Category: World

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes Hamas. Meanwhile, four Israeli soldiers died in what the media reported was a Gaza blast.

Palestinians have marked the Muslim Eid al-Adha amid severe destruction and a dire humanitarian crisisImage: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo/picture allianceIsrael faces shortage of over 10,000 soldiers, says army
The Israeli army is short of more than 10,000 troops, including around 6,000 for combat units, its spokesperson has said, nearly 20 months into the war with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

“This is a real operational need, and that is why we are taking all necessary measures,” army spokesperson Effie Defrin told a Friday press briefing via video from the Gaza Strip.

Defrin was responding to a question about the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who had been exempt from military service for decades. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June last year that the country’s compulsory military service system should apply to ultra-Orthodox men, in a highly controversial decision.

Four Israeli soldiers reportedly killed in Gaza blast
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed and five others injured during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military says.

The incident took place in the city of Khan Younis. According to consistent reports from Israeli media, the soldiers were inside a building that had been rigged with explosives.

The device detonated, causing the building to collapse.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences “to the families of our four fallen heroes in Gaza in the fight to defeat Hamas and bring back our hostages.”

The deaths bring the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza to 429, as per a tally by the French AFP news agency.

Netanyahu admits Israel backed Gaza clan opposed to Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes Hamas, following claims by a former defense minister that weapons were supplied to the faction.

Israeli and Palestinian media have identified the group as part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab. The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) describes him as heading a “criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks.”

Former defense minister and Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman told public broadcaster Kan that Israel, under Netanyahu’s orders, had been “giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons.”

Netanyahu confirmed the collaboration in a video posted online Thursday, saying: “What did Lieberman leak? That security sources activated a clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas? What is bad about that? It is only good, it is saving [the] lives of Israeli soldiers.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/netanyahu-admits-israel-backed-anti-hamas-gaza-clan/live-72810185

The UK has joined other European countries in endorsing Morocco’s position in the Western Sahara conflict. Algeria and the independence-seeking Polisario are losing out.

The UK changed its stance and supports Morocco’s claim on the disputed Western Sahara regionImage: Bernat Armangue/AP Photo/picture allianceThe UK has repositioned its stance in the Western Sahara conflict. According to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, the Moroccan autonomy plan represents the “most credible” position.

The proposal, which dates back to 2007, is the “most viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute,” Lammy said in Morocco’s capital Rabat earlier this week.

These words mark a turnaround from London’s previous support for the UN’s decades-long call for a referendum to determine the future of what it classifies as a ‘non-self-governing territory’. The new position is in line with that of a number of other, predominantly Western countries.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita welcomed the change of course. According to media reports, the new British position “contributes significantly” to promoting the UN’s path to a “final and mutually acceptable solution”.

In its plan, Morocco outlines an allegedly far-reaching autonomy for the Western Sahara albeit under Moroccan sovereignty.

The change of position is likely to anger Morocco’s regional rival Algeria, which backs the Polisario Front, a movement seeking an independent West Saharan state. In a statement on Sunday, Algeria said Morocco’s proposal was “empty of content and incapable of contributing to a serious and credible settlement of the conflict.”

UK is ‘showing flexibility’
“The British position nevertheless leaves a door open,” Isabelle Werenfels, Maghreb observer at the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told DW.

“When Foreign Minister Lammy describes the Moroccan proposal as the ‘most credible solution,’ he is not saying that it is the only solution,” Werenfels said. “Unlike France, the UK is holding back in its positioning and is showing flexibility.”

Last summer, French President Emmanuel Macron had called the Moroccan proposal the “only basis” for resolving the conflict.

In doing so, he massively angered Algeria , which is advocating for a complete independence of Western Sahara. Since then, French-Algerian relations have been strained. The move is all the more serious as France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, political scientist Hasni Abidi from the Geneva-based think tank CERNAM told DW a few weeks ago.

During his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, US President Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. This decision ignored the UN’s position on the territory, and paved the way for other countries to follow suit. The recognition also paid tribute to Morocco’s willingness to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

Then in 2022, Spain, too, started backing the Moroccan autonomy plan, but it’s trying to do so in a similarly balanced manner to the UK.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez describes the plan as the “most serious, realistic and credible basis.”

The UK on the other hand is also trying to be diplomatically considerate with regard to the UN, says expert Werenfels.

“London continues to emphasize the relevance of the UN-led political process,” she told DW.

The UN has long been proposing a referendum in which the inhabitants of the region should vote on whether they want to be part of Morocco or independent.

Highly coveted region
Up until 1976, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. However, when Spain began to vacate its positions, Morocco had already occupied first the northern, then the southern part of Western Sahara.

The Polisario movement, founded in 1973, sees itself as the representative of the Sahrawi people traditionally living in Western Sahara. The movement has been fighting for the independence of Western Sahara with the support of Algeria.

In 1976, it proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the interior of the territory, which is recognized by 44 countries. Shortly afterwards, armed clashes with Morocco’s army began. Almost 50 years later, Morocco’s de facto rule over Western Sahara has not yet been recognized under international law.

Western Sahara is a coveted territory due to its mineral resources. Its phosphate deposits are estimated to be the largest in the world.

Since the 2000s, Morocco has been investing in hotels, beach resorts and leisure facilities to attract tourists, particularly around the city of Dakhla in south-western Western Sahara. An airport has also been in operation there since 1993.

Morocco’s rising clout
The British step could be considered another sign of Morocco’s growing global significance.

For Spain, the main issue is migration, Werenfels says. Refugees have repeatedly attempted to enter Spain and the EU irregularly via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, located on Morocco’s northern coast. For some time now, Morocco has been tightening its border controls on the two enclaves. According to Werenfels, Spain’s support for Morocco’s position on Western Sahara may well be due to that.

The UK, on the other hand, is likely to have economic interests above all, Werenfels said.

“In 2024, [the UK and Morocco] expanded their trade relations enormously,” she added. According to a report by the Moroccan state press agency MAP, London is said to consider “supporting projects in the Sahara.”

In general, Morocco is becoming increasingly successful as gateway to Africa, Werenfels states. It is also becoming more and more attractive as a production location.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/new-uk-support-boosts-moroccos-claim-on-western-sahara/a-72817371

Terrified parents scrambled to break their fall after watching them plunging from the inflatable

THIS is the terrifying moment a freak wind blew a bouncy castle 40ft into the air sending children plunging to the ground.

The shocking footage shows children falling from the inflatable as onlookers scream in horror.

The incident happened when an unexpected gust blew the castle into the sky at a fundraising day at a school in South Africa.

Instead of dropping back down to earth, the video shows the inflatable continuing to spiral upwards over Laerskool Protearif primary at Krugersdorp.

But the most heart-stopping moment comes when two kids fall off the floating castle.

Terrified parents scramble to break their fall as they drop from the inflatable, no longer able to cling on.

While the onlookers managed to form a human crash mat, the two kids are still reported to have been seriously injured.

One of the children is understood to have suffered a fractured skull, and the other a broken arm.

The bouncy castle later landed around 50ft from where it took off.

It is not known if any other children were on it at the time of the incident.

A statement on the school’s Facebook page confirmed that two kids had been taken to hospital following the incident.

The fundraising event was attended by more than 1,000 parents, pupils and friends last Saturday.

The school’s statement reads: “It is with great gratitude that we are happy to share the very good news with you.

“The two children who sustained injuries during the fracture accident at the Protea festival on Saturday were discharged from hospital on 31/5 and 3/6 respectively.

“The necessary trauma-counselling was given to both children, as well as to their co-learners, who experienced the event and thank you all for standing together.

“We thank you very much for everyone’s positive support, help and prayers.”

The school, which has 620 pupils aged 6 to 13, previously hit headlines in 2017 when a tornado blew off its roof and destroyed its buildings.

An eyewitness of the bouncy castle takeoff said: “When they fell I thought they were dead.

“I was watching from a food stall with my girls when I heard screaming and turned around and just saw this blue, green and red thing shooting up to the heavens.

“Then there was a huge scream when first one child and then another fell out but of all the places they could have landed it was right over a group of parents below.

“They reached up their arms to try to catch the falling children and undoubtedly saved their lives or saved them from much worse injuries by cushioning them.

“It was not a very windy day but it seemed this huge gust just came from nowhere and it was said the bouncy castle had not been secured to the ground.”

It is unclear from the footage if the bouncy castle had been securely tethered ahead of the incident.

Melissa Vere Russel of ABC Jumping Castles, which was not the company used, said: “In high gusts a bouncy castle can act like a parachute and the wind can carry it away.

“All castles are manufactured with mechanisms to secure them to the ground and failing to anchor them properly could end in disaster and could be fatal.”

It comes after an Australian bouncy castle operator was found not guilty of failing to comply with safety laws after the tragic death of six children in Tasmania when strong winds blew an inflatable into the air.

The horror incident happened in 2021 when a bouncy castle was blown three feet into the air and landed in a tree 160ft away.

Six children died and three others were seriously injured.

But owner of operator Taz-Zorb Rosemary Gamble was cleared of breaching work safety laws after the tragedy was ruled to be “due to an unprecedented weather system that was impossible to predict and avoid”.

Angry parents reportedly shouted at the bouncy castle owner after the verdict.

Gamble’s lawyer read a statement on her behalf, saying: “I never meant for something like this to happen. And I am just so sorry that it did.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14411386/bouncy-castle-takes-off-freak-wind/

If the missile used is what Russia believes it is then it would be seen as ‘unprecedented escalation’ in the conflict

VLADIMIR Putin has been left shell-shocked by a brand new mystery missile he claims Ukraine attacked him with overnight.

A massive strike ripped through an airport in Bryansk and reportedly destroyed a placement of Putin’s Iskander missile system.

Thursday saw one of the most explosive evenings of fighting for some time during the gruelling war.

The night of hell saw Putin exact revenge for Ukraine’s stunning Operation Spiderweb drone blitz last weekend.

The Russia tyrant hammered Ukraine with 407 drones and 44 missiles – unleashing a deadly wave of strikes that killed three and injured dozens.

But a valiant Ukraine hit back with their own set of attacks.

Dramatic footage shows one explosion, believed to be from the mystery weapon, followed by a powerful secondary blast.

A follow up attack also took out a launcher for the Iskander a day earlier, Ukraine claimed.

But the blasts were something never been seen before by the quaking Russians during their illegal invasion.

This led to speculation on pro-Kremlin media channels that Ukraine may have fired a powerful German-supplied Taurus missile.

Putin-loyalists Tsargrad said on Telegram: “Did the first Taurus strike Russia?

“Unprecedented escalation in Bryansk and destruction of Iskander missiles.”

As channel MIG Russia claimed the pinpoint Bryansk strike was carried out with Western-made long-range missiles.

If it was a Taurus, it would mark the first ever time it has been used by Kyiv.

The Russians would also view it as an “unprecedented escalation” in the conflict due to the damage the weapon can cause.

Discourse around German weapons has ramped up in the parts 24 hours ever since Chancellor Friedrich Merz met in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.

German sources have had to deny that any agreement had been reached during the talks to send supplies of long-range Taurus’ to Ukraine.

Merz had announced at the end of May that Ukraine’s key backers – including Germany, France, the UK and the US – had all lifted restrictions on where donated weapons can be used.

And the announcement could even mean that Britain’s state-of-the-art Storm Shadow missiles could soon be used by Ukraine.

Britain’s bunker-busting Storm Shadow rockets are a nightmare for enemies as they are capable of dodging air defences.

The £800,000 missiles – already being fired within Ukraine – use GPS to precisely hit targets, and can travel at 600mph.

The Taurus missile system is widely regarded as Germany’s equivalent to the Storm Shadow.

The tit-for-tat attacks came hours after US President Donald Trump said it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia fight for a while.

The president has been so far unsuccessful on getting the two countries to agree to peace – with Moscow not moving on its demands.

The American was full of praise for Ukraine though as he labelled the daring Operation Spiderweb attack as “strong and badass”.

The daring operation saw a fired up Ukraine wreck 41 Russian planes across the strategic airfields.

Putin’s doomsday bomber fleet was crippled with a third of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks.

It comes as a new report accused Putin of plotting a final killer offensive along three fronts to win the war this summer.

The Russian army is nearing one million casualties in its bungled three-year-old invasion as peace talks continue to stall.

Now, some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly right now massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.

Over the past fortnight border villages have fallen to Russia as it is may to be preparing the ground for the offensive.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14415541/ukraine-mystery-missile-blitz-putin/

The suspect posted pictures of an animal skeleton weeks before the murders

THE dad accused of killing his three daughters is believed to be hiding near a popular tourist destination, cops said.

Travis Decker is on the run in Washington state as cops search the woods near the Canadian border and theories swirl about the fugitive’s whereabouts based on his social media posts.

Investigators launched the manhunt after the bodies of Decker’s daughters, Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, and Paityn Decker, 9, were tragically found at a campground on Monday.

The girls’ mom reported them missing on Friday after Decker didn’t return them as scheduled after a custody visit.

The siblings were likely suffocated to death, cops said. They were found about 75 to 100 yards away from Decker’s truck, which he was living out of at the time of the killings.

Decker was nowhere to be found at the gruesome crime scene at Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, Washington, about two hours east of Seattle.

Prosecutors charged Decker with kidnapping and killing his daughters, sparking a massive search for the suspect, who is a veteran with extensive military skills.

Investigators are now searching for Decker on the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a popular tourist hiking spot in the state

The trail spans 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada and passes through Chelan County, the center of the search area.

On Friday morning, officials closed multiple paths off the Pacific Crest Trail in the ongoing search for Decker, according to the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

“Trails are closed until further notice due to ongoing search operations for a suspect in Chelan County,” the PCTA said.

The US Forest Service also issued an emergency closure of the Icicle River area in the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest, shutting down multiple trails and parks.

On Thursday, cops urged residents of Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, King, and Snohomish counties to lock their doors and to leave their outside lights on as Decker is on the loose.

Investigators zeroed in on the area after executing search warrants on properties and electronic devices, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14417275/travis-decker-search-daughters-killer-pacific-crest-trail/

After a three-year wait, Elon Musk-owned Starlink has finally received the green light to launch its satellite internet services in India – a move that could provide connectivity in rural areas where physical infrastructure remains poor.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/elon-musk-starlink-gets-dot-licence-for-satellite-internet-services-satcom-11749216215274.html

Why does Uber make videos where people say, “I’m non-binary or genderqueer”? And why does Lockheed Martin fund floats at Pride parades?

Because companies want to raise their score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

Equality is a good thing. I support human rights. But the Human Rights Campaign? That’s something else.

“They have nothing to do with actual human rights,” says Robby Starbuck. “They’re an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization that pushes topics about transgenderism into the workplace.”

Starbuck uses his social-media following to criticize the many companies that partner with the Human Rights Campaign.

The campaign “does great harm,” he says, because companies that want a high score must do things like pay for trans employees’ gender reassignment surgery and fund puberty blockers for employees’ kids.

I push back, “I know people who’ve had the surgery, and they seem happier!”

“If you’re an adult and you make a set of decisions I disagree with, that’s your prerogative,” replies Starbuck. “I don’t want to give my money to a company that’s going to use it to fund any sex changes of any child.”

People can debate the age when you’re considered competent to medically change your gender. What surprises me is how many companies suck up to the Human Rights Campaign by paying for it.

Google even brags about providing a “trans liaison” to help people transition.

Even some of your Amtrak tax subsidy goes to pay for this stuff. Amtrak’s “Lead Environmental Specialist” touts “education on personal pronouns.”

To raise their Corporate Equality Index scores, companies are encouraged to donate to LGBTQ+ groups — like the Human Rights Campaign! That helps the campaign collect millions in tax-free money.

The more I looked at the organization, the less it seems to be about human rights, and the more it seems to be about left-wing advocacy.

Its homepage features protesters holding signs saying, “I will aid and abet abortion.”

When I point that out to Starbuck, he says, “Yeah, which humans? Which rights? Apparently, if you’re a small enough human, you don’t have rights.”

The campaign’s president says its Corporate Equality Index is “about partnership with businesses to make workplaces as inclusive as possible for LGBTQ+ people.”

But today, most businesses are inclusive, and in America, LGBT people are more accepted than ever. Twenty years ago, 37% of Americans supported gay marriage; 45% said gay relationships are moral. Today, support for gay marriage is at 69% and 64% consider gay relationships moral.

Yet, as life gets better for LGBT people, the Human Rights Campaign declared a “national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans!”

“This is a crisis right now!” said HRC president Kelley Robinson.

I think I know why she said that. If activists acknowledge that Americans have come to accept LGBT people, the campaign might go out of business. One HRC executive says, “We are never going to reach a destination.”

Of course not. There’s money to be made and leftist propaganda that needs spreading.

Starbuck, by pointing out what the HRC really does, has persuaded some companies to stop sucking up.

Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, Molson Coors, Toyota, Tractor Supply, Walmart and others announced that they will no longer participate in the Index.

“We came along and told people the story and they backtracking began,” says Starbuck.

The campaign’s president says, “What we’re seeing from these companies is short-sighted.”

Maybe.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/06/06/opinion/beware-the-human-rights-campaign-is-just-a-scam-to-push-lefty-issues/

A 12-year-old boy fell to his death at Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher after slipping in a puddle close to the edge, an inquest has heard.

Zhihan Zhao and his mother, both Chinese nationals, were with her friends at the beauty spot on the County Clare coast on 23 July last year when he walked ahead of the group.

The coroner embraced Zhihan’s distraught mother after recording a verdict of accidental death.

The accident was the second fatal fall at the Cliffs of Moher within a three-month period last year.

Warning: this story contains details some may find distressing.

Zhihan and his mother, Xianhong Huang, had arrived in Ireland 12 days before his fatal fall.

