delvecchio-red-wings-icon-and-hockey-hall-of-famer-dead-at-93/

For the fifth straight year, the folks who run the city’s Pride parade banned cops from marching in uniform: Gay officers have to closet their NYPD affiliation to participate.

The pretext that NYC Pride’s Heritage arm offers is that it doesn’t want anyone marching armed, and cops must carry their weapons when in uniform.

Yet the issue never proved a problem before Heritage imposed the ban in 2021, at the height of anti-police obsessions after George Floyd’s death.

Nor did anyone complain when NYPD officers responded rapidly Sunday night after two teens got shot near the Stonewall Inn.

Plus, of course, armed police guarded the parade itself.

“It is the height of hypocrisy that uniformed officers are fit to line the parade route and keep everyone safe, but they are unable to march in their own uniform and under their own banner,” thundered Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who joined protesting police on the parade sidelines.

“The ones being asked to stay out of sight are us, the gay, the trans, the queer, and our allied officers who have risked everything to serve both this city and this community. It is not about safety, it is about exclusion” decried Det. Brian Downey, president of Gay Officers Action League.

Blame the way the extremists seem to grab control of almost every left-of-center institution, including supposedly single-issue outfits like the ACLU, or figure it’s just part of how the “unicause” mysteriously demands a single party line on everything from surgically trans-ing kids to denouncing Israel to despising the police.

It’s still bizarre to see the now-triumphant gay-rights movement refusing to recognize the full identity of LGBTQ cops.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/01/opinion/end-the-pride-parades-hypocritical-ban-on-gay-nypd-officers/

While we typically think of cutting calories as an attempt to squeeze into our favorite pair of skinny jeans, it’s worth remembering that scientists think of it in terms of longevity more so than looks.

It’s been known for quite some time that severely reducing calorie intake can extend lifespan, which is why intermittent fasting has become all the rage.

However, even the most disciplined among us would admit that it’s “not sustainable” — a fancy way of saying that it sucks.

Now, a new study out of the UK suggests you can have your cake and eat it, too, so to speak.

A massive analysis recently published in the journal Aging Cell revealed that rapamycin — the immunosuppressant drug turned longevity darling — delivers almost the same life‑extension benefits as slashing calories.

“Dietary restriction — for example, through intermittent fasting or reduced calorie intake — has been the gold standard for living longer. But it’s difficult for most of us to maintain long-term,” Zahida Sultanova, a researcher at the University of East Anglia, said in a statement.

“We wanted to know if popular anti-aging drugs like rapamycin or metformin could offer similar effects without the need to cut calories,” she added.

Researchers analyzed 167 studies across eight vertebrate species, including primates, rodents and fish, to find that rapamycin’s results were surprisingly similar to rigorous dietary restriction.

The same findings did not hold for the popular Type 2 diabetes drug metformin.

Rapamycin, isolated from soil on Easter Island in the 1970s, was originally used to suppress immune response in organ transplant patients and treat rare diseases.

It works by inhibiting the mTOR pathway, which governs cell growth and repair, and it appears to mimic the cellular cleanup triggered by fasting, known as autophagy.

Although rapamycin is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of organ rejection, it’s not cleared for anti‑aging purposes in humans.

While low doses of the drug seem to have no serious side effects, some studies suggest that because it suppresses the immune system, it can raise the risk of infection.

Other common side effects include headache, chills, joint pain, diarrhea, nausea and mouth sores.

Anti-aging acolyte Bryan Johnson, 47, said last year that he dropped the drug from his routine after years of experimentation because “the benefits of lifelong dosing of rapamycin do not justify the hefty side-effects.”

He reported occasional skin and soft tissue infections, abnormal amounts of fats in his blood, heightened blood sugar and a higher resting heart rate.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/30/health/popular-drug-found-to-extend-lifespan-just-as-well-as-calorie-cutting/

Flights at several major airports along the East Coast were delayed after ground stops at all three of the New York metro area airports Monday afternoon sparked a travel disaster that stranded thousands from New York to Washington, DC.

The Federal Aviation Administration first announced that flights at JFK International Airport would be grounded due to a severe thunderstorm on the horizon.

Newark Liberty Airport was also added to the mix, with outgoing flights shut down until 6:30 p.m., according to the FAA.

LaGuardia Airport was eventually thrown in too and grounded all planes through 8 p.m., according to the FAA’s airport status.

The thunderstorm stops had a domino effect, beginning with delays at Philadelphia International Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport before spreading to others, trailing up and down the East Coast.

Wait times have kept ticking up even though the ground stops were only supposed to last through the early evening as airlines seek to make up for lost time.

Departure delays at JFK were estimated to be around 2 hours and 35 minutes, according to the FAA.

The single thunderstorm in the Empire State wound up sparking a staggering 1,500 flight delays.

On top of that, more than 6,000 flights in and out of the country were also delayed, and nearly 600 others were cancelled, according to FlightAware.

Flights in Washington were grounded until 5 p.m. Flights in Philadelphia, meanwhile, were stuck on the tarmac until 6:30 p.m., but their delays at least dropped down to just 1 hour and 15 minutes, according to the FAA.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/30/us-news/ground-stops-at-jfk-lga-and-newark-cause-thousands-of-flight-delays-at-airports-up-and-down-the-east-coast/

Chinese Foreign Minister Mao Ning said that the border dispute is complicated and takes time to resolve. She said that Beijing is ready to hold discussions on delimitation.

China on Monday said that the longstanding boundary dispute with India is “complicated” and will take time to resolve. However, it expressed readiness to hold discussions on delimiting the border and maintaining peace in the border areas.

The statement came in response to remarks made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun on June 26 in Qingdao, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ conclave.

During the bilateral talks, Singh proposed that India and China work towards resolving the “complex issues” under a structured roadmap. He called for steps to de-escalate tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and a rejuvenation of existing mechanisms to demarcate the border.

When asked to comment on Rajnath Singh’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday said that the two countries have already established the Special Representatives (SRs) mechanism and agreed on the “Political Parameters and Guiding Principles” for a boundary settlement.

“The boundary question is complicated, and it takes time to settle it,” Mao told reporters in Beijing regarding the apparent delay in resolving the issue despite 23 rounds of SR-level talks.

However, Mao noted that “the positive side is that the two countries have already established mechanisms at various levels for thorough communication.”

“China stands ready to maintain communication with India on issues including delimitation negotiation and border management, jointly keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil, and promote cross-border exchange and cooperation,” Mao said reiterating China’s readiness to continued dialogue.

The 23rd round of the SR-level talks between India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was held in December last year, marking the first such engagement since the 2020 border frictions in eastern Ladakh.

At that meeting, both sides positively affirmed the implementation of the October 2024 disengagement agreement, which enabled patrolling and grazing activities in the relevant areas.

In Qingdao, Singh emphasised the need to create “good neighbourly conditions” and called for “action on the ground” to bridge the trust deficit stemming from the 2020 standoff. He also briefed Dong on the recent Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terror networks in Pakistan.

When asked whether a resolution timeline could be expected, Mao responded, “We hope that India will work with China in the same direction, continue to stay in communication on relevant issues and jointly keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil.”

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/china-says-sino-india-border-dispute-complicated-ready-to-discuss-delimitation-2748574-2025-06-30

Republicans are inching closer to getting their tax and spending cut bill through Congress with a final Senate vote likely late Monday or early Tuesday.

At some 940 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. President Donald Trump has admonished Republicans, who hold majority power in the House and Senate, to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by the Fourth of July.

Democrats are united against the legislation and were offering scores of amendments to alter it Monday as the Senate slogged through what is known as a vote-a-rama. Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments, with each receiving a vote. Once the bill clears the Senate, it would have to pass the House before Trump can sign it into law.

Here’s the latest on what’s in the bill. There could be changes as GOP lawmakers continue to negotiate.

Tax cuts are the priority

Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump’s first term expire. The legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. It temporarily would add new tax breaks that Trump campaigned on: no taxes on tips, overtime pay, the ability to deduct interest payments for some automotive loans, along with a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year.

It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200. Millions of families at lower income levels would not get the full credit.

A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It’s a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years.

There are scores of business-related tax cuts, including allowing businesses to immediately write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research.

The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, which would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House’s version.

Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500, the CBO said.

Money for deportations, a border wall and the Golden Dome

The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump’s border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year.

The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions.

To help pay for it, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections.

For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security.

How to pay for it? Cuts to Medicaid and other programs

To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back on Medicaid and food assistance for the poor.

Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse.

The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program’s work requirements.

There’s also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services.

More than 71 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps.

The Senate proposes a $25 billion Rural Hospital Transformation Program to help offset reduced Medicaid dollars. It’s a new addition, intended to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that the proposed Medicaid provider tax cuts would hurt rural hospitals.

A ‘death sentence’ for clean energy?

Republicans are proposing to dramatically roll back tax breaks designed to boost clean energy projects fueled by renewable sources such as energy and wind. The tax breaks were a central component of President Joe Biden’s 2022 landmark bill focused on addressing climate change and lowering healthcare costs.

Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden went so far as to call the GOP provisions a “death sentence for America’s wind and solar industries and an inevitable hike in utility bills.”

Under the bill, a tax credit that subsidizes the production of electricity would be eliminated for any wind and solar plant not plugged into the grid by the end of 2027. But Republicans aren’t just looking to roll back the tax breaks Biden put into place: they’re also looking to add a tax for new wind and solar projects that use a certain percentage of components from China.

A tax break for people who buy new or used electric vehicles would expire on Sept. 30 of this year, instead of at the end of 2032 under current law.

Meanwhile, a tax credit for the production of critical materials will be expanded to include metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.

Trump savings accounts and so, so much more

A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities.

The House and Senate both have a new children’s savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury.

The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump’s long-sought “National Garden of American Heroes.”

There’s a new excise tax on university endowments. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars money to family planning providers, namely Planned Parenthood, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee.

Another section expands the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a hard-fought provision from GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, for those impacted by nuclear development and testing.

Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for exploration to Mars.

The bill would deter states from regulating artificial intelligence by linking certain federal AI infrastructure money to maintaining a freeze. Seventeen Republican governors have asked GOP leaders to drop the provision.

Additionally, a provision would increase the nation’s debt limit, by $5 trillion, to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-tax-cuts-bill-republicans-medicaid-snap-4ff35843e6a5247f37d048bde9b1f5ee

 

A former aide to two New York governors already facing charges of acting as an illicit agent of China pleaded not guilty on Monday to additional charges that she improperly profited from the state’s purchase of face masks and other key medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Linda Sun, 41, and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, — who is also charged — entered not guilty pleas to charges of wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Hu also faces tax evasion charges.

The two remain free on bond and are due back in court Aug. 25 ahead of an expected November trial.

Sun’s lawyer Jarrod Schaeffer declined to comment following Monday’s proceedings but has previously dismissed the new charges as “feverish accusations unmoored from the facts.” Hu’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond Monday but have also similarly denied the charges.

Prosecutors say the couple collected millions of dollars in kickbacks by exploiting Sun’s role in helping New York procure personal protective equipment, or PPE, during the pandemic in 2020.

They say Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen, used connections in her native China to secure PPE for the state, though she didn’t disclose her family’s ties to two vendors that received more than $44 million, prosecutors say.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/new-york-governor-aide-china-ppe-ba6211f16200091469ae76611ddca6a3

The young man’s heart was sliced from his chest and placed on his body. His name was No. 56 on a handwritten list of 60 dead that included his cousins, neighbors and at least six children from their coastal Syrian village.
The men who killed 25-year-old Suleiman Rashid Saad called his father from the young victim’s phone and dared him to fetch the body. It was next to the barbershop.
“His chest was wide open. They cut out his heart. They put it on top of his chest,” said his father, Rashid Saad. It was late afternoon on March 8 in the village of Al-Rusafa. The killings of Alawites were nowhere near over.
The slaughter of Suleiman Rashid Saad was part of a wave of killings by Sunni fighters in Alawite communities along Syria’s Mediterranean coast from March 7 to 9. The violence came in response to a day-old rebellion organized by former officers loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad that left 200 security forces dead, according to the government.

A Reuters investigation has pieced together how the massacres unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus. Reuters found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing. The investigation revealed 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the fallen Assad government.

Syria’s coastal killings

Nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites died in the March 7-9 massacres and dozens are missing. Reuters discovered 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting.

The days of killing exposed the deep polarization in Syria that its new government has yet to overcome, between people who supported Assad, whether tacitly or actively, and those who hoped the rebellion against him would ultimately succeed. Many in Syria resent Alawites, who enjoyed disproportionate influence inside the military and government during Assad’s two-decade rule.
The Reuters findings come as the Trump administration is gradually lifting sanctions on Syria that date back to Assad’s rule. The rapprochement is an awkward one for Washington: Syria’s new government is led by a now-dissolved Islamist faction, formerly known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which was previously al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front.
The group, formerly led by new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been under U.N. sanctions since 2014. Al-Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim like the majority of Syrians, became president in January after leading a surprise offensive that culminated in the collapse of Assad’s government and the capture of Damascus.

At least a dozen factions now under the new government’s command, including foreigners, took part in the March killings, Reuters found. Nearly half of them have been under international sanctions for years for human rights abuses, including killings, kidnapping, and sexual assaults.
Syria’s government, including the Defense Ministry and president’s office, did not respond to a detailed summary of the findings of this report or related questions from Reuters about the role of government forces in the massacres.

“The bullets were raining down on us, sister. We didn’t know where to go and how to escape.”

In an interview with Reuters just days after the killings, al-Sharaa denounced the violence as a threat to his mission to unite the country. He promised to punish those responsible, including those affiliated with the government if necessary.
“We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us,” he said.
Among the units Reuters found to be involved were the government’s General Security Service, its main law-enforcement body back in the days when HTS ran Idlib and now part of the Interior Ministry; and ex-HTS units like the elite Unit 400 fighting force and the Othman Brigade. Also involved were Sunni militias that had just joined the government’s ranks, including the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and Hamza division, which were both sanctioned by the European Union for their role in the deaths. The EU has not sanctioned the ex-HTS units. The United States hasn’t issued any sanctions over the killings.

President al-Sharaa has ordered a committee to investigate the violence and set up “civil peace” mediations.
Yasser Farhan, the spokesperson of the committee, said the president will receive its findings in two weeks as the committee is currently analyzing information then writing its final report based on testimonies and information gathered from over 1,000 people, in addition to briefings from officials and interrogations of detainees. He advised Reuters against publishing its findings before the report’s release.
“We are unable to provide any responses before completing this process in respect for the integrity of the truth,” he said, adding, “I expect that you will find the results useful, and that they uncover the truth.”
Killings continue to this day, Reuters has found.
Syria’s new government has said it feared losing control of the coast to the uprising of Assad supporters. It issued unequivocal orders on March 6 to crush an attempted coup of “Fuloul ,” or “remnants” of the regime, according to six fighters and commanders and three government officials.
Many men who received the commands had been wearing government uniforms for just a few months and shared an interpretation of Sunni Islam notorious for its brutality.

Some that day eagerly interpreted the word “fuloul” to mean any and all Alawites, a minority of 2 million people whom many in Syria blame for the crimes of the Assad family, who are Alawite.
One official of the new government, Ahmed al-Shami, the governor of Tartous province, told Reuters that Alawites are not being targeted. He acknowledged “violations” against Alawite civilians, and estimated around 350 people died in Tartous, in line with what Reuters also found. That figure has never been published by the government.
“The Alawite sect is not on any list, black, red or green. It’s not criminalized and it’s not targeted for retaliation. The Alawites faced injustice just like the rest of the Syrian people in general” under Assad, the governor said. “The sect needs safety. It’s our duty as a government which we will work on.”
In response to a request for comment on Reuters’ findings, Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Union, noted that the EU had condemned “horrific crimes committed against civilians, by all sides,” but did not say why former HTS units were not also sanctioned. Spokespeople for the U.S. State and Treasury Departments did not respond to requests for comment.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests descended into civil war. He went after any suspected dissidents. But Sunnis, who fielded the most visible of the armed groups arrayed against Assad, were disproportionately targeted.
Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters and commanders, and government-appointed investigators and mediators. Reuters also reviewed messages from a Telegram chat established by a Defense Ministry official to coordinate the government response to the pro-Assad uprising. The news agency’s journalists examined dozens of videos, obtained CCTV footage and reviewed handwritten lists of victims’ names.
Some of the attackers responding to the March uprising carried lists of names of men to target, including former members of Assad militias who had been temporarily amnestied by the new government. Entire families with those surnames would later appear on lists of the dead handwritten by village elders. Multiple survivors described how the bodies of their loved ones were mutilated.
The fighters, many of them masked, mustered in the new government’s heartland of Idlib, Homs, Aleppo and Damascus. And when armored convoys rolled out to western Syria, the militias’ cries of “Sunnis, Sunnis” rose in the night along with rhyming slogans calling for people to “slaughter the Alawites,” according to videos verified by Reuters.
Many of the videos showed fighters humiliating Alawite men, forcing them to crawl and howl like dogs. Others, some filmed by the fighters themselves, showed piles of bloodied bodies.

Among the dead were entire families, including women, children, the elderly and disabled people in dozens of predominantly Alawite villages and neighborhoods. In one neighborhood, 45 women were among the 253 dead. In another village, 10 of 30 killed were children. In at least one case, an entire Alawite town was emptied almost overnight, its hundreds of residents replaced by Sunnis.
The first question arriving fighters asked residents was telling, according to more than 200 witnesses and survivors: “Are you Sunni or Alawite?”

THE UPRISING

Ubaida Shli and his twin brother were the youngest of a Sunni family of nine boys and girls from Idlib, a city in northwest Syria, according to their older sister, Yasmine.
The twins traveled to Libya as mercenaries. Two years ago they joined the HTS law enforcement body known as General Security Service in Idlib, where HTS was essentially running its own parallel administration.
That was how Shli found himself, at age 23, wearing the black GSS uniform and guarding a checkpoint near the town of Baniyas, according to Yasmine and the WhatsApp voice notes he sent her, which Reuters reviewed.
Around sundown on March 6, the checkpoint and other GSS posts across Latakia and Tartous provinces came under attack and dozens of security forces died.
According to the new government and residents of the regions, the attackers were led by officers still loyal to Assad.
The officers were joined by young men who lost their livelihoods when the new government fired thousands of Alawite employees and dismantled Assad’s security apparatus, according to interviews with residents. One community leader described the uprising as a spontaneous decision of desperate people.
Shli sent his sister a voice message around 8:30 p.m. to tell her half the men around him were dead. He sounded calm and resigned to his fate.
“He said he was helping find ways to get the bodies of the men out,” she said. She asked why he didn’t run away. His response: There is no escape.
Yasmine learned her brother was dead two hours later.
Pro-Assad forces also staged attacks in Baniyas, the biggest city in Tartous. They seized the main road and hospital and attacked the new government’s security headquarters, according to Aboul Bahr, a security official stationed in Baniyas who was spending that night in Idlib. Reuters could not independently verify his account.

Al-Sharaa said 200 security forces were killed in the uprising but the government has not released names or an updated tally. The Defense Ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about an updated number of forces killed or the role of government-affiliated forces in the massacres of Alawites.
The EU on June 23 imposed sanctions on three pro-Assad officers, saying they were responsible for leading militias that “fueled sectarian tensions and incited violence.”
Supporters of the fallen leader “wanted to stage a coup and declare an autonomous region along the coast,” said Hamza al-Ali, the GSS officer in charge of the town of Al-Qadamous, nearly 30 kilometers to the east.
The Defense Ministry called for reinforcements from all the factions that had recently joined President al-Sharaa’s forces. Mosque megaphones across the country sounded calls for jihad.
Mohammed al-Jassim, commander of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade told Reuters he was hospitalized in Turkey for health reasons when the fighting erupted. Reuters could not confirm al-Jassim’s location during the massacres. He denied his men had any role in the violence.
He said he was soon added to a chat group led by a top Defense Ministry official, whom he said he knew only as Abu Ahd. Abu Ahd al-Hamawi is the pseudonym of Hassan Abdel-Ghani, the Defense Ministry spokesman.
Al-Jassim’s brigade, which is also known as Amshat, was ordered to reopen the coastal M1 highway linking Latakia and Jableh. He said his militia took up positions outside the city of Jableh.

As the massacres of Alawites unfolded, the Defense Ministry spokesman Abdel-Ghani said publicly the operation on the coast was proceeding as planned with the goal of keeping control of the region and “tightening the noose on the remaining elements of officers and remnants of the fallen regime,” according to the state-run news agency SANA.
Behind the scenes, Abdel-Ghani was running the Telegram chat of militia leaders and military commanders that coordinated the government response to the pro-Assad uprising, according to a dozen text and audio messages in an exchange between him and a senior commander from another faction.
Two people confirmed the Telegram handle was Abdel-Ghani’s and that Abu Ahd is his nom de guerre. Reuters contacted him directly on Telegram at the handle. He told Reuters he has been questioned by the committee investigating the killings but declined to comment further.
The messages referred to force locations and movements, including one from Abdel-Ghani at the bridge leading to the village of Al-Mukhtareyah, where massacres were taking place.
Nanar Hawach, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the killings eroded the new government’s legitimacy among Syrians, especially minorities.
“Deploying units known for hostility toward communities they view as adversaries, and with a track record of abuse, led to predictable outcomes,” Hawach said. “They failed to uphold their basic duty to protect.”
In a sign of the government’s tenuous control over its own fighters, newly integrated factions faced off in village streets at times, according to witnesses in three different locations who all described seeing one side trying to protect bewildered civilians from uniformed men trying to kill them.

578 DEAD, 26 LOCATIONS

The M4 highway leads inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The M1 leads south, paralleling the coastline before veering east near Lebanon.
The massacres that began before dawn on March 7 would mostly follow those two arteries. Many of the towns were farm communities, with citrus orchards hanging heavy with lemons and oranges in March and fields of vegetables that grow abundantly year-round in the Mediterranean climate.
Al-Mukhtareyah, the first village off the M4 highway connecting Idlib and Latakia, came under attack around 6 a.m.
Swarms of men, including many in GSS uniforms, broke down doors to pull men outside, forcing some to crawl and dragging others away, eight witnesses told Reuters. The shooting lasted about an hour. When it was over, 157 people were dead – nearly a quarter of Al-Mukhtareyah’s population, according to a list from a community leader that Reuters verified with multiple surviving residents.
They included 28 members of the Abdullah family; 14 from the Darwish family; and 11 from the al-Juhni family, according to the lists compiled by survivors and community leaders.
“The bullets were raining down on us, sister. We didn’t know where to go and how to escape,” said a woman who lost her father and brothers.
Another woman who lost 17 relatives shared a screenshot from a video verified by Reuters. She pointed to a pile of bodies in the screenshot and said: “This is my family.”
She traced an arrow onscreen toward a dead man in a pale jacket and sent it to Reuters. “This is my husband.”

The village was all but empty days after the massacre, residents said. With no one to harvest, oranges rotted on the trees.
The villages with the most bloodshed were those whose residents belonged to a subset of Alawites called al-Klazyia, according to Ali Mulhem, founder of the Syrian Civil Peace Group, an organization that documents abuses and mediates disputes. The Assad family were al-Klazyia Alawites, as were many of the dictator’s ranking security officials, said Mulhem and a senior Alawite community leader.
Among the places linked to the al-Klazyia sub-sect was Sonobar, a farming community of around 15,000 whose homes are interspersed with fields of vegetables.
The elite HTS force called Unit 400 moved into Sonobar in December, promising that the town would be left in peace under the new leadership, three villagers told Reuters. They described life as tense, but bearable.
Early on March 7, the Unit 400 men and hundreds of reinforcements converged and started killing. In all, according to 17 witnesses, nine separate factions attacked.
One young man said he saw Unit 400 fighters opening fire as they entered his house. Eleven relatives died. He survived by hiding in an upstairs pantry.
Another faction that attacked was the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, according to survivors who recognized the brigade’s badges. The brigade came to prominence as a Turkish-backed militia during the civil war and has been under American sanctions since 2023, accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of “harassment, abduction, and other abuses.” Al-Jassim told Reuters those allegations were “fabrications” and described his men as highly disciplined.

Spokespeople for the GSS and the Defense Ministry, which oversees Unit 400, didn’t respond to questions about the attacks. Turkey, asked to comment on the role of Sultan Suleiman Shah and other Turkish-backed militias in the killings, did not respond. Turkey’s government hasn’t issued a public response to the EU sanctions imposed on the militias in May.
In a selfie video from Sonobar, a uniformed fighter shows bodies and proclaims: “Suleiman Shah defeated the remnants of the former regime. God is great and thanks to God.”
The camera later pans to 11 unarmed men in civilian clothes, lying dead on some of Syria’s most fertile soil, now tinged with blood. Among the dead pictured were a motorbike repairman, two students, two farmers and an amnestied policeman, according to relatives of the dead, who identified them by name.

Al-Jassim, the commander of Sultan Suleiman Shah, denied that his men were responsible for killings in any of the villages they entered.
“As a commander of a military unit, I know that any order must be obeyed in its entirety,” he told Reuters. “Commands are carried out verbatim, no more, no less.”
In April, the militia – by then rebadged as the 62nd Division of Syria’s army – said the man who filmed the video had no connection with Sultan Suleiman Shah and accused him of impersonating a fighter “to tarnish the reputation of the Division and distort its record.” Reuters could not independently confirm the man’s identity or affiliation.
Another group identified themselves as fighters for the Jayish al-Islam militia.
Jayish al-Islam’s media officer posted pictures on Facebook of fighters heading to the coast on March 7. He also posted a copy of an amnesty document he claimed was found on the body of the Assad-era policeman indicating that the dead man had broken the pledge he signed not to take up arms against the new government.
“There is no safety, no stability in our country except by purging them,” wrote Hamza Berqidar, the media officer. The post received 160 likes.