In her deposition, Ms Huang said that Zhihan was walking ahead of her on the Cliffs of Moher trail when she lost sight of him.

“My son walked very fast and was ahead of us by 50 metres,” she said.

“As there was only one path, I thought we would meet him along the way.

“When I didn’t, I walked to the visitor centre and I checked the visitor centre.”

Unable to find him at the visitor centre, she returned to the path to search for him and when there was no sign of him, she reported him missing.

Ms Huang said she had last seen Zhihan at 13:00 that day and the court heard she had provided gardaí (Irish police) with a photo of him she had taken earlier on the trail.

Speaking through an interpreter at the inquest in Kilrush, County Clare, Ms Huang, wiping away tears, asked: “What exactly caused Zhihan to fall from the cliffs?”

Clare County Coroner Isobel O’Dea told the grieving mother that the evidence of an eyewitness would help answer that question.

A French tourist who witnessed him fall told Clare Coroner’s Court she had seen him slip and try to pull himself up by grasping at grass, before he disappeared over the edge.

French tourist Marion Tourgon told the inquest she had witnessed the fall at about 13:45 that day.

Ms Tourgon explained she had been at the edge of the cliffs with her husband and two children, taking a selfie at the time.

She describing seeing a young Asian boy, who was alone, come into view.

“I saw him slipping in the puddle that appears in the photo that my husband sent to the police,” the witness said.

“His right foot slipped into the puddle, with him trying to stop himself from falling with his left foot but his left foot ended up in the air.”

Ms Tourgon added: “It was very quick – he found himself in an awkward position with his left foot in a void over the cliff and his right knee on the edge of the cliff.”

She continued: “His right knee eventually fell into the void over the cliff and he was trying to grasp the grass with his hands to pull himself up.

“He didn’t shout and there was no noise.”

The Tourgon family then phoned the emergency services.

An air, land and sea search operation began involving the Irish Coast Guard, gardaí and Irish civil defence volunteers who used boats, drones, divers and a helicopter.

Five day search for missing boy

A police witness, Garda Colm Collins, told the inquest he had received a call at 14:00 that day after a male was seen falling off the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.

He said that the Irish Coast Guard had spotted a body floating in the water at the base of the cliffs.

The court heard a lifeboat had been launched but had not been able to access the site where the body was spotted because of the sea conditions.

It was another five days before Zhihan’s body was eventually recovered from the sea.

The boy was found by a fisherman, Matthew O’Halloran, from Corofin, County Clare.

He spotted a body face down with arms extended in the water between Doolin and the Aran Islands shortly after 10:00 on 28 July.

Mr O’Halloran alerted the Irish Coast Guard and its members retrieved Zhihan’s body and brought it ashore at Doolin.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy30nqwy99o

They rumble down the highway between Beijing and Tianjin port: big lorries, loaded up and fully able to navigate themselves.

Sure, there is a safety driver in the seat, as per government regulations, but these lorries don’t require them, and many analysts say it won’t take long before they are gone.

When “safety driver” Huo Kangtian, 32, first takes his hands off the wheel, and lets the lorry drive itself, it is somehow impressive and disconcerting in equal measures.

For the initial stages of the journey, he is in full control. Then – at a certain point – he hits a few buttons, and the powerful, heavy machine is driving itself, moving at speed along a public road to Tianjin.

“Of course, I felt a bit scared the first time I drove an autonomous truck,” says Mr Huo. “But, after spending a lot of time observing and testing these machines, I think they are actually pretty good and safe.”

As the lorry veers off the freeway and up a ramp towards the toll gates, the machine is still driving itself. On the other side of the tollgate, Mr Huo again presses a few buttons, and he is back in charge.

“My job as a safety driver is to act as the last line of defence. For example, in the case of an emergency, I would have to take back control of the vehicle immediately to ensure everyone’s safety,” he explains.

In terms of the upsides for a driver, he says that switching to autonomous mode can help combat stress and fatigue, as well as freeing up hands and feet for other tasks. He says it doesn’t make his job boring, but rather more interesting.

When asked if he is worried that this technology may one day render his job obsolete, he says he doesn’t know too much about this.

It’s the diplomatic answer.

Pony AI’s fleet of driverless lorries, currently operating on these test routes, is only the start of what is to come, the company’s vice-president Li Hengyu tells the BBC.

“In the future, with driverless operations, our transportation efficiency will definitely be greatly improved,” he says. “For example, labour costs will be reduced but, more importantly, we can deal better with harsh environments and long hours driving.”

What this all boils down to is saving money, says industry expert Yang Ruigang, a technology professor from Shanghai Jiaotong University, who has extensive experience working on driverless technology in both China and the US.

“Anything that can reduce operating costs is something a company would like to have, so it’s fairly easy to justify the investment in having a fully autonomous, driverless truck,” he tells the BBC.

In short, he says, the goal is simple: “Reduce the driver cost close to zero.”

However, significant hurdles remain before lorries will be allowed to drive themselves on roads around the world – not the least of which is public concern.

In China, self-driving technology suffered a major setback following an accident which killed three university students after their vehicle had been in “auto pilot” mode.

Economist Intelligence Unit analyst Chim Lee says the Chinese public still has quite a way to go before it is won over.

“We know that recent accidents involving passenger cars have caused a huge uproar in China. So, for driverless trucks – even though they tend to be more specific to certain locations for the time being – the public’s image of them is going to be absolutely critical for policy makers, and for the market as well, compared to passenger vehicles.”

Professor Yang agrees that lorry drivers are unlikely to lose their jobs in large numbers just yet.

“We have to discuss the context. Open environment? Probably not. High speed? Definitely no. But, if it is a low-speed situation, like with the last mile delivery trucks, it’s here already.”

In Eastern China’s Anhui Province, hundreds of driverless delivery vans navigate their way through the suburban streets of Hefei – a city with an official population of eight million – as human-driven scooters and cars whizz around them.

It was once one of country’s poorest cities, but these days its government wants it to be known as a place of the future, prepared to give new technology a chance.

Gary Huang, president of autonomous vehicle company, Rino.ai, says they discovered a market niche where driverless delivery vans could send parcels from big distribution hubs run by courier companies to local neighbourhood stations. At that point, scooter drivers take over, dropping off the packages to people’s front doors.

“We’re allowing couriers to stay within community areas to do pickup and drop off while the autonomous vans handle the repetitive, longer-distance trips. This boosts the entire system’s efficiency,” he tells us.

Rino has also been talking to other countries, and the company says the quickest uptake of its vehicles will be in Australia later this year, when a supermarket chain will start using their driverless delivery vehicles.

Meanwhile, in China, they say they’re now running more than 500 vans with road access in over 50 cities.

However, Hefei remains the most advanced.

Apart from Rino, the city has also now given permission for other driverless delivery van companies to operate.

Gary Huang says this is due to a combination of factors.

“Encouragement came from the government, followed by local experimentation, the gaining of experience, the refinement of regulations and eventually allowing a broad implementation.”

And you can see them on the roads, changing lanes, indicating before they turn, pulling up at red lights and avoiding other traffic.

For the courier companies, the numbers tell the story.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ykel5dr62o

The mystery of a maritime disaster has been solved after experts found a vessel that sank almost 140 years ago.

Diver and explorer Dom Robinson identified the SS Nantes, off Plymouth, after examining the wreck site and finding crockery.

Dr Harry Bennett, an expert in maritime history, said the dive team had found “the underwater archaeological equivalent of a needle in a haystack”.

Mr Robinson said solving the mystery ensured those who died were not forgotten.

In November 1888, the SS Nantes, which was operated by the Cunard Steamship Company, collided with a German sailing vessel, the Theodor Ruger, said Dr Bennett.

The crew spent “several hours” trying to save their ship, the honorary associate professor in history at the University of Plymouth said.

“They used mattresses to plug the gap which had opened up in the hull of the SS Nantes,” he said.

“[The ship sank] with the loss of a substantial number of the crew. There were some 23-odd fatalities. There were three survivors.”

Bodies from the wreckage washed ashore at Talland Bay and Looe, in Cornwall, and “locals were confronted by this picture of horror, pieces of ship together with bodies,” he said.

Afterwards the “wreck was essentially lost, obviously you’re dealing in a period with no satellite navigation,” said Dr Bennett.

He added while the crew tried to save the ship it “drifted for several hours, before it finally made its way to the bottom, sadly, with many of its crewmen on board”.

He said the wreck was lost until a local dive team identified it in 2024.

Mr Robinson, who has been diving for about 35 years, said he heard about the unidentified wreck from the UK Hydrographic Office.

‘Bingo, we’ve found it’
He said the wreck “was clearly an early steamship when we got down there” but “at the end of my dive I found a broken piece of plate… I decided to bring it up to the surface [and] we found that had the Cunard Steamship crest on it”.

“It was then bingo, we’ve found it,” he said.

Dr Bennett said it was identified by the build and dimensions of the wreck, the technology on board, the cargo and “lastly and most telling, they find a plate on the back of which is stamped Cunard – this is a Cunard ship”.

“[It was] very methodical, very, very dedicated detective work,” he said.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czel8y3dxp5o

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement, was returned to the United States on Friday to face criminal charges related to what the Trump administration said was a large human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally.

His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in a saga that yielded a remarkable, months-long standoff between Trump officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the U.S.

The development occurred after U.S. officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said Friday.

“This is what American justice looks like,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia’s return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the case “baseless.”

“There’s no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, determined that Abrego Garcia will be held in custody until at least next Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing.

Abrego Garcia appeared in court wearing a short-sleeved, white, button-down shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he told the judge: “Sí. Lo entiendo.” An interpreter then said: “Yes. I understand.”

Democrats and immigrant rights group had pressed for Abrego Garcia’s release, with several lawmakers — including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years — even traveling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back.

But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers.

The case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office’s criminal division, did not explain the reason for his resignation but posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down, saying: “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”

He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer calls charges ‘preposterous’
“This administration … instead of simply admitting their mistake, they’ll stop at nothing at all, including some of the most preposterous charges imageable,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Ama Frimpong, legal director with the group CASA, said Abrego Garcia’s family has mixed emotions about his return to the U.S.

“Let him talk to his wife. Let him talk to his children. This family has suffered enough,” she said.

Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia is one of the first, if not the first, person released from a notorious prison in El Salvador, though he was later imprisoned at another facility.

“So it’s going to be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the way in which he was treated,” the attorney said.

The indictment, filed last month and unsealed Friday, lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now, nearly three months after Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported and following the Trump administration’s repeated claims that he is a criminal.

It accuses him of smuggling throughout the U.S. thousands of people living in the country illegally, including children and members of the violent MS-13 gang, from Central America and abusing women he was transporting. A co-conspirator also alleged that he participated in the killing of a gang member’s mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial.

The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation.

“Later, as part of his immigration proceedings in the United States, the defendant claimed he could not return to El Salvador because he was in fear of retribution from the 18th Street gang,” the detention memo states.

“While partially true — the defendant, according to the information received by the Government, was in fear of retaliation by the 18th Street gang — the underlying reason for the retaliation was the defendant’s own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member’s mother,” prosecutors wrote.

The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, while the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver’s license, according to the DHS report. The report said he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work.

In response to the report’s release in April, Abrego Garcia’s wife said in a statement that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, “so it’s entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.”

Immigrant rights advocates vs. the Trump administration
Abrego Garcia’s background and personal life have been a source of dispute and contested facts. Immigrant rights advocates have cast his arrest as emblematic of an administration whose deportation policy is haphazard and error-prone, while Trump officials have pointed to prior interactions with police and described him as a gang member who fits the mold they are determined to expel from the country.

Abrego Garcia lived in the U.S. for roughly 14 years, during which he worked construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records. Trump administration officials said he was deported based on a 2019 accusation from Maryland police that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys said.

A U.S. immigration judge subsequently shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs. The Trump administration deported him there in March, later describing the mistake as “an administrative error” but insisting he was in MS-13.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/abrego-garcia-justice-department-el-salvador-a547f3a228c92d4e69be799354037c7f

ARussian official said that the nation could offer American billionaire Elon Musk political asylum over his fierce dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Why It Matters
The U.S. president and the world’s richest man have had a dramatic fallout, leaving many wondering what will come of the relationship.

The comments come as tensions between Washington and Moscow remain high as ceasefire talks for the Russia-Ukraine war have stalled, with the last round of negotiations lasting just 90 minutes with little progress outside of an agreement to release prisoners on both sides.

Last month, Trump said about Russian President Vladimir Putin, “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him.”

What To Know
Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, made the comments to Russian state news outlet TASS.

“I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it,” Novikov said, in remarks translated from Russian.

Musk and Trump, who had been political allies over desired cuts to federal spending, have publicly clashed recently with the feud escalating on June 5 in a series of exchanges across social media and in comments to reporters.

The spat began over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes an extension of his signature tax cuts and spending for other priorities, such as border security. Musk has expressed worries about the impact this bill will have on national debt.

Trump has claimed that Musk is upset that the president has taken away mandates for electric vehicles (EVs).

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Musk wrote later on X on Thursday: “Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

In another post, he added: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

The Tesla CEO also suggested that Trump should be impeached.

What People Are Saying
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Newsweek on Thursday: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

Elon Musk, on X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.”

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-offers-political-asylum-elon-musk-over-trump-feud-2081887

The argument over the “One Big Beautiful Bill” intensified in several posts on social media, leaving netizens as mere spectators, with some wanting to grab a popcorn and watch what’s happening.

The internet is buzzing after corporate lawyer and general counsel Matt Margolis summed up the chaos of a recent Trump-Musk online faceoff with one viral post: “We’re like four or five tweets away from national secrets.”

Shared on X (formerly Twitter), Margolis’s remark has already racked up over a million views — and an avalanche of reactions and memes.

The comment came in the wake of a heated digital clash between former U.S. President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. The exchange, which unfolded publicly on social media, felt like an episode of a chaotic discussion rather than political commentary to people.

It all kicked off when Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, slammed Musk for criticising a Republican-backed spending bill. The argument over the “One Big Beautiful Bill” intensified in several posts on social media, leaving netizens as mere spectators, with some wanting to grab a popcorn and watch what’s happening.

Netizens react

As Musk fired back with a series of posts, a tweetstorm quickly spiraled.

Source: https://www.freepressjournal.in/viral/us-lawyer-reacts-to-trump-musk-feud-suggests-were-4-5-tweets-away-from-national-secrets-memes-follow

“More love and power to you, Rafif and everyone fighting for their everyday life,” one user wrote.

A viral post from war-torn Gaza has left many online heartbroken, especially in India, after a resident shared how much it took to get his daughter her favourite treat — a pack of Parle-G biscuits.

Mohammad Jawad, a Gaza-based X user, posted a touching video of himself with his daughter sitting on his lap as she carefully opened a biscuit wrapper and began to eat.

“After a long wait, I finally got Ravif her favourite biscuits today,” he wrote, adding that the price had skyrocketed from €1.5 to over €24 — roughly ₹2,342. In India, the same pack (single) of Parle-G sells for just ₹5. However, it was unclear whether the Gaza man mentioned the price of a single packet or a multiple set for the hefty price.

Take a look at the X post

The post quickly went viral, not just for the emotional moment it captured, but also for highlighting the alarming food crisis in Gaza.

Muhammad Yunus, head of the Bangladesh interim government, has announced elections in the first half of April 2026. This improves the situation of prevailing uncertainty even if just marginally. Parties are pitted in a reform-vs-election fight, and the announcement seems to be an attempt by Yunus to buy time amid pressure from parties and the Army.

Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, on Friday addressed the nation and declared that elections would be held in the first half of April 2026. The announcement runs counter to the demands of polls in December by a host of parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is the frontrunner to win the election. The situation of uncertainty in Bangladesh improves just marginally with Yunus’ announcement.

While the Communist Party of Bangladesh insisted on polls in December, the student-led National Citizens Party (NCP) said it was fine with polls in April if effective steps were taken to implement the July Charter, July Declaration and reforms by then, according to reports by Dhaka-based Prothom Alo.

While declaring that the election would be held in April, Yunus didn’t provide any specific dates. Revealing that he wasn’t really prepared, no details or schedule were provided as to how the administration plans to utilise the months in the run-up to the election in April.

“There is a possibility that Yunus might not be able to conduct the election in a very free and fair way due to the given political circumstances, inherent flawed electoral laws and political uncertainty,” Dhaka-based activist academic Rezaur Rahman Lenin told India Today Digital.

Since he took over as the Chief Adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh in August 2024 after protesters forced PM Sheikh Hasina into a self-imposed exile, Yunus has ruled in confusion, chaos and uncertainty.

The announcement reveals that he plans to continue in that same way.

Muhammad Yunus and advisers on his council had earlier said that elections would be held between December 2025 and June 2026.

With the announcement, Yunus and his team, including the student advisers, have around nine months to prepare for the election. While governments have conducted elections in such a timeframe, this might be a difficult task because the entire machinery has been shaken up and those in power are talking about reforms.

The student-founded NCP is also demanding a revamp of the election commission to purge it of “BNP loyalists”.

While Yunus and the NCP have been prioritising reforms, the BNP wants elections held first. It knows that with Hasina’s Awami League becoming infamous and banned, it has the momentum with it now, which might fizzle out for some time.

Also, there is a genuine fear of the NCP becoming the “king’s party” with student advisers still part of the Yunus government. The lines between the NCP and the interim government have blurred.

BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi had just on June 5 accused the interim government of “resorting to tactics” to delay the election. Not just the BNP, around 50 other parties have been demanding that the polls be held in December, according to a report by the Dhaka-based Daily Jugantar.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also called for elections by December, saying that an elected government should take policy decisions for the country.