One woman from Sonobar told Reuters the fighters commandeered her living room.
“Do you know who we are?” one asked her. She said she replied: “You’re the army!”
No, she said they told her. “We are jihadists from Jayish al-Islam. We came to teach you Islam.”
Media officer Berqidar and Jayish al-Islam didn’t respond to requests for comment on the violence.
In all, 236 residents of Sonobor were killed, according to lists reviewed by Reuters and verified with multiple residents. They were mostly young men, ranging in age from 16 to 40. The injured included a pregnant woman, who miscarried but survived her gunshot wounds.
One young mother said her husband was at a neighbor’s when her door was smashed down. The gunmen went upstairs and started breaking things, looking for him.
The group left and was replaced by another faction, she said. Then a third, whose leader embraced her children and promised they would be unharmed. A fourth faction opened fire on the building. A fifth group of fighters, wearing green headbands, arrived with a translator. They didn’t speak Arabic. She didn’t recognize their language.
“Three militants came and pointed rifles at my head,” she said. They told her: “You are Alawite pigs. You deserve what is happening to you. If you cry you will be shot dead, and your body will be on top of the other dead bodies.”
All the time, she said, she was trying in vain to reach her husband.
After sunset, the woman ventured out. She found him on the ground, shot in the eyes and heart.
Witnesses said the fighters stole food to break the Ramadan fast, celebrating outside as terrified women peeked through the windows.
A photo from Sonobar, confirmed by two surviving Alawites from the town, showed a message scrawled on the wall of one home: “You were a minority, and now you are a rarity.”

828 DEAD, 10 LOCATIONS

The first group of armed men to arrive Saturday in the town of Al-Rusafa numbered around a dozen. It was a little after 10 a.m. Some wore black fatigues and sneakers.
Residents had been trapped inside since the day before, when a government convoy of around 50 vehicles, including a tank, had set up positions around the village, cut the electricity and started shooting, sometimes at people and sometimes at random.
Now, on Saturday, this new group of fighters seemed unsatisfied when they peered inside the Saad family home.
“They ordered the boys to lie on the floor, which they did. They dragged them outside,” said Ghada Ali. She watched helplessly as they stepped on the prone body of 17-year-old Saleh, her youngest.
“They told them to howl like dogs while filming them,” she said. After a time, they sent Saleh to his mother, and then one of the fighters asked why she still wept. “I want my children,” she responded.
“We sent you one back,” she said they told her. As for her elder son, 25-year-old Suleiman Rashid, they said perhaps he’d return soon.
Instead, his father Rashid Saad received a phone call. “We killed him and cut out his heart,” they told him. “Come get your son before the dogs eat him.”
Saad and his brother, who lost four sons that day, grabbed blankets and called on Saleh to help. They carried all five bodies home, and the women buried them in the garden, Saad said.
The community leader said the attackers identified themselves as from the Hamza, Sultan Suleiman Shah and Jaysh al-Ezza factions. Representatives of Hamza and Jaysh al-Ezza declined to comment on the violence in the town. Al-Jassim denied his men were ever in Al-Rusafa.
In all, 60 Alawites died in Al-Rusafa, according to lists seen by Reuters. The youngest was a 4-year-old.

Just as in Sonobar, survivors said the attackers left a message on the walls: “Sunni men passed through here. We came to shed your blood.”
Nearer the coast, the residents of Qurfays despaired. The town and the white-domed shrine at its center are named for Ahmed Qurfays, a revered Alawite religious figure.
Forces from the Othman Brigade, along with Unit 400, had taken up positions in the village after Assad’s fall, according to two survivors and one person with relatives there.
On Friday, with news of the killings spreading around the region, villagers chose four respected residents to mediate with the Othman Brigade fighters.
They sat in a semicircle on a farmhouse balcony outside Qurfays, and the villagers tried to persuade the fighters that the town harbored no Assad supporters and there was no need for them to stay and fight. “They insisted on staying, because they said there was a plan already in place,” said a person familiar with the talks. The sound of automatic weapons and anti-aircraft guns rattled in the distance.
The fighters and mediators left the farmhouse and headed back to the village. While they had been talking, a half-dozen men were shot to death there, and their bodies were strewn across the shrine’s yard and steps, according to two witnesses.
The Defense Ministry, which directly oversees the Othman Brigade and Unit 400, did not respond to requests for comment about the killings in Al-Rusafa and Qurfays.
“None of these men were carrying weapons, and no one was part of the former army. One of the men was mentally ill,” one of the witnesses said.
Around 50 worshippers were beaten inside the shrine, said the other witness, who was among the injured.
Still, it felt like perhaps they’d escaped the mass death they’d heard about elsewhere. On Saturday morning, the witnesses said, they realized they were wrong.
A new convoy of 80 vehicles arrived. Someone fired once in the air, and then, as though awaiting a signal, the militia members opened fire. In all, 23 people died over two days, according to photos of the dead shared with Reuters.
Looting continued as Qurfays mourned, said the witness who was beaten inside the shrine. The man said his brother was killed.
He said one of the Unit 400 men told him crying was banned and that the village should be thankful just for being allowed to bury their dead.
“I couldn’t cry,” the man said. “I didn’t have the courage to cry.”

74 DEAD, 4 LOCATIONS

By Sunday, the frenzied killings were subsiding.
It was time to bury the dead, fearfully and often in secret.
For 48 hours or more, grieving Alawite women had stood guard over the bodies of fathers, brothers, husbands and children. Many families only discovered the scale of the violence when they emerged to streets reeking of death, or tried to beat away dogs ripping apart corpses.
In Baniyas, near where the pro-Assad attack on the checkpoint touched off the revenge killings, there were 253 bodies to bury, according to the lists of the dead shared with Reuters.
In the town of Jableh, the toll stood at 77 Alawites, according to 30 family members. The town was targeted by Unit 400 and the Othman Brigade, along with Sultan Suleiman Shah, Hamza and the Turkistan Islamic Party, made up of Uyghurs and other foreign fighters, according to six witnesses and one security official in Jableh.

Suleiman Shah commander Al-Jassim said his men entered Jableh and left because they saw “many violations” and did not want to take the blame for killings that weren’t their fault. Representatives of the other forces didn’t reply to questions.
The Telegram chat showed the Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Abdel-Ghani, was notified about “breaches” in Jableh. His response, in the chat: “May God reward you.”
Many survivors, especially in Baniyas, said they had Sunni neighbors who smuggled them to safety or who tried to protect them.
In Jableh, a Sunni neighbor intervened to help evacuate the mortally wounded husband of Rasha Ghoson, over the objections of two General Security Service men. With her neighbor’s help, an ambulance agreed to take Ghoson’s husband to Latakia, but doctors there couldn’t revive him.
Standing alongside the body in the overflowing morgue, Ghoson said a GSS officer in charge of death records refused to issue a document to an Alawite.
“He said: ‘infidel!’” and walked away, she recalled. Her legs and hands trembled as she recounted the ordeal.
As with most of the massacre victims, there is still no death certificate for Ghoson’s husband.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/

President Donald Trump’s administration will not deport children deemed ineligible for U.S. citizenship until his executive order curtailing birthright citizenship takes effect on July 27, a government lawyer said on Monday after being pressed by two federal judges.
During separate hearings in lawsuits challenging Trump’s order, U.S. District Judges Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Joseph LaPlante in Concord, New Hampshire, set expedited schedules to decide whether the order can be blocked again on grounds that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, curbing the ability of judges to impede his policies nationwide does not preclude injunctions in class action lawsuits.

Both judges asked U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Brad Rosenberg, who represented the government in both cases, for assurances that the Trump administration would not move to deport children who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident at least until the executive order takes effect.
Rosenberg said it would not, which Boardman and LaPlante respectively asked him to confirm in writing by Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the Maryland case, immigrant rights advocates revised their lawsuit just a few hours after the 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled in their case and two others challenging Trump’s executive order. The New Hampshire lawsuit, a proposed class action, was filed on Friday.

The Supreme Court ruling did not address the merits or legality of Trump’s birthright citizenship order, but instead curbed the ability of judges to issue “universal” injunctions to block the Republican president’s policies nationwide.
But while the Supreme Court restricted the ability of judges to issue injunctions that cover anyone other than the parties appearing before them, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion held out the possibility that opponents of a federal policy could still obtain the same type of relief if they instead pursued cases as class actions.
William Powell, a lawyer for immigration rights groups and pregnant non-citizen mothers pursuing the case, told Boardman at a hearing on Monday that an immediate ruling was necessary to address the fears and concerns migrants now face as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision.

“They want to see how fast we can get class relief because they are afraid about their children and their babies and what their status might be,” Powell said.
Trump’s executive order, which he issued on his first day back in office on January 20, directs agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also known as a “green card” holder.
In Friday’s ruling, the high court narrowed the scope of the three injunctions issued by federal judges in three states, including Boardman, that prevented enforcement of his directive nationwide while litigation challenging the policy played out.
Those judges had blocked the policy after siding with Democratic-led states and immigrant rights advocates who argued it violated the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which has long been understood to recognize that virtually anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

Immigrant rights advocates in the hours after the Supreme Court ruled swiftly launched two separate bids in Maryland and New Hampshire to have judges grant class-wide relief on behalf of any children nationally who would be deemed ineligible for birthright citizenship under Trump’s order.
The Supreme Court specified the core part of Trump’s executive order cannot take effect until 30 days after Friday’s ruling. Boardman on Monday pressed Rosenberg on what it could do before then.
“Just to get to the heart of it, I want to know if the government thinks that it can start removing children from the United States who are subject to the terms of the executive order,” Boardman said at the end of the hearing.
Boardman scheduled further briefing in the case to continue through July 9, with a ruling to follow. LaPlante scheduled a hearing for July 10.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-lawyer-says-no-immediate-deportations-under-birthright-citizenship-order-2025-06-30/

Melissa Parizot’s work is a cut above the rest.

The celebrity hairstylist and co-owner of IGK Salon, who goes by MelissaWillCutYou on Instagram, has chopped the locks of style stars like Sofia Richie Grainge, Paige DeSorbo, Brooks Nader and even Sir Paul McCartney. Her bespoke cuts, which currently have a five-month waitlist, will set you back between $400 and $600.

But when Parizot moved to NYC in her early 20s, she was making just $8.75 an hour as a salon assistant.

“Surviving in New York on $280 a week is really difficult, but it’s also the thing that pushed me. It forced me to love what I do,” the beauty pro tells Page Six Style.

Parizot also quickly learned that even at a top salon, competition for clients can be fierce — so she harnessed the power of social media to reach out to influencers, offering them free trims in exchange for posts on their platforms. It worked.

“I got a few girls in, and then their friends wanted to come in too. And I still do hair for those girls today,” she says.

Parizot’s big break came in late 2018, when she lopped Hailey Bieber’s long, blond locks into a chin-length bob. The model’s new ‘do went viral, and requests from beauty editors and new clients started pouring in.

She says Bieber, who has fine hair, was excited by the prospect of a beauty reset; most celebrities and models subject their strands to daily damage through the use of hot tools and extensions, and a big chop can make a major difference in the health of their hair.

“You can hold onto hair that’s not working and have the length that you want, but what if we work with what you have and try to make your hair look its best where it’s at right now?” Parizot says.

Another early high point came when the hairstylist found herself in the home of a music legend.

“I got the opportunity to go to Paul McCartney’s house to do his wife’s hair, and that was pretty epic,” she recalls, adding that she wound up giving the 19-time Grammy winner a trim too — but was able to maintain her composure because she “didn’t grow up listening to the Beatles.”

“When you don’t really know how cool it is, you don’t fangirl,” she says. “Celebrities are real people! Discretion is always really important.”

While a short cut might’ve catapulted her career, these days Parizot is best known for her long, bouncy, layered looks. She also prefer cutting clients’ hair while it’s dry rather than wet, which gives her a full picture of the hair’s natural shape and texture as she works.

“I’m definitely known for very big, voluminous blowouts,” she says, but adds that she always tailors her cuts to her clients’ individual face shapes and lifestyles: “These voluminous looks are gorgeous, but at the end of the day, how many people are roller-setting their hair at home?”

And given the considerable cost and waiting time attached to her appointments, Parizot also considers the grow-out period before she starts snipping away; after all, some of her clients fly in from other continents for her services.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/30/style/meet-melissa-parizot-the-celebrity-hairstylist-whose-600-cuts-have-a-5-month-waitlist/

A$AP Rocky appears to have slipped up and revealed the sex of his third baby with Rihanna.

Fans are convinced the rapper, 36, accidentally broke the news on the red carpet of the Smurfs world premiere in Brussels.

Rocky came out to the event on Saturday to support his singer girlfriend, who stars as Smurfette in the new movie.

The A-list couple already has two sons, RZA, 3, and Riot, 1, together.

Now, it seems like they may be expecting a baby girl next.

Rocky appeared to reveal the baby’s gender in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Is that the girl you’ve been waiting for?” the interviewer asked.

“It is, man, it is,” Rocky said and nodded before quickly holding up a Smurfette plush toy.

He redirected his answer to the toy as he laughed, adding, “Right here, right here.”

The interviewer responded, “You know what I’m asking!”

Fans in the comments of the video were quick to jump to conclusions.

“That was a slick way to ask if she is having a girl,” one Instagram user wrote.

Another added, “He definitely gave it away!”

Earlier in the clip, Rocky laughed when the interviewer asked him how many kids the couple planned on having together.

“We’re going to be like the Wayans family, you know?” he said, referencing the iconic family that had 10 children before answering more seriously.

“I mean love is beautiful and we’re just spreading it.”

Ahead of the Smurfs world premiere, Rihanna and Rocky were also seen attending Paris Men’s Fashion Week with their son Riot.

Rihanna arrived at the show while carrying the toddler in one arm before sitting in the front row with him on her lap.

The singer debuted her baby bump at the 2025 Met Gala in May, hours after her partner confirmed the exciting addition to their family.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14593636/rihanna-asap-rocky-baby-gender-pregnant-smurfs-sons/

While speaking on the India-US trade deal, the White House said Trump shares a “very good relationship” with Modi and the agreement is nearing completion.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described India as a “strategic ally” in the Indo-Pacific region during a press briefing on Monday (US local time) while addressing a question on the India-US trade agreement, she added that President Donald Trump shares a “very good relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and noted that the trade deal is close to completion.

US President Donald Trump (R) and PM Narendra Modi during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC. (File)(Bloomberg)
US President Donald Trump (R) and PM Narendra Modi during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC. (File)(Bloomberg)
“Yes, the President said that last week (that the US and India are very close to a trade deal), and it remains true. I just spoke to our Secretary of Commerce about it. He was in the Oval Office with the President. They are finalising these agreements, and you’ll hear from the President and his trade team very soon when it comes to India,” ANI news agency quoted her as saying.

Responding to a question regarding China’s role in the Indo-Pacific, Leavitt reiterated, “India remains a very strategic ally in the Asia Pacific and the President has a very good relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and he will continue to have that.”

Responding to a question regarding China’s role in the Indo-Pacific, Leavitt reiterated, “India remains a very strategic ally in the Asia Pacific and the President has a very good relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and he will continue to have that.”

India-US trade talks

On June 26, India and the US began another round of bilateral trade talks aimed at finalising an early harvest deal before the US imposes country-specific reciprocal tariffs on imports from 57 countries, including India, starting July 9, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Led by chief negotiator and special secretary for commerce Rajesh Agrawal, the Indian delegation arrived in Washington for a two-day round of talks beginning last week. The main goal of this round is to address existing trade disputes and reach an interim agreement that could form the basis for the first phase of a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by September or October 2025.

After this initial phase, both sides are expected to begin negotiations for a full-fledged free trade agreement (FTA) with the aim of doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

India is pushing for the US to roll back all current and planned retaliatory tariffs, including a 26% reciprocal tariff – comprising a 10% duty that took effect on April 5 and an additional 16% set to begin from July 9.

Sources involved in the talks said most of the elements of a preliminary agreement have been ironed out by negotiators, but final decisions now rest with the political leadership to resolve a few remaining differences. Two major sticking points continue to hold up the deal, they added.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/president-trump-pm-modi-ties-strong-us-india-trade-deal-announcement-soon-white-house-101751327473548.html

APPLE Siri users have just hours to claim a one time check from a $95 million payout.

The clock is ticking with payments only offered to eligible Americans if they file on or before July 2, 2025.

The settlement alleges that the company recorded confidential or private communications from current or former owners or purchasers of Siri Devices.

It’s also alleged that while Apple obtained the users’ information, it was then shared with third parties due to an “unintended Siri activation.”

The reported claims are a violation of consumer protection laws and privacy laws.

Apple, however, denies any unlawful practices.

But to get hold of the cash, eligible users must file a claim by July, 2 2025.

GET YOUR MONEY

The $95 million settlement provides a cap of $20 per Siri Device.

The amount of cash available will increase or decrease depending on how many claims have been submitted.

And the final amount can’t be known until all claims have been evaluated.

Those eligible may submit claims for up to five Siri Devices.

While the settlement cost has been revealed, it still must go to court.

On August 1, 2025, at 9am the court will have the final approval hearing, to decide whether to approve the Settlement.

The final amount and payment date will not be decided until the court hearing.

ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?

The settlement benefits all U.S. current, former, owners or purchasers of a Siri Device whose confidential or private communications were obtained by Apple.

Additionally, the data must have been shared with third parties without consent or knowledge.

The dates to qualify are September 17, 2014 to December 31, 2024.

Just note that the settlement class excludes:

• Apple
• Any entity in which Apple has a controlling interest
• Apple’s directors
• Officers and employees
• Apple’s legal representatives, successors, and assigns
• Judicial officers assigned to this case and their staff and immediate families

KIM Jong-un wept as he watched himself draping flags over the coffins of North Korean troops who he sent to die on Putin’s front-line in Ukraine.

Around 12,000 North Koreans were shipped over to fight for Russia – but they were ill-prepared for the battlefield and many were decimated.

Kim hosted a ceremony which remembered the soldiers taken out by Zelensky’s brave army – and things got emotional for the tyrant.

Thousands of North Koreans stood to attention in the vast auditorium, with Kim in the front row.

Images of Kim draping the North Korean flag over soldiers’ coffins were broadcast on a giant screen at the front while a huge orchestra played emotional music.

Women in long dresses sang passionately and there was even a harp player stationed on the stage.

Kim draped flags over at least six coffins, and could be seen resting his hands on them in reflection.

Watching the scenes back, the dictator’s eyes shone with emotion.

Other members of the audience – which reportedly included North Korean and Russian soldiers – were also visibly moved.

The state-run Korea Central News Agency hailed the gala for reaffirming the “ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood”.

The event was attended by Russia’s culture minster Olga Lyubimov, who was visiting the Hermit Kingdom to mark the first anniversary of the strategic partnership treaty between their countries.

Signed last June by Putin and Kim, the treaty included a mutual defence pact – guaranteeing they will protect one another.

The treaty is believed to have accelerated co-operation between the nations.

Moscow is understood to be providing Pyongyang with vital military technology – including blueprints for missile guidance systems and air defence weapons.

And after months of speculation, the leaders finally admitted that North Korean troops have been fighting for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

Kim’s men were first reported to be in Russia back in October, and the following month there was strong evidence of them on the battlefield.

They fought alongside Putin’s men mainly in the Kursk region – an area of Russia which Ukraine took in a surprise incursion.

Thousands of the North Koreans died, with analysts suggesting they were not prepared for the modern style of drone warfare.

However, it was admitted that the Korean soldiers were ultimately instrumental in Russia winning back the land in March this year.

As the tyrants’ ties strengthen, North Korea is expected to send another 6,000 troops over to Russia later this summer.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14595198/kim-jong-un-weeps-coffins-troops-dead-russia/

A JET burst into flames just minutes after takeoff, killing all six people on board in a fiery crash caught in chilling 911 calls.

The plane went down behind a home in a wooded area shortly after 7 am on Sunday.

The deadly crash happened in Howland Township, near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Ohio.

Authorities said the twin-engine Cessna 441 was headed for Bozeman, Montana, a popular Rocky Mountain destination known for its outdoor tourism and proximity to Yellowstone National Park.

“There was a big bang. I don’t know what it was,” one 911 caller told dispatchers after witnessing the horrific scene.

Another resident said he was outside having coffee when he heard an “odd” – sounding plane overhead, followed by a “huge amount of smoke.”

“I heard a loud crash, a horrible crash. I could hear trees cracking, heavy impact,” said neighbor Joe Nuskievicz told CBS local affiliate WKBN.

“I knew that it crashed, but I couldn’t see it. I told my wife we need to go drive down the road real quick.

“I pulled up to the driveway of a house and ran to the back of the yard at the very edge of the yard. It was probably 75 yards from where I was standing.”

The aircraft crashed just two miles from the end of the airport’s runway and was fully engulfed in flames when emergency crews arrived.

“There were no survivors,” Western Reserve Port Authority executive director Anthony Trevena confirmed at a news conference.

Trumbull County Coroner identified the victims as 68-year-old Veronica Weller; her husband, James Weller, 67; their son, John Weller, 36; and his wife, Maria Weller, 34.

The pilot was 63-year-old Joseph Maxin.

His co-pilot was identified as 55-year-old Timothy Blake.

“This is a very tight-knit community,” Trevena said.

“We are all heartbroken and are deeply saddened and offer our deepest, most sincere condolences to those affected.”

Michael Hillman, president of JETS FBO Network, said the two crew members were highly experienced.

“These were the best of the best… I can’t say enough about them, give anything to rewind the day, take them to breakfast instead,” Hillman told Associated Press.

The Youngstown Air Reserve Station assisted in putting out the flames, along with multiple other agencies, including the EPA, Highway Patrol, and HAZMAT teams.

“Our crews were met with difficult access to the plane. It landed in a heavily wooded area,” Howland Fire Chief Ray Pace told WKBN.

“The plane was on fire back in the woods,” Pace said, adding that the local drone team also assisted.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are leading the investigation into what caused the crash.

Officials said it’s still unclear why the plane went down just seven minutes after takeoff.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14595441/six-dead-plane-crash-flames-ohio-howland-montana/

A TOP Iranian cleric has issued a fatwa against President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – calling for their deaths.

In the Islamic religious decree, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi branded both leaders as “enemies of God”.

The Shiite cleric issued the fatwa after the 12-Day war between Israel and Iran, which was also briefly joined by the US following American military strikes against Tehran.

It effectively states that Trump and Netanyahu “waged war against [Allah] and must be made to regret their words and actions.

“Those who threaten the leadership and integrity of the Islamic Ummah are to be considered [mohareb],” it added.

Under the Iranian under Iranian penal code, mohareb – someone who wages war against god – must be punished by “execution or crucifixion” or face “amputation of the right hand and left foot or exile”.

The fatwa also forbids any Muslim to cooperate with or support the two leaders – and says that any jihadist who is killed while attacking them will receive a reward from Allah, the New York Sun reports.

It reads: “It is necessary for all Muslims around the world to make these enemies regret their words and mistakes.

“[A] Muslim who abides by his Muslim duty and suffers hardship or loss in their campaign, they will be rewarded as a fighter in the way of God, God willing.”

Critics of the Mullahs’ regime have condemned the fatwa, calling it a state-endorsed incitement to global terrorism.

Popular British-Iranian commentator Niyak Ghorbani said: “The West must realise: the Islamic Republic is not only targeting its own people — it is preparing for global violence in the name of religion.”

The fatwa comes just days after Trump said he saved Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an “ugly death”.

During the 12-Day War, the Israelis, on multiple occasions, suggested that targeting Ayatollah Khamenei was “not off the table”.

But Trump, who said he knew exactly where the supreme leader had been hiding, did not let the US forces or the IDF” assassinate Khamenei.

In a Truth Social post, Trump raged: “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH.

“And he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’

“I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life.”

Trump also blasted the Ayatollah’s claims that Iran won the war.

He said: “Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so.

“As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie.”

Iran’s top mullah Khamenei, 86, claimed victory over Israel and America despite his country being hammered for almost two weeks.

He ludicrously claimed Iran had almost crushed Israel, and the government in Tel Aviv was on the verge of collapse.

That’s despite the IDF controlling the skies over Tehran, assassinating dozens of top generals and nuclear scientists, and destroying dozens of valuable missile batteries in just 12 days of fighting.

Khamenei also said that Iran had given the US a “severe slap” to its face and that it had “gained nothing” from the attack on Iran’s nuke plants.

The Ayatollah said: “The American regime entered a direct war because it felt that if it did not, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed.

“However, it gained no achievements from this war.

“Here, too, the Islamic Republic emerged victorious, and in return, the Islamic Republic delivered a severe slap to America’s face.”

Trump also floated the idea of a regime change in Tehran to “Make Iran Great Again” after bombing the Islamic Republic.

Less than a day after the US military blitzed three key facilities central to the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions, Trump hinted that the Mullahs’ regime could well be toppled.

The president wrote in a post on Truth Social: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!”

Trump’s post came despite his MAGA administration repeatedly saying the US is not looking for a regime change in Iran.

The 12-Day War began On June 13 when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion – a sophisticated campaign of bombing which targeted Iran’s military nuclear sites.

The Israelis also brilliantly orchestrated Operation Red Wedding – 30 top Iranian military chiefs killed in near-simultaneous blitz as Israel sought to root out the country’s military strength entirely.

Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across Israel, but failed to hit any strategic targets.

Less than a fortnight later, Trump joined the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

The US military’s flagship B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

The bunker-buster bombs were used to hit Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Plant.

Iran, which vowed to hit US military bases across the Middle East, sought its revenge by launching missiles at Al-Udeid Air Base – America’s biggest military station in the region.

But Tehran seemingly cooked up a fake attack after passing warnings to its Qatari allies, which allowed all US service personnel and aircraft to be moved out of harm’s way.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14588680/iran-israel-fatwa-kill-trump-netanyahu/

Police in Baku raided the offices of Russia’s state-funded news agency Sputnik on Monday, local media reported.

The swoop came as tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia escalated after the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis in a police raid last week in Yekaterinburg.

What do we know about the raids on Sputnik?

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Sputnik continued to operate in the country through “illegal financing” despite its accreditation being revoked in February 2025.

Authorities said arrests were made during the search, but did not provide further details. Images published by local outlets showed two men being led away by masked officers.

According to Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti, the detainees included Sputnik Azerbaijan’s editor-in-chief, Yevgeny Belousov, and its director, Igor Kartavykh.

Russian authorities denounced the move as “unfriendly acts by Baku and the illegal arrest of Russian journalists.”

Sputnik, a multilingual radio and news portal, is widely viewed as a tool for spreading Kremlin propaganda abroad.

Why are Russia and Azerbaijan at odds?

Tensions between Moscow and Baku have been simmering for months. Relations worsened after the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger plane over Grozny in late 2024, an incident that forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to apologise to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The latest flare-up follows a wave of arrests of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg over the weekend. Russian authorities detained about 50 people suspected of involvement in contract killings between 2001 and 2011.

At least two people died during the arrests — one reportedly from heart failure. Baku condemned the actions as “unacceptable” and summoned the Russian ambassador in response.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/azerbaijan-police-raid-russias-sputnik-media-offices/a-73097961

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot died in a crash while repelling a Russian air attack that involved hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow intensifies night-time air barrages in the fourth year of war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, and bestowed upon him posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest decoration.

He also called for more support from Washington and Western allies to bolster Ukraine’s air defences after the attack, which damaged homes and infrastructure across the country and injured at least 12 people, according to local authorities.
In Kyiv, families huddled in metro stations for shelter after air raid sirens rung out. Machine-gun fire and explosions were heard across the capital and in the western city of Lviv, where such attacks are less common.
The governor of the Lviv region, bordering Poland, said the raid targeted critical infrastructure.
Ukraine has now lost three F-16s since it began operating the U.S.-made jets last year. Kyiv has not revealed the size of its F-16 fleet, but they have become a central and heavily used part of Ukraine’s defences.

The pilot flew the damaged jet away from a settlement but had no time to eject before it crashed, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
“The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the Air Force said on Telegram.
Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan, speaking earlier this month, said the F-16 was not ideally suited to all tasks in the war, particularly repelling drones which swarm Ukrainian cities, as it is better used against higher-speed targets.
Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ustymenko had been flying missions since the time of a campaign that began in 2014 against Russian-financed separatists who had seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“He mastered four types of aircraft and had important results to his name in defending Ukraine,” he said. “It is painful to lose such people.”

The Ukrainian military said in total Russia launched 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types to Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian forces destroyed 211 of the drones and 38 missiles, it said, while 225 more drones were either lost due to electronic warfare or were decoys that carried no explosives.

Writing earlier on X, Zelenskiy said: “Moscow will not stop as long as it has the capability to launch massive strikes.” He said Russia had launched around 114 missiles, 1,270 drones, and 1,100 glide bombs just in the past week.
Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency said one person was killed by a Ukrainian drone in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Both Ukraine and Russia say they do not attack civilian targets.
POLITICAL WILL
Ukraine says recent attacks highlight the need for further support from Washington, which under President Donald Trump has not committed to new military aid for Ukraine.
Trump said he was considering a Ukrainian request for more Patriot missile, opens new tab batteries after he met Zelenskiy at a NATO summit last Wednesday.
“This war must be brought to an end – pressure on the aggressor is needed, and so is protection,” Zelenskiy said in his X post. “Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defence – the thing that best protects lives.”
He said Ukraine was ready to buy the American air defence systems and it counts on “leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners.”
Russia has launched large-scale strikes on Ukrainian cities every few days in recent weeks, causing widespread damage, killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds more.
During the latest barrage, explosions were heard in Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions, witnesses and regional governors said. The Ukrainian military said air strikes were recorded in six locations.

 

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/least-six-wounded-large-scale-russian-air-attack-ukraine-ukrainian-authorities-2025-06-29/

Somebody’s getting fired.

Beyoncé was left dangling midair in a car while performing during the first Houston “Cowboy Carter” tour stop.

On Saturday, the “Cuff It” singer was catapulted into the air in a red car for the performance of her country hit “16 Carriages.”

While the vehicle was supposed to make its way around the venue so fans who don’t have floor seats could get a closer look at Beyoncé, the car began leaning to one side and came to a complete stop.

After finishing the first verse of the song, the mom of three yelled, “Stop, stop, stop, stop” as she sat at a standstill above screaming fans below.

After crew members rushed over, the red car was lowered to the ground and Beyoncé was safely removed.

In true Beyoncé fashion, the pop star walked back over to the stage to finish belting out the song.

After videos of the incident went viral, her entertainment company, Parkwood, took to Instagram to explain what happened.

“Tonight in Houston, at NRG Stadium, a technical mishap caused the flying car, a prop Beyoncé uses to circle the stadium, and see her fans up close, to tilt,” the statemen read.

“She was quickly lowered and no one was injured. The show continued without incident.”

Earlier this month, the Grammy winner effortlessly bounced a wardrobe malfunction while kicking off the London leg of her tour.

While performing her 2022 hit “I’m That Girl,” Beyoncé’s metallic fringed chaps fell to the floor mid-dance move.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/06/29/celebrity-news/beyonce-gets-stuck-midair-during-houston-cowboy-carter-tour-performance/

A state-owned mining company said it had warned against working the “artisanal” shaft in Sudan’s northeast because of the “risk to life.” Gold-mining has helped fund the brutal civil war that broke out in 2023.

At least 11 miners were killed after a gold mine collapsed in Sudan, a state-owned mining company announced on Sunday.

The Sudanese Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) said the collapse occurred in an “artisanal shaft in the Kirsh al-Fil mine” in the government-controlled area of Houeid over the weekend.

Seven other workers were injured and taken to hospital, according to the company.

Sudan is a major exporter of gold, but collapses at artisanal and small-scale mines are common due to poor safety standards.

SMRC said it had previously suspended work in the mine that collapsed and “warned against its continuing activity due to its posing great risk to life.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-workers-killed-in-gold-mine-collapse/a-73086004

As more women in Pakistan embrace self-expression and economic freedom online, they’re often met with harassment, privacy violations and violence.

Earlier this month, 17-year-old TikTok star Sana Yousaf was shot dead by a man who had repeatedly contacted her online, according to police.

The killing of the popular Pakistani teenager, who had more than 1 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, has raised renewed concerns over the safety of online personalities in Pakistan, particularly young women.

“I had posted a story on social media while at a burger shop,” Hira Zainab, a Pakistani social media user, told DW.

“On my way back, a car passed by, and someone called out my name.”

Zainab, who has been active on Instagram since 2017, has maintained several public accounts, including a food blog and a society column. She said this wasn’t the only instance where online stalking turned into a real-life encounter.

“Once, I was at a salon, and after I left, I received a message saying, ‘That color looks nice on you.'”

Both times, Zainab said the messages came from strangers who had previously made online advances she had ignored.

Are Pakistan’s patriarchal norms to blame?
Other recent incidents — such as leaked video footage purporting to show TikToker Maryam Faisal in a private moment with a partner — have highlighted concerns about women’s digital safety.

In Pakistan, self-expression and economic independence in digital spaces comes with a surge of threats, privacy violations and social backlash pressures that often escalate into real-world violence.

According to a 2023 study by the Digital Rights Foundation, an NGO that advocates women’s rights in the digital space, 58.5% of online harassment complaints in Pakistan are filed by women.

But public conversation rarely addresses the deeper, systemic issue — particularly the patriarchal norms that stretch from the online world into homes, workplaces and society at large.

Women with public-facing digital lives have been asking why visibility so often come at a cost.

Many women face ‘hate comments,’ ‘rape threats’
DW spoke with several Pakistani women who use social media in a public capacity.

Yusra Amjad, a Pakistani poet, has used Instagram publicly since 2017.

“What started with poetry grew into opportunities for content creation and collaboration,” she told DW. “The coolest thing that happened was when Yrsa Daley-Ward, a British African poet, selected someone from Instagram comments for a video call and I won,” Amjad said. “I also connected with Indian writers and poets.”

But she also recalled one of many hate comments she has received. “When my mother and I did yoga in a park, hate comments alluded to it being shameless and dishonorable,” she said.

Women seen as threat to patriarchy, family and culture
Bisma Shakeel, who is based in the Pakistani city of Kohat, uses social media to raise awareness about mental health, focusing on narcissistic abuse and domestic violence.

Her motivation stems from personal experience, having left a toxic relationship in which her partner was controlling and discouraged her from using social media to build a professional presence.

But the 29-year-old’s journey wasn’t straightforward.

Securing permission from her family to post videos showing her face took time. For many women, freedom on social media, just like in offline spaces, exists on a spectrum.

“My father is liberal, but even he said, ‘You shouldn’t post. People will talk. In our community, girls don’t do that,'” said Shakeel.

Though she is now active on social media, she said it doesn’t come without risk.

“Not so much on Instagram, but on TikTok, you can’t imagine the kind of threats we get. Rape threats, death threats,” she said.

Women in Pakistan — especially those who are visibly active online, whether talking about politics or society or simply owning their space — are often judged and perceived as a threat to religious and cultural values.

”That framing is what makes the harassment feel ‘deserved’ to many. It’s not random, it’s deeply structured: she’s labeled as immoral or un-Islamic, and then attacking her becomes a form of social or religious duty,” said Maham Tariq, a feminist activist associated with Pakistan’s Aurat Azadi March (“Women’s Freedom March”).

“It allows people to feel righteous while being violent.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/for-women-in-pakistan-social-media-can-be-dangerous/a-73060858

Leather from cattle raised in deforested areas and on Indigenous land in the northern Brazilian state of Para is being turned into luxury items in Italy, according to an investigation.

Designer brands such as Coach, Fendi and Hugo Boss have been listed as buyers of raw materials sourced from destroyed forests in Para, the northern Brazilian state set to host the UN Climate Conference, COP30, in November.

The allegations, which most companies have denied, are detailed in a report published by Earthsight, a UK-based nonprofit focused on environmental and injustice investigations. Their findings draw on thousands of records of Brazilian leather exports, data on the cattle sector, court rulings and satellite imagery, as well as interviews and on-the-ground research.

“Consumers probably expect that when buying a luxury product, the high price tag guarantees some level of ethics and sustainability,” Lara Shirra White, an Earthsight researcher, told DW. “They don’t expect that the leather bag might be linked to deforestation and human rights violations.”

The NGO warns of products made from the hides of cattle reared on farms embargoed for environmental violations, including some operating illegally within Para’s Apyterewa Indigenous Territory, which was heavily deforested during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2022.

As part of its research, Earthsight investigated the business operations of Frigol, a Brazilian meatpacking company identified as one of the buyers of cattle raised on the territory.

The report says at least 17,000 animals were sold to Frigol between 2020 and 2023, which is “enough to produce 425 tons of leather.”

Researchers linked some of those cattle to illegal farms but said it’s not possible to determine the exact number that left Apyterewa, in part because Frigol itself “does not trace most of its indirect suppliers.”

The report says this gap in reporting leaves the company’s “supply chain vulnerable to the widespread practice of ‘cattle laundering,'” in which cows from illegal farms are transferred to legally registered properties before being sold.

Paulo Barreto, senior researcher at the Brazilian conservation and sustainable development Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon, Imazon, said control over indirect suppliers is either nonexistent or incomplete.

“As a result, cattle raised in illegally deforested areas end up entering the market as if they were legal. The lack of a transparent public system regarding the origin of the cattle makes control difficult.”

Frigol, however, told DW via email that it does not purchase cattle from Indigenous lands and monitors 100% of its direct suppliers.

“We are committed to working together with industry institutions, the production chain and public authorities to make progress,” the company said in a statement. It added that it believes “only individual traceability of animals for socio-environmental purposes will make it possible to mitigate deforestation across all links of the cattle supply chain.”

Brazilian leather, Italian prestige
According to Earthsight’s research, after the animals are slaughtered at Frigol’s facilities, a percentage of cow skins are exported, in part by the Brazilian leather company Durlicouros, which shipped 14,700 tons of hide to Italy between 2020 and 2023. Some of that, the report found, went to the Italian tanneries Conceria Cristina and Faeda.

The research lists high-end names like Coach, Fendi, Chloé, Hugo Boss and Saint Laurent among Conceria Cristina’s clients. Faeda, meanwhile, provides leather to brands such as Chanel, Balenciaga and Gucci, according to the investigation.

In response to a DW request for comment, Chanel cited deforestation as a “major concern” and said it no longer works with Faeda due to unmet traceability requirements: “92% of the calfskin we use is sourced from Europe, and we audit slaughterhouses and farms outside Europe to ensure they are not in deforestation zones.”

The Kering Group, which owns Balenciaga, Gucci, and Saint Laurent, told DW that while the two Italian companies mentioned in the report are suppliers, “the leather they provide to any Kering house does not come from Brazil.”

Based on Earthsight’s findings, Hugo Boss issued a statement to say it had conducted a detailed review, and could “confirm that none of the leather” it is supplied with “is connected to any of the alleged parties in connection with the investigation.”

LVMH, which owns Fendi and Louis Vuitton, said it has a system capable of tracing the origin of 98% of the leather used in its products and that it does not source this from South America. And Tapestry, which owns the Coach brand, wrote to DW saying that while the system for tracking raw materials in Brazil is “complex and imperfect,” it is working to be “part of the solution to improve traceability and transparency.”

Chloé, Conceria Cristina and Faeda had not responded to a DW request for comment at the time of publication.

Flaws in the certification system
Durlicouros told DW that it tracks its indirect suppliers and participates in discussions on state and national models for full traceability and compliance.

“In addition, all Durlicouros facilities are certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG), ensuring high standards of sustainability, traceability, and environmental responsibility, according to the purpose of each facility.”

But Earthsight researcher Lara Shirra White said companies often use the certification to vouch for the ethics and sustainability of the leather they produce “instead of conducting meaningful due diligence themselves to ensure their supply chains are deforestation-free.”

She said the problem with the LWG, founded in 2005, is that “it does not require traceability back to the farms,” and can therefore not account for environmental and human rights abuses in the areas where the cattle are raised.

The LWG told DW it is enhancing its “due diligence requirements related to deforestation and land conversion,” which will “include establishing a chain of custody system that would support more detailed traceability across the leather value chain.”

 

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/are-designer-handbags-linked-to-illegal-deforestation/a-73044312

 

Hundreds were left stranded after the terrifying smash

ALL four pilots involved in a horrifying runway plane collision which saw one jet slice through another’s tail fin have been suspended.

Harrowing footage showed a Boeing shred through a stationary Airbus while on the tarmac – just moments before it was set to take off.

Hundreds were left stranded after the shocking accident which unfolded in front of terrified passengers who watched debris scatter across the runway.

The two Vietnam Airlines aircraft smashed into each other at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam on June 27 – with both aircraft carrying a total of 386 passengers.

The Ho Chi Minh City-bound Boeing 787 was taxiing for take-off when it struck an Airbus A321, parked on the tarmac, waiting to head to Dien Bien.

Vietnam Airlines has now suspended the four pilots involved – two from each jet.

Meanwhile, investigators are still probing the exact cause of the crash.

Initial findings have suggested human error, due to the fact the Airbus was not parked correctly on the runway at the time of the smash.

The dramatic collision took place at the intersection of taxiways S and S3, under clear weather conditions.

In the shocking footage, a blue Airbus can be seen taxi-ing just moments before take-off.

But seconds later, another jet’s right wing rips through the rear section of the stationary aircraft – almost like butter.

Frightened passengers watched in disbelief as they saw parts of the plane’s tail stabilizer shoot off onto the floor.

Both planes immediately disembarked hundreds of panicked flyers after the accident.

And they were given replacement flights to board shortly after.

An independent team hired by the airline are investigating the crash, alongside the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

The terrifying footage comes after a recent string of horror aviation accidents.

Heartstopping footage showed the moment an American Airlines flight saw smoke and sparks flying from the plane’s engine.

Harrowing video of the incident was shared on social media, showing puffs of smoke and orange sparks coming from the plane’s engine.

 

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14583757/pilots-suspended-runway-collision/

An Indian woman in Canada shared a viral video of long queues at a job fair, highlighting intense job competition among international students, sparking mixed reactions.

In Canada, numerous Indian and international students lined up for jobs at a humble job fair, revealing the fierce competition for employment. An Indian woman in Canada shared an Instagram video showcasing the long queue of applicants outside the job fair, highlighting the intense competition for employment among international students.

In the video, she addresses a common perception among many Indians that foreign countries guarantee abundant job opportunities and a better lifestyle, and contrasts it with the challenging reality faced by many international students.

The woman said, “Guys, hamare jo Indian friends ya relatives hain jinko lagta hai ki Canada mein bahut jobs aur paisa hai, unko ye video dikha dena,” the Indian woman says in the video.

She then pans to the lengthy queue of job seekers outside the fair, mentioning that the opening is for a basic internship with only 5-6 vacancies. “This is the reality of Canada. If you’re prepared for this, then come to Canada; otherwise, India is better.”

“Life abroad isn’t always a dream. Sometimes it’s just… a long queue,” the caption of the post reads.

See more

The viral video highlighting the job crisis and rising unemployment in Canada has prompted a wave of reactions from both immigrants and those aspiring to move abroad.

One of the users on the social media wrote, “First honest video I saw of letting people know the truth. Other influencers are trying to give people the wrong information and impression to move to Canada.”

Another commented, “Same situation here in Toronto. Even for survival jobs, it’s a long wait.” “Everyone thinks it’s a land of opportunity until they see the reality,” said a third user.

Some users remained hopeful, commenting, “It’s tough, but having the right skills can still lead to success.” Another user chimed in, “The situation is exaggerated – jobs are available if you know where to look.”

Source: https://www.news18.com/viral/reality-of-canada-indian-woman-shows-long-queues-for-just-5-job-positions-watch-ws-l-9410383.html

Berlin urged Iran on Sunday (Jun 29) to stop making “threats” against the UN’s nuclear watchdog after Tehran rejected its request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States.

Tehran has accused Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of “betrayal of his duties” for not condemning the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, and Iranian lawmakers this week voted to suspend cooperation with the agency.

“I commend director general Rafael Grossi and his team for their efforts and their unrelenting professionalism. Threats against them from within Iran are deeply troubling and must stop,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on X, without specifying further.

“I call on the Iranian authorities to fully cooperate with the IAEA and to ensure the safety of its personnel,” he added.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that “Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent”.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-threats-against-un-nuclear-watchdog-deeply-troubling-germany-5210386

Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble appeared to have some trouble in paradise.

The couple allegedly got into a tense exchange while leaving Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding in Venice, Italy, on Friday, according to video obtained by the Daily Mail.

Lip reader Nicola Hickling claimed to the outlet that the conversation was regarding the “Kardashians” star’s adamant demand to ride alone in a water taxi instead of sharing the transportation with other guests.

In the footage, Jenner can be seen entering a water taxi with Gamble following behind her.

Hickling claimed Gamble told one of the porters, “We’re happy to travel on our own. It’s what Kris would like to do.”

The comment seemed to prompt Jenner to get involved.

“What are you doing? Do you need to talk?” she allegedly asked Gamble. “I told you … for God’s sake … I’d like to travel alone.”

At that point, Gamble stepped out of the taxi to speak with another man and allegedly confirm they would be traveling in the taxi alone before rejoining the reality star.

Despite the tense energy with her longtime beau, Jenner still managed to keep her manners with the staff.

Elsewhere in the clip, Jenner appears to say to Gamble, “Tell them I said thanks,” after one of the porters offered her what appeared to be a napkin to dry off any water from the journey.

Reps for Jenner did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

The couple was seen in Venice celebrating their Bezos and Sánchez’s highly anticipated wedding with a three-day itinerary of events.

Jenner and Gamble, 44, arrived in the city on Thursday along with the matriarch’s daughters Kim and Khloé Kardashian and Kylie and Kendall Jenner.

However, a source told Page Six that Kris’ party of six was not the initial plan as Kendall, Khloé and Kylie were not originally invited to the billionaire’s extravagant Venetian wedding.

It wasn’t until the famous momager worked her magic that she scored invites for her girls.

“Originally, the quintet was going to be a duo of just Kim [Kardashian] and Kris,” said a source. “But Mama Kris asked Lauren if she could bring the other three when they were in Paris for the bachelorette party.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/06/29/celebrity-news/kris-jenner-corey-gamble-have-tense-exchange-after-bezos-wedding-lip-reader/

Two firefighters were killed and a third was injured when first responders were ambushed by an hours-long barrage of gunfire after arriving at the scene of a blaze in Idaho Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

The horrific attack, which began around 2 p.m. local time on Canfield Mountain near Coeur d’Alene, ended about five hours later when SWAT teams discovered the lifeless body of a man next to a firearm on the popular tourist trail, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

Police have not released the suspected gunman’s identity or specified the type of weapon recovered at the horrific scene.

Two people believed to be fire personnel were killed in the ambush, Sheriff Bob Norris told reporters during a press conference earlier in the night.

Iran warned Sunday (Jun 29) that it had little faith in Israel’s commitment to a fragile ceasefire that ended the most intense and destructive confrontation between the two foes to date.

The 12-day war erupted on Jun 13, when Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that killed top military commanders and scientists linked to its nuclear programme. Tehran responded with ballistic missile attacks on Israeli cities.

Israel said its aim was to keep the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

The fighting derailed nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, which later joined its ally Israel’s campaign with strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

“We did not start the war, but we have responded to the aggressor with all our power,” Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Abdolrahim Mousavi, was quoted as saying by state television, referring to Israel.

“We have serious doubts over the enemy’s compliance with its commitments including the ceasefire, we are ready to respond with force” if attacked again, he added, six days into the ceasefire.

IAEA Dispute
The conflict rattled the already shaky relationship between Iran and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has rejected the IAEA’s request to inspect its bombed nuclear sites, accusing its chief Rafael Grossi of “betraying his duties” by failing to condemn the Israeli and US attacks.

Iranian lawmakers voted this week to suspend cooperation with the agency.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Grossi’s request to visit the targeted facilities “meaningless” and “possibly malign in intent”.

Tehran also cited a Jun 12 IAEA resolution criticising Iran’s lack of nuclear transparency as a pretext used by Israel to justify launching its offensive the following day.

The backlash drew a sharp rebuke from Germany and Argentina, Grossi’s home country.

“I commend Director General Rafael Grossi and his team for their unrelenting professionalism. Threats against them from within Iran are deeply troubling and must stop,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul wrote on X.

Argentina’s foreign ministry said it “categorically condemns the threats against him coming from Iran”.

Neither specified which threats they were referring to, but Iran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed.

Speaking to US broadcaster CBS on Sunday, Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani denied there was any threat to nuclear inspectors in Iran, insisting they were “in safe conditions” but their work was suspended.
Damage questioned
The United States carried out strikes on three key facilities used for Iran’s atomic programme.

In the days after, Trump said the United States would bomb Iran again “without question” if intelligence indicated it was able to enrich uranium to military grade.

Speaking to CBS on Saturday, Grossi said Iran could “in a matter of months” return to enriching uranium.

Questions remain as to how much damage the US strikes did to Iran’s nuclear programme, with Trump and his officials insisting it had been “obliterated”.

On Sunday, however, The Washington Post reported that the United States had intercepted calls between Iranian officials who said the damage was less than expected.

That followed an early “low confidence” US military intelligence report that said the nuclear programme had been set back months, not years.

Israel has said Iran’s programme was delayed by years, while Tehran has downplayed the damage.

The IAEA said Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent, far above the levels needed for civilian nuclear power, although Grossi previously noted there had been no indication before the strikes that Iran was working to build an atomic weapon.

Israel has maintained ambiguity about its own nuclear arsenal, neither officially confirming nor denying it exists, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has estimated it has 90 nuclear warheads.

 

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-voices-serious-doubt-israel-commitment-ceasefire-conflict-5210106

KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday (Jun 29) signed a decree putting his war-torn country on track to leave the anti-landmine Ottawa Convention, according to a document published on his website.

The treaty bans signatories from acquiring, producing, stockpiling or using anti-personnel mines, which are designed to be buried or hidden on the ground.

They often leave victims mutilated if they are not immediately killed, and aid groups denounce the long-term risk of unexploded mines for civilians.

More than 160 countries and territories are signatories to the Ottawa Convention, though neither the United States nor Russia have joined.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/zelenskyy-signs-decree-ukraines-withdrawal-anti-landmine-treaty-5210326

Across Africa, cancer medications have been found to be substandard or counterfeit. That means people are being given medicine that may not work, or that could even cause them harm.

An alarming number of people across Africa may be taking cancer drugs that don’t contain the vital ingredients needed to contain or reduce their disease.

It’s a concerning finding with roots in a complex problem: how to regulate a range of therapeutics across the continent.

A US and pan-African research group published the findings this week in The Lancet Global Health. The researchers had collected dosage information, sometimes covertly, from a dozen hospitals and 25 pharmacies across Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameroon.

They tested nearly 200 unique products across several brands. Around 17% — roughly one in six — were found to have incorrect active ingredient levels, including products used in major hospitals.

Patients who receive insufficient dosages of these ingredients could see their tumors keep growing, and possibly even spread.

Similar numbers of substandard antibiotics, antimalarial and tuberculosis drugs have been reported in the past, but this is the first time that such a study has found high levels of falsified or defective anticancer drugs in circulation.

“I was not surprised by these results,” said Lutz Heide, a pharmacist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who has previously worked for the Somali Health Ministry and has spent the past decade researching substandard and falsified medicines.

Heide was not part of the investigative group, but said the report shed light on a problem not previously measured.

“I was delighted that, finally, someone published such a systemic report,” he said. “That is a first, really significant systematic study of this area.”

Causes need addressing, but it’s not straightforward

“There are many possible causes for bad-quality products,” Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame in the US, the investigation’s senior researcher, told DW.

Those causes can include faults in the manufacturing process or product decay due to poor storage conditions. But some drugs are also counterfeit, and that increases the risk of discrepancies between what’s on the product label and the actual medicine within.

A TEENAGE boy has been mauled by a shark at a popular beach and rushed to hospital with “serious” arm injuries.

Emergency services were called to reports of the attack at Cabarita Beach on New South Wales’ north coast, Australia just before 4pm on Sunday.

The teenage boy was badly bitten on the arm and has sustained serious injuries, said New South Wales Ambulance.

He was airlifted to Gold Coast University by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and remains in a serious but stable condition.