Under pressure, Yunus told the advisory council and NCP leader Nahid Islam that he planned to resign as the Chief Advisor. This saw a flurry of activity, and leaders said they had persuaded Yunus to stay on.

That the road ahead isn’t going to be smooth and without major arguments was hinted by the NCP on Friday, right after Yunus announced that the election would be held in April.

“If effective steps are taken to implement the July Charter, July Declaration and reforms within this period, then we have no objection to holding the elections on the announced date,” NCP member secretary Akhtar Hossain told Prothom Alo.

The NCP is trying to project itself as a rising force to take on the established BNP, which has seen frequent clashes.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/bangladesh-election-muhammad-yunus-april-2026-controversy-bnp-awami-league-political-pressure-explained-2736984-2025-06-06

An effort by Chilean President Gabriel Boric to expand abortion rights in the final months of his administration could finally give him a progressive legacy after three years in office but it is an uphill task that Latin American conservatives are hoping will fail as they seek to reverse gains for the abortion rights movement in the region.
Leftist Boric set off a fierce debate in Congress this week with a bill to ease restrictions on abortion.

The attempt to fulfill a campaign promise comes at the tail end of an administration that has failed to deliver on progressive proposals such as wideranging tax reforms and a liberal new constitution, which was rejected at a referendum in 2022.
Chile’s proposed law would decriminalize abortion and allow for the termination of pregnancies up to 14 weeks under any circumstance, putting the country on par with neighboring Argentina.
Recent expansions in Colombia and Mexico have cemented even broader abortion rights. But Boric’s proposal does not appear to have the support in Congress to pass, potentially making the issue a central part of campaigns ahead of a November vote to replace him as president and elect most of the legislature.

Reproductive rights may also face push back in neighboring Argentina where abortion was decriminalized in 2020.
Argentine President Javier Milei, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has cut some federal funding for contraceptives and emergency contraception, commonly known as the ‘morning after pill.’
“Demographic policies should be rethought beyond the atrocity of killing human beings developing in their mother’s womb,” Milei wrote in a recent op-ed.
Milei has focused on taming runaway inflation, but mid-term elections later this year are likely to broaden his support, based on his strength in a recent Buenos Aires vote. That could test his readiness to push through a socially conservative agenda.
Constanza Schonhaut, a lawyer and executive director of human rights organization Corporacion Humanas, noted that the abortion debate has increasingly transcended borders as both far right groups and feminist organizations form alliances online.

“What happens in Chile can influence other countries and vice versa,” Schonhaut said. “In an increasingly connected world, it is not only feminist organizations that are coordinating internationally.”
When Boric announced the legislation during his last annual address to the nation on Sunday, legislators waving green and purple bandanas that represent abortion rights cheered.
“Generations of women have lived and fought for this,” Boric said. “Don’t deny them at least the democratic debate as citizens capable of deciding for themselves.”
Members of the conservative bench jeered and shouted, “No abortion!” and several walked out.
“Why does (Boric) insist knowing he doesn’t have the votes? Why? To insult us,” Johannes Kaiser, a far-right firebrand legislator and among the leading presidential contenders, told reporters after leaving the room.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/chile-abortion-rights-bill-could-shape-boric-legacy-latin-american-neighbors-2025-06-05/

Tokyo-based ispace Inc. said it’s trying to make contact with its lunar lander after attempting to become the first non-US company to reach the moon’s surface intact.

Ispace’s Resilience lander was expected to touch down on the moon after 4 a.m. Japan time on Friday, but the company ended its live stream of the landing attempt without confirming the status of the mission.

A press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m., the company said.

The mission follows a failed attempt in 2023 when a programming error led to a crash of the spacecraft. Success today would make ispace the third company to park a spacecraft safely on the moon after Texas-based rivals Intuitive Machines Inc. and Firefly Aerospace Inc., as countries race to explore the moon.

The Japanese lander launched into space aboard one of Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets in January. The rocket also launched a lander from Firefly that touched down on the lunar surface in March.

Resilience was expected to dispatch its rover, named Tenacious, which is equipped with a high-definition camera and a shovel to collect lunar regolith and transmit data back to the lander. Ispace signed a contract in 2020 with NASA to provide the US agency with regolith collected on the moon’s surface.

Aboard the lander are customer payloads with varying purposes including a commemorative plate from Bandai Namco Research Institute Inc. — an affiliate of the entertainment company behind game brands like Pac Man and Gundam — and experimental equipment such as a device to extract hydrogen from water.

PORNHUB has pulled out of France as a stringent clampdown on adult sites makes its way to Europe.

A furious backlash over the country’s new age verification rules has prompted the site to block access.

It comes over objections to a new law requiring porn sites to verify the age of users.

Aylo, the adult entertainment company that owns Pornhub, has announced it will block access to the site in France as a result.

The company claims the French law poses a privacy risk to users.

The law could see users required to enter credit card details or other forms of official ID to verify their age.

Aylo also runs other popular porn sites such as Youporn and RedTube – which will also now be unavailable in France.

The company argues that device-based age verification is a better solution than requiring porn sites to police the age of users.

Aylo’s VP for Brand and Community Alex Kekesi said: “All it requires is that the government enforce regulations on three companies – Apple, Google and Microsoft – the three operating system manufacturers requiring age verification at the device level prior to accessing adult content.

“The French government refuses to take this simple step and instead are focused on futile and entirely symbolic regulatory actions which are unenforceable, do not protect children and expose your private data.”

Pornhub is the world’s most visited porn site, with France being one of its biggest markets.

The website claims that France was its second biggest audience in 2024 after the United States.

Kekesi added: “We’ve made the difficult decision to suspend access to our sites in France and instead use our platforms to speak directly to the French people.

“French citizens deserve a government and a regulator who are serious about preventing children from accessing adult content.

“They also deserve laws which protect their privacy and safeguard their sensitive data.”

French Gender Equality Minister Aurore Bergé posted on X that Aylo’s decision meant there would be “less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France”.

She added: “Pornhub, Youporn, and RedTube refuse to comply with our legal framework and decide to leave. Good!”

It comes after Aylo made similar moves to block access to its porn sites in several US states over age verification laws.

So far, 19 US states have passed laws requiring porn sites to verify users’ ages.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14401975/pornhub-ban-europe-major-sites/

The military alliance looks set to satisfy US President Donald Trump’s demands to commit to a massive increase in defense spending. Some creative counting proposed by NATO head Mark Rutte could soften the financial blow.

A NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday showed “broad support” for signing off a historic hike in defense spending at a crunch summit later this month. This was their response to the growing threat from Russia and a “more dangerous world” in general, the military alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters.

“I will propose an overall investment plan that would total 5% of gross domestic product in defense investment,” Rutte announced, following months of pressure from US President Donald Trump for allies to more than double the present target.

Current NATO guidelines encourage states to spend 2% of their economic output on their militaries. But not all of the alliance’s members meet this target, raising questions of how they will reach an even higher spending goal.

Splitting the bill
In response, NATO chief Rutte has specified a division of the new spending goal that could allow Trump to claim a headline figure, while giving the other 31 nations room to maneuver their national budgets. Thus, of the 5%, 3.5% of national GDP could be allotted to “core defence spending”, while the remaining 1.5% could be diverted to “defense- and security-related investment like infrastructure and industry,” he said.

Trump has long criticized NATO allies for relying on the US’ large military might as a strategy to defend the European continent. In 2023, more than two thirds of the 32 NATO countries’ collective $1.3 trillion (€1.14 trillion) military spending came from Washington, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

On Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth drove home the message to the rest of the alliance once again. “Every shoulder has to be to the plough. Every country has to contribute at that level of 5% as a recognition of the nature of threat,” he said.

Leaders of the world’s most powerful defense alliance are set to gather in three weeks in the Dutch city The Hague. Topping the agenda will be discussions on the ongoing war in Ukraine, and Russia’s resulting massive rearmament drive. It seems likely that NATO members will officially commit to the 5% goal at these upcoming talks.

Giving in to pressure
Under US pressure, and with Europeans alarmed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO military spending has already burgeoned in recent years. Most countries now meet the 2% threshold, which was agreed upon 11 years ago. But around one third of the alliance still doesn’t, including Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, and Spain.

Most NATO states had indicated willingness to spend more, but the 5% goal was considered far-fetched when Trump floated the idea earlier this year. Almost half a year on, the message seems to be resonating with many in the alliance.

Earlier this week, 14 NATO states, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the five Nordic states, published a joint statement in which they said they were “moving towards reaching at least 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related investments.”

Last month, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadepuhl also indicated Germany could get on board with the goal.

Several NATO countries, including Poland, Estonia and Lithuania, have already committed to spending 5% or more in the future. All are former Soviet states, and two of them share a border with Russia.

Since taking office in January, the “America-first” president has strained the NATO alliance with threats not to help defend alliance members that didn’t meet spending targets should they be attacked. His designs on the semi-autonomous Danish territory Greenland have also alienated allies, as have his attempts at bilateral talks to find an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which sidelined European partners and left Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy largely marginalized.

Questions remain
There are still many open questions to be answered, one of them being the timeline.

On Thursday, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur spoke of committing to reaching 5% within five years. “We don’t have time for ten years, we don’t even have time for seven years, to be honest,” he said.

But the official focus at this week’s meeting was on working out what exact capabilities NATO would need and may currently be missing to defend itself if a member of the alliance were attacked. After the talks, Rutte spoke of the need to upgrade air defense systems and long-range missiles, among other things.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany might need as many as 50,000 – 60,000 more troops in its standing forces to meet defense needs in the coming years.

Increased spending amid economic downturn
While consensus appears to be forming, it is also clear that increasing military spending to 5% of GDP would be an enormous strain on public finances, particularly as Europe’s two major economies, Germany and France, face tough times.

Paris and Berlin are touting increased defense spending as a chance to fuel economic growth in Europe, but there is a risk of public backlash. In April in Rome, the opposition Five Star Movement led a protest against an EU drive to rearm the bloc — a move supported by the government of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — reportedly drawing tens of thousands of people.

According to Cullen Hendrix, an expert from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a US think tank, a 5% spending target would essentially put NATO countries on “war footing.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/nato-likely-to-hike-defense-spending-amid-economic-concerns/a-72809085

Germany’s chancellor held a friendly meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, and said he hopes for progress on trade talks and putting pressure on Russia. More on DW.

Merz blames antisemitism in Germany on migration
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the sharp rise in antisemitism in Germany a “terrible challenge” for the country.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” he said during an interview on US broadcaster Fox News.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany almost doubled in 2024, a report released on Wednesday found.

It registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism and threats against Jews in Germany.

In the Fox News interview, Merz blamed the increasing antisemitism on migrants.

“Frankly, we have imported antisemitism with the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years,” he said.

According to Wednesday’s report, antisemitic attacks came from all parts of society — from the radical left, Muslim communities and the far right.

The report found that antisemitic incidents with a right-wing extremist background reached their highest level since it started colleting data in 2020.

Merz has used the rhetoric of “imported antisemitism” before, something critics say fuels Islamaphobia and enables Germany to ignore the growing problem of antisemitism within its society.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-merz-extremely-satisfied-with-trump-talks/live-72794062

Ukraine launched drones out of trucks to destroy Russian bomber planes far from the frontlines. It is a classic example of how technology has rewritten the playbook of war, says defence writer Mike Yeo.

Ukraine has held out against a stronger adversary for more than three years, thanks to its ability to wage asymmetric warfare. Even so, the drone attack deep inside Russia on Sunday (Jun 1) was particularly audacious.

Multiple drone swarms launched from container trucks hit four airbases thousands of kilometres from the frontlines and destroyed several Russian long-range bombers. For some, it was a “genius” move; for others, it confirms a nightmare scenario.

Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web is a classic example of how technology has rewritten the playbook of war, and how long-range strikes into enemy territory can be conducted cheaply and quietly with disproportionate results.

Beyond Russia, the attack would have sent reverberations among defence planners around the world.

For some time now, even though some analysts have warned that something like this was not beyond the realm of possibility given the technology already available, it would have undoubtedly been a shock to see it put into practice so successfully and on such a scale. Everyone and their valuable military assets can be vulnerable to such threats.

WHAT WENT DOWN IN OPERATION SPIDER’S WEB
Hundreds of drones, each carrying an explosive munition, struck bases deep inside Russia – with the farthest one, Belaya, located in Siberia, just north of Russia’s border with Mongolia and more than 4,000km from the Ukraine.

These bases were likely chosen due to their housing of long-range, high-value Russian air assets such as bombers and surveillance aircraft. The former have been lobbing cruise missiles at Ukraine with impunity since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s intelligence service revealed the drones were smuggled into Russia on specially designed racks housed inside modified standard shipping containers. They were driven to spots near the air bases by unwitting Russian truck drivers.

The Ukrainians added that the drones were mostly flown autonomously, with video feeds and some operator input sent via the Russian mobile phone network. One of their videos appears to suggest this was the case, with the drone hovering above the wing of a Russian Tu-95MS bomber and gingerly adjusting its position before plunging down near where the plane’s wing met its fuselage.

This is one of its most vulnerable spots – the location of its fuel tanks. Another video released by Ukraine that has been geolocated by open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigators to Olenya air base in northern Russia showed three more Tu-95MS bombers and a transport aircraft burning fiercely.

UNCONVENTIONAL MEANS, DEVASTATING RESULTS
The attack is the latest demonstration of Ukraine’s ingenuity and ability to harness technology and use unconventional methods to exploit a stronger adversary’s vulnerabilities.

The Ukrainians claimed to have hit 41 Russian aircraft, though a United States assessment put the number closer to 20, of which about 10 were destroyed. Given that Russia’s long-range bomber fleet has been estimated to be about 80 aircraft, the loss of almost 13 per cent of the force represents a significant blow to this area of Russian military capabilities.

This was not the first time Ukraine has used drones to strike Russian bases far from the frontlines.

Previous occasions have utilised larger, longer-ranged drones launched from Ukraine. But these attacks have lower rates of successes against defended targets as the drones are bigger and more easily detected and targeted by air defences.

Still, these have had some success, particularly with attacks on Russian ammunition storages that have triggered spectacular explosions and fires and deprived their enemy of bombs and other explosives.

They have also forced the Russians to base their aircraft further from Ukraine, which imposes a cost: increased transit times to and from operating areas, increased strain on aircraft and crews, which reduced the number of missions that can be flown.

HEADACHE TO DEFEND AGAINST
So what are the options for militaries seeking to protect valuable assets if conventional air defences would struggle to detect and destroy such drones?

There are a range of anti-drone systems (or Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems, C-UAS) available, ranging from guns and missiles to electronic jammers that disrupt the signals between the drone and its operator. Other solutions are also being developed, such as the use of laser (directed energy) weapons to destroy the drone.

Each has its downsides, however.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/ukraine-drone-attack-russia-war-defence-military-5167321

United States President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday (Jun 5) to cut off government contracts with billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, while Musk suggested Trump should be impeached, turning their bromance into an all-out brawl on social media.

The hostilities began when Trump criticised Tesla CEO Musk in the Oval Office. Within hours, the once-close relationship had disintegrated in full public view, as the world’s most powerful man and its richest launched personal barbs at one another on Trump’s Truth Social and Musk’s X platforms.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Wall Street traders dumped shares of Musk’s electric vehicle maker, and Tesla closed down 14.3 per cent, losing about US$150 billion in market value. It was Tesla’s largest single-day decline in value in its history.

Minutes after the closing bell, Musk replied “yes” to a post on X saying Trump should be impeached. Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress and are highly unlikely to impeach him.

The trouble between the two started brewing on Tuesday, when Musk denounced Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending Bill. The president initially held his tongue while Musk campaigned to torpedo the Bill, saying it would add too much to the nation’s US$36.2 trillion in debt.

Trump broke his silence on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed” in Musk.

“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.

As Trump spoke, Musk responded in real time with increasingly acerbic posts on X.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” wrote Musk, who spent nearly US$300 million backing Trump and other Republicans in last year’s election. “Such ingratitude.”

In another post, Musk asserted that Trump’s signature tariffs would push the US into a recession later this year.

Besides Tesla, Musk’s businesses include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink.

Musk, whose space business plays a critical role in the US government’s space programme, said that as a result of Trump’s threats, he would begin decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

Dragon is the only US spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the International Space Station.

PUGILISTIC PAIR
The feud was not entirely unexpected, with many observers predicting an eventual falling out.

Even before Musk’s departure from the Trump administration last week, his influence had waned following a series of clashes with Cabinet members over his cuts to their agencies.

For Trump, the fight was the first major rift he has had with a top adviser since taking office for a second time, after his first term was marked by numerous blow-ups.

Trump parted ways with multiple chiefs of staff, national security advisers and political strategists during his 2017 to 2021 White House tenure. A few, like Steve Bannon, remained in his good graces, while many others, like former ambassador John Bolton, became loud and vocal critics.

After serving as the biggest Republican donor in the 2024 campaign season, Musk became one of Trump’s most visible advisers as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which mounted a sweeping and controversial effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.

Musk was frequently present at the White House and made multiple appearances on Capitol Hill, sometimes carrying his young son.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-musk-feud-explodes-threats-cutting-contracts-backing-impeachment-5168076

WEF CEO Borge Brende said India is the world’s bright spot but added that to stay ahead, it must double down on reforms, infrastructure, and coordination across states.

Even as trade tensions escalate, global growth slows, and geopolitical risks mount, the President and CEO of the World Economic Forum, Brge Brende, says India is emerging as the world’s most resilient major economy.

Speaking to Business Today’s Siddharth Zarabi and India Today Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai, Brende said that among all large economies, India is currently outperforming expectations and may soon leapfrog Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.

“Of the largest economies of the world, India is the bright spot. It is really doing well. In the last quarter, it even did better than expected—7.5% growth,” Brende said. “If it continues like this, India will be the fourth-largest economy in the world—$5 trillion—maybe already this year, and take over the fourth place from Japan.”