It is not known what type of shark attacked the boy.

The attack comes just weeks after a teenage girl was mauled to death in a horrifying shark attack at Bribie Island, north of Brisbane.

Charlize Zmuda, 17, let out a “piercing scream” as she was fatally bitten by the beast at a popular tourist hot spot in Australia.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after reports of the attack.

Queensland Ambulance confirmed they were responding to a “serious shark bite incident” and had treated Charlize for life-threatening upper body injuries.

Despite their best efforts, the teen sadly passed away.

Devastated family member Renee Zmuda said at the time she would like the community to focus on the “incredible life she lived and not the awful way she died”.

She said in a statement: “Charlize was loved by many and was such a shining light who truly touched the lives of everyone she met.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14585283/teen-boy-shark-attack-beach-arm-injury/

Those on one of the large buses were reportedly heading to a wedding ceremony

AT LEAST 40 people have died after two buses crashed into each other before bursting into flames.

Dozens of terrified passengers were trapped inside the flaming vehicles on a highway as they battled to escape the two wreckages.

Several of the dead are yet to be identified due to the seriousness of their burns.

Another 30 people, believed to be from Tanzania, were injured with many being rushed to hospital for treatment.

Those on one of the large coaches were heading to a wedding ceremony, according to local media.

The collision happened on Saturday evening in the Sabasaba area along the MoshiTanga highway in the Kilimanjaro region.

Horror pictured from the scene show the smashed up buses off the side of a road as onlookers assess the damage.

Both vehicles were left charred with the windows appearing to have completely smashed under the intense heat from the fire.

The exact cause of the crash is still unknown but local reports say one of the buses may have suffered a puncture which caused the driver to lose control.

Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan paid her respect to the victim’s of the crash.

She said on X: “I send my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families, relatives, and friends.

“May God grant peace to the souls of the departed and a quick recovery to the injured.

“May He comfort and strengthen their families during this difficult time.”

It comes as another seriously bus crash saw Brit tourists among dozens injured in an accident on a highway in southern Thailand.

The holidaymakers were visiting the island of Koh Samui when the bus lost control and flipped on its side

In May, a tourist bus smashed into a pickup truck and burst into flames near Yellowstone National Park in Idaho.

The tragic accident left seven people dead as horror footage showed desperate officials trying to extinguish the fireball which erupted on a notoriously “dangerous highway”.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14586256/tanzania-dead-bus-crash-fire/

The Supreme Court on Friday handed down a sweeping victory for parental rights and religious freedom — and dealt a devastating blow to the progressive zealots bent on brainwashing America’s children.

In Mahmoud v. Taylor, Montgomery County, Md., parents fought their local school board over a policy requiring young children to read books centered on LGBTQ+ identity.

The justices ruled 6-3 in favor of the parents, who sought the right to opt their kids out of lessons that undermine their religious beliefs.

In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito let the books speak for themselves via color reproductions of their pages.

There was no better way to demonstrate that these were not books promoting tolerance and acceptance, but radical attempts at indoctrination.

“Pride Puppy,” part of the district’s kindergarten curriculum, includes a word search listing topics detailed in the book’s illustrations: drag king, drag queen, high heels, lip ring, lace, leather.

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Another book, “Born Ready,” features a very young child who identifies as transgender. In it, the character’s older brother protests, “This doesn’t make sense. You can’t become a boy. You have to be born one.”

Their mother scolds him: “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love.”

The message is clear: If you want issues of sex and gender to make sense, you aren’t a loving person.

The school board, Alito wrote, “encourages the teachers to correct the children and accuse them of being ‘hurtful’ when they express a degree of religious confusion.”

They use the books to do it.

At the heart of the case was the claim that parents’ religious rights were being violated.

But the deeper reality remained unspoken: The school-district progressives weren’t simply undermining the beliefs of Muslim, Christian and Mormon parents.

They were trying to induct the children of these families into their own ideology — one that dismisses biological reality and enshrines “love,” as they define it, as the only acceptable truth.

The conflict also exposed a stark divide between the progressive activists who run the county school system and the religious, largely immigrant families the district serves.

Accustomed to lockstep minority support, leftist county officials were blindsided when the communities they claim to represent pushed back.

And when the minority parents protested, the progressives lashed out.

The curriculum dispute “puts some Muslim families on the same side of an issue as white supremacists and outright bigots,” Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink complained in one contentious public meeting.

School board member Lynne Harris disparaged a Muslim student who testified at another meeting, telling the press she felt “kind of sorry” for the girl and speculating she was “parroting dogma” she’d learned from her parents.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded apologies from both officials.

When progressives rallied outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments, speaker after speaker insisted the district’s policy was about teaching tolerance to children of supposedly bigoted parents.

After the ruling came down, the district declared in an email to staff, “This decision complicates our work creating a welcoming, inclusive and equitable school system.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/06/29/opinion/no-more-lgbtq-brainwashing-scotus-revives-parents-rights/

Luxury fashion powerhouse Prada has acknowledged the ancient Indian roots of its new sandal design after the debut of the open-toe footwear sparked a furore among Indian artisans and politicians thousands of miles from the catwalk in Italy.
Images from Prada’s (1913.F), opens new tab fashion show in Milan last weekend showed models wearing leather sandals with a braided design that resembled handmade Kolhapuri slippers with designs dating back to the 12th century.

A wave of criticism in the media and from lawmakers followed over the Italian brand’s lack of public acknowledgement of the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the western state of Maharashtra.
Lorenzo Bertelli, son of Prada’s owners, responded to the sandal scandal in a letter to a trade group on Friday recognising their Indian heritage.
“We acknowledge that the sandals… are inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear, with a centuries-old heritage,” Bertelli, Prada’s head of corporate social responsibility, wrote in the letter to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, seen by Reuters.

The sandals are at an early stage of design and it is not certain they will be commercialized, but Prada is open to a “dialogue for meaningful exchange with local Indian artisans” and will arrange follow-up meetings, he wrote.
A Prada spokesperson issued a statement acknowledging the sandal’s inspiration from India, adding the company has “always celebrated craftsmanship, heritage and design traditions”.
Prada products are beyond the reach of most Indians. Its men’s leather sandals retail for $844 and up, while the Kolhapuri slippers, sold in Indian shops and street markets, start at about $12.
India’s luxury market is small but growing fast, with rising numbers of rich people buying Louis Vuitton bags, Lamborghini cars, luxury homes and watches.
Conversely, Indian culture and crafts are increasingly finding their way into global brand designs. High-end jeweller Bulgari offers a $16,000 Mangalsutra necklace inspired by a chain traditionally worn by married women.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/sandal-scandal-prada-credits-new-designs-indian-legacy-amid-furore-2025-06-28/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at prosecutors in Israel over the corruption trial that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced, saying Washington, having given billions of dollars worth of aid to Israel, was not going to “stand for this”.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases.

On Friday, the court rejected a request by Netanyahu’s lawyers to delay his testimony for the next two weeks because of diplomatic and security matters following the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran this month.
He is due to take the stand on Monday for cross examination.
“It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding that the judicial process was going to interfere with Netanyahu’s ability to conduct talks with Palestinian militants Hamas, and Iran.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prosecution declined to comment on Trump’s post.

Trump’s second post over the course of a few days defending Netanyahu and calling for the cancellation of the trial went a step further to tie Israel’s legal action to U.S. aid.
“The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar [sic] a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Trump said.
Netanyahu “right now” was in the process of negotiating a deal with Hamas, Trump said, without giving further details. On Friday, the Republican president told reporters that he believes a ceasefire is close.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-slams-israels-prosecutors-over-netanyahu-corruption-trial-2025-06-28/

The United States and the Group of Seven nations have agreed to support a proposal that would exempt U.S. companies from some components of an existing global agreement, the G7 said in a statement on Saturday.
The group has created a “side-by-side” system in response to the U.S. administration agreeing to scrap the Section 899 retaliatory tax proposal from President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, it said in a statement from Canada, the head of the rolling G7 presidency.

The G7 said the plan recognizes existing U.S. minimum tax laws and aims to bring more stability to the international tax system.
The U.S Treasury Department said that following the removal of Section 899 from the U.S. Senate version of the tax and spending bill, there is a shared understanding that a side-by-side system could preserve important gains made by jurisdictions inside the Inclusive Framework in tackling base erosion and profit shifting.
“We look forward to discussing and developing this understanding within the Inclusive Framework,” the Department said in a post on X on Saturday.
UK businesses are also spared higher taxes after the removal of Section 899 from President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill.

Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill released by the U.S. Senate, calling it “utterly insane and destructive,” weeks after the world’s richest person and its most powerful ended a feud sparked by Musk’s opposition to the bill.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote in a post on X.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/elon-musk-says-senate-bill-would-destroy-jobs-harm-us-2025-06-28/

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling blunting a potent weapon that federal judges have used to block government policies nationwide during legal challenges was in many ways a victory for President Donald Trump, except perhaps on the very policy he is seeking to enforce.
An executive order that the Republican president signed on his first day back in office in January would restrict birthright citizenship – a far-reaching plan that three federal judges, questioning its constitutionality, quickly halted nationwide through so-called “universal” injunctions.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, while announcing a dramatic shift in how judges have operated for years deploying such relief, left enough room for the challengers to Trump’s directive to try to prevent it from taking effect while litigation over its legality plays out.
“I do not expect the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship will ever go into effect,” said Samuel Bray, a Notre Dame Law School professor and a prominent critic of universal injunctions whose work the court’s majority cited extensively in Friday’s ruling.
Trump’s executive order directs federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also called a “green card” holder.

The three judges found that the order likely violates citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The directive remains blocked while lower courts reconsider the scope of their injunctions, and the Supreme Court said it cannot take effect for 30 days, a window that gives the challengers time to seek further protection from those courts.
The court’s six conservative justices delivered the majority ruling, granting Trump’s request to narrow the injunctions issued by the judges in Maryland, Washington and Massachusetts. Its three liberal members dissented.
The ruling by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump appointed to the court in 2020, emphasized the need to hem in the power of judges, warning against an “imperial” judiciary. Judges can provide “complete relief” only to the plaintiffs before them, Barrett wrote.

A HOST OF POLICIES
That outcome was a major victory for Trump and his allies, who have repeatedly denounced judges who have impeded his agenda. It could make it easier for the administration to implement his policies, including to accelerate deportations of migrants, restrict transgender rights, curtail diversity and inclusion efforts, and downsize the federal government – many of which have tested the limits of executive power.
In the birthright citizenship dispute, the ruling left open the potential for individual plaintiffs to seek relief beyond themselves through class action lawsuits targeting a policy that would upend the long-held understanding that the Constitution confers citizenship on virtually anyone born on U.S. soil.
Bray said he expects a surge of new class action cases, resulting in “class-protective” injunctions.

Tens of thousands of people marched in the streets of the Hungarian capital despite police banning the event. Attendees risk a fine and organizers could face a one-year prison sentence.

Tens of thousands LGBTQ+ rights supporters took part in the Budapest Pride march on Saturday, in defiance of a police ban and threats from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“We believe there are 180,000 to 200,000 people attending,” Pride president Viktoria Radvanyi told the AFP news agency. “It is hard to estimate because there have never been so many people at Budapest Pride.”

Local media sites, including 444.hu and Magyar Hang, estimated the crowd to be closer to 100,000, still far more than the previous record turnout of 35,000 people.

Orban has restricted the rights of the LGBTQ+ community over the past few years, and his party’s lawmakers passed a law in March allowing the ban of Pride marches, claiming it was motivated by the need to protect children.

However, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony declared the Pride parade a municipal event, arguing that this designation exempts it from the assembly law and renders the police ban invalid.

European support
The annual event has now come to symbolize resistance to a general repression of civil society in Hungary under Orban’s nationalist government, which is facing a growing challenge from center-right opposition leader Peter Magyar’s Tisza party ahead of elections next year.

“This is about much more, not just about homosexuality,…This is the last moment to stand up for our rights,” Eszter Rein Bodi, one of the marchers, told the Reuters news agency.

“This isn’t just about LGBQT+ rights, it’s also about the right to assemble and about standing up for each other and not allowing [the
government] to oppress us,” another participant, Blanka Molnar, told the AP news agency.

More than 30 embassies have also voiced support for the march, which was due to be attended by European Commissioner for Equality Hadja Lahbib and about 70 members of the European Parliament.

Ahead of the parade, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called on Hungarian authorities not to block the march.

“Our Union is one of equality and non-discrimination,” von der Leyen wrote in a statement. She called these “core values” that “must be respected at all times, in all Member States.”

Anyone attending the march, however, risks being accused of a misdemeanor, while organizing such an event could carry the penalty of a one-year jail sentence, according to a letter sent to some foreign embassies in Budapest by Justice Minister Bence Tuzson.

The so-called child-protection legislation that allowed the ban to be imposed also allows police to hand out fines and to use facial recognition technology to identify attendees.

Civil society under pressure in Hungary
Over the past decade, Orban’s government has frequently been at loggerheads with the EU over its increasing repression of civil liberties and press freedoms under the guise of protecting “Christian” values. Orban has also used nationalism and far-right rhetoric to reinforce his grip on power since reclaiming his position as prime minister in 2010.

The ban on the Pride march is being seen by opponents as part of a wider crackdown on democratic freedoms ahead of next year’s elections, at which Orban’s government is expected to face a stiff challenge from Magyar, whose party has been leading in opinion polls.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/budapest-pride-thousands-of-marchers-defy-police-ban/a-73074461

The FBI says it’s drafting a plan to plug security gaps, including more training for agents

EL CHAPO’S ruthless cartel used a hacker to break into Mexico City’s CCTV system and track down FBI informants — before having them killed.

A shocking new US Justice Department report reveals the Sinaloa Cartel, once run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, hired a tech expert to spy on American agents and expose their sources.

The hacker hacked into Mexico City’s camera network and phone records in 2018, tailing an FBI assistant legal attaché (ALAT) at the US embassy.

Armed with this intel, the cartel was able to “intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses,” the report said.

The Justice Department added: “According to the FBI, in addition to compromising the ALAT’s phone, the hacker also accessed Mexico City’s camera system, used the cameras to follow the ALAT through the city, and identified people the ALAT met with.”

The findings shine a harsh light on how cartels are now using cutting-edge tech to stay a step ahead of law enforcement.

The audit warned that new technology has “made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities” in government data.

It comes as Mexico’s cops desperately try to catch up.

In Chiapas this week, police unveiled armed drones to take on cartels fighting for smuggling routes along the Guatemalan border.

Just weeks ago, the same force sparked a diplomatic storm by chasing gunmen into Guatemala and engaging in a wild street shootout.

The Sinaloa Cartel — once commanded by El Chapo, who’s now locked up in the US — remains locked in a bloody battle with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Meanwhile, a new breed of younger, tech-savvy narcos is ramping up tactics like cryptocurrency laundering and state-of-the-art surveillance.

“The cartels run a multi-billion-dollar global enterprise and utilize sophisticated technology to enhance their business operations,” said Derek Maltz, former acting DEA chief.

“They utilize state-of-art sophisticated surveillance techniques to identify law enforcement activities and their adversaries.”

The FBI says it’s drafting a plan to plug these glaring security gaps, including more training for agents.

But the Justice Department report warned the threat is so severe that some in the FBI and CIA call it “existential”.

Mexico’s long-running drug war rages on with no end in sight.

More than 400,000 people have been killed since the government first declared war on the cartels in 2006, and tens of thousands more have vanished without a trace.

Despite high-profile arrests and military crackdowns, groups like Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation continue to expand their reach, both at home and across borders.

In the US, the stakes are equally dire.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14583570/el-chapo-drug-cartel-hacker-fbi/

JUSTIN Bieber hasn’t been to his long-time church for at least three months amid drama with his pastor and accusations of a cult-like atmosphere at the institution, insiders have claimed.

The pop star, 31, had previously been pictured attending Churchome, a nondenominational church in Beverly Hills, with his wife, Hailey Bieber, but he’s been missing in action since March.

He is said to be close to Smith, 46, who has been his spiritual advisor for years.

However, their relationship has reportedly caused a rift between Bieber and his best friend, Ryan Good.

Sources previously told TMZ that Bieber hasn’t spoken to Good, who was the best man at his wedding, for a year amid the fallout.

Good, who co-founded the star’s fashion brand Drew House in 2018, left the church due to its supposed “cult-like culture” and has been worried about Bieber, according to the outlet.

He has not returned calls for comment on the situation.

The tension is also said to have escalated when the star added Smith to the Drew House board, despite Good’s reported concerns and the pastor’s lack of business experience.

Bieber has now distanced himself from the brand, telling fans not to buy clothing from Drew House.

The U.S. Sun can reveal the singer has not been seen at Churchome’s monthly in-person services for three months, while Smith hinted at the troubles in a rambling sermon this week.

He has left fans worried with his bizarre behavior and comments about Hailey, including when she featured on the cover of Vogue, admitting in an Instagram post he told he she’d never be on the front of the fashion bible during an argument.

Bieber was also filmed having a public meltdown ranting to paparazzi while at the beach with his family.

His rep has also denied allegations of drug abuse, while followers on social media have been concerned with his weed smoking after becoming a new dad to his son, Jack Blues.

EMOTIONAL SERMON
On Wednesday evening, around 250 people shuffled into the iconic Saban Theater for the so-called Christhome Experience, and Smith apologized as he was late to the stage.

While Bieber was nowhere to be seen, Smith name-dropped his close friend, former E! News host Jason Kennedy, who was sitting in the audience, and admitted pals had been worried about him.

“Recently, I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I’m okay,” Smith admitted. “Which, [at] face value, that is a wonderful thing to do, right? A text, ‘Hey, you good?’ ‘Hey, you okay?’

“The problem is when they add up, I start to wonder … maybe this has happened to you, wait, am I okay?

“So Jason and I went to Miami this past weekend. It was a great time. And I ran into so many old friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

“And I was kind of taken aback because one person said, ‘Hey, are you good? You okay?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, no, I’m good.’ I’m kind of like, what have you heard?

“Then another person, ‘Hey man, are you good? Are you okay?’ Should I not be? Yeah, I’m still married to Chelsea. We’re having sex pretty regularly. My kids are 20, 18, 16, I don’t, uh, yeah.

“And then another person, ‘Hey, you good? You’ve been on my mind.’ Um, thank you. You ever had that? Someone’s like, ‘You’ve been on my mind.’ You’re like, ‘I haven’t thought about them in years.’ You don’t say that, of course. You’re like, yeah, me too. I mean, it’s good to see you.

He went on: “Now part of that is like, wow, what a thrill, what an honor, what a privilege. Now, some of you right now, already, I’ve missed you with this message because you’re like, ‘I wish to God somebody would ask me if I’m okay’, but have you ever been asked so many times if you’re okay, that you started to wonder if you’re okay?

“And I’ll admit in Miami recently seeing old friends, I started to say, ‘no, I’m great’. And then I could hear through my own tone that my response was me also telling them, but also telling me that I’m great.”

He proceeded to reference Bible scripture and stumbled through the sermon as many of his jokes failed to land with the churchgoers.

After an hour, Smith’s speech took an emotional turn as he began tearing up and said, “It’s [life] always been about people, but we made it about popularity and we made it about appearances.”

Smith was unavailable for comment on his relationship with Bieber after the service, and Churchome did not respond to comment calls.

Bieber’s rep also failed to respond when asked for clarification about whether he is still a member of the church.

CULT ACCUSATIONS

During a previous sermon, Smith recounted how paparazzi had asked him to confirm or deny if Churchome is a cult after he stepped out of his car.

“If we’re a cult, we are the worst cult in the history of all cults,” he joked.

“We meet once a month, guys. I stopped doing this every Wednesday. We’ve got to get better at this.”

Bieber and his wife are still following Smith on Instagram despite not showing up to services.

He has also provided the pair with counseling sessions and featured in the 2020 YouTube documentary series Justin Bieber: Next Chapter.

The U.S. Sun spoke to churchgoers leaving the service on Wednesday, with one admitting it’s had its issues but insisted it’s not a cult.

He said, “I’ve been coming to this church for five years. I’ve grown so much lot spiritually.

“Things aren’t always perfect but I know pastor Judah comes from a good place. He has a good heart, he’s the real deal.

“Haters are gonna hate but I think he has the right intentions.

“At the end of the day, pastors are also human, they do make mistakes, but it’s up to us to help pray for them and uplift them.

“I haven’t had negative experiences with Judah but I used to be in the prayer group and that didn’t work out. I’ll leave it at that. But that didn’t discourage me [from coming].

“Every church has its issues, there’s mental illness with the people that go there. No church is perfect.”

On Bieber being missing from services, he said, “He’s a big celebrity, he’s got a busy schedule. And not to mention the health issues he’s going through, everyone here is supportive.

“He’s participated here, given words here, so we all love him,” he added, saying they would always welcome him.

BIEBER’S CHURCH TROUBLES

It’s not the first time Bieber’s association with spiritual advisors has caused issues in his personal life.

He previously had to distance himself from Hillsong and disgraced pastor Carl Lentz, who was fired in November 2020 due to “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.”

It was later revealed that these “moral failures” included affairs that rocked his marriage.

Hillsong also found itself the subject of a damning documentary that detailed historical accusations of sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s by late church leader Frank Houston.

The churchgoer who spoke to The U.S. Sun revealed he also previously attended Hillsong services but said the two organizations were “two different worlds,” adding, “Carl Lentz is a completely different character.”

A third churchgoer insisted, “There’s no pressuring [people] or anything. I’ve seen Bieber here, they help him get in and out without being [mobbed], but we haven’t seen him recently.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14567919/justin-bieber-hasnt-been-to-church-judah-smith/

The student-led protest in Belgrade follows months of nationwide rallies against President Aleksandar Vucic’s government, with organizers threatening to launch a civil disobedience campaign.

Police clashed with anti-government protesters in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on Saturday night, as demonstrators demanded an early parliamentary election and an end to the rule of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Officers in riot gear used pepper spray to disperse crowds after flares were thrown near a counterprotest by Vucic supporters.

Earlier protesters, led by students, issued an ultimatum, saying the government must call a snap election or face a civil disobedience campaign. The main demonstration then ended, but some protesters marched toward the pro-government rally outside parliament. Many were wearing goggles, masks and helmets.

Police detained several dozen protesters, while six police officers were reported injured in clashes, according to Dragan Vasiljevic, the director of police.

Vucic blames foreign influence as students push for early vote
Saturday’s clashes came after months of anti-government demonstrations that were sparked by a deadly rail station collapse in late 2024 that killed 16 people and was widely blamed on government corruption and negligence.

Vucic has repeatedly rejected calls for an early election and accused unnamed “foreign powers” of fueling the protests.

“The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice,” he told reporters in Belgrade on Saturday.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are set for 2027.

Vucic’s refusal has only energized demonstrators, particularly university students, who have become a driving force behind the movement.

“The reluctance of Vucic makes it all the more important to be there now,” said Tara, a student who only gave DW her first name. “We want to show the president that we want elections. The fight is not over, and the protests are not over yet.”

“Realistically, we have to prolong the protest a little longer,” added Kristina.

“But we’re almost at the finish line,” said Teodora. “Vucic is on his last legs.”

In a now routine pre-protest crackdown, more than a dozen people have been arrested, including five on Friday who were remanded for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, according to Serbia’s Higher Court.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/serbia-police-clash-with-anti-government-demonstrators/a-73080472

Czech local media reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light when following Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s car and that the Chinese had also planned to stage a demonstrative car crash.

Taiwan’s Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim said she will not be intimidated by China after Czech military intelligence said Chinese diplomats and secret service followed Hsiao and planned to intimidate her physically when she visited Prague last year.

Hsiao visited the Czech Republic in March 2024. Prague does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but has fostered warm relations with the island, which China views as its own territory despite Taiwan’s rejection.

Czech media reported last year that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light when following her car. Czech public radio news website irozhlas.cz said on Thursday (Jun 26) that the Chinese had also planned to stage a demonstrative car crash.

“I had a great visit to Prague & thank the Czech authorities for their hospitality & ensuring my safety. The CCP’s unlawful activities will NOT intimidate me from voicing Taiwan’s interests in the international community,” Hsiao wrote in a post on X social media platform on Saturday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Her post was linked to the Reuters report on the incident.

In a separate post on X, Hsiao thanked global parliamentarians who have expressed solidarity against “violence and coercion”.

“Taiwan will not be isolated by intimidation,” Hsiao wrote.

A Czech Military Intelligence spokesman said Chinese diplomats in Prague had taken actions that violated diplomatic rules.

“This consisted of physically following the vice-president, gathering information on her schedule and attempts to document her meetings with important representatives of the Czech political and public scene,” spokesman Jan Pejsek said in emailed comments to Reuters.

“We even recorded an attempt by the Chinese civil secret service to create conditions to perform a demonstrative kinetic action against a protected person, which however did not go beyond the phase of preparation.”

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, commenting on the matter, denied any wrongdoing by Chinese diplomats and also said the Czech Republic had interfered in China’s internal affairs by allowing Hsiao’s visit to go ahead.

The Czech Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Chinese ambassador over the incident at the time but did not comment further on Friday.

“This is the CCP’s criminality on display for the whole world to see. This isn’t diplomacy, it’s coercion,” the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee wrote on X.

TAIWAN PROTESTS
Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said the Chinese actions “seriously threatened the personal safety of Vice President Hsiao and her entourage”.

“The Mainland Affairs Council today protested and strongly condemned the Chinese communist’s bad behaviour and demanded that the Chinese side should immediately explain and publicly apologise,” it said.

A senior Taiwan security official briefed on the matter told Reuters the incident was an example of “transnational repression” by China that the European Union is currently paying close attention to.

“This is a problem that everyone should pay attention to,” the official requesting anonymity said, adding many government officials around the world were threatened by China upon visits made by Taiwanese officials or politicians to their countries.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/taiwan-vice-president-china-planned-physical-intimidation-prague-visit-czech-republic-5209741

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium “in a matter of months”, despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks, CBS News said on Saturday (Jun 28).

Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites on Jun 13, saying it was aimed at keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition the Islamic republic has consistently denied.

The United States subsequently bombed three key facilities used for Tehran’s atomic programme.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is “serious”, but the details are unknown. US President Donald Trump insisted Iran’s nuclear programme had been set back “decades”.

But Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said “some is still standing”.

“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi said Friday, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday.

Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks.

The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent – above levels for civilian usage but still below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.

Grossi admitted to CBS: “We don’t know where this material could be”.

“So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification,” he said in the interview.

For now, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran rejected Grossi’s request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility.

“We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened,” Grossi said.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-nuclear-produce-enriched-uranium-within-months-iaea-rafael-grossi-5209576

The travelling animal care vehicles could provide a solution for pet owners who are priced out of private healthcare and too far from the city’s one government-run clinic.

When Lusiana discovered that a free rabies vaccination event was being held at a cultural centre about a kilometre from her home, the East Jakarta resident was excited.

Her cat, Bono, had been vomiting and acting lethargic for days and the 74-year-old widow was hoping that the veterinarians present at the event might provide some answers.

The private animal clinics near her home are too expensive while Jakarta’s only government-run clinic, located some 28km away on the other side of the city, is too far for the ageing retiree.

“It would have taken me one-and-a-half hours one way to get to the (government-run) clinic by bus. In fact, it’s so far away I’m not even sure which bus I should take to get there,” Lusiana, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told CNA.

Located near the city’s southern limit, the Jakarta Animal Health Centre is the only place in the sprawling metropolis of 11 million inhabitants which provides subsidised healthcare for animals and thus holds special importance for pet owners like Lusiana.

Prices at privately-run clinics can be two to four times more expensive than at the health centre.

For example, the health centre charges 70,000 rupiah (US$4) for every health consultation session while private ones typically charge between 150,000 and 250,000 rupiah per session.

Meanwhile, male neutering costs between 200,000 and 350,000 rupiah at the health centre, depending on the size of the animal, while prices at private clinics vary between 400,000 and 1 million rupiah.

To compensate for the centre’s remoteness, the city has been staging outreach programmes where veterinarians and city officials visit one Jakarta community after the other, including the rabies event which Lusiana attended on Jun 10.

But these programmes are held only once or twice every month. Since veterinarians can only carry a limited amount of equipment, the events are often limited to simple procedures such as vaccinations and sterilisations, as Lusiana found out the hard way.

“The vets suspected that my cat might have parasites but they can’t be sure without performing a blood test. And to do that I need to take my cat to the (government-run) clinic,” she said.

As residents in the Indonesian capital struggle with the lack of places where owners can get affordable healthcare for their pets, authorities have come up with a potential solution. Starting next year, Jakarta will have six mobile veterinary service vehicles.

These travelling animal clinics, modelled after an existing initiative in neighbouring West Java, aim to be a game-changer for veterinarians, animal owners and their pets.

Hasudungan Sidabalok, chief of the Jakarta Food Security, Maritime and Agriculture Agency, which oversees all animal affairs in the Indonesian capital, acknowledged that the city-run animal clinic is too far for many residents.

“We are planning to build an animal clinic in each of Jakarta’s (five) municipalities. But the process of building one is long as there need to be studies, for example, of how accessible a location is to people in that municipality and so on,” Hasudungan told CNA.

“So the most feasible and quickest solution is to set up mobile veterinary service units.”

Hasudungan said Jakarta plans to acquire between six and 12 vans and convert them into animal clinics on wheels. These mobile veterinary vehicles are expected to roam the streets of Jakarta next year.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/could-jakarta-mobile-veterinary-vehicles-help-pet-and-animal-care-5204766

Prince Harry got candid about the hate his wife, Meghan Markle, has received online during a surprise appearance at the 2025 Nexus Global Summit in New York

“One of the reasons why the digital world was so important to us is because my wife, in 2018, was the most trolled person in the world,” the Duke of Sussex said while talking about how to combat social isolation online for “a better future for 2025 and beyond.”

“There was a lived experience,” he added, per the Daily Mail.

Harry, 40, explained that it became “important” for him and Markle, 43, to focus on the “digital world” through the Archewell Foundation after “meet[ing] a lot of parents who had lost their kids to social media — the majority through suicide.”

“That’s when it really started to make sense to us,” he continued.

The “Spare” author shared that people’s “compassion can shrink” as their “lives become harder.”

“I would sit up at night, and I was just like, ‘I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out,’” Markle added.

The Duchess of Sussex and Harry stepped down from their royal duties in 2020 amid drama with several members of the royal family.

They then relocated to Montecito, Calif., where they live with their kids: Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/06/28/celebrity-news/prince-harry-says-meghan-markle-was-most-trolled-person-in-the-world-during-surprise-appearance-in-new-york/

At least 81 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the 24 hours until midday on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

In one incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital staff and witnesses told news agencies. The stadium was being used to house displaced people, living in tents.

Footage verified by the BBC shows people digging through the sand with their bare hands and spades to find bodies.

The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful a ceasefire could be agreed in the next week.

Qatari mediators said they hoped US pressure could achieve a deal, following a truce between Israel and Iran that ended the 12-day conflict between the countries.

In March, a two-month ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The ceasefire deal – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

On Thursday, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

A rally was organised on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Organisers said “the time has come to end the fighting and bring everyone home in one phase”.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. Friday evening’s strike near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City killed at least 11 people, hospital staff and witnesses said.

One witness said they were sitting when they “suddenly heard a huge explosion” after a road was hit.

“This area was packed with tents – now the tents are under the sand. We spent hours digging with our bare hands,” Ahmed Qishawi told the Reuters news agency.

He said there are “no wanted people here, nor any terrorists as they [Israelis] claim… [there are] only civilian residents, children, who were targeted with no mercy,” he said.

The BBC has verified footage showing civilians and emergency services digging through the sandy ground with their hands and spades to find bodies.

Fourteen more people were reported killed, some of them children, in strikes on an apartment block and a tent in the al-Mawasi area.

The strike in al-Mawasi killed three children and their parents, who died while they were asleep, relatives told the Associated Press.

“What did these children do to them? What is their fault?” the children’s grandmother, Suad Abu Teima, told the news agency.

More people were reported killed on Saturday afternoon after an air strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood near Jaffa School, where hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering.

The strike killed at least eight people, including five children, the Palestinian health ministry said.

One witness Mohammed Haboub told Reuters that his nephews, father and the children of his neighbours were killed in the strike.

“We didn’t do anything to them, why do they harm us? Did we harm them? We are civilians,” he told the news agency.

The health ministry said ambulance and civil defence crews were facing difficulties in reaching a number of victims trapped under the rubble and on the roads, due to the impossibility of movement in some of the affected areas.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czry8g5n80zo

Bain was halfway through his band’s Los Angeles concert on a crisp April night when the music stopped.

In an oversized fur coat and black sunglasses, the 24-year-old K-pop star told thousands of fans: “Before I start the next song – I want to share something with you guys.”

A brief pause and then: “I’m [expletive] proud to be part of the LGBTQ community!”

The crowd erupted in applause and screams as Bain broke into Lady Gaga’s pride anthem: “Just put your paws up, ‘Cause you were born this way, baby”.

In that moment, as he came out to the world, he was not nervous, he tells the BBC in an interview at his studio in Seoul – rather, he had been trying to “sound cool”.

A handful of K-pop artists have come out as gay in recent years – but none as publicly as Bain.

Even in 2025, that is a bold move in South Korea’s entertainment industry, where stars are held to impossible standards. Admitting to even a heterosexual relationship is scandalous.

“There were some people in the industry who knew [I was thinking of coming out] and warned me against it, saying it would be a risk,” Bain says. “And of course I thought about the risk – that we might lose fans.

“But then I thought, society is changing… I might gain more than I might lose.”

That’s the big question: has he thrown open the door to change in an industry that has become global but remains deeply rooted in a conservative South Korea?

‘I thought I could just pretend’
Bain, whose real name is Song Byeonghee, says he was in secondary school, about 12 years old, when he realised he was gay.

Shortly afterwards, he decided to become a K-pop trainee but he kept his sexuality a secret – he felt like being gay was “not allowed”.

“It wasn’t something I questioned… I just thought I had no choice,” he says. “There was no-one else [around me that was gay]. I thought I could just pretend and keep going.”

Wealthy, modern South Korea is still traditional in many ways. Powerful yet conservative churches often see homosexuality as a disability or sin. And same-sex marriage is not legally recognised.

In 2021, Bain made his debut as part of a six-member boyband, Just B. They have released several albums and have taken part in reality shows, earning a dedicated audience.

But through it all, the years of hiding a part of himself took a toll on Bain.

“I was so overwhelmed, I thought maybe I can’t be an idol at all. I felt I’d been hiding so much. I decided to talk to Mom.”

That was about three years ago. His mother was the first person in his family to find out: “We talked for an hour, and I finally said, ‘I like men more than women.’ That’s when she knew.”

Her reaction was difficult for him. “Honestly, she didn’t like it – not at first. She said she thought I could overcome it, that maybe I’d someday like women. She felt sad… that I’d now face bad reactions from others. But [she] said, ‘You’re my son, so I love you, I support you, I love you.’ It was mixed. I was sad, but in the end grateful she said she loves me.”

Then his team members and company began encouraging him to take the leap – and tell the world.

Earlier this year the band began a world tour, and on the last stop of their US tour, Bain decided to come out on stage.

Since then, the band has been thrust into the spotlight – with Bain giving countless interviews as he quickly became the new face of the Korean LGBTQ community.

“I feel like I’ve changed a lot since coming out. I feel more confident. When I meet someone new, I show who I am immediately,” he says. “But I also feel sad that my identity is such a big deal now.”

Over time, he hopes, people will stop saying “oh, he’s gay, but rather, oh, that’s just who he is”.

The taboos in K-pop
When South Korean actor Hong Seok-Cheon came out as gay in 2000, LGBTQ representation truly entered the country’s mainstream.

He was the first Korean celebrity to open up about his sexuality – and it came at a cost. He was dropped from TV shows and advertisements.

Attitudes have certainly changed since then. A Pew survey from 2019 showed that the number of people who accepted homosexuality has risen to 44% from 25% in 2002.

And yet, only a handful of other celebrities have come out. In 2018, Holland became the country’s first openly gay K-pop artist and, in 2020, Jiae, a former member of girl group Wassup, came out as bisexual. Both have said they found it hard to sign with a record label as a result.

Bain’s announcement, however, has been celebrated by both fans and South Korea’s LGBTQ community.

“When someone like an idol comes out, it gives people like me a sense that we are not alone,” says a 26-year-old Korean transgender woman, who does not want to be named.

“It brings comfort…makes me think, maybe I’m ok the way I am.”

Online too, a majority of the comments have been positive. One gay fan in a YouTube comment wrote how he was encouraged by Bain, after feeling “so much despair” over “the hateful comments” and discrimination.

“But thanks to Bain, I’ve found the courage to keep going.”

International fans have especially cheered him on: “After the initial shock, I started to cry,” said Lia, a K-pop fan from the US who identifies as lesbian.

“Knowing that Korea still has some repression against LGBTQ people, the bravery and courage he displayed by coming out…[was] admirable.”

South Korea’s cultural footprint has been growing globally, and that has brought fans from everywhere, with their own perspectives and beliefs. They may well reshape the K-pop industry.

But that will take time. And that is evident in the range of comments in response to Bain’s announcement – disapproval to apathy.

For one, the country has seen a rise in right-wing, often avowed anti-feminist beliefs in young men, who seem to oppose any challenge to traditional gender roles.

And those roles remain strong in South Korea. The government and the church champion conventional family values, encouraging young people to marry and have children so they can boost birth rates, currently the lowest in the world.

Given all that, it may not be a surprise that homosexuality is still a taboo, even in a global industry like K-pop.

This is a world where even straight couples don’t talk about their private lives, says critic Lim Hee-yun.

“K-pop has spent nearly 25 years avoiding the topic of sexuality [altogether]. Even heterosexual relationships are hidden to protect fan fantasies.”

 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5kx7wn1nzo

Japan on Sunday successfully launched a climate change monitoring satellite on its mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its final flight before it is replaced by a new flagship model designed to be more cost competitive in the global space market.

The H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the GOSAT-GW satellite as part of Tokyo’s effort to mitigate climate change. The satellite was safely separated from the rocket and released into a planned orbit about 16 minutes later.

Scientists and space officials at the control room exchanged hugs and handshakes to celebrate the successful launch, which was delayed by several days due to a malfunctioning of the rocket’s electrical systems.

Keiji Suzuki, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries official in charge of rocket launch operations, said he was more nervous than ever for the final mission of the rocket, which has been his career work. “I’ve spent my entire life at work not to drop H-2A rocket … All I can say is I’m so relieved.”

Sunday’s launch marked the 50th and final flight for the H-2A, which has served as Japan’s mainstay rocket to carry satellites and probes into space with a near-perfect record since its 2001 debut. After its retirement, it will be fully replaced by the H3, which is already in operation, as Japan’s new main flagship.

“It is a deeply emotional moment for all of us at JAXA as a developer,” Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, told a news conference.

The GOSAT-GW, or Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle, is a third series in the mission to monitor carbon, methane and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Within one year, it will start distributing data such as sea surface temperature and precipitation with much higher resolution to users around the world, including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, officials said.

The liquid-fuel H-2A rocket with two solid-fuel sub-rockets developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has so far had 49 flights with a 98% success record, with only one failure in 2003. Mitsubishi Heavy has provided its launch operation since 2007.

H-2A successfully carried into space many satellites and probes, including Japan’s moon lander SLIM last year, and a popular Hayabusa2 spacecraft in 2014 to reach a distant asteroid, contributing to the country’s space programs.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/japan-space-rocket-satellite-carbon-climate-f5a2cdc4e8e0611288c3e72b9e965c1b

Hundreds of protesters marched through Venice’s central streets on Saturday to say “No” to billionaire Jeff Bezos, his bride and their much-awaited wedding extravaganza, which reached its third and final day amid celebrity-crowded parties and the outcries of tired residents.

On Friday, the world’s fourth-richest man and his bride Lauren Sanchez Bezos tied the knot during a private ceremony with around 200 celebrity guests on the secluded island of San Giorgio.

The wedding, however, angered many Venetians, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos, while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.

As the two newlyweds prepared for the final party Saturday evening, hundreds of Venetians and protesters from across Italy filled Venice’s tiny streets with colorful banners reading “Kisses Yes, Bezos No” and “No Bezos, no War.” Venice has around 50,000 residents.

The demonstration contrasted with the expensive wedding bonanza, seen by critics as an affront to the lagoon city’s fragile environment and its citizens, overwhelmed by throngs of tourists.

“We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people … while the conditions of this city remain precarious,” said Martina Vergnano, one of the demonstrators.

The protest organizers claimed that their planned protest had forced the relocation of Saturday’s party from a supposed initial location to a former medieval shipyard, the Arsenale.

Bezos donated 1 million euros ($1.17 million) each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.

But many protesters blasted the move as a clear attempt to appease angry residents.

“We want a free Venice, which is finally dedicated to its citizens. … Those donations are just a misery and only aimed at clearing Bezos’ conscience,” said Flavio Cogo, a Venetian activist who joined Saturday’s protest.

Details of the exclusive wedding ceremony Friday night were a closely guarded secret, until Sánchez Bezos posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos.

Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple’s love as to their extraordinary wealth.

The star-studded guest list included Oprah Winfrey and NFL great Tom Brady, along with Hollywood stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Orlando Bloom, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates and top socialites, including the Kardashian-Jenner clan.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/italy-venice-bezos-wedding-protest-guests-celebrities-2e55b5f314d1c7c0fd7e316bdd7d6885

An emboldened Trump administration plans to aggressively challenge blocks on the president’s top priorities, from immigration to education, following a major Supreme Court ruling that limits the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions.

Government attorneys will press judges to pare back the dozens of sweeping rulings thwarting the president’s agenda “as soon as possible,” said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Priorities for the administration include injunctions related to the Education Department and the U.S. DOGE Service, as well as an order halting the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the official said, detailing efforts to implement plans President Donald Trump announced Friday.

“Thanks to this decision, we can now promptly file to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis,” Trump said at a news conference, during which he thanked by name members of the conservative high court majority he helped build.

Trump on Friday cast the narrowing of judicial power as a consequential, needed correction in his battle with a court system that has restrained his authority.

Scholars and plaintiffs in the lawsuits over Trump’s orders agreed that the high court ruling could profoundly reshape legal battles over executive power that have defined Trump’s second term — even as other legal experts said the effects would be more muted. Some predicted it would embolden Trump to push his expansive view of presidential power.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-says-he-will-move-aggressively-to-undo-nationwide-blocks-on-his-agenda/ar-AA1HAVdg

The trunk of the car is opened. Inside, a tied and bound young man struggles theatrically.

Standing by the car is a woman. This is Alexandra Szentkiralyi, former government spokeswoman and now the best-known social media propagandist for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Speaking to the camera, she says, “I don’t think you’d like this kind of thing to happen to you. Because with the fast EU accession of Ukraine come the organ dealers, the arms dealers, the drug dealers and the human traffickers.”

The video, which was posted on Facebook and TikTok, is just 10 seconds long. People in Hungary have been bombarded with content such as this for over two months now — not only on the Internet, but also on pro-government Hungarian television channels.

A steady stream of anti-Ukraine ads was broadcast on the radio, too, and in public spaces, billboards featured grim and sinister-looking images of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Not just another campaign

This was not simply just another one of Orban’s many hate campaigns; it was the first to target an entire country and declare it a “mafia state.”

It was also the first Orban campaign to collectively dehumanize the citizens of a whole country and defame them as dangerous, merciless criminals who are allegedly out to destroy Hungary by trading in people, human organs, drugs and arms, by flooding the market with genetically modified foods, and by taking jobs, income, pensions and healthcare from Hungarian citizens.

Indus Waters Treaty: Calling the self-appointed panel unlawful and in “brazen violation” of the treaty itself, India’s foreign ministry unequivocally trashed its claims and “concerns”.

India has, in a strongly-worded statement, rejected a “supplemental award” by an “illegal” Court of Arbitration set up supposedly over the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. Calling the self-appointed panel unlawful and in “brazen violation” of the treaty itself, India’s foreign ministry unequivocally trashed its claims and “concerns”.

In a five-point statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, “Today, the illegal Court of Arbitration, purportedly constituted under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, albeit in brazen violation of it, has issued what it characterizes as a ‘supplemental award’ on its competence concerning the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Making it clear that New Delhi never considered this self-appointed, so-called ‘arbiter’ to have any locus standi in any of India’s matters, the foreign ministry stated that “India has never recognised the existence in law of this so-called Court of Arbitration, and India’s position has all along been that the constitution of this so-called arbitral body is in itself a serious breach of the Indus Waters Treaty.”

“Consequently, any proceedings before this forum and any award or decision taken by it are also for that reason illegal and per se void,” it added.

Blaming Pakistan sqarely for the Indus Waters Treaty being put in “abeyance” after terrorist attacks in India, the foreign ministry reiterated that “Following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, India has in exercise of its rights as a sovereign nation under international law, placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. Until such time that the Treaty is in abeyance, India is no longer bound to perform any of its obligations under the Treaty.”

Calling out the “so-called Court of Arbitration” for acting at the behest of Pakistan and highlighting that the self-appointed panel has “no existence in the eyes of the law”, India said, “No Court of Arbitration, much less this illegally constituted arbitral body which has no existence in the eye of law, has the jurisdiction to examine the legality of India’s actions in exercise of its rights as a sovereign,” adding that “India, therefore, categorically rejects this so-called supplemental award as it has rejected all prior pronouncements of this body.”

Labeling Pakistan as the global epicenter for terrorism, India underscored that “This latest charade at Pakistan’s behest is yet another desperate attempt by it to escape accountability for its role as the global epicenter of terrorism. Pakistan’s resort to this fabricated arbitration mechanism is consistent with its decades-long pattern of deception and manipulation of international forums.”

India has made it amply clear that the Indus Waters Treaty shall continue to remain in abeyance till Pakistan does not eradicate every shred of terror infrastructure and financing, as well as eliminate every single terrorist on its soil. New Delhi has also sent a clear message to Pakistan and the global community that any terror activity or terrorist attack in India with links found directly or indirectly to Pakistan will be considered an escalation which merits a military response by India “anywhere in Pakistan”.

The Indus Waters Treaty being kept in abeyance was one of the first diplomatically-punitive measures taken by India against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack was traced to have Pakistani-links. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that “blood and water cannot flow together.” India has also repeatedly told Pakistan that “terror and talks cannot happen at the same time” either, leaving Islamabad and Rawalpindi (Pak Army headquarters) with no option but to put an end to its policy of “cross-border terror” in order to get its share of water as per the agreement.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/so-called-court-of-arbitration-on-indus-waters-treaty-illegal-void-india-8778003

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the new system of aid distribution in Gaza was “inherently unsafe” and “killing people.”

Thousands of Palestinians line up nearly every day to get food under the new system operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

GHF, backed by Israel and the United States, launched operations in mid-May. But it has faced criticism with the UN saying that it was a way for Israeli forces to use food as a weapon.

More than 400 Palestinians have been killed so far while seeking aid from GHF sites, according to the UN.

GHF bypasses the UN and other NGOs, since Israeli forces have pushed for the alternative system that they say stops Hamas from seizing aid.

Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and other countries, denies the accusation. The UN has also denied that the group has diverted large amounts of aid.

Israel has vowed to control Gaza and fight until Hamas is destroyed, and until the group returns the remaining 50 hostages, not all of whom are thought to still be alive, it seized during the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

Search for food must never be a death sentence: Guterres

Guterres told reporters that the UN-led humanitarian efforts in Gaza are being “strangled” and aid workers themselves are starving. He also said Israel is required to facilitate aid deliveries into and through the Palestinian territory.

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters. “It is time to find the political courage for a ceasefire in Gaza.”

In response to questions about previous incidents, the Israeli military often said troops had fired warning shots over the heads of people to get them to move. It has also said it is reviewing various cases but has yet to publish its findings.

Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper on Friday reported that Israel’s Military Advocate General ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near aid distribution sites.

GHF says no deaths near aid distribution sites

A GHF spokesperson said there have been no deaths at or near any of the GHF aid distribution sites, Reuters news agency reported.

“It is unfortunate the U.N. continues to push false information regarding our operations,” the GHF spokesperson said. “Bottom line, our aid is getting securely delivered. Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome the UN and other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/gaza-aid-plan-should-not-be-death-sentence-un-chief-says/a-73074000

Singapore’s top universities are drawing students from around the world with their academic rigour, affordability and safety. But many students and experts say that global prestige, elite alumni networks and research legacies still give Ivy League and Oxbridge institutions an enduring edge.

When Mr Martin Ruzicka first applied to universities in 2022, Asia was not even on his radar. But after his first semester at University College London (UCL), he withdrew and transferred halfway around the world to continue his studies in Singapore.

The 20-year-old from the Czech Republic is now in his second year of business school at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Why the switch from UCL – widely considered as one of the best universities in the United Kingdom – to NTU?

During his brief time in London, Mr Ruzicka had several “unlucky and unsafe” encounters, including being approached for drugs on the street and harassed near his school accommodation, and felt that UCL’s high fees were not justified by the quality of facilities or lectures.

Growing up in the Czech Republic, he viewed Singapore as a “very high-tech, green, efficient country”, a positive impression that was elevated by the nation’s institutions being high on university world rankings.

“My family and I placed a lot of importance on world rankings when selecting universities. NTU was perfect because the business course is only three years long, it was in English and NTU was high on the ranking,” said Mr Ruzicka.

Besides the course and on-campus housing being “value-for-money”, Mr Ruzicka said Singapore’s environment is well-suited to his personal needs, with illicit and controlled substances not being part of the university culture, in stark contrast to his time in the UK and in his home country.

NTU, which rose three spots to 12th in the 2026 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, has so far delivered on its promise of a “world-class education”, he added.

Mr Ruzicka is not alone in viewing rankings as a crucial indicator of quality in higher education. In these rankings, Singapore’s universities, especially the National University of Singapore (NUS) and NTU, are increasingly standing tall alongside global education titans.

In the latest rankings, NUS held firm at 8th place globally, while NTU rose to 12th. Together, the two outranked Ivy League institutions in the United States, such as the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Cornell University, and China’s powerhouse Peking University.

Vietnamese student Nguyễn Kỳ Minh, a 19-year-old global studies and communications and new media major at NUS, said that back home, “everyone knows about NUS” and sees Singapore as a top study destination.

Beyond the rankings, it was affordability, academic rigour and opportunities for exchange that won him over.

“At the end of the day, it (all comes down to) graduating with an NUS degree. A lot of employers, especially internationally and in Vietnam, look at that and say, ‘That’s something, isn’t it?’”

Even younger autonomous universities in Singapore, such as the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), have attracted international attention.

Ms Yanata Sulaiman, 24, from Indonesia, recently graduated with a Master of Management with a specialisation in digital marketing from SUSS.

While her family was initially more familiar with NUS, NTU and the Singapore Management University (SMU), Ms Yanata said SUSS was attractive because it allowed her to specialise in two areas in a year-long programme.

“Singapore was one of the countries I wanted to study in. It feels close, not just in terms of distance, but in culture too. It’s very international, so I can get an international experience here also,” she said.

As for Singaporean students, while tuition subsidies and the institutions’ global standing have long made local universities an attractive option for them, some told CNA TODAY that their decision to stay put has been further cemented by shifting global tides.

Traditional destinations such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia are increasingly being reassessed due to stricter immigration policies and mounting geopolitical uncertainty.

Australia, historically a magnet for Singaporean and Southeast Asian students, had last year mooted international student caps which would involve allocating a quota for each higher education institution for 2025. Universities in the UK, meanwhile, have been facing a funding crisis, with many struggling with rising costs amid a drop in international students.

Though studying in the US once appealed to 18-year-old junior college student Anjaneya Sharma, he said the allure of top-tier universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard has faded due to the current political climate.