His comments come as the WEF’s 2025 global outlook warns of serious headwinds, including rising trade barriers, record-high debt levels, and a fragmented geopolitical order. Brende noted that global growth is now “far below trend,” with trade slowing to levels not seen in decades. But India, he said, has managed to buck the trend.

Brende also praised India’s positioning in a rapidly changing global trade order.

“There is a change in trade that is more structural. Trade in services and digital trade are growing three times faster than trade in manufacturing,” he said. “I think this is one of the reasons why India is doing relatively well—because India is very strong on services and digital trade.”

India’s rising influence isn’t just economic—it is becoming more strategic, Brende noted, especially as companies and countries reconfigure supply chains after the pandemic and amid ongoing US-China tensions.

“Just in time is not good enough anymore. You have to have just in case,” he said. “We are seeing friend-shoring, home-shoring, and near-shoring. That complicates things, but India is well-positioned to benefit.”

He pointed to the rapid rise of India’s manufacturing ecosystem as a case in point.

“A few years ago, there were no iPhones produced in India. Now, 25% of the production comes from India,” he said. “And the US administration is already saying iPhones should be produced in the US. So there are first questions there. But India has a huge opportunity.”

He also highlighted India’s demographic advantage and its role in the digital economy.

“The median age in India is 28 years. The workforce is growing every year, and there is a lot of tech-savvy talent. That helps when it comes to the digital revolution,” Brende said.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/india-is-the-global-bright-spot-set-to-overtake-japan-wef-ceo-borge-brende-2736441-2025-06-05

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ last girlfriend, a “Jane Doe” who dated him up until his arrest in September 2024 and says he brutally beat her and forced her to have unprotected sex with strangers, took the stand Thursday in the bombshell sex-trafficking case against him.

The disgraced mogul’s anonymous abuse accuser told the jury that 90% of their three-year relationship was spent in the drugged-up “freak-offs” Diddy orchestrated, filmed and pleasured himself to.

Combs, 55, is accused of using his fame, fortune and many businesses to run a decade-long scheme in which he controlled and manipulated his longtime girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, 38, using violence and threats, forcing her and others — including several male escorts — into the sex marathons that went on for days.

The rapper has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces life in prison if convicted.

The trial is not televised because cameras are prohibited inside the federal courthouse, but we’re there following all the action — so watch this space for the latest updates.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ and his girlfriend, “Jane” regularly used “two dozen or more” bottles of baby oil during “freak-off” sex-sessions.

Jane — who referred to “freak-offs” as “hotel nights” — said they had to cover “everything” in the hotel rooms with bedsheets, blankets and towels “for the excessive use of baby oil everywhere.”

She says they always used baby oil for “hotel nights” and would go through “two dozen or more” bottles of the lubricating product during a single sex session.

“He really enjoyed watching me pour oil all over myself, all over the man,” Jane said.

Sean “Diddy” Combs talked his ex-lover “Jane” out of starting an OnlyFans account where she considered posting photos of herself in bikinis and lingerie, she testified.

“I told Sean that one of my model girlfriends had been really lucrative on this website. Once I started saying OnlyFans, I remember he was giving me this energy that was hesitant, like ‘uhmm no,” the woman told jurors.

The accuser, who is testifying under an alias, said her girlfriend had reported making $4 million on the risqué website in just one year. Jane testified Thursday that “if I joined at that time, it would have been lucrative for me.”

But Combs talked her out of it and “would say ‘let’s just give it time,'” Jane testified.

Prosecutors allege that Combs coerced Jane into fulfilling his sexual desires in part by keeping her financially dependent on him.

Sean “Diddy” Combs threatened to stop paying the rent of his one-time girlfriend “Jane” if she refused to take part in “freak-offs,” according to her testimony.

Jane testified that she repeatedly told Combs throughout their relationship that she didn’t want to keep having sex with other men.

“He would just say things like, ‘If you want to break up, that’s fine. You have three months left on the house because I’m not about to be paying rent,'” Jane recalled Combs saying.

Jane said Combs paid for the rent on her home.

Sean “Diddy” Combs and his ex-girlfriend and alleged victim “Jane” referred to “freak-offs” by two other euphemisms, she told the jury.

As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk argued on social media on Thursday, the world’s richest man threatened to decommission a space capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

After Trump threatened to cut government contracts given to Musk’s SpaceX rocket company and his Starlink internet satellite services, Musk responded via X that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

It’s unclear how serious Musk’s threat was. But the capsule, developed with the help of government contracts, is an important part of keeping the space station running. NASA also relies heavily on SpaceX for other programs including launching science missions and, later this decade, returning astronauts to the surface of the moon.

The Dragon capsule
SpaceX is the only U.S. company capable right now of transporting crews to and from the space station, using its four-person Dragon capsules.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule has flown astronauts only once; last year’s test flight went so badly that the two NASA astronauts had to hitch a ride back to Earth via SpaceX in March, more than nine months after launching last June.

Starliner remains grounded as NASA decides whether to go with another test flight with cargo, rather than a crew.

SpaceX also uses a Dragon capsule for its own privately run missions. The next one of those is due to fly next week on a trip chartered by Axiom Space, a Houston company.

Cargo versions of the Dragon capsule are also used to ferry food and other supplies to the orbiting lab.

NASA’s other option: Russia
Russia’s Soyuz capsules are the only other means of getting crews to the space station right now.

The Soyuz capsules hold three people at a time. For now, each Soyuz launch carries two Russians and one NASA astronaut, and each SpaceX launch has one Russian on board under a barter system. That way, in an emergency requiring a capsule to return, there is always someone from the U.S. and Russian on board.

With its first crew launch for NASA in 2020 — the first orbital flight of a crew by a private company — SpaceX enabled NASA to reduce its reliance on Russia for crew transport. The Russian flights had been costing the U.S. tens of millions of dollars per seat, for years.

NASA has also used Russian spacecraft for cargo, along with U.S. contractor Northrup Grumman.

SpaceX’s other government launches

The company has used its rockets to launch several science missions for NASA as well as military equipment.

Last year, SpaceX also won a NASA contract to help bring the space station out of orbit when it is no longer usable.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/musk-trump-spacex-dragon-capsule-e1fa0607a8e69bc2ad1677f5920b5f56

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Jun 4) suspended for an initial six months the entry into the United States of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University, amid an escalating dispute with the Ivy League school.

Trump’s proclamation cited national security concerns as a justification for barring international students from entering the United States to pursue studies at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university.

Harvard in a statement called Trump’s proclamation “yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights”.

“Harvard will continue to protect its international students,” it added.

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

The directive on Wednesday came a week after a federal judge in Boston announced she would issue a broad injunction blocking the administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to enrol international students, who make up about a quarter of its student body.

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

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

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

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

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

Last month, the State Department ordered all its consular missions overseas to begin additional vetting of visa applicants looking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters.

Accusing Harvard of “extensive entanglements with foreign adversaries,” the proclamation said Harvard received more than US$150 million from China alone. It said many agitators behind antisemitic incidents on campus were “found to be foreign students”.

The FBI has “long warned that foreign adversaries take advantage of easy access to American higher education to steal information, exploit research and development and spread false information”, the proclamation said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-harvard-restrict-student-visas-sign-proclamation-5166696

The English pop singer Jessie J says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will undergo surgery after her performance at the London music festival Capital’s Summertime Ball next weekend.

Jessie J, 37, shared the news in an Instagram video on Wednesday (Jun 4). “I was diagnosed with early breast cancer,” she said in the clip. “Cancer sucks in any form, but I’m holding onto the word ‘early’.”

“It’s a very dramatic way to get a boob job. I am going to disappear for a bit after Summertime Ball to have my surgery, and I will come back with massive (expletive) and more music.”

The annual Summertime Ball will be held at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, Jun 15.

She told her social media audience that she felt compelled to share her diagnosis.

“I just wanted to be open and share it,” she said. “One, because, selfishly, I do not talk about it enough. I’m not processing it because I’m working so hard. I also know how much sharing in the past has helped me with other people giving me their love and support and also their own stories. I’m an open book. It breaks my heart that so many people are going through so much similar and worse – that’s the bit that kills me.”

The Grammy-nominated Jessie J has long been celebrated for her robust soprano and R&B-informed pop hits, like the 2014 collaboration with Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande, Bang Bang, and 2011’s Domino.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/jessie-j-diagnosed-early-breast-cancer-466041

At least 98 people are still missing in addition to 160 confirmed dead a week after floods ripped through a town in central Nigeria, the national emergency agency said on Wednesday, as hopes of finding survivors fade.
Heavy rainfall unleashed waters that destroyed homes and overwhelmed local drainage systems in Mokwa, about 270 km (168 miles) west of Abuja, in one of the deadliest floods to hit Africa’s most populous country.

Although search and rescue operations continue, damage to roads and bridges was hampering access, said the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), which has enlisted the help of Nigeria Red Cross, police and army.
“Teams are working to locate missing persons. There is heightened risk of disease outbreaks due to overcrowding and contaminated water sources,” NEMA said in a statement.
Habiba Abdulahi, a 27-year-old resident, said four of her five children had been washed away by the floods, and that like other victims’ relatives she was still hoping that the bodies would be found.
“Just like that, my children were gone. Even now, we haven’t found them, but we are still hoping to recover their bodies,” she told Reuters by phone.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/nearly-100-missing-week-after-floods-tore-through-nigerian-town-2025-06-04/

The number of people who have fled Sudan since the beginning of its civil war in 2023 has surpassed four million, U.N. refugee agency officials said on Tuesday, adding that many survivors faced inadequate shelter due to funding shortages.
“Now in its third year, the 4 million people is a devastating milestone in what is the world’s most damaging displacement crisis at the moment,” U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun told a Geneva press briefing.

“If the conflict continues in Sudan, thousands more people, we expect thousands more people will continue to flee, putting regional and global stability at stake,” she said.
Sudan, which erupted in violence in April 2023, shares borders with seven countries: Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Libya.

More than 800,000 of the refugees have arrived in Chad, where their shelter conditions are dire due to funding shortages, with only 14% of funding appeals met, UNHCR’s Dossou Patrice Ahouansou told the same briefing.
“This is an unprecedented crisis that we are facing. This is a crisis of humanity. This is a crisis of … protection based on the violence that refugees are reporting,” he said.

Many of those fleeing reported surviving terror and violence, he added, describing meeting a seven-year-old girl in Chad who was hurt in an attack on her home in Sudan’s Zamzam displacement camp that killed her father and two brothers and had to have her leg amputated during her escape. Her mother had been killed in an earlier attack, he said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/more-than-4-million-refugees-have-fled-sudan-since-war-began-un-says-2025-06-03/

In his first month, Pope Leo has taken a very different approach to his predecessor Francis.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has led some two dozen public events since he was elected as the first U.S. pope on May 8 but not made notable appointments, nor announced plans for foreign trips, nor said where he will live at the Vatican.

It’s a stark contrast to when Francis, originally from Argentina, was selected as the first pope from the Americas in March 2013.

Within a month, Francis had announced he would be the first pontiff in more than a century to live outside the Vatican’s apostolic palace, appointed his successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and created a new formal advisory group of senior Catholic cardinals.
Two of Leo’s long-time associates told Reuters they expect the 69-year-old Pope to take a deliberative approach to the challenges facing the Catholic Church and may require months before making major decisions.
“Leo is taking his time,” Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of the new pontiff since the 1970s, told Reuters. “While he is going to continue in the path indicated by Pope Francis, his disposition is very different.”

Leo was first appointed a bishop by Francis in 2015 and then chosen by the late pope to take up a senior Vatican role two years ago. He has frequently praised his predecessor in his first weeks.
He has also repeated some of Francis’ main themes, and has echoed the Argentine pontiff’s emotional appeals for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
But the two men have different temperaments, according to Rev. Francis, who attended seminary with Leo in Chicago and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s.
“Leo is much more focused and methodical and not inclined to hasty decisions,” he said.
Among the challenges facing the American pope is the Vatican’s 83-million-euro ($95 million) budget shortfall, which Reuters reported in February had stirred contention among senior cardinals under his predecessor.
Other looming issues facing the 1.4 billion-member Church include declining adherence to the faith in Europe, ongoing revelations of clerical sexual abuse, and doctrinal debates over matters such as inclusion of LGBT Catholics and the possibility of women’s ordination.
Francis, who sought to modernise the Church, did not formally change many doctrines but garnered criticism from conservative cardinals by opening the door to communion for divorcees and blessings for same-sex couples.
Rev. Anthony Pizzo, who has known Leo since 1974 when they attended Villanova University outside Philadelphia together, said the pope is someone who listens carefully and seeks to hear many viewpoints before making decisions.
“This is going to be his modus operandi,” said Pizzo, who leads the Midwest U.S. province of the Augustinian religious order, to which Leo also belongs.
“When you first come into leadership, listen well, get to know your constituency … to make a well-informed decision,” Pizzo added, describing the pope’s thought process.

A ‘SHY’ LISTENER

Francis and Leo came to the papacy at different ages and with different career backgrounds.
Francis, elected at age 76, had been a cardinal for 12 years before ascending to the papacy. He had earlier been a leading contender in the 2005 conclave that elected his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
Leo, seven years younger when he donned the white papal cassock, is a relative unknown on the world stage who only became a cardinal and Vatican official two years ago. He spent most of his prior career as a missionary in Peru.
Early in his tenure, Francis told journalists that, due to his age, he expected to have a brief papacy of only a few years. Leo, the youngest pontiff since John Paul II was elected at age 58 in 1978, can perhaps expect a papacy of ten or more years.
Among the challenges facing the new pope is a Vatican budget shortfall estimated at 83 million euros, two knowledgeable sources told Reuters.
The city-state also has a much larger gap in its pension fund, said to total some 631 million euros by the Vatican’s finance czar in 2022 but estimated by several insiders to have since ballooned significantly.
In his first weeks, Leo has not addressed the budget issues and has made only a few new appointments to Vatican roles.
But he has held formal one-on-one meetings with many senior Vatican officials, which Pizzo suggested the pope could be using to try to learn quickly.
Rev. Jorge Martinez Vizueta, who knew Leo in Peru, said he is someone who pays close attention to what people tell him. “He listens a lot, even with a certain shyness,” said Martinez, an Augustinian at a monastery where Leo previously was a spiritual advisor.
Although Leo has not announced where he will live, more than three informed sources said he is expected to move into the official papal apartments in the Vatican’s apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Francis shunned the palace in favour of a Vatican hotel.
One senior source, who asked not to be identified, said the papal apartments, which have not been lived in since 2013, will require at least 2 to 3 months of renovations.

CAREFUL WITH RESPONSES

While Francis made some big decisions quickly in his first month, he also took time on other issues. He did not make his first trip abroad until late July 2013, four months into his papacy.
Leo’s first foreign trip is likely to be to Turkey, to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of an early Church council with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Vatican has not announced the trip, but it was previously planned for Francis. Bartholomew told an Italian television station that he and Leo discussed the possibility of the new pope travelling to Turkey in late November.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/en/pope-leo-first-month-makes-break-style-francis-2025-06-04/

Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing burden on airline operations and profitability, executives say, as carriers grapple with missiles and drones, airspace closures, location spoofing and the shoot-down of another passenger flight.
Airlines are racking up costs and losing market share from cancelled flights and expensive re-routings, often at short notice. The aviation industry, which prides itself on its safety performance, is investing more in data and security planning.

“Flight planning in this kind of environment is extremely difficult … The airline industry thrives on predictability, and the absence of this will always drive greater cost,” said Guy Murray, who leads aviation security at European carrier TUI Airline (TUI1n.DE).

With increasing airspace closures around Russia and Ukraine, throughout the Middle East, between India and Pakistan and in parts of Africa, airlines are left with fewer route options.
“Compared to five years ago, more than half of the countries being overflown on a typical Europe-Asia flight would now need to be carefully reviewed before each flight,” said Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East since October 2023 led to commercial aviation sharing the skies with short-notice barrages of drones and missiles across major flight paths – some of which were reportedly close enough to be seen by pilots and passengers.
Russian airports, including in Moscow, are now regularly shut down for brief periods due to drone activity, while interference with navigation systems, known as GPS spoofing or jamming, is surging around political fault lines worldwide.
When hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan last month, the neighbours blocked each other’s aircraft from their respective airspace.
“Airspace should not be used as a retaliatory tool, but it is,” Nick Careen, International Air Transport Association (IATA) senior vice president for operations, safety and security, told reporters at the airline body’s annual meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Isidre Porqueras, chief operating officer at Indian carrier IndiGo (INGL.NS), said the recent diversions were undoing efforts to reduce emissions and increase airline efficiencies.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO

Finances aside, civil aviation’s worst-case scenario is a plane being hit, accidentally or intentionally, by weaponry.
In December, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. The plane was accidentally shot down by Russian air defences, according to Azerbaijan’s president and Reuters sources.
In October, a cargo plane was shot down in Sudan, killing five people.
Six commercial aircraft have been shot down, with three near-misses since 2001, according to aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions.
Governments need to share information more effectively to keep civil aviation secure as conflict zones proliferate, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this week.

Safety statistics used by the commercial aviation industry show a steady decline in accidents over the past two decades, but these do not include security-related incidents such as being hit by weaponry.
IATA said in February that accidents and incidents related to conflict zones were a top concern for aviation safety requiring urgent global coordination.

TOUGH CHOICES

Each airline decides where to travel based on a patchwork of government notices, security advisers, and information-sharing between carriers and states, leading to divergent policies.
The closure of Russian airspace to most Western carriers since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022 put them at a cost disadvantage compared to airlines from places like China, India and the Middle East that continue to take shorter northern routes that need less fuel and fewer crew.
Shifting risk calculations mean Singapore Airlines’ (SIAL.SI),  flight SQ326 from Singapore to Amsterdam has used three different routes into Europe in just over a year, Flightradar24 tracking data shows.
When reciprocal missile and drone attacks broke out between Iran and Israel in April 2024, it started crossing previously avoided Afghanistan instead of Iran.
Last month, its route shifted again to avoid Pakistan’s airspace as conflict escalated between India and Pakistan. Flight SQ326 now reaches Europe via the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Singapore Airlines did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Pilots and flight attendants are also worried about how the patchwork of shifting risk might impact their safety.
“IATA says airlines should decide if it’s safe to fly over conflict zones, not regulators. But history shows commercial pressures can cloud those decisions,” said Paul Reuter, vice president of the European Cockpit Association, which represents pilots.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/expanding-missile-threats-airspace-closures-are-straining-airlines-2025-06-04/

The European Union on Wednesday announced 13 new raw material projects outside the bloc to increase its supplies of metals and minerals essential for it to stay competitive in the energy transition as well as defence and aerospace.
The announcement follows China’s decision in April to impose export curbs on rare earth magnets until new licences are obtained, leaving diplomats, carmakers and other companies from Europe and elsewhere scrambling to secure meetings with Beijing officials and avert factory shutdowns.

“We must reduce our dependencies on all countries, particularly on a number of countries like China (…) The export bans increase our will to diversify,” European Commissioner for industry Stephane Sejourne told reporters.
China controls more than 90% of global processing capacity for the magnets, used in everything from vehicles and fighter jets to home appliances. It is also the main supplier of many key inputs for renewable energy, especially rare earth minerals, batteries and solar panels, a situation Brussels is keen to change.
The EU list is part of the implementation of the Critical Raw Material Act agreed in 2023 under which the bloc aims to mine 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of its needs by 2030.

Ten of the new projects will be focused on materials essential for electric vehicle batteries and battery storage, including lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite. Two projects for rare earths are located in Malawi and South Africa.
Other projects are located in Britain, Canada, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia, Brazil and the French territory of New Caledonia.
The British project is to extract tungsten and the ones in Ukraine and Greenland will be for graphite, with the project in Greenland run by GreenRoc Strategic Materials (GROC.L). Tungsten is key for the defence industry.

POLITICAL TENSIONS

Greenland has been a point of tension between Brussels and Washington this year after U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly said he wants to acquire the Danish overseas territory.
U.S. officials have discussed a plan to pull Greenland into America’s sphere of influence with a type of agreement called COFA that the United States has used to maintain close ties with several Pacific Island nations. Under COFA, the U.S. government offers essential services and in exchange, the U.S. military operates freely while trade with the U.S. is largely duty-free.

The Serbian project, run by major miner Rio Tinto, could produce 90% of Europe’s lithium needs. However, the project nearly fell apart after the government revoked the miner’s licence in 2022. A Serbian court restored Rio Tinto’s rights last year. Many Serbs oppose the Jadar project, saying its development will damage the environment.
“With an estimated production of 58,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually, Serbia has the potential to become a key player in the electric vehicle supply chain,” Rio Tinto said in a statement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/eu-picks-13-new-critical-material-projects-including-greenland-2025-06-04/

Three days after Ukraine launched its most complex attack against Russia since the full-scale war began, details of how it was carried out and the damage it caused to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet are still emerging.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the operation, dubbed “Spider’s Web”, as “absolutely brilliant”, although the extent of Russian military losses remains unclear. On Wednesday, he said that of the 41 planes damaged, half cannot be repaired.

The attacks targeted at least four Russian military air bases, the furthest of which from Ukraine is the Belaya base in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, around 4,850 km (3,000 miles) from Kyiv.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the operation involved 117 drones that were smuggled into Russia: they were concealed beneath the retractable roofs of wooden sheds, transported to locations close to military bases and piloted remotely to hit strategic, nuclear-capable bombers. In some cases, artificial intelligence was used to guide the drones to their target.

Russian officials said on Wednesday that military options were “on the table” for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them.

Ukraine’s main offensive threat in the war so far has been its long-range drones, which have struck targets deep inside Russia, including oil refineries, military bases and arms depots.

Yet, despite some technological advances and increased production, the drones have a maximum range well short of 5,000 km and can be detected as they fly into Russian air space, meaning air defences down many of them.

The June 1 operation, including the attack on the Belaya air base, relied on a different threat: relatively small “kamikaze” drones launched from locations just a few kilometres away.

The element of surprise was vital, denying Russia’s military the time to move mobile air defences into place or block the drones with electronic jamming.

How the attack unfolded

According to Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, the drones were smuggled into Russia by its operatives and concealed within the roof space of wooden sheds.

An image shared by Ukrainian authorities showed around 20 drones, each with four propellors, placed in wooden cavities below a roof.

Video footage verified by Reuters shows that the roof of at least one of the sheds had been removed to release the attack drones at the designated place and time.

On the day of the strike, a hidden mechanism retracted the trucks’ roofs, revealing drone launch platforms inside.

Russian authorities have given few details about the attack.

The Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting military airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in three regions, but not Murmansk and Irkutsk, it said, adding that in those places several aircraft caught fire.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that an official investigation into the attack was underway.

The Baza news service, which has close contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, named the main suspect as a 37-year-old Ukrainian who had moved to the Russian region of Chelyabinsk in recent years. Reuters has not been able to verify independently Baza’s account.

According to Baza, which cited unnamed sources, the Ukrainian opened a transportation business in October last year and acquired several trucks in December. It was from these vehicles that the drones used in the attacks were launched, the news service said.

Baza said the drivers of four trucks, who apparently did not know about the nature of their cargoes, were told to drive to different destinations across Russia carrying wooden sheds.

When the trucks were close to their destinations, the drivers were given instructions over the phone where to stop. In one case, Baza reported, the drones began to fly out of the sheds the moment the truck was parked, and in another while the truck was still moving.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia has commented on accounts in the Russian media.

Based on images posted on social media, Reuters has established that the truck used in the attack on the Belaya base was parked along the P-255 highway at the time, some 7 km from the airfield.

A Ukrainian source with knowledge of the matter said the drones were piloted remotely via the Russian cellular telecommunications network.

The SBU said in a statement on Wednesday that during the operation, modern drone control technology was used in the operation combining autonomous artificial intelligence algorithms and manual intervention by the operator. Due to signal loss, some drones switched to performing the mission using artificial intelligence along a pre-planned route. When a drone approached and made contact with a specific target, its explosive was automatically triggered.

The SBU said the operatives involved were all back in Ukraine by the time the attacks began. President Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian agents worked across multiple Russian regions in an operation that was 18 months in the planning.

Damaged and destroyed

Satellite imagery after the attack on the Belaya base show that several strategic bombers — experts say between six and eight — were either destroyed or badly damaged there.

At Olenya, footage released by the SBU and verified by Reuters showed two burning bombers which appeared to be nuclear-capable Tu-95s and a third, also a Tu-95, being hit by a large explosion.

New SBU drone footage released on Wednesday showed drones landing on the dome antennae of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia’s fleet. There was no video showing the drones detonate.

Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of all four air bases in the footage, including the Ivanovo airbase where the A-50s were stationed. The news agency could not independently verify what date the footage was filmed.

The SBU said in a statement that the struck aircraft included the A-50, the Tu-95 strategic bomber, Tu-22 supersonic jet bomber, Tu-160 strategic bomber, as well as the An-12 and Il-78 military cargo planes.

There was no immediate public response from Moscow to the SBU statement.

Fabian Hinz, research fellow for defence and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the attack would prove costly to Russia, partly because the types of aircraft that were hit are mostly out of production.

“The Russians can find a billion here and there, but these aircraft are not produced anymore,” he said. “That’s actually probably much more serious than losing a billion dollars or a few billion dollars. So I think it was a very significant attack.”

Estimates of the number of aircraft struck vary, but some experts said that between 10 and 13 strategic bombers – Tu-95s and Tu-22s – were destroyed and others damaged, based on imagery from two of four bases targeted – in Irkutsk and Murmansk.

This is only a part of the total fleet, but it reduces the number of planes that Russia can use to carry out cruise missile attacks on Ukraine.

Hinz said that Russia could take measures to protect its air bases in the future, but this kind of operation using drones launched locally could be applied to many targets.

“You suddenly have this whole new world of opportunities for sabotage within a country,” he said. “And this is the most spectacular attack and probably the most impactful attack we’ve seen that has worked like that.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News that the damage to the bombers was less important than the psychological impact on Russia. He added that he was particularly concerned by unconfirmed reports of a Ukrainian attack on a naval base in northern Russia.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UKRAINE-CRISIS/DRONES-RUSSIA/mypmjzayyvr/

According to sources, the destruction at the Nur Khan airbase represents both material and psychological losses to Pakistan’s army

Pakistan sustained significant damage at Nur Khan airbase during India’s Operation Sindoor, top intelligence sources told CNN-News18 on Wednesday.

India’s precision strikes on the base’s hangars, runways, and radar sites disrupted the operations of VIP transport fleets, drones, and surveillance aircraft, degrading 20% of Pakistan’s air force infrastructure, they said. The strikes, the sources added, exposed critical gaps in Pakistan’s air defences and highlighted its inability to intercept ballistic missiles targeting high-value sites deep inside the country.

“While Pakistan’s army attempts to downplay the damage, satellite evidence reveals visible debris, indicating ongoing repairs and an attempt to avoid showing weakness. The military has ordered against rapid cleanup to prevent exposing the full extent of the damage to India or the public. The proximity of the base to nuclear facilities has heightened security concerns, potentially delaying external access for clearance,” a source said.

The military has not removed debris from the airport due to fear and resource shortages or the prioritisation of other damaged bases, the sources said. “Satellite imagery revealed the demolition of a 7,000 sq ft complex near the strike site, contradicting initial reports of limited damage. Mobile control centres and support vehicles used for air force operations were destroyed, severely compromising command capabilities. High-resolution images showed crater impacts near fortified underground facilities likely used for storing sensitive equipment or overseeing nuclear systems,” said a source.

Indian attacks, sources said, severely hit Saab Erieye AWACS, a strategic location just 25 km from Islamabad and near Pakistan army headquarters and nuclear command centres, symbolising a direct breach of Pakistan’s core defences. The base, home to Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones and the nerve centre for Air Mobility Command, faced increased operational losses, they added.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pakistans-nur-khan-airbase-suffered-significant-damage-in-operation-sindoor-exclusive-details-9368892.html

Shona Banu still shudders when she thinks of the past few days.

The 58-year-old, a resident of Barpeta district in India’s north-eastern state of Assam, says that she was called to the local police station on 25 May and later taken to a point at the border with neighbouring Bangladesh. From there, she says, she and around 13 other people were forced to cross over to Bangladesh.

She says she was not told why. But it was a scenario she had been dreading – Ms Banu says she has lived in Assam all her life but for the past few years, she has been desperately trying to prove that she is an Indian citizen and not an “illegal immigrant” from Bangladesh.

“They pushed me over at gunpoint. I spent two days without food or water in the middle of a field in knee-deep water teeming with mosquitoes and leeches,” Ms Banu said, wiping away tears. After those two days in no man’s land – between India and Bangladesh – she says she was taken to what appeared to be an old prison on the Bangladeshi side.

After two days there, she and a few others – she is not sure if all of them were from the same group sent with her – were escorted by Bangladeshi officials across the border, where Indian officials allegedly met them and sent them home.

It’s not clear why Ms Banu was abruptly sent to Bangladesh and then brought back. But her case is among a spate of recent instances where officials in Assam have rounded up people declared foreigners by tribunals in the past – on suspicion of being “illegal Bangladeshis” – and sent them across the border. The BBC found at least six cases where people said their family members had been picked up, taken to border towns and just “pushed across”.

Officials from India’s Border Security Force, the Assam police and the state government did not respond to questions from the BBC.

Crackdowns on alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are not new in India – the countries are divided by a 4,096km (2,545 miles) long porous border which can make it relatively easy to cross over, even though many of the sensitive areas are heavily guarded.

But it’s still rare, lawyers working on these cases say, for people to be picked up from their homes abruptly and forced into another country without due process. These efforts seem to have intensified over the past few weeks.

The Indian government has not officially said how many people were sent across in the latest exercise. But top sources in the Bangladesh administration claim that India “illegally pushed in” more than 1,200 people into the country in May alone, not just from Assam but also other states. Out of this, they said on condition of anonymity, Bangladesh identified 100 people as Indian citizens and sent them back.

In a statement, the Border Guard Bangladesh said it had increased patrolling along the border to curb these attempts.

India has not commented on these allegations.

While media reports indicate that the recent crackdown includes Rohingya Muslims living in other states too, the situation is particularly tense and complex in Assam, where issues of citizenship and ethnic identity have long dominated politics.

The state, which shares a nearly 300km-long border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has seen waves of migration from the neighbouring country as people moved in search of opportunities or fled religious persecution.

This has sparked the anxieties of Assamese people, many of whom fear this is bringing in demographic change and taking away resources from locals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party – in power in Assam and nationally – has repeatedly promised to end the problem of illegal immigration, making the state’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) a priority in recent years.

The register is a list of people who can prove they came to Assam by 24 March 1971, the day before neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. The list went through several iterations, with people whose names were missing given chances to prove their Indian citizenship by showing official documents to quasi-judicial forums called Foreigners Tribunals.

After a chaotic process, the final draft published in 2019 excluded nearly two million residents of Assam – many of them were put in detention camps while others have appealed in higher courts against their exclusion.

Ms Banu said her case is pending in the Supreme Court but that authorities still forced her to leave.

The BBC heard similar stories from at least six others in Assam – all Muslims – who say their family members were sent to Bangladesh around the same time as Ms Banu, despite having necessary documents and living in India for generations. At least four of them have now come back home, with no answers still about why they were picked up.

A third of Assam’s 32 million residents are Muslims and many of them are descendants of immigrants who settled there during British rule.

Maleka Khatun, a 67-year-old from Assam’s Barpeta who is still in Bangladesh, says she has temporarily been given shelter by a local family.

“I have no-one here,” she laments. Her family has managed to speak to her but don’t know if and when she can return. She lost her case in the foreigners’ tribunal and in the state’s high court and hadn’t appealed in the Supreme Court.

Days after the recent round of action began, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cited a February Supreme Court direction which ordered the government to start deportation proceedings for people who had been “declared foreigners” but were still held in detention centres.

“The people who are declared foreigners but haven’t even appealed in court, we are pushing them back,” Sarma said. He also claimed that people with pending court appeals were not being “troubled”.

But Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan, a lawyer working on many citizenship cases in Assam, alleged that in many of the recent instances, due process – which would, among other things, require India and Bangladesh to cooperate on the action – was not followed.

“What is happening is a wilful and deliberate misinterpretation of the court order,” he said.

Mr Bhuyan recently filed a petition on behalf of a student organisation seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention in stopping what they said was a “forceful and illegal pushback policy” but was asked to first approach the Assam high court.

In Morigaon, around 167km from Barpeta, Rita Khatun sat near a table which had a pile of papers on it.

Her husband Khairul Islam, a 51-year-old school teacher, was in the same group as Ms Banu that was allegedly picked up by authorities.

A tribunal had declared him a foreigner in 2016, after which he spent two years in a detention centre before being released. Like Ms Banu, his case is also being heard in the Supreme Court.

“Every document is proof that my husband is Indian,” Ms Khatun said, leafing through what she said was Mr Islam’s high school graduation certificate and some land records. “But that wasn’t enough to prove his nationality to authorities.”

She says her husband, his father and grandfather were all born in India.

But on 23 May, she says that policemen arrived at their home and took Mr Islam away without any explanation.

It was only a few days later – when a viral video surfaced of a Bangladeshi journalist interviewing Mr Islam in no man’s land – that the family learnt where he was.

Like Ms Banu, Mr Islam has now been sent back to India.

While his family confirmed his return, the police told the BBC they had “no information” about his arrival.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj78v79z9do

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plan would cut deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period while shrinking the economy, raising the inflation rate and reducing the purchasing power of households overall, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.

The numbers were revealed in a letter sent to Democratic congressional leadership outlining how the Trump administration’s plan to impose wide-ranging tariffs on countries around the world will affect American households.

Baked into the CBO analysis is a prediction that households would ultimately buy less from the countries hit with added tariffs. The budget office estimates that the tariffs would increase the average annual rate of inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2025 and 2026.

The budget office’s model also assumes that the tariffs, announced through executive action between January and May, will be in place permanently.

Since the analysis was conducted, a federal court struck down sweeping tariffs that Trump invoked under an emergency-powers law. An appeals court allowed the Trump administration to continue collecting the tariffs while the case goes through appeals.

Largely confirming what other economic models have predicted, the CBO’s estimations show that the tradeoff for a $2.8 trillion deficit reduction over 10 years would be an overall reduction in household wealth. In addition, the tariffs would shrink the economy, or reduce the rate of the gross domestic product by 0.06 percentage points per year.

The Penn-Wharton Budget Model’s April report predicted that the Republican president’s tariffs would reduce long-run GDP by about 6% and wages by 5%.

A major caveat of the CBO’s estimates is written into the report — its estimates are “subject to significant uncertainty, in part because the Administration could change how the tariff policies are administered.”

Trump has often announced changes and pauses to his tariff plans on his social media platform.

In April, he posted that he was backing off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days and jacking up the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

Last week, he announced plans to hike the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to a punishing 50%, a move that’s set to hammer businesses and likely push up prices for consumers even further. The 50% tariffs went into effect Wednesday.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/cbo-trump-tariffs-cut-deficits-shrink-economy-18a07a73b72a31a164b15835dd34fd61

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work with the government, spreading the company’s technology — which could easily merge data on Americans — throughout agencies.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.

Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)

Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies — the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology, according to six government officials and Palantir employees with knowledge of the discussions.

The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said.

Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status.

Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access, questioning whether the government could weaponize people’s personal information.

Palantir’s selection as a chief vendor for the project was driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to the government officials. At least three DOGE members formerly worked at Palantir, while two others had worked at companies funded by Peter Thiel, an investor and a founder of Palantir.

Some current and former Palantir employees have been unnerved by the work. The company risks becoming the face of Mr. Trump’s political agenda, four employees said, and could be vulnerable if data on Americans is breached or hacked. Several tried to distance the company from the efforts, saying any decisions about a merged database of personal information rest with Mr. Trump and not the firm.

This month, 13 former employees signed a letter urging Palantir to stop its endeavors with Mr. Trump. Linda Xia, a signee who was a Palantir engineer until last year, said the problem was not with the company’s technology but with how the Trump administration intended to use it.

“Data that is collected for one reason should not be repurposed for other uses,” Ms. Xia said. “Combining all that data, even with the noblest of intentions, significantly increases the risk of misuse.”

Mario Trujillo, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said the government typically collected data for good reasons, such as to accurately levy taxes. But “if people can’t trust that the data they are giving the government will be protected, that it will be used for things other than what they gave it for, it will lead to a crisis of trust,” he said.

Palantir declined to comment on its work with the Trump administration and pointed to its blog, which details how the company handles data.

“We act as a data processor, not a data controller,” it said. “Our software and services are used under direction from the organisations that license our products: these organisations define what can and cannot be done with their data; they control the Palantir accounts in which analysis is conducted.”

The White House did not comment on the use of Palantir’s technology and referred to Mr. Trump’s executive order, which said he wanted to “eliminate information silos and streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

Some details of Palantir’s government contracts and DOGE’s work to compile data were previously reported by Wired and CNN.

Palantir, which was founded in 2003 by Alex Karp and Mr. Thiel and went public in 2020, specializes in finding patterns in data and presenting the information in ways that are easy to process and navigate, such as charts and maps. Its main products include Foundry, a data analytics platform, and Gotham, which helps organize and draw conclusions from data and is tailored for security and defense purposes.

In an interview last year, Mr. Karp, Palantir’s chief executive, said the company’s role was “the finding of hidden things” by sifting through data.

Palantir has long worked with the federal government. Its government contracts span the Defense Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the pandemic, the Biden administration signed a contract with Palantir to manage the distribution of vaccines through the C.D.C.

Mr. Trump’s election in November boosted Palantir’s stock, which has risen more than 140 percent since then. Mr. Karp, who donated to the Democratic Party last year, has welcomed Mr. Trump’s win and called Mr. Musk the most “qualified person in the world” to remake the U.S. government.

At the I.R.S., Palantir engineers joined in April to use Foundry to organize data gathered on American taxpayers, two government officials said. Their work began as a way to create a single, searchable database for the I.R.S., but has since expanded, they said. Palantir is in talks for a permanent contract with the I.R.S., they said.

A Treasury Department representative said that the I.R.S. was updating its systems to serve American taxpayers, and that Palantir was contracted to complete the work with I.R.S. engineers.

Palantir also recently began helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations team, according to two Palantir employees and two current and former D.H.S. officials. The work is part of a $30 million contract that ICE signed with Palantir in April to build a platform to track migrant movements in real time.

Some D.H.S. officials exchanged emails with DOGE officials in February about merging some Social Security information with records kept by immigration officials, according to screenshots of the messages viewed by The New York Times.

In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman, did not address Palantir’s new work with the agency and said the company “has had contracts with the federal government for 14 years.”

Palantir representatives have also held talks with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Education to use the company’s technology to organize the agencies’ data, according to two Palantir employees and officials in those agencies.

The Social Security Administration and Education Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The goal of uniting data on Americans has been quietly discussed by Palantir engineers, employees said, adding that they were worried about collecting so much sensitive information in one place. The company’s security practices are only as good as the people using them, they said. They characterized some DOGE employees as sloppy on security, such as not following protocols in how personal devices were used.

Source : https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE8.MAJY.b1Pkdai-orzG

Islamabad police have launched a murder probe after a teenage social media influencer was shot dead in her home. The news has reignited fears about the safety of women, particularly those in the public eye.

Police in Islamabad on Tuesday were investigating the killing of 17-year-old Sana Yousaf after she was found shot dead in her home.

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

What we know about the case

Police were said to have filed a case against an unidentified suspect after a complaint by Yousaf’s mother.

“The murder occurred within the victim’s residence and seems to have been carried out by someone she was acquainted with,” Station House Officer Malik Asif from the Sumbal Police Station confirmed to DW.

“The suspect was a familiar guest, indicating a personal relationship between them,” said Asif.

The news website Dawn cited early police information that a man entered the family’s home at around 5 p.m. on Monday and shot Sana twice in the chest.

She was rushed to the hospital but died from her injuries. The suspect was said to have fled the scene and remains to be publicly identified.

The mother said the suspect had a “smart appearance, moderate physique and height,” and was dressed in a black shirt and pants.

She said that both she and her sister-in-law, who was visiting, had witnessed the incident and would be able to identify the suspect in person.

Her mother added that her 15-year-old son was not present at the house as he had gone to their native village while her sister-in-law was visiting them for a few days.

Who was Sarah Yousaf?

Yousaf was widely known on social media for her short videos and lifestyle content. She had nearly 800,000 followers on TikTok and close to 500,000 on Instagram.

THREE missing sisters have been found dead days after they were reported missing while visiting their dad.

Authorities are being accused of “failing” the sisters by not issuing an Amber Alert for them as cops launch a manhunt for their father, who is charged with kidnapping and killing them.

Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead on Monday night after cops swarmed Rock Island Campground, about an hour outside of Wenatchee, Washington, where the girls lived with their mother.

Cops are now searching for Travis Decker, 32, who the girls were last seen with on what was supposed to be a three-hour custody visit on Friday.

Decker, who cops say is homeless, didn’t drop his daughters off at the end of the visit, prompting their mom to report them missing that night.

Washington State Patrol then issued an endangered missing persons alert for the siblings after Decker was seen leaving Wenatchee with the girls.

Cops decided not to send out an Amber Alert, designed to warn of child abductions, because they thought it was a custody issue.

“AMBER alerts involve more imminency, like we know something will happen, versus what we were dealing with over the weekend was more of an overdue child scenario,” Wenatchee Police Sergeant Joe Eaton told NCWLIFE.

Now, members of the public are lashing out at police for not doing more to alert people to the unfolding situation.

“This isn’t just heartbreaking, it’s infuriating,” one Facebook user commented on WPD’s Facebook post.

“These girls are gone because the system FAILED them. The police didn’t take it seriously, and the court system let them down too.

“There was a predator out there and instead of protecting our community, you stayed silent. No alerts, no warnings nothing.”

Another wrote, “How come an amber alert was not issued until it made national news? You failed this mother and her kids.

“The amber alert should have been issued the day he didn’t come back and no contact could be made.”

It’s unclear how the three girls died, but Decker has been charged with their murders.

Cops warned members of the public not to approach Decker, a veteran who they believe is mentally unstable.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14390060/travis-decker-missing-girls-sisters-dead-wenatchee/

HEADING out to Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert with a group of pals, excited fan Ayden Cruz was looking forward to the night of his life.

Instead, he found himself in a hellish crush that claimed the life of his close friend Brianna Rodriguez and nine others, including a nine-year-old boy.

What began as a highly anticipated event in the wake of pandemic restrictions, in November 2021, quickly descended into one of the US’ worst concert disasters, with dozens of people left fighting for their lives.

As the rapper took to the stage, the over-capacity crowd at Houston’s NRG Park surged forward, triggering a stampede which left several people trapped.

Fans say their screams for help fell on deaf ears as Scott continued performing amid the chaos.

In the aftermath of Astroworld, the heartbroken families of the victims – the youngest of whom was nine-year-old Ezra Blount – were left questioning how such a tragedy was allowed to occur.

In a new Netflix documentary, Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, Ayden and other survivors speak out about the harrowing ordeal that has left them traumatised four years on.

“Everyone was really hype. And everyone’s body moves forward. And then the wave comes back,” says Ayden, who was also with girlfriend Mikaela at the festival.

“That was like being stuffed into one little spot and just being squeezed. I started to feel a certain fear. That’s when I was like, ‘Hold on, this is not okay.’

“One of those waves just hit both me and Bri. We all fell to our backs. I could hear her in pain asking, ‘Help me get out,’ and stuff like that. I was the second layer.

“There were people under me. And then me falling on my back, and then people stacking on top of me.”

As Ayden struggled to escape the mountain of bodies piled on top of him, he realised that the more he fought, the worse it became for him.

“I could feel the oxygen leaving my body. I don’t know how long I was under there, but it felt like forever. And then people moved off me. I saw someone’s face. They looked at me.

“He pulled me out, and I just remember feeling so many different things. Where’s Mikaela? Did Bri get out? I looked for Mikaela. I found her.

“I knew where I saw Bri. Anyone who was at the same level as me was not receiving oxygen. I just remember panicking in that moment.”

Ayden tried his best to stop the show so others could get help. In footage taken on the night, Ayden can be seen climbing a camera platform to get the attention of the crew.

I knew where I saw Bri. Anyone who was at the same level as me was not receiving oxygen. I just remember panicking in that moment.

Ayden Cruz
He told the workers: “Shut the f**k up! People are f**king dying. I’m trying to save somebody’s life. That’s somebody’s kid. I want to save them.”

Ayden then frantically went searching for Brianna, believing there was a chance she was still struggling under the crowd. He was eventually told she had been taken to the hospital.

He emotionally recalls: “Right when we get there, her family just starts crying really loudly. We are thinking they are still trying. It’s not over yet. There’s still an opportunity for her to be saved.

“Until they come back and they [said], ‘We can’t do anything.’ Everyone just dropped to the floor. I just remember crying and feeling like this is the worst night of my life. I felt defeated.”

‘Stole my heart’

Raul and his friends, including Rudy Pena, 27, could hardly contain their excitement as they made their way to the main stage to watch Travis’ set.

In the film, he explains: “That’s when it started getting pretty hectic. We lost each other.”

There was a clock counting down the minutes till Travis’ big performance. With each passing minute, the crowd surged forward to get a closer look at the rapper.

When the situation got worse, Raul says he could hear Rudy behind him saying he couldn’t breathe. After assuring him to drink water and calm down, Raul thought all was well.

After the concert, Raul and his friends designated a meeting spot – but as all his mates gathered, one was missing.

He recalls: “Everybody started getting there slowly, but Rudy. That was so strange to me because the whole time I had thought he got out safely. But he’s the only one missing.

“That’s when I hit full panic.”

Their friend Manuel raced towards the emergency crews and ambulances without any sign of Rudy. He even started calling hospitals. One hospital said that Rudy was there.

Manuel says in the film: “There was no information due to us not being family. So that’s when I called Rudy’s mum.”

This was not a case of missing red flags. This was a case of ignoring blaring warning sirens.

Scott Davidson, crowd safety expert
Rudy’s mum, Maria Pena, rushed to Houston to check on her son but, on arrival at the hospital, she was given the devastating news that Rudy had died.

In the film, she tearfully says: “That’s when I just lost it. I was screaming ‘What am I gonna tell his siblings? What am I gonna tell his friends? What am I going to say to my heart, to my soul?

“They stole my heart. They stole a part of my heart. I couldn’t bear it. And I still can’t.”

‘I’m gonna die here’

As the crowd were frantically looking for an escape route, Sofia, who was celebrating getting her nursing certificate, was certain she would not make it out alive.

She says in the film: “The crowd was swaying, and I was swaying with the crowd because of how tight it was. I had no control over my body.

“And I just remember thinking, ‘Don’t fall down because you won’t make it back up. In the commotion, I lost my balance and fell on someone. And I just remember feeling pressure because people were falling on me.

“I remember looking up and just being like, ‘I’m gonna die here.’ And then someone saw my hand and they helped me up. Travis Scott was still playing the whole time. I was shaking.

“At this point, I was like, ‘I need to be out there helping people because I’m a registered nurse. There was this guy on the floor. I do my assessment on him.

“He has a pulse, but it’s really faint. I grabbed his legs, and I just remember putting them up.” Sofia heroically tried several methods to revive him.

Eventually, his heart started beating normally, and he regained consciousness, to Sofia’s relief.

That stranger was Arturo, who also appears in the film.

He says: “I was practically being suffocated to death. What led up to me passing out was like a heart attack. The doctors had to really explain to me what had really happened.

“And I was like ‘Holy shit, she brought me back to life. She was there for me. God bless her.'”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14386784/astroworld-tragedy-scott-stop/

VLADIMIR Putin has brazenly listed his “surrender demands” for Ukraine – despite being humiliated by Russia’s “Pearl Harbour”.

The deranged tyrant’s negotiators said an end to the war would only be agreed if Kyiv surrenders huge chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

Moscow’s audacious demands came just a day after Ukraine orchestrated Operation Spiderweb – which wiped out a third of Putin’s nuclear bombers.

The sophisticated attack saw 117 drones smuggled into Russia before unleashing hell on Putin’s airfields.

Spiderweb – dubbed Russia’s “Pearl Harbour” – took 18 months to plan and is understood to have cost Putin billions in damages.

Despite being left red-faced by the mammoth assault, Putin’s mouthpieces shamelessly gave his terms for a ceasefire during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

Its first section contained Moscow’s “basic parameters of a final settlement”.

The sham proposal demands Ukraine withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partly occupies at the moment.

It also ordered that the international community recognise Crimea as Russia’s sovereign territory – after they annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Putin’s shopping list of demands went on to detail that Kyiv must commit to limiting the size of its military.

The tyrant also wants Ukraine to permanently declare neutrality and host no foreign troops whatsoever on its territory.

Other terms of the settlement included a bizarre ban on the “glorification or promotion of Nazism and neo-Nazism” in Ukraine – an accusation that Putin’s propaganda teams have consistently peddled.

Moscow also asked for diplomatic and economic ties between the neighbouring countries to be reinstated.

This would include the resumption of Russian natural gas flowing through Ukraine in order to be sold to other countries.

The unrealistic demands have been seen as yet another ploy to stall peace talks while Putin continues to carry out his bloody invasion.

The second section in the settlement listed the Kremlin’s conditions for agreeing to a temporary 30-day ceasefire.

It gave Kyiv two choices -either withdraw troops from four regions claimed by Russia, or agree to cancelling martial law and holding elections.

Additional requirements packaged up with the two options included a total cessation of all foreign military aid, and for Ukraine to start demobilising.

The negotiations were brokered by the US and Turkey at the Ciragan palace – but appeared to bring neither side closer to a truce.

But they did manage to agree to an exchange of 6,000 dead bodies, and an “all-for-all” swap of seriously wounded prisoners of war, and captured servicemen under the age of 25.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14384845/putin-ukraine-surrender-demands-deranged/

Witnesses and relief workers on Tuesday said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza had fired on Palestinian civilians waiting for aid for the second time in three days. Medics said at least 27 people were killed.

The IDF said that it had fired at people who “posed a threat” near the the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The location is close to an aid center run by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid center.

Witnesses reported being fired at by drones and helicopters.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the shootings, saying: “Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable…Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime.”

UN’s Guterres saying killings are ‘unacceptable’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday had called for an independent investigation into the deaths of dozens of Palestinians near an aid distribution site in Gaza, prompting a fierce response from Israel.

Guterres said in a statement that he was “appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza.”

“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” the UN leader’s statement said.

“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable,” Guterres said.

Aid workers and civilians said on Sunday that Israeli forces fired on Palestinians waiting to receive aid close to a distribution site in Gaza. Journalists also reported receiving an off the record statement from the Israeli military saying that they had fired on “suspects” who posed a threat.

At least 21 were killed and scores more injured, according to a Red Cross field hospital and numerous witnesses.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Guterres’ statement as a “disgrace,” and criticized him for ignoring the role of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hamas, which is in charge of Gaza, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US and several other countries.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote in a post on X that Guterres’ statement did not mention “the fact that Hamas is the one shooting civilians and trying to prevent them from collecting aid packages.”

Marmorstein’s claims have not been confirmed by any other source.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/gaza-un-chief-demands-probe-as-more-killed-at-aid-site/a-72769111

Where is Mount Etna?

Mount Etna rises 3,357 meters (11,014 feet) above Catania, a city on the east coast of Sicily, Italy.

It covers an area of 1,250 square kilometers (482 square miles).

What type of volcano is Mount Etna?

Mount Etna is what geologists and volcanologists call a stratovolcano or composite volcano.

Stratovolcanoes typically have steep inclines and many separate vents, formed over tens to hundreds of thousands of years.

According to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Etna has more than 500,000 years of eruptive history, but it’s only taken its current, conical shape in the past hundred thousand years.

Stratovolcanoes can be highly explosive when they erupt. They spew a variety of magma types, including basalt, andesite, dacite, and rhyolite.

When UNESCO inscribed Mount Etna as a World Heritage Site in 2013, it said it was “an iconic site” that continued “to influence volcanology, geophysics and other Earth science disciplines. The volcano also supports important terrestrial ecosystems including endemic flora and fauna, and its activity makes it a natural laboratory for the study of ecological and biological processes.”

How dangerous is Mount Etna?

It is difficult to determine the exact level of danger posed by Mount Etna. When it began erupting in June 2025, INGV set its alert level for Etna as “basic.”

While the volcano has been spewing lava non-stop for thousands of years, volcanologists can pinpoint new eruptions at least once or twice a year.

According to the INGV, Mount Etna is in a state of persistent activity, with “continuous outgassing [which] can evolve into low energy Strombolian activity.”