“Initially, I was considering US universities. Now I’m not even going to apply there. I’m considering NUS, NTU, because the situation (in the US) is very chaotic,” he said.

In the US, President Donald Trump has sought to prevent Harvard from hosting international students, a move made amid higher education funding cuts and immigration crackdowns affecting American universities.

Singaporeans now studying at Harvard are being offered the possibility of returning to local universities amid all this flux. But are local educational offerings attractive enough for Singaporeans seeking “world-class” opportunities elsewhere?

A Harvard undergraduate who only wanted to be known as Ryan, a Singaporean in his 20s, would still prefer to remain at the university if possible.

He declined to have his real name published as he did not want to compromise future visa applications to the US.

“The general sentiment is that local universities won’t be an exact replacement because the classes and academic systems aren’t the same. For graduate students doing research, they might not be able to just transplant their research over, like if they’re working with a lab,” said Mr Ryan.

As international headwinds buffet long-established higher education destinations and Singapore’s universities edge closer to the top tier in global standings, CNA TODAY examines whether the gap between Singapore’s institutions of higher learning and the likes of Harvard or Oxford has narrowed over the years.

SINGAPORE ON THE GLOBAL STAGE 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has re-emerged after the war with Israel but faces a struggle to maintain the authority he has wielded over the Islamic Republic for over three-and-a-half decades of rule, analysts say.

After days of silence, Khamenei appeared on Thursday (Jun 26) in a video address to proclaim “victory” and prove he is still alive following the 12-day conflict with Israel, which ended with a truce earlier this week.

But Khamenei, appointed Iran’s number one and spiritual leader for life in 1989, spoke softly and hoarsely in the address, without the charismatic oratory for which he is known.

Whereas his regular interventions before the war usually took place in public in front of an audience, this message was filmed against a plain backdrop of curtains and a picture of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

This may indicate he could still be in hiding after Israel refused to rule out seeking to assassinate him.

On Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that the military would have killed Khamenei during the war if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

But in the end, the conflict did not trigger the removal of the system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Still, it enabled Israel to demonstrate military superiority and deep intelligence penetration of Iran by killing key members of Khamenei’s inner circle in targeted strikes.

The war was also the latest in a series of setbacks over the last year for Khamenei.

These include the downgrading of pro-Tehran militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah in conflicts with Israel and the fall of Iran’s ally in Syria Bashar al-Assad, against the background of economic crisis and energy shortages at home.

“At this time, the regime does not seem to be on the verge of falling but it is certainly more vulnerable than it has been since the early years after the revolution,” said Thomas Juneau, professor at the University of Ottawa.

“DIMINISHED FIGURE”

“The authority of the supreme leader has therefore certainly been undermined,” Juneau told AFP.

“Even though his position remains secure, in that there is unlikely to be a direct challenge to his rule for now, he has lost credibility and bears direct responsibility for the Islamic Republic’s major losses.”

Khamenei is 86 and suffers the effects of a 1981 assassination attempt in Tehran, which paralysed his right arm, a disability he has never made any attempt to hide.

But discussion of succession has remained taboo in Iran, even if Western analysts have long eyed his son Mojtaba as a possible – but far from inevitable – contender.

Arash Azizi, visiting fellow at Boston University, said Khamenei looked “frail and weak” in his televised message in “a far cry from the grand orator we know”.

“It’s clear that he is a diminished figure, no longer authoritative and a shadow of his former self,” he said.

“Power in Tehran is already passing to different institutions and factions and the battle for his succession will only intensify in the coming period.”

Khamenei has come through crises before, using the state’s levers of repression, most recently during the 2022 to 2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd detained for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Rights activists say hundreds of people have been arrested in a new crackdown in the wake of the conflict.

“SIDELINED”?

The New York Times and Iran International, a Persian-language television channel based outside Iran that is critical of the authorities, have said Khamenei spent the war in a bunker avoiding use of digital communication for fear of being tracked and assassinated.

Iran International reported that Khamenei was not even involved in the discussions that led to the truce which were handled by the national security council and President Masoud Pezeshkian. There has been no confirmation of this claim.

Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based United Against Nuclear Iran, said Khamenei appeared “frail and hoarse” and also “detached from reality” in insisting that Iran’s nuclear programme did not suffer significant damage.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-supreme-leader-khamenei-israel-conflict-5207606

She makes motherhood look easy.

Rihanna was all smiles as she and her son Riot Rose supported A$AP Rocky at his AWGE fashion show during Paris Men’s Fashion Week on Friday.

The “Work” singer, who is currently pregnant with the couple’s third baby, was filmed making her way to her seat at the fashion show while carrying her son on her hip.

Cameras flashed on the soon-to-be mom of three as she smiled down at her son, who sat in her lap in the front row.

The business mogul, 37, wore a colorful button-up that featured one red long sleeve and a blue striped center. She styled the shirt with a loose fit, leaving most of the top unbuttoned.

She paired the shirt with a navy blue tennis skirt, tall gray socks and a pair of white lacy slingback heels. The completed ensemble also included a yellow tote purse and gold jewelry.

She wore her hair down in loose curls and went for a light makeup look.

The couple’s 10-month-old son attended the show wearing a kids black moto jacket that held a colorful Harley Davidson patch over his white shirt and purple joggers.

The edgy look was finished with a pair of tiny baby Vans sneakers and tall white socks. His hair was kept in braids.

At one point in the clip, the young son gave a brief wave to the cameras before turning his head away from the bright flashes.

The couple are also parents to son RZA, whom they welcomed in May 2022.

Earlier on Friday, she and Rocky were seen sitting front row at Dior’s Homme men’s spring 2026 show.

The Fenty Beauty founder sported a colorful ensemble to the event, wearing a black cape with floral embroidery, which featured a contrasting turquoise and orange print on the inside, over a bump-hugging mint green blazer and a white button-up.

She wore a pair of slouchy gray trousers on her lower half. She accessorized the outfit with rectangular yellow-tinted sunglasses and Briony Raymond ear cuffs and studs as well as a Marlo Laz pearl and diamond cameo Necklace.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/27/parents/rihanna-and-son-riot-support-aap-rocky-at-rappers-runway-show-during-paris-fashion-week/

Ivanka Trump is pretty in pink.

The first daughter arrived at friends Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos long-awaited wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy clad in a long pink gown by Tony Ward.

Her strapless design was covered in a glittery floral pattern, with a breathtaking bead-covered petal design around the midriff that cascaded down the train.

The gown featured a thigh-high slit and Trump kept her accessories relatively minimal, skipping a necklace in favor of diamond drop earrings.

Trump wore her hair in a sleek side-part style and added a pop of color with a bright pink lipstick.

Her husband, Jared Kushner, for his part, looked sharp in a classic black tuxedo.

Trump first landed with her family — including kids Arabella Rose, 13, Joseph Frederick, 10, and Theodore James, 8 — in the city on Tuesday.

Seen boarding a boat in the picturesque town, the first daughter wore a red, orange and cream printed La Double J crop top ($550) and matching midi skirt ($620).

At a welcome event leading up to the wedding on Thursday, she another pink floral mini, this time from Oscar de la Renta.

Meanwhile, Bezos and Sánchez arrived on Wednesday, a few days before their lavish nuptials.

The guest list for the wedding includes the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Eva Longoria and Orlando Bloom among many others.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/27/style/ivanka-trump-is-pretty-in-pink-at-lauren-sanchez-and-jeff-bezos-wedding/

Here comes Mrs. Bezos.

Lauren Sánchez married Jeff Bezos in a lavish Italian ceremony in Venice on Friday, walking down the aisle in a lace long-sleeved Dolce & Gabbana gown.

Her dress featured a corseted waist, turtleneck and buttons from neck to the floor, culminating in a mermaid-style skirt.

The helicopter pilot, 55, wore pulled her hair back into a bun, leaving some pieces out in the front underneath her lace-trimmed veil.

She added Dolce & Gabbana Alta Gioielleria Miracolo earrings featuring four diamonds cut from a single stone and inlaid in white gold as her “something borrowed,” according to Vogue.

The style was inspired by the high-necked lace wedding dress Sophia Loren wore in 1958’s “Houseboat” to marry Cary Grant, she told the mag.

“It went from ‘I want a simple, sexy modern dress’ to ‘I want something that evokes a moment,’ and where I am right now. I am a different person than I was five years ago,” Sánchez added.

“I researched pictures of brides in the 1950s,” she added. “I wanted to reflect back, and I saw Sophia Loren and her hands were [in a prayer position] and she was in high lace, up to the neck, and I said, ‘That’s it. That’s the dress.’”

She predicted that people would be surprised by the covered-up look.

“It is a departure from what people expect,” she told Vogue, “from what I expect—but it’s very much me.”

“06/27/2025 ♥️,” she simply captioned an Instagram post after changing her name on the social media platform to Lauren Sánchez Bezos post-ceremony.

The groom, meanwhile wore a classic black tuxedo, also by the Italian fashion brand, during the nuptials, which took place on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

For the wedding dinner, she will change into a second corseted gown, this time inspired by the Rita Hayworth film “Gilda,” Vogue reports — as well as a third look for the party, a cocktail dress by Oscar de la Renta featuring 600 yards of hand-sewn chain and 175,000 crystals.

In March, the couple were seen at the Dolce & Gabbana store in Milan for a fitting, tipping off fans that they may go for the high-fashion brand on the big day.

Dolce & Gabbana is a somewhat sentimental choice for the bride, as her son Nikko Gonzalez made his modeling debut at the brand’s Milan Fashion Week show in January 2024 and strut his stuff on the runway for the Alta Sartoria fashion show a few months later, with the proud mom rocking a sheer black gown in the front row.

The couple have been celebrating their nuptials all week, touching down in Venice on Wednesday.

Amid a wave of protests in Venice, Page Six revealed that the business magnate and Sánchez donated to a number of local charities in the city as part of their wedding planning process and reportedly sourced almost all of their wedding goods from Venetian vendors.

Dolce & Gabbana, while founded in Legnano, Italy, certainly fits the bill, too.

Insiders told Page Six that Anna Wintour had a hand in picking out the bridal attire — though she won’t be in attendance at the star-studded nuptials. However, we previously reported that the nuptials will be covered in Vogue at a later date.

The A-list celebrity guest list included Ivanka Trump, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Leonardo DiCaprio and more.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/27/style/lauren-sanchez-wears-dolce-amp-gabbana-corset-wedding-gown-to-marry-jeff-bezos-in-italy/

The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory on Friday in a case involving birthright citizenship by curbing the ability of judges to impede his policies nationwide, changing the power balance between the federal judiciary and presidents.
The 6-3 ruling, authored by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, did not let Trump’s directive restricting birthright citizenship go into effect immediately, directing lower courts that blocked it to reconsider the scope of their orders. The ruling also did not address the legality of the policy, part of Trump’s hardline approach toward immigration.

The Republican president lauded the ruling and said his administration can now try to move forward with numerous policies such as his birthright citizenship executive order that he said “have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis.”
“We have so many of them. I have a whole list,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The court granted the administration’s request to narrow the scope of three so-called “universal” injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state that halted enforcement of his directive nationwide while litigation challenging the policy plays out. The court’s conservative justices were in the majority and its liberal members dissented.

The ruling specified that Trump’s executive order cannot take effect until 30 days after Friday’s ruling. The ruling thus raises the prospect of Trump’s order eventually applying in some parts of the country.
Federal judges have taken steps including issuing numerous nationwide orders impeding Trump’s aggressive use of executive action to advance his agenda. The three judges in the birthright citizenship litigation found that Trump’s order likely violates citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also called a “green card” holder.

Warning against an “imperial judiciary,” Barrett wrote, “No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law. But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligation – in fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so.”
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the ruling a “travesty for the rule of law” as she read a summary of her dissent from the bench.
In her written dissent, joined by the court’s two other liberal justices, Sotomayor criticized the court’s majority for ignoring whether Trump’s executive order is constitutional.
“Yet the order’s patent unlawfulness reveals the gravity of the majority’s error and underscores why equity supports universal injunctions as appropriate remedies in this kind of case,” Sotomayor wrote.
More than 150,000 newborns would be denied citizenship annually under Trump’s directive, according to the plaintiffs who challenged it, including the Democratic attorneys general of 22 states as well as immigrant rights advocates and pregnant immigrants.
The ruling was issued on the final day of decisions on cases argued before the Supreme Court during its nine-month term that began in October. The court also issued rulings on Friday backing a Texas law regarding online pornography, letting parents opt children out of classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read, endorsing the Federal Communications Commission’s funding mechanism for expanded phone and broadband internet access and preserving Obamacare’s provision on health insurers covering preventive care.

‘MONUMENTAL VICTORY’

Trump called the ruling a “monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers and the rule of law.”
The policies Trump said his administration can now attempt to proceed with included cutting off funds to so-called “sanctuary cities,” suspending resettlement of refugees in the United States, freezing “unnecessary” federal funding and preventing federal funds from paying for gender-affirming surgeries.
The case before the Supreme Court was unusual in that the administration used it to argue that federal judges lack the authority to issue “universal” injunctions, and asked the justices to rule that way and enforce the president’s directive even without weighing its legal merits.
Friday’s ruling did not rule out all forms of broad relief.

The ruling said judges may provide “complete relief” only to the plaintiffs before them. It did not foreclose the possibility that states might need an injunction that applies beyond their borders to obtain complete relief.
“We decline to take up those arguments in the first instance,” wrote Barrett, who Trump appointed to the court in 2020.
The ruling left untouched the potential for plaintiffs to seek wider relief through class action lawsuits, but that legal mechanism is often harder to successfully mount.
In her dissent, Sotomayor said Trump’s executive order is obviously unconstitutional. So rather than defend it on the merits, she wrote, the Justice Department “asks this Court to hold that, no matter how illegal a law or policy, courts can never simply tell the Executive to stop enforcing it against anyone.”
Sotomayor advised parents of children who would be affected by Trump’s order “to file promptly class action suits and to request temporary injunctive relief for the putative class.”
Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who previously blocked the order nationwide, scheduled a Monday hearing after immigration rights advocates filed a motion asking her to treat the case as a class action and block the policy nationwide again.
“The Supreme Court has now instructed that, in such circumstances, class-wide relief may be appropriate,” the lawyers wrote in their motion.
Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, whose state helped secure the nationwide injunction issued by a judge in Seattle, called Friday’s ruling “disappointing on many levels” but stressed that the justices “confirmed that courts may issue broad injunctions when needed to provide complete relief to the parties.”
Universal injunctions have been opposed by presidents of both parties – Republican and Democratic – and can prevent the government from enforcing a policy against anyone, instead of just the individual plaintiffs who sued to challenge the policy.
Proponents have said they are an efficient check on presidential overreach, and have stymied actions deemed unlawful by presidents of both parties.

‘ILLEGAL AND CRUEL’

U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cut off trade talks with Canada on Friday over its tax targeting U.S. technology firms, saying that it was a “blatant attack” and that he would set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.
The move plunges U.S.-Canada relations back into chaos after a period of relative calm that included a cordial G7 meeting in mid-June where Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to wrap up a new economic agreement within 30 days.

It also came just hours after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent struck an upbeat tone on trade, touting progress had been made with China on reviving the flow of critical minerals for the U.S. manufacturing sector and in other key tariff negotiations.
The often-chaotic rollout of Trump’s import levies since his return to office this year has frequently whipsawed financial markets, and have begun to weigh on consumer spending, the bedrock of the U.S. economy.
U.S. stocks were briefly batted lower by his broadside against Canada, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq managed to close out the week at record highs.

Trump’s action comes ahead of Canada’s plans to begin collecting on Monday a previously enacted digital services tax on U.S. technology firms, including Amazon (AMZN.O), Meta (META.O), Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O), and Apple (AAPL.O), among others.
The tax is 3% of the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above $20 million in a calendar year, and payments will be retroactive to 2022.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media platform, called the tax “a direct and blatant attack on our country” and said Canada was a “very difficult country to TRADE with.”
“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump said. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven-day period.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that the negotiations with Canada would not resume “until they straighten out their act,” adding that the U.S. holds “such power over Canada.”
Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Mexico, and the largest buyer of U.S exports. It bought $349.4 billion of U.S. goods last year and exported $412.7 billion to the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Carney’s office responded to Trump’s announcement by saying: “The Canadian government will continue to engage in these complex negotiations with the United States in the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses.”
Bessent sought to downplay the U.S.-Canadian dispute in a CNBC interview, saying U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would likely open a Section 301 probe into Canada’s digital tax that would clear the way for tariff retaliation in the amount of harm to U.S. firms, which he said was roughly $2 billion.

The U.S. has prepared similar retaliation against European countries that have imposed digital taxes. A USTR spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘WRAPPED UP BY LABOR DAY’

NEW U.S.-CHINA EXPORT REVISIONS

Warren Buffett donated on Friday another $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab stock to the Gates Foundation and four family charities, his biggest annual donation since he began giving away his fortune nearly two decades ago.
The donation of about 12.36 million Berkshire Class B shares boosted Buffett’s overall giving to the charities to well over $60 billion.

He donated 9.43 million shares to the Gates Foundation; 943,384 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation; and 660,366 shares to each of three charities led respectively by his children Howard, Susie, and Peter: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation and NoVo Foundation.

Warren Buffett still owns 13.8% of Berkshire’s stock, based on reported shares outstanding.
His $152 billion net worth prior to Friday’s donations made him the world’s fifth-richest person, according to Forbes magazine.
Buffett would rank sixth after the donations, which surpassed the $5.3 billion he donated last June. He donated another $1.14 billion to the family charities last November.
In a statement, Buffett maintained he does not intend to sell any Berkshire shares.
Now 94, Buffett began giving away his fortune in 2006.
He changed his will last year, designating 99.5% of his remaining fortune after his death to a charitable trust overseen by his children.

They will have about a decade to distribute, the money, and must decide where it goes unanimously. Susie Buffett is 71, Howard Buffett is 70, and Peter Buffett is 67.
Warren Buffett has led Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965.
The $1.05 trillion conglomerate owns close to 200 businesses including Geico car insurance and the BNSF railroad, and dozens of stocks including Apple (AAPL.O), and American Express (AXP.N).
Susie Buffett leads the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which funds reproductive health and is named for her mother, who was Warren Buffett’s first wife.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/warren-buffett-donates-record-6-billion-berkshire-shares-2025-06-28/

 

Short of commanders, deprived of much of its tunnel network and unsure of support from its ally Iran, Hamas is battling to survive in Gaza in the face of rebellious local clans and relentless Israeli military pressure.
Hamas fighters are operating autonomously under orders to hold out as long as possible but the Islamist group is struggling to maintain its grip as Israel openly backs tribes opposing it, three sources close to Hamas said.

With a humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifying international pressure for a ceasefire, Hamas badly needs a pause in the fighting, one of the people said.
Not only would a ceasefire offer respite to weary Gazans, who are growing increasingly critical of Hamas, but it would also allow the Islamist group to crush rogue elements, including some clans and looters who have been stealing aid, the person said.
To counter the immediate threat, Hamas has sent some of its top fighters to kill one rebellious leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, but so far he has remained beyond their reach in the Rafah area held by Israeli troops, according to two Hamas sources and two other sources familiar with the situation.

Reuters spoke to 16 sources including people close to Hamas, Israeli security sources and diplomats who painted a picture of a severely weakened group, retaining some sway and operational capacity in Gaza despite its setbacks, but facing stiff challenges.
Hamas is still capable of landing blows: it killed seven Israeli soldiers in an attack in southern Gaza on Tuesday. But three diplomats in the Middle East said intelligence assessments showed it had lost its centralised command and control and was reduced to limited, surprise attacks.
An Israeli military official estimated Israel had killed 20,000 or more Hamas fighters and destroyed or rendered unusable hundreds of miles of tunnels under the coastal strip. Much of Gaza has been turned to rubble in 20 months of conflict.
One Israeli security source said the average age of Hamas fighters was “getting lower by the day”. Israeli security sources say Hamas is recruiting from hundreds of thousands of impoverished, unemployed, displaced young men.

Hamas does not disclose how many of its fighters have died.
“They’re hiding because they are being instantly hit by planes but they appear here and there, organising queues in front of bakeries, protecting aid trucks, or punishing criminals,” said Essam, 57 a construction worker in Gaza City.
“They’re not like before the war, but they exist.”
Asked for comment for this story, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was working for an agreement to end the war with Israel but “surrender is not an option”.
Hamas remained committed to negotiations and was “ready to release all prisoners at once”, he said, referring to Israeli hostages, but it wanted the killing to stop and Israel to withdraw.

‘IT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD’

Hamas is a shadow of the group that attacked Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 56,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

The damage inflicted by Israel is unlike anything Hamas has suffered since its creation, with most of its top military commanders in Gaza killed. Founded in 1987, Hamas had gradually established itself as the main rival of the Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas and finally seized Gaza from his control in 2007.
With a U.S.-brokered truce in the Iran-Israel war holding, attention has switched back to the possibility of a Gaza deal that might end the conflict and release the remaining hostages.
One of the people close to Hamas told Reuters it would welcome a truce, even for a couple of months, to confront the local clans that are gaining influence.
But he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for ending the war – including Hamas leaders leaving Gaza – would amount to total defeat, and Hamas would never surrender.
“We keep the faith, but in reality it doesn’t look good,” the source said.
Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said he believed Hamas was simply trying to survive. That was not just a physical challenge of holding out militarily, he said, but above all a political one.
“They face being eliminated on the ground in Gaza if the war doesn’t stop, but they also face being erased from any governing formula that ends the war in Gaza (if such a thing can be found),” he wrote in response to Reuters’ questions.
Palestinian tribes have emerged as part of Israel’s strategy to counter Hamas. Netanyahu has said publicly that Israel has been arming clans that oppose Hamas, but has not said which.
One of the most prominent challenges has come from Abu Shabab, a Palestinian Bedouin based in the Rafah area, which is under Israeli control.
Hamas wants Abu Shabab captured, dead or alive, accusing him of collaboration with Israel and planning attacks on the Islamist group, three Hamas sources told Reuters.
Abu Shabab controls eastern Rafah and his group is believed to have freedom of movement in the wider Rafah area. Images on their Facebook page show their armed men organising the entry of aid trucks from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Announcements by his group indicate that it is trying to build an independent administration in the area, though they deny trying to become a governing authority. The group has called on people from Rafah now in other areas of Gaza to return home, promising food and shelter.
In response to Reuters’ questions, Abu Shabab’s group denied getting support from Israel or contacts with the Israeli army, describing itself as a popular force protecting humanitarian aid from looting by escorting aid trucks.
It accused Hamas of violence and muzzling dissent.
A Hamas security official said the Palestinian security services would “strike with an iron fist to uproot the gangs of the collaborator Yasser Abu Shabab”, saying they would show no mercy or hesitation and accusing him of being part of “an effort to create chaos and lawlessness”.
Not all of Gaza’s clans are at odds with Hamas, however.
On Thursday, a tribal alliance said its men had protected aid trucks from looters in northern Gaza. Sources close to Hamas said the group had approved of the alliance’s involvement.
Israel said Hamas fighters had in fact commandeered the trucks, which both the clans and Hamas denied.

IRAN UNCERTAINTY

Palestinian analyst Akram Attallah said the emergence of Abu Shabab was a result of the weakness of Hamas, though he expected him to fail ultimately because Palestinians broadly reject any hint of collaboration with Israel.
Nevertheless, regardless of how small Abu Shabab’s group is, the fact Hamas has an enemy from the same culture was dangerous, he said. “It remains a threat until it is dealt with.”
Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran has added to the uncertainties facing Hamas. Tehran’s backing for Hamas played a big part in developing its armed wing into a force capable of shooting missiles deep into Israel.
While both Iran and Israel have claimed victory, Netanyahu on Sunday indicated the Israeli campaign against Tehran had further strengthened his hand in Gaza, saying it would “help us expedite our victory and the release of all our hostages”.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that great progress was being made on Gaza, adding that the strike on Iran would help get the hostages released.
A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the group was weighing the risk of diminished Iranian backing, anticipating “the impact will be on the shape of funding and the expertise Iran used to give to the resistance and Hamas”.
One target of Israel’s campaign in Iran was a Revolutionary Guards officer who oversaw coordination with Hamas. Israel said Saeed Izadi, whose death it announced on Saturday, was the driving force behind the Iran-Hamas axis.
Hamas extended condolences to Iran on Thursday, calling Izadi a friend who was directly responsible for ties with “the leadership of the Palestinian resistance”.
A source from an Iran-backed group in the region said Izadi helped develop Hamas capabilities, including how to carry out complex attacks, including rocket launches, infiltration operations, and drones.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/battling-survive-hamas-faces-defiant-clans-doubts-over-iran-2025-06-27/

Both sides of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have committed to disarming and disengaging their alleged proxies.

But there are dozens of non-state armed groups active in the region and it’s not clear whether all of them will adhere to the ceasefire.

Just hours before the deal was signed, one of them, the Codeco militia, attacked a displaced persons camp in Ituri province, killing 10 people.

Keeping these non-state actors in line will be a tall order. Part of the peace deal involves creating the conditions to allow the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict to return home.

That won’t be possible without a complete cessation of hostilities.

Due to the eastern DRC’s vast mineral resources, critical to modern technology including electric car and mobile phone batteries, the economic incentives for rebel groups are incredibly tempting, and this deal does not mention alternatives which may convince these groups to stop fighting over valuable territory. Integrating them into an under-resourced Congolese armed force is unlikely to prove enough of a deterrent.

It’s also still not clear what preferential access, if any, the US has been offered to the DRC’s minerals.

President Donald Trump has made it clear that this is one of his key incentives for agreeing to support the peace process. But granting the US unfettered access to the country’s mineral wealth is unpopular with many in the DRC, upset that the country’s resources have failed to provide a better life for its citizens.

As to the key questions of whether Rwandan forces will withdraw from eastern DRC, the US position is that once the Hutu-led FDLR, which Rwanda says is backed by the DRC and aims to overthrow the Rwandan government, is dismantled, then Rwanda will also row back on its “defensive measure”.