“Strombolian” describes a type of eruption, caused by expanding gas that ejects clots of glowing lava in a cycle of almost continuous, small eruptions.

Etna is also prone to “terminal and sub-terminal eruptions” at craters at the top of the volcano or nearby, and “lateral and eccentric eruptions” at vents along the slopes of the volcano.

What threat does Mount Etna pose to people?

Few people live within 5-10km (3.1-6.2 miles) of Mount Etna, but they do face a constant threat of debris and dust, even from the smallest eruptions.

Lava flows have been known to reach as far as the eastern seaboard of Sicily and run off into the Ionian Sea.

It is about 40km from Etna to Catania, which has a population of more than 300,000 people, mostly in its outskirts.

Research by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, suggested the eastern flank of Mount Etna was “slowly sliding towards the sea.”

In 2021, researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences said the flank was sliding into the Ionian Sea at a rate of centimeters per year: “Such unstable flanks could fail catastrophically, triggering landslides that could generate tsunamis.”

This has happened in the past, about 8,000 years ago.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/mount-etna-5-facts-about-europes-most-active-volcano/a-72775252

Brooke Shields didn’t hold back when sharing comments about Meghan Markle’s awkward appearance at a 2024 SXSW panel.

The actress, along with the Duchess of Sussex, participated in an International Women’s Day conversation called “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen” and moderated by journalist Katie Couric at the iconic film festival last March.

“Katie asks the first question to Meghan and she talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women,” Shields told India Hicks on the latest episode of her “An Unexpected Journey” podcast, via the Independent.

“She starts telling a story about how when she was 11 — and she keeps saying, ‘Well, when I was 11, I saw this commercial and they were talking about how washing dishes was for women’ And she said, ‘I didn’t think only women wash dishes. It wasn’t fair, so I wrote to the company.’”

“She kept saying she was 11!” the “Mother of the Bride” star exclaimed.

“She wrote to the company, they changed the text, they changed the commercial. It was just too precious, and I was like, ‘They’re not going to want to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious.’”

Shields, 60, recalled intervening at one point in an effort to switch up the mood.

“I go, ‘Excuse me, I’m so sorry, I’ve got to interrupt you there for one minute.’ I was trying not to be rude, but I wanted to be funny because it was so serious,” Shields remembered.

“I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we’re different. When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute,” she joked, referencing her 1978 historical drama, “Pretty Baby.”

“The place went insane,” Shields shared, claiming the crowd became “more relaxed” after her comments.

The story Markle shared during the panel was nothing new, as the “Suits” alum has previously spoken about how she took matters into her own hands after seeing the controversial Ivory dishwashing soap campaign.

During the 2019 International Women’s Day panel at SXSW, Markle said the ad — which originally featured the slogan “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans” — had inspired a formative feminist experience for her.

“Truth be told, at 11 I don’t think I even knew what sexism meant. I just knew that something struck me internally that was telling me it was wrong, and I knew that it was wrong,” she said at the time, per People.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/03/celebrity-news/brooke-shields-calls-out-meghan-markle-for-awkward-sxsw-panel-gig/

Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Tuesday (Jun 3) that it had hit the road and rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula below the water level with explosives.

In a statement, the SBU said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives that were detonated early in the morning and damaged underwater pillars of the bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine in the past.

The official Russian outlet which provides regular status updates on the bridge said its operation had been suspended for about three hours between 4 am and 7 am local time (9 am and 12 pm, Singapore time).

It gave no reason for the temporary closure, but said the bridge had been reopened and was functioning as normal.

“Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater,” the SBU said in its statement, adding that the operation had been prepared over several months.

The SBU shared video footage that showed an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge.

Reuters was able to confirm the location from the structure and bearing elements of the bridge that matched satellite and file imagery of the area. Reuters was not able to independently verify when the video was filmed.

Russian military bloggers said the attack had been unsuccessful and speculated that it had been carried out by a Ukrainian sea drone.

On Sunday, Ukraine launched drones in an operation codenamed “Spider’s Web” to attack Russian nuclear-capable long-range bomber planes at distant airfields across Russia.

The 19 km Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/ukraine-says-it-hit-russias-bridge-crimea-underwater-explosives-5164341

Philippine medical authorities on Tuesday (Jun 3) warned of a looming “public health emergency” as HIV infections have soared this year, with young males especially hard-hit.

On average, 57 new cases a day were tallied in the country of 117 million people over the first three months of 2025, a 50 per cent jump from a year earlier, health department data shows.

“We now have the highest number of new cases here in the Western Pacific,” Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said in a video message released Tuesday.

“What is frightening is, our youth make up many of the new cases,” he said.

“It would be in our interest to (declare) a public health emergency, a national emergency for HIV to mobilise the entire society, the whole of government to help us in this campaign to reduce the number of new HIV cases,” Herbosa added.

The health department said 95 per cent of newly reported cases were male, with 33 per cent aged 15 to 24 and 47 per cent aged 25 to 34.

The government did not explain the causes behind the surge, which it said had set back government attempts to hit global targets set by a United Nations campaign to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Under Philippine law, the president can declare a health emergency if an epidemic poses a threat to national security. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was the last time that was done.

Just 55 per cent of those living with HIV in the Philippines have been diagnosed, the health department said, while only 66 per cent of those diagnosed are on life-saving antiretroviral therapy.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippines-warns-health-emergency-hiv-cases-soar-5164051

South Korea has handed a decisive victory to opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung six months after his predecessor’s martial law bid failed.

The brief yet disastrous move set off huge protests and ended former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s career: impeached and removed from office, he still faces criminal charges for abusing his power.

But the political chaos that followed means victorious Lee’s biggest challenge is still ahead of him. He must unite a polarised country that is still reeling from it all.

He also faces challenges abroad – crucially, negotiating a trade deal with US President Donald Trump to soften the blow of tariffs from South Korea’s closest ally.

His main rival was the ruling party candidate and a former member of Yoon’s cabinet, Kim Moon-soo.

He had been trailing Lee for weeks in polls and in the early hours of Wednesday, he conceded defeat, congratulating Lee “on his victory”.

In an earlier speech, Lee had hinted at the win but stopped short of declaring it. He said “recovering” South Korea’s democracy would be his first priority.

The snap election comes just three years after the 61-year-old lost his last presidential bid by a razor-thin margin to Yoon.

It’s a remarkable comeback for a man who has been caught in several political scandals, from investigations over alleged corruption to family feuds.

Analysts say Lee’s win is also a rejection of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which was tarred by Yoon’s martial law order.

“Voters weren’t necessarily expressing strong support for Lee’s agenda, rather they were responding to what they saw as a breakdown of democracy,” Park Sung-min, president of Min Consulting, told the BBC.

“The election became a vehicle for expressing outrage… [and] was a clear rebuke of the ruling party, which had been complicit in or directly responsible for the martial law measures.”

Lee’s win, he adds, shows that voters had put South Korea’s democracy “above all else”.

US President Donald Trump has signed an order doubling tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%.

The move hikes import taxes on the metals – key inputs in everything from cars to canned food – for the second time since March.

Trump has said the measures, which come into effect on Wednesday, are intended to secure the future of the American steel industry.

However, critics say the protections could wreak havoc on steel producers outside the US, spark retaliation from trade partners, and come at a punishing cost for American users of the metals.

Hours before he hiked the duties, many firms directly affected could scarcely believe the plan was moving forward, hoping it would turn out to be temporary or some kind of negotiating ploy.

Even as Trump moved forward with the deal, the UK was granted a carve-out from the measures, leaving duties on its steel and aluminium at 25%, a move Trump said reflected its ongoing trade discussions with the US.

“Always the question with Mr Trump is, is this a tactic or is this a long-term plan?” said Rick Huether, chief executive of Independent Can Co, a Maryland-based business, which brings in steel from Europe and turns it into decorative cookie tins, popcorn boxes, and other products.

He said he had put investments on hold and feared the abrupt changes, and price increases would lead his customers to turn to alternatives such as plastic or paper boxes.

“There’s a lot of chaos,” he said.

The US is the biggest importer of steel in the world, after the European Union, getting most of the metal from Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, according to the US government.

During his first term, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium, citing a law that gives him authority to protect industries considered vital to national security.

But many imports ultimately escaped the duties after the US struck trade deals with allies and granted exemptions to certain imports at the request of firms.

Trump ended those carve-outs in March, saying he was unhappy with the way the protections had been weakened.

At Friday’s rally at the US Steel factory, he said wanted to make tariffs so high that US businesses would have no alternative but to buy from American suppliers.

“Nobody’s going to get around that,” he said of the 50% rate. “That means that nobody’s going to be able to steal your industry. It’s at 25% – they can get over that fence. At 50%, they can no longer get over the fence.”

Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.

The U.S. hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year’s season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that FEMA is prepared for hurricane season.
The spokesperson said under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Richardson “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens.”

Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency’s disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters.
Richardson’s comments come amid widespread concern that the departures of a raft of top FEMA officials, staff cuts and reductions in hurricane preparations will leave the agency ill-prepared for a storm season forecast to be above normal.
Democrats criticized Richardson following the Reuters report.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted the Reuters headline about Richardson on X and said he was “unaware of why he hasn’t been fired yet.”
Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of FEMA, issued a statement to Reuters that read:
“Suffice to say, disaster response is no joke. If you don’t know what or when hurricane season is, you’re not qualified to run FEMA. Get someone knowledgeable in there.”

Hurricanes kill dozens of people and cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually across a swath of U.S. states every year. The storms have become increasingly more destructive and costly due to the effects of climate change.
Richardson’s comment purporting ignorance about hurricane season spread among agency staff, spurring confusion and reigniting concern about his lack of familiarity with FEMA’s operations, said three sources.
Richardson, who has no disaster response experience, said during Monday’s briefing, a daily all-hands meeting held by phone and videoconference, that he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the FEMA Review Council, the sources said.
President Donald Trump created the council to evaluate FEMA. Its members include DHS head Noem, governors and other officials.

In a May 15 staff town hall, Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23.

CONFUSION

The United States has given its blessing to a plan by Syria’s new leadership to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadist former rebel fighters into the national army, provided that it does so transparently, President Donald Trump’s envoy said.
Three Syrian defence officials said that under the plan, some 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uyghurs from China and neighbouring countries, would join a newly-formed unit, the 84th Syrian army division, which would also include Syrians.

Asked by Reuters in Damascus whether Washington approved the integration of foreign fighters into Syria’s new military, Thomas Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who was named Trump’s special envoy to Syria last month, said: “I would say there is an understanding, with transparency.”
He said it was better to keep the fighters, many of whom are “very loyal” to Syria’s new administration, within a state project than to exclude them.
The fate of foreigners who joined Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels during the 13-year war between rebel groups and President Bashar al-Assad has been one of the most fraught issues hindering a rapprochement with the West since HTS, a one-time offshoot of al Qaeda, toppled Assad and took power last year.

At least until early May, the United States had been demanding the new leadership broadly exclude foreign fighters from the security forces.
But Washington’s approach to Syria has changed sharply since Trump toured the Middle East last month. Trump agreed to lift Assad-era sanctions on Syria, met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh and named Barrack, a close friend, as his special envoy.
Two sources close to the Syrian defence ministry told Reuters that Sharaa and his circle had been arguing to Western interlocutors that bringing foreign fighters into the army would be less of a security risk than abandoning them, which could drive them into the orbit of al Qaeda or Islamic State.
The U.S. State Department and a Syrian government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

CHINESE CONCERNS

Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners joined Syria’s rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against Assad, who was himself aided by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.
Some fighters formed their own factions, while others joined established groups such as Islamic State, which briefly declared a caliphate in swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed by an array of forces backed both by the United States and Iran.
Foreign fighters within HTS earned a reputation as loyal, disciplined and experienced militants, and formed the backbone of the group’s elite so-called suicide units. They fought against Islamic State and against other wings of al Qaeda from 2016, when HTS broke away from the group founded by Osama bin Laden.
The Uyghur fighters from China and Central Asia are members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a group designated as terrorists by Beijing. A Syrian official and a foreign diplomat said China had sought to have the group’s influence in Syria restricted.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: “China hopes that Syria will oppose all forms of terrorism and extremist forces in response to the concerns of the international community.”
Osman Bughra, a TIP political official, told Reuters in a written statement that the group had officially dissolved and integrated into the Syrian army.
“At present, the group operates entirely under the authority of the Ministry of Defence, adheres to national policy, and maintains no affiliations with external entities or groups,” he said.
In December, the appointment of a handful of foreign jihadists who were part of HTS’s senior leadership to top military posts had alarmed Western governments, raising concerns over the direction of Syria’s new Islamist leadership.
Demands to freeze the appointments and expel rank-and-file foreign fighters became a key point of contention with Washington and other Western countries up until the week of Trump’s landmark meeting with Sharaa.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-gives-nod-syria-bring-foreign-jihadist-ex-rebels-into-army-2025-06-02/

NATO must be ready for war in the next four years, Germany’s defence chief warned, as he claimed Russia is gearing up to attack more European nations.

Keir Starmer meanwhile announced 12 new nuclear submarines to combat the “immediate and pressing threat” from Putin.

General Carsten Breuer said Nato is facing a “very serious threat” from Russia – the most severe he has seen in his 40 years of service.

Breuer explained that Russia is producing weaponry at a rapid pace – with around 1,500 battle tanks and four million rounds of artillery each year.

Crucially, not all of this is being directed to Ukraine – possibly indicating munitions are being stockpiled for use against Nato countries.

He said: “There’s an intent and there’s a build up of the stocks.”

Breuer doubled down on his warning that “analysts are assessing 2029” as Russia’s potential timeframe for an assault, concluding: “We have to be ready by 2029”.

“If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that’s not earlier than 2029? I would say no, it’s not. So we must be able to fight tonight,” he said.

In April, the general warned that Putin will have amassed a 3million-strong army by next year, and that he wants to “weaken and destroy Nato as an alliance and discredit our Western form of society”.

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are particularly vulnerable, according to the defence expert.

Breuer said: “The Baltic States are really exposed to the Russians, right?

“And once you are there, you really feel this […] in the talks we are having over there.”

The Estonians use the analogy of being close to a wildfire and being able to “feel the heat, see the flames and smell the smoke”.

Germany and other European nations “probably see a little bit of smoke over the horizon and not more,” Breuer said.

The general added a call to action, urging fellow Nato nations to rebuild their militaries.

He said: “What we have to do now is really to lean in an to tell everybody: ‘Hey, ramp up […] get more into it because we need it.

“We need it to be able to defend ourselves and therefore also to build up deterrence.”

Recognising this need, the British government announced that the UK will build a dozen new nuclear submarines armed with Tomohawk missiles.

The UK’s nuclear warhead programme will also be bolstered, with Defence Secretary John Healey saying the deterrent is “what Putin fears most”.

The government is in talks with US officials over the move, which would be the UK’s biggest deterrent development since the Cold War.

The news came as part of the strategic defence review, designed to get Britain moving “to war-fighting readiness”.

Starmer will say during a trip to Scotland: “From the supply lines to the front lines, this government is four-square behind the men and women upholding our freedom and security.”

Up to 12 nuclear-powered subs will be built under the AUKUS security partnership with the US and Australia.

They are conventionally-armed with Tomahawk missiles and are mainly used as intelligence gatherers, lurking off hostile coastlines to intercept communications.

They can also deploy special forces and drones.

Russia’s weapon stocks took a hit over the weekend when a daring Ukrainian drone plot blitzed 34 percent of Putin’s cruise missile carriers, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14377007/nato-ready-war-russia-planning-attack-germany-warns/

THIS is the shocking moment a tourist jumps a railing around the famous Terracotta Army and smashes up two of the priceless statues.

The 30-year-old visitor leapt over the guard rail surrounding the clay warrior figures at a museum in the city of Xi’An in China on Friday.

Footage shows the aftermath of his jump and senseless destruction of the 2000-year-old artefacts.

He can be seen lying on his back and rolling around – apparently in pain – at the bottom of an 18ft-deep pit.

The alleged vandal is leaning against one of the ancient statues as alarmed onlookers peer down into the pit.

Another angle shows the devastating extent of the damage to the statues.

Two have been knocked over and lie in pieces on the floor after the man “pushed and pulled” the clay figures.

Officials reported they were damaged to “varying degrees”.

Security guards for the museum quickly stepped in to grab the intruder before he inflicted more damage.

Authorities said the man, identified only by his surname Sun, suffers from mental health problems.

They also confirmed an investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Concerns have been raised about how Sun managed to breach the security measures – consisting of a railing protective net – to plunge into the deep pit.

Despite the intrusion, museum staff confirmed that the Xi’An exhibition remains open to the public.

In 2017, an American man admitted to stealing a thumb from one of the terracotta warriors while it was on exhibition in Pennsylvania.

Michael Rohana, in his early 20s, snapped it off when it was on display at the Franklin Institute museum.

In that case, the statue was estimated to be worth $4.5million.

By that figure, the damage inflicted by the rogue tourist in Xi’An could amount to a whopping $9million, if the statues are ruined.

Rohana was acquitted after his prosecution ended in a mistrial.

His lawyer successfully argued that he was wrongly charged under laws that usually apply to major museum thefts.

Surveillance footage had captured him “clowning around” with the statues and taking selfies, before appearing to break something from one before leaving.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14378481/tourist-jumps-railing-plunges-terracotta-army-smashing/

The new German government on Monday (Jun 2) said it would continue its flagship policy of turning asylum seekers away at its borders, despite a court ruling against the practice.

The policy was brought in on May 7, just a day after conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his cabinet took office with a promise to crack down on irregular migration.