This appears to be an oblique reference to the presence of Rwandan armed forces in eastern DRC.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dgjn7p24vo

 

Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to hike property taxes for “richer and whiter neighborhoods” in an eyebrow-raising proposal that aims to ease the burden on homeowners in the outer boroughs.

The soak-the-rich proposal is buried in Mamdani’s campaign platform that calls to fix the city’s notoriously skewed property tax system, in which ritzy brownstones are hit at lower rates than homes and rentals in lower-income neighborhoods.

“Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” the proposal reads.

Democrats and many Republicans have long pushed to fix the out-of-whack system that ends up hitting poorer, often largely black and brown neighborhoods, with higher property taxes than their neighbors in swanky areas that tend to be majority Caucasian.

But Mamdani’s specific mention of “whiter,” wealthier neighborhoods drew outrage from some observers. Many right-wing commentators accused Mamdani, who would be the city’s first mayor of South Asian descent if elected, of targeting white New Yorkers, with one labeling him a “RACIST.”

City Councilman David Carr (R-Staten Island), who’s part of the bipartisan push to reform the property tax system, said Mamdani should tone down the “rhetoric” if he’s going to help tackle a very real imbalance.

“The objective of our reforms is to make our property tax system fairer and more transparent and to ensure that middle- and working-class homeowners aren’t subsidizing lower taxes for wealthy property owners,” Carr said.

“It’s not about blaming people based on race or class or political affiliation, and if Zohran Mamdani wants to come on board, then he should drop the divisive rhetoric.”

Mamdani, 33, a two-term Queens assemblyman, pulled off a stunning upset in Tuesday’s ranked-choice Democratic mayoral primary, trouncing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in first-pick votes after running an unabashedly socialist campaign focused on affordability.

The city’s tangled property tax rules are the result of a 50-year-old court decision, a subsequent state law setting assessment caps to prevent middle-class owners from being taxed out of their homes and a complicated set of overlapping rules.

The result is a system where “small homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens can pay a higher tax rate than owners of luxury co-ops on 5th Avenue in Manhattan,” the pro-reform group Tax Equity Now points out.

Tax Equity Now New York filed a still-ongoing lawsuit against the city in 2017 that argued the process unfairly taxes renters and homeowners in lower-income neighborhoods compared to wealthier areas.

Predominantly black neighborhoods such as Canarsie and East New York face higher effective tax rates than others that are largely white, a recent study by the Community Service Society found.

“There is no good reason why homeowners in Cambria Heights, a residential community that is 90% Black, should pay an effective tax rate that is double those paid by homeowners in Park Slope or East Village, which are 62% and 50% White, respectively,” the study states.

The meat of Mamdani’s proposal calls to remove artificial caps on assessments — a solution pushed by advocates and lawmakers across the political spectrum.

“The Mayor can fix this by pushing class assessment percentages down for everyone and adjusting rates up, effectively lowering tax payments for homeowners in neighborhoods like Jamaica and Brownsville while raising the amount paid in the most expensive Brooklyn brownstones,” the proposal states.

Mamdani’s campaign didn’t respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

But many New Yorkers in affluent neighborhoods weren’t happy about their property taxes potentially going up.

Ron Centola, a 73-year old retiree, has rented on the Upper East Side for 30 years, but still opposes redistributing wealth.

“Here’s the thing, I’m wealthy, I don’t want my wealth redistributed,” he told The Post Friday.

“I work for my money, why should I give it away?”

Another Upper East Sider — Shanice Gilbert, 33, a college assistant — noted not everyone in her hifalutin neighborhood is rich.

“Not everybody here is wealthy, how is that going to work?” she said. “It’s a mixed environment, it’s a very diverse environment. How are you going to do that?”

Cam Macdonald, general counsel for the Empire Center, said as mayor, Mamdani could adjust the percentages, if he’s elected in November.

But Macdonald argued Mamdani’s campaign needs to show their math for how it will affect the city’s revenue — of which more than 30% is derived from property taxes.

The proposal, he noted, also “does nothing to fix the structural issues under state law that have led to the disparities.”

Other planks of Mamdani’s proposal — including “circuit breakers” to make sure low- and moderate-income homeowners aren’t burdened, and to stop treating co-ops and condos as if they were rentals — concede that the state legislature would need to make those changes, not the mayor.

Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association representing rent-stabilized apartment owners, has been an outspoken critic of Mamdani’s promise to freeze rents on those dwellings.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/27/us-news/socialist-nyc-mayoral-contender-zohran-mamdani-wants-to-hike-property-taxes-for-richer-and-whiter-neighborhoods/

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who sued a school board over its refusal to allow elementary school children to be taken out of classes with LGBTQ-themed storybooks.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines Friday, the justices overturned a lower court ruling that found the parents needed to show that their kids were being coerced to act differently than their religious beliefs. The high court concluded that the parents “have shown that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction” because they “are likely to succeed in their challenge to the Board’s policies.”

The ruling is not the final decision in the matter, as the case will head back to the lower courts for further review.

“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

“And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) approved certain LGBTQ-themed curriculum books in late 2022. Initially, MCPS allowed an opt-out for parents with religious concerns, but by March of 2023, it reversed course, citing concerns about absenteeism and administrative burdens.

A group of parents from Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox faiths sued the school district, arguing the lack of an opt-out system trampled upon their religious rights as parents.

The reading material in question included “Pride Puppy,” a picture book aimed at three- and four-year-olds that instructs kids to look for items they might find at a gay pride parade, such as underwear, lip rings, drag kings, and late gay liberation activist Marsha Johnson, whom critics noted was once a sex worker.

Other books that were part of the curriculum delved into transgenderism — such as “Intersection Allies,” meant for K-5 students, explains transgender and non-binary concepts, while asking the question, “What pronouns fit you?”

“What Are Your Words?” tells students in a similar age range that one’s pronouns can “change like the weather” and follows one child who briefly embraces “they/them” pronouns.

In “Born Ready,” a little boy gets confused about how his sister is transitioning into a boy, prompting the mother to inform him that “not everything needs to make sense.”

The MCPS board provided teachers with guidance to inform students that “not everyone is a boy or girl,” according to the plaintiffs.

“Like many books targeted at young children, the books are unmistakably normative,” Alito wrote. “They are clearly designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”

“High school students may understand that widespread approval of a practice does not necessarily mean that everyone should accept it, but very young children are most unlikely to appreciate that fine point,” he added.

“[T]he storybooks unmistakably convey a particular viewpoint about same-sex marriage and gender. And the Board has specifically encouraged teachers to reinforce this viewpoint and to reprimand any children who disagree. That goes far beyond mere ‘exposure.’”

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissent, claiming the majority “invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to ‘subtle’ themes ‘contrary to the religious principles’ that parents wish to instill in their children.”

“Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs,” she argued. “If that is sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny, then little is not.”

“The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools. Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools.”

Sotomayor also argued that the Supreme Court has never previously “held that mere exposure to concepts inconsistent with one’s religious beliefs could give rise to a First Amendment claim.”

Justices had largely signed their leanings in the case during oral arguments in April. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who described himself as a “lifelong resident” of Montgomery Country, expressed that he was “a bit mystified” over the controversy.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/27/us-news/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-maryland-parents-who-want-to-pull-kids-from-classes-with-lgbtq-themed-books/

The state of Florida is not responding to requests for comment as activists report construction activity at an abandoned Everglades airstrip at Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami.

The construction is part of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ plan to build a detention facility to house immigrants in tents as part of a larger Trump administration push to rid the country of “criminal aliens.”

De Santis and his state attorney general, James Uthmeier, have billed the site, which will house up to 1,000 people in tents, as “Alligator Alcatraz” — a play on the local fauna and a reference to the infamous San Francisco Bay facility that US President Donald Trump seeks to revert from national park to prison. Uthmeier and his team produced a video pitching the Florida project on X, referencing the fact that there’s “not much” nearby other than “alligators and pythons.”

On Thursday, Uthmeier said the facility, which is being built with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds, would be completed in 30 to 60 days. Annual operating costs are currently projected to be about $450 million (€387 million).

Waste of money and energy during hurricane season

De Santis’ plan to use hurricane relief funds to build the site has infuriated some. Former Homeland Security Secretary Alex Howard, for instance, blasted the plan, calling it “a grotesque mix of cruelty and political theater.”

Howard said, “You don’t solve immigration by disappearing people into tents guarded by gators.”

“You solve it with lawful processing, humane infrastructure and actual policy — not by staging a $450 million stunt in the middle of hurricane season,” he added.

Native Americans’ resistance to Florida detention center on sacred lands

Beyond the questionable redirection of emergency funding and grave concerns over the potential environmental impact of the project on its fragile surroundings, Natives in Florida are also up in arms over the governor’s scheme.

The area where the facility is to be built was the home of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

“Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe’s traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations,” Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote on social media.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/florida-builds-alligator-alcatraz-despite-protest/a-73056586

In the wake of a damning EU review of Israel’s human rights record in Gaza, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez slammed his colleagues for not moving to suspend a trade deal with Israel despite what he called “the catastrophic situation of genocide.”

More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave over more than 18 months of Israeli bombardment, according to Hamas-run Gazan authorities. Israel vehemently denies accusations of genocide, maintaining that it is at war with the ruling militant Islamist group Hamas following a massive terror attack on Israeli territory in 2023.

In a report distributed to the member states last week based on the findings and allegations of major international bodies, the European External Action Service found “indications” that Israel was breaching its duty to respect to human rights.

The document, not public but made available to DW, highlighted possible indiscriminate attacks affecting the civilian population, Israel’s blockade on food and medicine plus attacks on medical facilities as potential breaches. “There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations,” the report concluded.

Arriving at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Sanchez said it was “more than obvious that Israel is violating Article 2 of the EU-Israel agreement.”

“We have had 18 sanctions packages against Russia for its aggression [in Ukraine], and Europe, with its double standards, is not capable of suspending an association agreement,” Sanchez said.

Suspension off the cards

Spain and Ireland are isolated among the 27 EU states in openly calling for the suspension of the deal in full, a move that would require unanimity and has therefore never been a serious prospect. Greece, Germany, Hungary, Austria, and Bulgaria remain close allies of Israel.

Berlin in particular has made its views clear, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz describing the move as “out of the question with the federal [German] government.”

Doing so would be a major commercial disruption, particularly for Israel, which buys a third of its goods from the EU. The accord, in force since 2000, covers everything from the two sides trading relationship – worth $50 billion each year for goods alone – up to political dialogue, and cooperation on research and technology.

Another possibility, requiring only a qualified majority of 15 out of 27, would be the partial suspension of the deal, for example, its provisions on free trade or shutting Israel out of EU research funding programme Horizon. But multiple diplomatic sources told DW that the numbers weren’t there either.

Top EU diplomat: Goal not to ‘punish Israel’

Earlier in the week, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas officially presented the document to the member states for a first debate, already making clear there would be no immediate moves.

“It is not intended to punish Israel, but to trigger concrete improvements for the people and the lives of people in Gaza,” she said on Monday. “If the situation does not improve, then we can also discuss further measures and come back to this in July.”

On Thursday, EU leaders at the summit only “took note” of the report in their joint statement, making no reference to potential rights breaches, and said ministers should revisit the topic next month. At the same time, the 27 leaders deplored the “dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation.”

‘No foreign policy topic’ more divisive than Israel

Spain has also been calling for an EU embargo on the sale of arms to Israel, with Germany one of the country’s major suppliers, as well as more sanctions. However, Berlin recently reaffirmed it would keep selling Israel weapons, and without Germany on board, the move wouldn’t have much impact.

A few other countries, including Belgium, France and Sweden, have supported imposing additional EU sanctions on Israel, but these too require unanimity.

Echoing Sanchez, Irish leader Michael Martin said he would tell his colleagues at the summit that “the people of Europe find it incomprehensible that Europe does not seem to be in a position to put pressure on Israel.”

According to Lisa Musiol of conflict resolution think tank Crisis Group, maximum pressure would entail an arms embargo, large-scale sanctions against members of the government or a full suspension of the Association Agreement.

“But almost no European leader speaks about such measures,” Musiol told DW in a written statement. “There is probably no foreign policy topic within the EU where member states are so divided.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/double-standards-spain-slams-eu-inaction-on-israel-deal/a-73055177

FORD has made a significant change to its office policy in its latest bid to boost employee and company performance.

The iconic automaker has called for the majority of its workforce to be in the office for four days a week.

This new office policy will come into effect from September 1, and will impact the majority of its global salaried workforce.

A Ford spokesperson told Reuters: “We believe working together in person on a day-to-day basis will accelerate Ford’s transformation into a higher growth, higher margin, less cyclical and more dynamic company.”

The spokesperson also explained that many of the company’s employees have already been coming into the office for three or more days a week for some time now.

Ford notified employees of this new policy yesterday.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, hybrid working has become a popular debate among businesses all over the world.

Some companies, such as JPMorgan and Amazon, have reportedly mandated that their staff return to five days a week.

Ford’s crosstown rival, General Motors (GM), faced backlash for calling workers back into the office for three days a week in 2022, which saw them hold off from implementing the policy until 2023.

The Detroit automakers are implementing more strenuous bonus and attendance policies in a bid to compete with electric vehicle giants like Tesla.

Ford also ran into trouble earlier this year, as it struggled to source essential materials needed for its electric vehicles, which led to a production shutdown of one of its factories.

The manufacturers were in desperate need of rare-earth magnets, which according to the Wall Street Journal, are notoriously difficult to find due to China’s dominance in the global supply of the material.

The production shut down highlights the supply-chain difficulties Ford has been facing in recent times – only worsened by China’s restrictions on exporting rare-earth materials.

In February, they slashed stock bonuses for many of its middle managers, in what the company said was a move to incentivise improved performance.

last year, GM also changed its employee performance evaluation ranking to a system that put more pressure on the company’s low performers to either improve or leave.

Ford recently called out GM and its hometown competitors to establish itself as the most American auto company in the company, in June this year.

During the NBA finals on Monday, June 16, the company released an ad which riffed off of Kendrick Lamar’s hit track “Not Like Us” while referencing how it declined a taxpayer bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.

The ad said: “If they were like us, they would have said no to the taxpayer bailout and added thousands of American jobs.”

Ford said in a statement that it is the only manufacturer among the “Big Three” to increase hourly jobs in the US since the recession.

The ad came after Ford’s CEO Jim Farely opened up about the day-to-day struggle that comes with car production.

Farely admitted that Trump’s trade war with China has had devastating effects on the iconic American car brand.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/motors/14565146/ford-policy-change-global-shift-hybrid-working/

DONALD Trump has revealed what the mystery trucks at Iran’s Fordow nuke plant were doing there before he blitzed the base.

Satellite pictures captured the lorries at the underground bunker complex just hours before the US hammered it with B-2 stealth bombers in the “historically successful” Operation Midnight Hammer.

Some had speculated online those workers had been trying to remove the enriched uranium from the base.

But Trump has posted on social media after a Pentagon briefing today and said the trucks were concrete workers.

Iranian workers had desperately tried to cover the vents of the complex in concrete in the hours before the US bombed.

The bunker buster bombs hit their targets just hours later and flew down the shafts and obliterated the facility.

Trump said: “The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts.

“Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the Iranian’s desperate attempts during the briefing held with Dan “Raizin” Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Caine talked through previously unseen footage of the 30,000lb GBU-57 “bunker buster” weapon being tested.

One of the bombs can be seen in slo-mo hitting a dirt target, travelling through a thick layer of earth, and then exploding in a cavity below it in the new footage.

The footage came as part of the administration’s efforts to prove Operation Midnight Hammer blitz on Fordow “obliterated” the plant.

Caine also revealed information about the planning for the mission including that one person in the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) had been solely studying the underground bunker complex for 15 years.

That person, whose identity is classified, had effectively been able give a design of the base for the Air Force to then design a mission around.

Caine said that the 30,000lb bombs had been designed with Iran’s nuclear program in mind and from studying Fordow.

He said: “The weapons were designed, planned, and delivered to achieve the objections in the mission space.”

Developing the bomb had, at one point, been using the most supercomputer hours in the United States.

Caine said he didn’t have intelligence on the damage, but could confirm the bombs had released properly, hit their target, and exploded.

One of the pilots told Caine after the mission: “This is the brightest explosion I have ever seen, it literally looked like daylight”.

The Pentagon briefing on the operation came just hours after Iran’s fanatical supreme leader broke his silence after not being seen in a week.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, claimed victory over Israel and America despite his country being hammered in the “12 Day War”.

Khamenei is hiding away in a bunker deep below ground despite the ceasefire as he fears being assassinated by secret agents, the New York Times reports.

The supreme leader was seen in a video sitting in front of the same brown curtain – presumably still cowardly hiding in his bunker – as he had last week.

On Israel, he ludicrously claimed Iran had almost crushed the country and the government in Tel Aviv was on the verge of collapse.

That’s despite the IDF controlling the skies over Tehran, assassinating dozens of top generals and nuclear scientists, and destroying dozens of valuable missile batteries in just 12 days of fighting.

On America, Khamenei claimed to have given the country a “severe slap” to its face and that it had “gained nothing” from the attack on Iran’s nuke plants.

The Ayatollah said: “The American regime entered a direct war because it felt that if it did not, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed.

“However, it gained no achievements from this war.

“Here, too, the Islamic Republic emerged victorious, and in return, the Islamic Republic delivered a severe slap to America’s face.”

Khamenei also bizarrely claimed his rockets had hit the American’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, despite his forces giving advanced warning so the rockets could be all shot down.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14512612/trump-us-nuclear-iran-israel-war/

India, Poland and Hungary launched their first astronauts in more than 40 years Wednesday, sending them on a private flight to the International Space Station.

The three countries shared the tab for the two-week mission. Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the deal, put the ticket price at more than $65 million per customer.

SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center two weeks late because of space station leak concerns. The capsule on top carried not only the three newcomers to space — none of whom were alive when their countries’ first astronauts launched — but America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson.

Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts sometimes pressed into temporary duty.

The astronauts are due to arrive at the orbiting lab the next morning.

In addition to dozens of experiments, the astronauts are flying food that celebrates their heritage: Indian curry and rice with mango nectar; spicy Hungarian paprika paste; and freeze-fried Polish pierogies.

Hungary’s first astronaut, Bertalan Farkas, cheered on Kapu from the launch site.

“For such a small country as Hungary, it is really important to collaborate in a peaceful international space cooperation,” Farkas told The Associated Press. He called it “one of the most important moments” of his life.

Farkas launched with the Soviets in 1980, taking along a teddy bear in a cosmonaut suit that went back up with Kapu. India and Poland’s original astronauts also launched with the Soviets in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Uznanski-Wisniewski carried up the Polish flag worn on his predecessor’s spacesuit, noting that Miroslaw Hermaszewski was his biggest supporter until his death in 2022. India’s first astronaut, Rakesh Sharma, couldn’t make it to Florida for the launch; Shukla said he’s been a mentor “at every step of this journey” and is flying a surprise gift for him.

While others born in India and Hungary have flown in space before — including NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died aboard the shuttle Columbia in 2003, and two-time space tourist Charles Simonyi, of Microsoft fame — they were U.S. citizens at the time of launch.

Shukla said before the flight that he hopes “to ignite the curiosity of an entire generation in my country” and drive innovation. Like his crewmates, he plans several outreach events with those back home.

“I truly believe that even though I, as an individual, am traveling to space, this is the journey of 1.4 billion people,” he said.

It was Axiom’s fourth chartered flight to the space station since 2022 and Whitson’s second time flying as an Axiom crew commander and chaperone. The trip caused her to miss her induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame late last month, since she was in quarantine before the flight. Whitson joined Axiom after retiring from NASA nearly a decade ago and has logged almost two years in orbit over her career.

Once opposed to nontraditional station guests, NASA now throws out the welcome mat, charging for their food and upkeep while insisting that an experienced astronaut accompany them.

It’s all part of NASA’s push to open space — moon included — to private businesses. Axiom is among several U.S. companies planning to launch their own space stations in the next few years. The goal is for them to be up and running before the international station comes down in 2031 after more than three decades of operation.

Access to space “is not only for the biggest agencies anymore — space is for everyone,” Poland’s Uznanski-Wisniewski said ahead of liftoff. He repeated the sentiment upon reaching orbit.

Hungarians want to “sit at the same table with the giants,” said Kapu. Through this mission, “Hungary gets one step closer to the stars.”

They should have flown earlier this year, but their mission was delayed following a switch in SpaceX capsules. The change enabled NASA’s two stuck astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to Earth in March sooner than planned.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/spacex-axiom-india-hungary-poland-astronauts-d4a18fffaed4cfacf0c26157c98ef198

Justin Combs is accused of luring a Louisiana woman to Los Angeles to be gang raped by his father, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and two other “masked men.”

According to a lawsuit obtained by Page Six, Justin allegedly convinced the unnamed woman to travel to California in April 2017 under the pretenses that he would get her a job in the entertainment industry.

The woman claimed she was put in a Beverly Hills home for several days and was ultimately raped by several men, including the Bad Boys Records founder.

The woman alleged that she connected with Justin, now 31, in 2017 via Snapchat and claimed he asked her for explicit photos, which she agreed to.

Per the documents, a few days later, the woman alleged that Justin invited her to California for a weekend to discuss her future career.

She claimed that Justin said he could get her a job through Diddy’s connections.

When the woman arrived in Los Angeles, she said was picked up by a driver and taken to a home, where she allegedly stayed the first night with Justin.

According to the suit, the woman claimed she and Justin “relaxed” and “talked”, and when she asked if they were going to leave the home, he allegedly said, “No.”

On one of the days, the woman claimed he offered her alcohol, pills or “poppers” and weed she believed to be laced.

After taking the drugs, she claimed three men arrived at the home wearing masks, one of whom was allegedly Diddy, now 55.

The woman claimed she knew it was the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper by his “mannerisms,” adding that Justin called him “pops.”

She was then allegedly escorted to a bedroom and told, “You better let this happen. Or else.”

The woman claimed each man took turns raping her, claiming that the “brutal gang-rape” occurred from late Saturday night to around mid-afternoon on Sunday.

She was allegedly taken to the airport on Monday.

Diddy’s attorney denied the allegations.

“No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” a lawyer for the rapper said.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/26/celebrity-news/sean-diddy-combs-and-son-justin-accused-of-brutal-gang-rape-in-lawsuit/

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez have already tied the knot in the US after signing a multi-million dollar prenup, multiple sources tell Page Six.

The happy couple, who have organized a $10 million, three-day wedding spree, have not registered to tie the knot in Venice. Sources say they were legally married ahead of their lavish ceremony on Friday on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

“Often a marriage in a foreign country is not valid in the USA, or creates other issues, so yes it is likely they are already married,” said one renowned Florida-based attorney.

Another Italian source confirmed to us they have legally wed before their big ceremony on Friday.

City officials told The Times of London the couple did not make an official request to wed in the Floating City, which is required under Italian law. “I can totally rule out that they will have a civil ceremony in Venice under Italian law,” an official said.

Reps would not confirm whether Amazon founder Bezos, 61, who is the world’s third richest man, and Sánchez, 55, have already had a civil ceremony.

When George Clooney wed Amal Alamuddin in Venice in 2014, the ceremony was ­officiated at Venice town hall before their lavish celebration.

Meanwhile, three prominent divorce attorneys told us they were aware that Bezos and Sánchez – who live mainly in Miami, Florida, where Bezos bought three homes on the exclusive Indian Creek island – have signed a huge prenup,

As one said, “They can get married anywhere as their prenup would generally be drafted to include its enforceability everywhere.”

However, “Divorce can only happen in the state of the primary residence,” added the Florida attorney, “So if they live in Florida, no matter where they marry or what the prenup says, they would have to divorce in Florida.

“Likewise, if they left Florida and moved to New York as a primary residence they would have to divorce in NY. A prenup cannot confer jurisdiction on a state to grant a divorce without residency in that state.”

To marry in Venice, as US citizens, Bezos and Sánchez would have to sign an Affidavit or “Dichiarazione Giurata” sworn to before a US consular officer accredited in Italy, stating that there is no legal impediment to their marriage according to the law of their US state.

They would then have to schedule an appointment for a notary service with one of the US Consulates General in Italy or with the US Embassy in Rome to obtain the “Dichiarazione Giurata.” They would have to sign another declaration called an “Atto Notorio”.

A civil ceremony in Italy is performed by the Mayor or one of his deputies, and you need two witnesses, while a religious ceremony is considered valid if performed by a Roman Catholic priest.

Another Italian source added they were told by the Culture Commissioner, a member of Mayor Brugnaro’s council, that no municipal authority would take part in the wedding, and that no city-owned spaces would be used for any part of the ceremonies.

“By law, civil weddings in Italy must typically be officiated at the town hall,” said the source, “However, the city can designate another venue as legally valid for the ceremony. According to the councilor, there were no signs that this had occurred, nor that the necessary documents for non-residents to marry in Italy had been submitted.”

The couple has seemingly not signed up for any of this.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/26/celebrity-news/jeff-bezos-and-lauren-sanchez-are-already-married-with-a-mega-millions-prenup/

After satisfying Donald Trump’s calls for Europe to ramp up defence spending in NATO, European Union leaders were meeting in Brussels on Thursday (Jun 26) on the next big challenge ahead: how to seal a trade deal with the United States leader.

Time is running out. The EU has until Jul 9 to reach a deal or see swingeing tariffs kick in on a majority of goods, unleashing economic pain.

The European Commission, in charge of EU trade policy, has been in talks with Washington for weeks, and will update leaders on the state of play at Thursday’s summit.

The leader of the bloc’s biggest economy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, set the tone upon arrival.

“I support the commission in all its efforts to reach a trade agreement quickly,” said Merz, signalling he wants negotiators to close a deal as soon as possible – even if it means an unbalanced outcome with the Europeans agreeing to some level of US tariffs.

The EU has put a 0 per cent tariff proposal on the table – but it is widely seen as a non-starter in talks with Washington.

According to several diplomats, the goal at this point is rather to let Trump claim victory without agreeing to a deal that would significantly hurt Europe.

One diplomat suggested leaders would be happy with a “Swiss cheese” agreement – with a general US levy on European imports, but enough loopholes to shield key sectors such as steel, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and aeronautics.

This would be less painful than the status quo, with European companies currently facing 25 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminium and auto goods exported to the US, and 10 per cent on a majority of EU products.

Merz on Monday hit out at the EU’s approach to talks with Washington as “too complicated”, urging “rapid, joint decisions for four or five major industries now”.

The issue will be discussed over a summit dinner on Thursday, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen planning to test leaders’ red lines in negotiations.

If no agreement is reached, the default tariff on EU imports is expected to double to 20 per cent or even higher – Trump having at one point threatened 50 per cent.

KEEPING CALM

Unlike Canada or China, which hit back swiftly at Trump’s tariff hikes, the EU has consistently sought to negotiate with the US leader – threatening retaliation only if no agreement is reached.

“We will not allow ourselves to be provoked, we will remain calm,” said Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, urging the EU to avert an all-out trade war with Washington.

“We are negotiating and we hope to reach an agreement”, but “if this is not the case, we will obviously adopt countermeasures”, he warned.

Speaking at NATO’s summit in The Hague on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a trade war among alliance partners “makes no sense” at a time when they are pledging to spend more on their common defence.

“We can’t say to each other, among allies, we need to spend more … and wage trade war against one another,” Macron said.

Talks between EU and US negotiators have intensified in recent weeks.

“The problem is that on behalf of the US, we have a heavyweight dealmaker – on our side, EU, have light capacity and capability leaders to negotiate,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Trump divides the Europeans. Orban and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are both vocally supportive of Trump – while others are more wary.

Meloni on Wednesday declared herself “quite optimistic” about reaching a deal and echoed Macron, albeit in a softer manner, saying spending more on defence among NATO allies went hand in hand with avoiding trade spats.

Pro-trade countries in Europe’s north are especially keen to avoid an escalation.

The EU has threatened to slap tariffs on US goods worth around €100 billion, including cars and planes, if talks fail to yield an agreement – but has not made any mention of those threats since May.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-eu-tariffs-trade-deal-negotiation-us-5205756

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra made a private phone call to Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen, a former prime minister who remains the dominant political figure in the country.

The call was meant to de-escalate tensions following a deadly border clash that had reignited long-standing disputes near the Preah Vihear temple. It was conducted informally, personally, and outside official diplomatic channels. Three days later, a 9-minute audio excerpt was leaked.

Hun Sen admitted to recording and disseminating the call, later releasing the full 17-minute audio on Facebook. What followed has been political chaos in Thailand: A coalition partner withdrew from government, protests erupted, and the Thai Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with Cambodia, and Paetongtarn now faces a no-confidence vote in parliament.

The fallout was not just a bilateral misstep; it exposed a structural vulnerability in how diplomacy is increasingly conducted. This incident serves as a textbook case of protocol vulnerability: the risks that arise when state-level diplomacy proceeds through undocumented, unaccountable, and unprotected means.

More broadly, it illustrates what may be termed “diplomatic authority drift”, the growing trend of foreign policy influence shifting to individuals outside formal executive roles, often without mandate or oversight.

MISALIGNMENT OF STATUS AND AUTHORITY

At the heart of the Thailand-Cambodia case lies a misalignment of status and authority.

Paetongtarn is the sitting head of government. Hun Sen, while no longer prime minister, retains unparalleled political sway. His son, Hun Manet, is the formal counterpart – yet it was Hun Sen who took the call, recorded it and made it public.

This is a form of hybrid leadership diplomacy, where former leaders operate without clear accountability yet retain access to the levers of statecraft. For Paetongtarn, engaging directly with Hun Sen may have felt natural, rooted in familial ties and political history. But in bypassing formal channels, she exposed herself to reputational and political risk.

Unlike official bilateral meetings, private engagements offer no diplomatic immunity, no archival record and no crisis management structure. Once public, they become political weapons.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states have long relied on personal rapport and informal backchannels to manage tensions as part of “the ASEAN way”. But the Thailand-Cambodia incident highlights the risks of informality when it lacks procedural anchors. The region has no shared norms or safeguards to govern the use of such channels, leaving bilateral diplomacy vulnerable to personal discretion and political exploitation.

The risks do not stem from personal rapport itself – which remains a valid and often effective diplomatic tool – but from informality without norms. Private calls bypass institutional records, oversight mechanisms and contingency planning.

This is not unique to Southeast Asia. During the first Trump administration, high-level engagement by non-official actors such as Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani frequently bypassed formal channels, blurring lines of authority. As the State Department’s role has diminished, the US itself has become susceptible to diplomatic authority drift.

This is a reminder that even in well-established systems, diplomatic norms can erode when political leaders personalise foreign policy without effective institutional checks.

INSTITUTIONAL SILENCE IN ASEAN

In Southeast Asia, however, this drift is compounded by institutional silence. ASEAN’s broader architecture, such as the ASEAN Charter and practices such as the rotating Chair or the Secretary-General’s mandate, offers no formal or informal norms to manage such hybrid situations. Bilateral relations have, quite naturally, been treated as sovereign matters.

But for a grouping that aspires to regional centrality and quiet diplomacy, the absence of shared expectations around diplomatic conduct is increasingly untenable. ASEAN’s non-interference principle, while crucial for its founding and stability, paradoxically means it generally avoids directly addressing the legitimacy of individual political actors or intervening in what are seen as “bilateral” incidents. Yet its silence leaves its diplomacy exposed to personalist improvisation with regional consequences.

The recent episode is emblematic of a wider pattern. In Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad’s second premiership was marked by personal engagements that often bypassed formal coordination. In Myanmar, the NLD government maintained a hybrid model of civilian diplomacy and military backchannels prior to the 2021 coup.

Elsewhere, dynastic or elder figures continue to exercise strategic influence without formal roles. In each case, personalism fills an institutional void – but also risks misalignment.

This is not the first time ASEAN’s diplomatic architecture has shown its limits. In earlier commentary on the Myanmar crisis, I warned of a “parallel diplomacy trap”, where some informal, ad hoc engagement efforts supplant the formal structures ASEAN relies on to maintain coherence.

The Paetongtarn-Hun Sen call is a vivid example of this dysfunction playing out bilaterally. Good-faith outreach, when unanchored, can trigger crisis. The outcome is not flexibility, but friction.

NEED FOR SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF DIPLOMATIC CONDUCT

ASEAN’s model of informality is not the problem; its lack of complementary norms is. What is needed is not heavy-handed institutionalisation, but a set of shared understandings – soft norms that clarify the difference between personal engagement and official diplomacy.

Three practical steps could begin this process. First, ASEAN should encourage member states to document high-level informal engagements within existing diplomatic protocols. Second, it could promote shared understandings around the use of non-executive actors in foreign policy dialogue. Third, it could discreetly empower the ASEAN Chair or Troika to advise or caution members when diplomatic practice threatens regional stability.

These proposed norms are not a call for ASEAN to abandon non-interference or to mediate bilateral disputes. Rather, they are about building a shared understanding of diplomatic conduct – one that helps contain the collateral damage when informally managed bilateral issues unexpectedly destabilise broader relations.

This should not be confused with Track II diplomacy or the role of public diplomacy actors, which deliberately operate outside state authority. The concern here is different: when individuals embedded in the state apparatus, but without formal mandate, perform foreign policy functions without oversight.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/thailand-cambodia-leaked-call-paetongtarn-shinawatra-hun-sen-asean-backchannel-diplomacy-5204971

Harvard University and the University of Toronto on Thursday (Jun 26) unveiled a contingency plan that would allow select Harvard graduate students to continue their studies in Canada if US visa restrictions prevent them from re-entering the United States.

It is the first international student backup strategy announced since the US Department of Homeland Security moved last month to strip Harvard of its ability to enrol international students. A federal judge has since blocked the move.

In response to potential visa challenges, students at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government who are unable to return to the US will have the option to continue their studies through a visiting student programme at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

The programme would combine courses taught by Kennedy and Munk faculty, the deans of both institutions said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The contingency plans are being announced to ease student uncertainty, but will only be implemented if there is sufficient demand from those unable to enter the US due to visa or entry restrictions, the statement added.

“With these contingency plans in place, HKS will be able to continue to provide a world-class public policy education to all of our students, even if they cannot make it to our campus this year,” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein said.

The programme will be available to international students who have already completed one year at the US campus.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened or moved to cut billions of dollars in federal research funding for Harvard. The administration has accused the university of failing to adequately address antisemitism and campus violence, violating reporting requirements, and coordinating with foreign entities, including China’s Communist Party, in ways that raise national security concerns.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/harvard-and-university-toronto-make-contingency-plan-international-students-5206256

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Thursday (Jun 26) that American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were a success, backing President Donald Trump and berating the media for questioning the results of the operation.

American B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

“President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating – choose your word – obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon, referring to a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.

Trump has called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites.

NO INTELLIGENCE ON URANIUM MOVEMENT

On Thursday, he insisted that Iran did not manage to move nuclear materials, including enriched uranium – ahead of the US military action.

“Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

This was echoed by Hegseth. “I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise,” he said. He reiterated this point in a fiery news conference, saying the reports of uranium being moved lacked supporting intelligence.

However, several experts cautioned this week that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes, and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US, and UN nuclear inspectors.

They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing “unusual activity” at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that most of the 60 per cent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack. The Financial Times, citing European capitals, reported that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile remains largely intact since it was not concentrated at Fordow.

MEDIA “HATRED” AND ASSESSMENT DISPUTES

US media revealed a preliminary American intelligence assessment earlier this week that said the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by months, coverage sharply criticised by Hegseth.

“Whether it’s fake news CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times, there’s been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.”

The document was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful”, Hegseth said.

He said the leaked assessment was a low-confidence report, and cited CIA Director John Ratcliffe as saying it had already been overtaken by more recent intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear programme was severely damaged and would take years to rebuild.

Trump has also lashed out at coverage of the intelligence report, calling for journalists to lose their jobs.

Hegseth described the strikes as “historically successful”. His comments came after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East. Khamenei, 86, claimed victory after 12 days of war and promised Iran would not surrender despite Trump’s calls.

Hegseth did not definitively state that the enriched uranium and enriching centrifuges at the heart of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme had been wiped out, but cited intelligence officials, although giving little detail, as saying the nuclear facilities were destroyed.

“If you want to know what’s going on at Fordow, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one’s under there right now,” Hegseth said, referring to the deep-underground nuclear site.

MILITARY TECHNICAL BRIEFING

During the press conference, the top US general largely stuck to technical details, outlining the history of the bunker-busting bombs used. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, showed a video testing the bombs on a bunker like the ones struck on Sunday.

Caine declined to provide his own assessment of the strike and deferred to the intelligence community. He denied being under any pressure to change his assessment to present a more optimistic view of the US strikes.

He also said he would not change his assessment due to politics. Uniformed military officials are supposed to remain apolitical and provide their best military advice.

“I’ve never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I’m thinking, and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” he said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-defence-secretary-pete-hegseth-no-known-intelligence-iran-moved-uranium-5205621

The national trade-in programme has been reportedly suspended in parts of China, with funding shortfalls and system upgrades among reasons cited. Analysts say the public anger reflects the programme’s popularity, but warn that sustaining spending momentum will require deeper reforms.

It’s 9.58am on a Tuesday, and anticipation is building at a Suning appliance store in Shenzhen’s western Bao’an district.

Five sales representatives stand ready, phones in hand, as shoppers hover beside them in quiet urgency. In just two minutes, the scramble begins.

That’s when a limited daily batch of government vouchers drops, and they will race to help customers verify QR codes and redeem subsidies offering up to 20 per cent off new appliances like fridges and air-conditioners under China’s national trade-in programme.

CNA observed similar scenes playing out at other major home appliance retailers, including JD and Sundan. One store manager, who wanted to be known as Xian, said the walk-in queues only began in mid-June.

“Online redemptions have stopped because the money (for the next tranche of subsidies) hasn’t come in, so now everyone has to come down in person,” she told CNA.

The on-the-ground snapshot comes amid reports of subsidy suspensions in parts of China, frustrating shoppers. Retailers and officials cite reasons ranging from funding shortfalls to system upgrades.

The pauses have spurred creative workarounds as consumers look for ways to access the subsidies, while also drawing attention to alleged misuse of the scheme.

At the same time, analysts say the halts actually reflect higher-than-expected demand – an encouraging sign for Beijing’s flagship trade-in programme, designed to revive domestic consumption and reduce reliance on external demand.

“It means people are quite enthusiastic about the programme,” Zhou Xue, senior China economist at Mizuho Securities, told CNA.

But even as China pledges continued funding, observers caution that the trade-in scheme alone is a stopgap – broader efforts are needed to tackle structural challenges like a sluggish property market, weak job and income prospects, and ongoing tensions with the United States.

China needs to buy time, Chen Bo, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute (EAI), told CNA.

“This period is like a breather, because other policies are also being rolled out.”

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE SUBSIDISED

Launched in March 2024 to spur household spending, China’s national trade-in scheme offers cash rebates to consumers who swap old goods for new ones.

While the name suggests a trade-in is needed, many platforms and provinces offer 10 to 20 per cent off consumer goods even without one – broadening the programme’s appeal.

This year, the initiative is backed by 300 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special bonds, double the amount allocated in 2024. It has also expanded beyond home appliances and electric vehicles to include electronics such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and fitness bands priced under 6,000 yuan (US$836).

But headwinds have emerged in recent weeks, with consumers in provinces such as Guangxi, Jiangsu, Henan and Liaoning reporting that applications for subsidies under the scheme have been suspended.

Local governments have provided varying reasons. Authorities in Chongqing, Henan and Hunan cited “funds running dry”, while Jiangsu and Guangdong blamed “system upgrades” and “risk control enhancements”.

Authorities have pledged continued support and funding for the trade-in scheme. Still, frustration is bubbling online, with some Chinese citizens taking to social media to air their grievances.

“It’s ridiculous, I was about to make a purchase today and suddenly they halted it,” one user wrote on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.

“No subsidy, no deal,” another declared. A third user quipped: “Not buying saves me money – 100 per cent.”

Analysts say the pauses of the trade-in subsidies in some provinces are likely due to faster-than-expected uptake.

“If we’re seeing these pauses now, it suggests claims are coming in quicker than anticipated – meaning participation has exceeded expectations,” said EAI’s Chen, who further noted that provinces with tighter local finances, such as Jiangxi and Gansu, enacted the temporary subsidy halts.

Allan Von Mehren, chief analyst and China economist at Danske Bank, has a similar view.

“It shows that it’s working as intended – people are actually using it. Of course, if you run out of money, that could be a challenge,” he told CNA.

The trade-in scheme is funded through ultra-long-term special bonds, with co-funding from local governments under a 9:1 central-local ratio, and additional top-ups where needed, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

While some local governments have cited funding shortfalls for the subsidy pauses, analysts CNA spoke to were sceptical.

“Provinces like Chongqing and Jiangsu are financially strong … they can issue general local bonds to fund these expenses,” said Zhou from Mizuho Securities.

“I don’t think financing 10 per cent of the subsidies is a problem.”

Hannah Liu, a China economist at global financial services firm Nomura, believes that the roll-out is moving along at a “normal pace”.

The central government allocated 162 billion yuan for the subsidies in two tranches in January and April. A further 138 billion yuan is scheduled for release in the third and fourth quarters, with the next tranche set to roll out in July.

Liu added that April’s tranche was mostly used up by end-June.

“The quick take-up shows people are using the subsidies … if they weren’t, that would be a bigger concern,” she said.

Every yuan of government subsidy translated into roughly seven yuan of consumer spending, said Zhou.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, in the first five months of the year, the national trade-in scheme generated 1.1 trillion yuan in sales across five major categories – cars, home appliances, digital devices, e-bikes, and kitchen and bathroom upgrades.

Liu suggested the recent surge in claims is largely seasonal – driven by a flurry of events in May, including the 618 shopping festival and the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

“There may not be particularly strong underlying demand directly tied to the subsidies,” she told CNA.

“If authorities had accounted for seasonal sales patterns, they might’ve staggered the allocations – less in Q1, more in Q2 and beyond.”

“That clearly wasn’t the case.”

OF WORKAROUNDS AND LOOPHOLES

Amid the subsidy halts in some regions, some enterprising Chinese consumers have found ways to work around the issue.

Among them is Guangzhou resident Wendy Huang, who had her eye on a 14-inch MacBook Pro listed on Taobao for nearly 13,000 yuan.

By stacking subsidies from the trade-in scheme with a platform discount, the 25-year-old corporate marketing employee could have snagged it for under 7,000 yuan, nearly half off.

It would have been her fifth purchase under the programme. But when she tried to confirm the purchase the next day, the deal had vanished. Subsidies for that category had been suspended in Guangzhou, though still available in neighbouring Shenzhen.

Rather than give up, Huang improvised. “The price was just too tempting,” she told CNA.

Instead, Huang redirected the laptop delivery to Shenzhen North High-Speed Rail Station. There, she met the courier, let him snap photos of the unboxing – a requirement for the rebate – and squatted by the platform to inspect the device.

“It was a bit of a hassle, and I had to pay for the train,” she told CNA. “But with a discount like that, it was absolutely worth the detour.” Her ticket cost around 80 yuan.

Huang isn’t alone in finding creative ways around the rules. On Chinese social media, users have been swapping tips on how to tap trade-in subsidies across provincial borders.

A Shenzhen resident, who declined to be named, told CNA he recently bought a 13-inch MacBook Air in his hometown of Shanxi and had his family mail it to him.

“It only cost around a few dozen yuan to ship,” he said, adding that he saved 20 per cent off the list price of 7,399 yuan – paying just 5,399 yuan.

But beyond workarounds, the recent subsidy suspensions have also spotlighted alleged misuse of the trade-in programme, particularly in the automobile sector.

Scroll through a Chinese secondhand car platform, and it’s easy to find thousands of listings for vehicles with barely any mileage – often just 100km to 300km on the odometer.

Dubbed “zero-mileage used cars” or “ling gong li er shou che” in Chinese, these listings have raised concerns that dealers are exploiting a loophole in the national trade-in scheme.

The playbook: buy new cars from automakers, register them under the names of relatives or employees to qualify for subsidies and sales bonuses, then resell them as secondhand – all without the vehicles ever hitting the road.

In May, Great Wall Motor chairman Wei Jianjun publicly called out the practice, estimating that “at least 3,000 to 4,000 vendors” are involved.

But industry experts told CNA the phenomenon is far from new.

“It’s nothing new, people have been doing this for years,” said Zhang Xiang, director of the Digital Automotive International Cooperation Research Centre at the World Digital Economy Forum.

Zhang said many dealers are rushing to act before the subsidies expire by year-end.

“Some operate secondhand shops themselves, offering a convenient channel to offload the unused vehicles and keep sales numbers up.”

Take, for instance, a new electric vehicle priced at 100,000 yuan.

A dealer buys the car directly from the automaker and registers it under a collaborator’s name – often someone hired online – allowing it to be counted as “sold” and unlocking a manufacturer sales bonus of 1,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan.

The vehicle is then transferred to the dealer’s own or a partner’s secondhand platform and listed as a “zero-mileage used car”, with under 300km on the odometer. It’s priced slightly below retail to attract buyers.

Meanwhile, the dealer scraps an old vehicle provided by the collaborator to qualify for the national trade-in subsidy, worth up to 20,000 yuan for EVs. The dealer often pays the person more than the scrap car is actually worth.

The result is still a tidy profit, thanks to the combined gains from sales bonuses and government incentives.

Zhang noted that while the practice may seem questionable, it is not illegal, as there are no rules requiring cars to clock a minimum distance before being resold.

Chen from EAI described it as a “by-product of extreme market competition”.

Competition has been intensifying in the world’s largest auto market, with price wars that started in early 2023 showing little sign of abating despite concern among both government and industry.

“When car prices fall quickly, the combined value of factory rebates, government subsidies and secondhand resales can be more profitable than selling to actual customers,” Chen said.

Rather than stimulating genuine demand, Chen said such behaviour is distorting the market.

“It accelerates the drop in new car prices and ends up squeezing out quota in the primary car market – because buyers who would’ve purchased new cars are now getting them through secondhand channels at a discount,” he said.

Analysts acknowledged the difficulties in making the trade-in programme airtight.

“It’s impossible to make a programme completely bulletproof,” said Danske Bank’s Von Mehren.

“Given the size of the Chinese market, it is not surprising that issues arise with a programme like this. Creativity runs high, and there are always attempts to find loopholes and ways to circumvent certain rules.”

FUEL FOR NOW, NOT THE LONG HAUL

While Chinese officials have moved to reassure the public that the trade-in programme and its subsidies remain on track, experts agree the current approach is not sustainable.

They warn that it offers only short-term relief, while pointing out that it is just one part of a broader push by China to address deeper structural challenges.

EAI’s Chen likened the scheme to “reigniting the engine” of domestic consumption – a short-term spark rather than a long-term fix.

He pointed to three persistent challenges weighing on China’s recovery – stubborn unemployment and stagnant wages, mounting corporate debt choking cash flow, and external headwinds such as escalating trade tensions with the US.

“In the long run, when we use subsidies, what we’re really doing is trying to reignite people’s desire to spend. But subsidies alone can’t fundamentally shift total demand,” said Chen.

He said the scheme provides some breathing room as concurrent efforts to bolster the Chinese economy – including settling commercial arrears to restore private sector confidence, boosting tech innovation, and stabilising the beleaguered property market – take deeper root.

Crucially, Chen believes it’s too early to assess whether the trade-in programme is working.

It will take one to two quarters after the subsidies cease to see if consumers are still motivated to spend, Chen said.

“The key test is whether the subsidies can unlock broader demand – demand that’s dozens of times larger than the subsidy itself. That’s what would show it worked.”

For Von Mehren, China is moving in the right direction, but must act with greater urgency.

He believes the property sector is one of the most pressing issues that must be addressed to revive confidence and get the economy moving.

China’s prolonged property slump remains one of the biggest drags on consumer confidence. In May, official data showed that new home prices fell 3.5 per cent year-on-year and 0.2 per cent from April – the 11th straight month of decline.

With housing accounting for about 70 per cent of household wealth, the downturn has eroded the financial security of many families, dampening their willingness to spend.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-consumption-trade-programme-suspensions-frustrations-5202686

THIS is the horror moment an 18-wheeler smashes into a utility worker mid-air — sending him flying upside down and dangling above a busy Louisiana road.

Shocking dashcam footage captures the worker, strapped into a bucket lift, get violently hit while fixing a traffic light in Denham Springs.

The massive truck makes a wide turn and slams into the elevated basket from below — flipping the man over in a terrifying split second as vehicles drive past below him.

The terrifying clip, first shared by Louisiana First News, was captured on Wednesday near Range Avenue at I-12.

It quickly went viral, sparking a heated blame game across social media.

“He nearly fell out of the bucket but thank God for that safety harness,” one viewer wrote.

Another clip posted on Facebook shows the huge rig grazing the underside of the lift as it attempts to maneuver the tight turn.

The worker could be seen visibly jolted by the impact and left dangling by his gear over the road.

“I don’t know how that truck could have made that turn without hitting one pole on one side without hitting the truck,” East Baton Rouge Parish Director of Transportation Fred Raiford told WBRZ-TV.

Surprisingly, Denham Springs Police confirmed the man suffered only minor injuries and was not taken to hospital.

“That is a mandate we have — when you’re in that bucket truck you’ll have that harness on,” Raiford added.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has now launched an investigation into the incident, alongside Denham Springs Police, to determine if any charges will be filed.

Online, furious users argued over who should be held responsible — the truck driver or the work crew.

“Well somebody just lost their trucking license,” one user fumed.

“Take the next four to six weeks off and hire a great lawyer to sue the trucking company. Set for life,” another said.

“No way? they didn’t even try to avoid the worker! I hope the man is okay,” one shocked viewer commented.

Others hit back, blaming the utility company for failing to properly secure the site.

“Not the truck driver’s fault. They should have closed the lane. I sense big trouble from OSHA and DOT coming their way…” one person wrote.

“That’s on the utility company. Lane should’ve been blocked, spotter wasn’t watching incoming traffic,” said another.

“Not the driver’s fault… The work crew had no lane restrictions in place and the basket was obviously below 13’ 9” height,” added a third.

As the investigation continues, officials say safety precautions like lane closures, cones, and signage are sometimes required — but not always — depending on the work zone setup.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14570491/worker-smashed-wheeler-dangling/

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to deport migrant Kilmar Abrego for a second time, but does not plan to send him back to El Salvador, where he was wrongly deported in March, a lawyer for the administration told a judge on Thursday.
The deportation will not happen until after Abrego is tried in federal court on migrant smuggling charges, a White House spokesperson said.

“He will face the full force of the American justice system – including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed,” the spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, wrote in a post on X.

Sean Hecker, a lawyer for Abrego in the criminal case, accused the White House and the Justice Department of making “contradictory statements.”
“No one has any idea whether there are concrete plans for our client, or what those plans are,” Hecker said in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn said during a hearing in federal court in Maryland that the United States does not have “imminent plans” to remove Abrego, a Salvadoran national, from the United States.
If deported, Abrego would be sent to a third country and not El Salvador, Guynn said. He did not name the country.

Abrego was deported and imprisoned in El Salvador in March despite a 2019 judicial decision barring him from being sent there because of a risk of persecution.
The Trump administration brought Abrego back to the United States this month to face federal criminal charges accusing him of transporting migrants living illegally in the United States. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case of Abrego, 29, who had been living in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their young son, has become a flashpoint over Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
The federal judge overseeing Abrego’s criminal case ordered him released ahead of trial as early as Friday, but the Trump administration has said it plans to immediately take him into immigration custody.
Abrego’s lawyers have asked that he be kept in Maryland and that the Justice Department, which is prosecuting the criminal case, and the Department of Homeland Security, which handles immigration proceedings, ensure he is not deported while the criminal case is pending.

Federal judges in Maryland, where Abrego is suing over the March deportation, and Tennessee, where criminal charges were filed, are both yet to rule on Abrego’s requests.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-plans-second-deportation-abrego-not-el-salvador-2025-06-26/