However, Berlin’s Administrative Court ruled on Monday that people “who express the wish to seek asylum while at a border check on German territory may not be sent back” before it was determined which state was responsible for processing their claim under the EU’s so-called “Dublin” system.

Despite this, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said hours after the judgement that “we will continue with the pushbacks”, adding that “we think we have the legal justification for this”.

Monday’s court decision follows an appeal made by three Somali nationals who encountered an immigration check at a train station at Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border on May 9.

They expressed their wish to claim asylum in Germany but were sent back to Poland the same day.

The court said that their pushback was illegal and that its “findings can also be applied to other cases” of people being turned away at Germany’s borders.

However, the court also ruled that “the petitioners cannot demand to be allowed into” Germany.

The process of establishing which EU state is responsible for the asylum application “can be carried out at or close to the border”, the court said.

The court rejected the government’s argument that the Dublin procedure could be disregarded if this is necessary to “keep public order and protect domestic security”.

The government had failed “to demonstrate a danger to public security or order” that would justify such a move, the court said.

Dobrindt insisted that Monday’s judgment only had a direct impact on the “individual case” of the three Somali complainants.

He said he wanted the court to start another procedure in which the government could explain its case “more firmly”.

However, it is unclear whether this is legally possible given that the court said Monday’s decision was final.

Under the Dublin procedure, irregular migrants should be registered in the EU country they first enter. Should they head to another nation in the bloc, they can in most cases be returned to their first port of call in the EU.

IRRITATED NEIGHBOURS

The new policy of pushing back undocumented migrants at Germany’s borders, including almost all asylum seekers, was quickly introduced after Merz’s government took office early last month.

This was despite worries voiced by some in his coalition’s junior partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), that the policy was not legally sound.

The government has also stressed that the pushbacks were temporary and that the longer-term solution has to be improved security at the EU’s external borders.

According to the interior ministry, more than 2,800 people have been denied entry to Germany in the first two weeks of the new policy being applied, including 138 people who wanted to claim asylum.

A crackdown on irregular migration was a key plank of Merz’s platform for February’s general election.

That vote saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) score its best-ever result of just over 20 per cent, and Merz insists that action on migration is the only way to halt the party’s growth.

The new government’s pushback policy has led to some irritation among Germany’s neighbours as well as fears of adverse impacts on cross-border commuters and border communities.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/german-govt-defiant-despite-court-ruling-against-migration-crackdown-5163356

Ukraine said on Sunday (Jun 1) that its drones destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars as far away as Siberia in its longest-range assault of the war, as it geared up for talks on prospects for a ceasefire.

In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it damaged US$7 billion worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres across the border, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke.

A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) said the strikes hit 41 planes that were used to “bomb Ukrainian villages”.

The drones were concealed in the ceilings of transportation containers that were opened remotely for the assault, the source added.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

The long-planned operation came at a delicate moment three years into Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he was sending a delegation to Istanbul led by his Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials.

Türkiye is hosting the meeting, which was spurred by United States President Donald Trump’s push for a quick deal to end the three-year war.

Zelenskyy, who previously voiced scepticism about whether Russia was serious in proposing Monday’s meeting, said priorities included “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children.

Russia, which has rejected previous ceasefire requests, said it had formulated its own peace terms but refused to divulge them in advance.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke by telephone on Sunday about “several initiatives aimed at a political solution to the Ukraine crisis”, including Monday’s talks, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the TASS news agency.

“SPIDER’S WEB”

Zelenskyy on Sunday hailed “brilliant” results of the coordinated attack, code-named “Spider’s Web”, which he said had used 117 drones and was the country’s “most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.

Russia’s defence ministry confirmed on Telegram that several of its military aircraft “caught fire”, adding that there were no casualties.

Rybar, an account on the Telegram message platform that is close to the Russian military, called it a “very heavy blow” for Moscow and pointed to what it called “serious errors” by Russian intelligence.

The SBU source said the strikes targeted Russian airbases in the eastern Siberian city of Belaya, in Olenya, in the Arctic near Finland, and in Ivanovo and Dyagilevo, both east of Moscow.

The operation was prepared for over a year and a half, the SBU source said, and aimed to destroy “enemy bombers far from the front”.

Zelenskyy said one of the targeted locations was right next to one of the offices of the FSB Russian security services.

“FIRST SUCH STRIKE ON SIBERIA”

Russia said it had arrested several suspects, including the driver of a truck from which a drone had taken off, state agencies said.

But Zelenskyy said people involved in preparing the attacks were “extracted from Russian territory in time”.

Igor Kobzev, governor of Russia’s Irkutsk region, which hosts the Belaya airbase, said it was “the first attack of this sort in Siberia”.

He called on the population not to panic and posted an amateur video apparently showing a drone in the sky and a large cloud of grey smoke.

RUSSIA DRONE STRIKES

Russia has been announcing Ukrainian drone attacks on a near-daily basis, usually saying they had all been shot down.

At the same time, Russia has been carrying out constant attacks on Ukraine.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said it was hit by 472 Russian drones and seven missiles overnight, a record number since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022.

In a rare admission of its military losses, the Ukrainian army said Russia’s “missile strike on the location of one of the training units” had killed a dozen soldiers, most of whom had been in shelters during the attack, and wounded more than 60.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/ukraine-drone-strike-deep-russia-territory-5162241

Dolly Parton reportedly snubbed Meghan Markle after she turned down an invite to appear on the actress’s Netflix series “With Love, Meghan.”

“Her team was livid,” celebrity commentator Kinsey Schofield claimed on a recent podcast appearance of “The Nerve with Maureen Callahan.”

“Because no, they don’t want to risk Dolly’s reputation Q score [and] her popularity by associating with Meghan Markle.”

“They knew that this ask was just to give Meghan Markle credibility in this lifestyle space, a space that Dolly does have a lot of credibility in,” she continued.

Schofield, 40, elaborated on Parton’s success in the country music industry and as a lifestyle guru with her variety of baking batter mixes and beauty products.

“Dolly is not only incredibly popular and loved by the general public, but she also is somebody who can float around within these different places,” she added.

“Her team really feels like Meghan was trying to take advantage of her popularity,” Schofield alleged.

Callahan described Parton as “authentic” and claimed it would’ve been “spontaneous combustion of good versus evil” if she agreed to appear alongside “a fake royal” in her “fake kitchen.”

Reps for Parton, 79, and Markle, 43, weren’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.

The Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle series was released on Netflix in March.

It was immediately renewed for Season 2 despite criticism from trolls claiming that Markle was “thirsty” for fame.

Several celebrities joined the “Suits” alum in her show, including Mindy Kaling and Abigail Spencer.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/02/celebrity-news/meghan-markle-snubbed-by-a-list-singer-who-turned-down-invite-to-appear-on-netflix-show/

Blake Lively is attempting to drop claims that Justin Baldoni caused her emotional distress while working on their 2024 blockbuster “It Ends With Us.”

Court documents obtained by Page Six on Monday revealed that the “Gossip Girl” alum requested to withdraw claims that she suffered from “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “negligent infliction of emotional distress” as a result of Baldoni’s alleged misconduct.

Lively’s filing came after the “Jane the Virgin” star’s legal team requested she sign a release form for them to access her medical and mental health records.

Baldoni’s legal team argued the records were vital to the actress’s “emotional distress” allegations cited in her December 2024 lawsuit.

“Instead of complying with the Medical RFPs, Ms. Lively’s counsel recently advised us, in writing, that Ms. Lively is withdrawing her [infliction of emotional distress] Claims,” Baldoni’s team responded in a filing viewed by Page Six.

The court will determine if Lively’s request will be approved.

Attorneys for the “Another Simple Favor” star told Page Six via a statement that her request was “a routine part of the litigation process that is being used as a press stunt.”

“We are doing what trial lawyers do: preparing our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it,” they said, adding that Baldoni’s team was “desperately seeking” media attention.

“The Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under California law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively’s original claims no longer necessary,” the statement continued.

“Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims.”

Lively, 37, accused Baldoni, 41, of inflicting upon her “severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration and mental anguish” in her bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit.

According to the filing, a “hands-on” meeting had to be held with Lively, Baldoni and the movie’s production team to discuss his alleged behavior, including how he allegedly showed her “nude videos or images of women” and discussed his past addicition to porn.

She accused Baldoni of launching a smear campaign to destroy her reputation as a result of reporting the alleged sexual harassment.

Lively later claimed her and Ryan Reynolds’ children — James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and Olin, 2 — were also “traumatized” by the ongoing drama.

At the time, the “Five Feet Apart” producer’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, slammed the “shameful” and “false accusations.”

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” he told Page Six.

Baldoni filed his own $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds in January.

In the docs, he accused Lively of using Reynolds’ and her bestie Taylor Swift’s influence to get her way.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/02/celebrity-news/blake-lively-makes-surprising-move-in-her-heated-legal-battle-against-justin-baldoni/

The UN secretary-general has called for an independent investigation into the killing of Palestinians near an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Sunday, amid disputed reports that Israeli forces had opened fire on people waiting to collect aid.

Witnesses reported being shot at while waiting for food from the centre in Rafah run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The Red Cross said its hospital received 179 casualties, 21 of whom were dead. The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency put the death toll at 31.

On Sunday, the Israeli military denied its troops fired at civilians near or within the site and said reports to this effect were false.

The GHF said the reports were “outright fabrications” and that it was yet to see evidence of an attack at or near its facility.

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult.

UN Secretary-General Guterres said in a statement on Monday: “I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday.

“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”

Israel’s foreign ministry responded by branding his comments a “disgrace” in a post on X, and criticised him for not mentioning Hamas.

Later on Monday, UN human rights chief Volker Turk told the BBC the way humanitarian aid is now being delivered is “unacceptable” and “dehumanising”.

“I think what it shows is utter disregard for civilians. Can you imagine people that have been absolutely desperate for food, for medicine, for almost three months and then they have to run for it or try to get it in the most desperate circumstances? Mr Turk told the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme.

“It does show a huge dehumanisation of the people who are desperately in need.”

The Civil Defence agency said 31 people were killed and 176 wounded “after Israeli gunfire targeted thousands of civilians near the American aid centre in Rafah” early on Sunday morning.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a “mass casualty influx” of 179 cases, including women and children, at that time.

The majority suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds, and 21 were declared dead upon arrival, it said, adding “all patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site”.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its teams at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis also treated people with serious injuries, some of whom were in a critical condition.

It added the patients “reported being shot at from all sides by Israeli drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and soldiers”, and that one staff member’s brother was “killed while attempting to collect aid from the distribution centre”.

A journalist in Rafah told the BBC a crowd of Palestinians had gathered near al-Alam roundabout in Rafah, close to the GHF’s site, when Israeli tanks approached and opened fire.

One video posted online on Sunday morning appeared to show Palestinians taking cover in an open area of sandy terrain while what sounds like automatic gunfire rings out. However, the BBC was unable to verify the location because there are not enough features visible.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) put out a statement on Sunday afternoon that said an initial inquiry indicated its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false”.

Spokesman Brig Gen Effie Defrin accused Hamas of “spreading rumours” and “trying bluntly and violently to stop the people of Gaza from reaching those distribution centres”.

The IDF also released drone video it said showed armed men firing at civilians on their way to collect aid, although the BBC was unable to verify where or when it was filmed.

Later on Sunday, an Israeli military official briefed reporters that soldiers had acted to “prevent a number of suspects from approaching the forces” approximately 1km from the GHF site, before it opened.

“Warning shots were fired,” the official said, before insisting there was “no connection between the incident in question and the false allegations against the IDF”.

The GHF said in a statement on Monday that the reports were “the most egregious in terms of outright fabrications and misinformation fed to the international media community.

“There were no injuries, fatalities or incidents during our operations yesterday. Period. We have yet to see any evidence that there was an attack at or near our facility.”

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, accused major news outlets of “reckless and irresponsible reporting” on the matter.

“Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos,” he said on Monday.

“The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States,” he added.

Meanwhile on Monday, health officials and local media reported that another three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near the same GHF centre in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area.

A Red Cross spokesman told the Associated Press that its field hospital in Rafah received 50 wounded people, mostly with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, including two declared dead on arrival, while Nasser hospital in nearby Khan Younis said it received a third body.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “warning shots were fired toward several suspects who advanced toward” troops approximately 1km from the site.

The military added it was “aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being thoroughly looked into”.

Also on Monday, the Civil Defence reported that 14 people, including six children and three women, were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the northern town of Jabalia. More than 20 others were believed to be missing under the rubble of the destroyed building, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF, but it said in a statement that its aircraft had struck dozens of targets across Gaza over the past day, including “military structures belonging to terror organisations”, underground tunnels, and weapons stores.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c753e0p29z0o

At the age of 24, Nafisa Salahu was in danger of becoming just another statistic in Nigeria, where a woman dies giving birth every seven minutes, on average.

Going into labour during a doctors’ strike meant that, despite being in hospital, there was no expert help on hand once a complication emerged.

Her baby’s head was stuck and she was just told to lie still during labour, which lasted three days.

Eventually a Caesarean was recommended and a doctor was located who was prepared to carry it out.

“I thanked God because I was almost dying. I had no strength left, I had nothing left,” Ms Salahu tells the BBC from Kano state in the north of the country.

She survived, but tragically her baby died.

Eleven years on, she has gone back to hospital to give birth several times and takes a fatalistic attitude. “I knew [each time] I was between life and death but I was no longer afraid,” she says.

Ms Salahu’s experience is not unusual.

Nigeria is the world’s most dangerous nation in which to give birth.

According to the most recent UN estimates for the country, compiled from 2023 figures, one in 100 women die in labour or in the following days.

That puts it at the top of a league table no country wants to head.

In 2023, Nigeria accounted for well over a quarter – 29% – of all maternal deaths worldwide.

That is an estimated total of 75,000 women dying in childbirth in a year, which works out at one death every seven minutes.

The frustration for many is that a large number of the deaths – from things like bleeding after childbirth (known as postpartum haemorrhage) – are preventable.

Chinenye Nweze was 36 when she bled to death at a hospital in the south-eastern town of Onitsha five years ago.

“The doctors needed blood,” her brother Henry Edeh remembers. “The blood they had wasn’t enough and they were running around. Losing my sister and my friend is nothing I would wish on an enemy. The pain is unbearable.”

Among the other common causes of maternal deaths are obstructed labour, high blood pressure and unsafe abortions.

Nigeria’s “very high” maternal mortality rate is the result of a combination of a number of factors, according to Martin Dohlsten from the Nigeria office of the UN’s children’s organisation, Unicef.

Among them, he says, are poor health infrastructure, a shortage of medics, costly treatments that many cannot afford, cultural practices that can lead to some distrusting medical professionals and insecurity.

“No woman deserves to die while birthing a child,” says Mabel Onwuemena, national co-ordinator of the Women of Purpose Development Foundation.

She explains that some women, especially in rural areas, believe “that visiting hospitals is a total waste of time” and choose “traditional remedies instead of seeking medical help, which can delay life-saving care”.

For some, reaching a hospital or clinic is near-impossible because of a lack of transport, but Ms Onwuemena believes that even if they managed to, their problems would not be over.

“Many healthcare facilities lack the basic equipment, supplies and trained personnel, making it difficult to provide a quality service.”

Nigeria’s federal government currently spends only 5% of its budget on health – well short of the 15% target that the country committed to in a 2001 African Union treaty.

In 2021, there were 121,000 midwives for a population of 218 million and less than half of all births were overseen by a skilled health worker. It is estimated that the country needs 700,000 more nurses and midwives to meet the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio.

There is also a severe lack of doctors.

The shortage of staff and facilities puts some off seeking professional help.

“I honestly don’t trust hospitals much, there are too many stories of negligence, especially in public hospitals,” Jamila Ishaq says.

“For example, when I was having my fourth child, there were complications during labour. The local birth attendant advised us to go to the hospital, but when we got there, no healthcare worker was available to help me. I had to go back home, and that’s where I eventually gave birth,” she explains.

The 28-year-old from Kano state is now expecting her fifth baby.

She adds that she would consider going to a private clinic but the cost is prohibitive.

Chinwendu Obiejesi, who is expecting her third child, is able to pay for private health care at a hospital and “wouldn’t consider giving birth anywhere else”.

She says that among her friends and family, maternal deaths are now rare, whereas she used to hear about them quite frequently.

She lives in a wealthy suburb of Abuja, where hospitals are easier to reach, roads are better, and emergency services work. More women in the city are also educated and know the importance of going to the hospital.

“I always attend antenatal care… It allows me to speak with doctors regularly, do important tests and scans, and keep track of both my health and the baby’s,” Ms Obiejesi tells the BBC.

“For instance, during my second pregnancy, they expected I might bleed heavily, so they prepared extra blood in case a transfusion was needed. Thankfully, I didn’t need it, and everything went well.”

However, a family friend of hers was not so lucky.

During her second labour, “the birth attendant couldn’t deliver the baby and tried to force it out. The baby died. By the time she was rushed to the hospital, it was too late. She still had to undergo surgery to deliver the baby’s body. It was heart-breaking.”

Dr Nana Sandah-Abubakar, director of community health services at the country’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), acknowledges that the situation is dire, but says a new plan is being put in place to address some of the issues.

Last November, the Nigerian government launched the pilot phase of the Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (Mamii). Eventually this will target 172 local government areas across 33 states, which account for more than half of all childbirth-related deaths in the country.

“We identify each pregnant woman, know where she lives, and support her through pregnancy, childbirth and beyond,” Dr Sandah-Abubakar says.

So far, 400,000 pregnant women in six states have been found in a house-to-house survey, “with details of whether they are attending ante-natal [classes] or not”.

“The plan is to start to link them to services to ensure that they get the care [they need] and that they deliver safely.”

Mamii will aim to work with local transport networks to try and get more women to clinics and also encourage people to sign up to low-cost public health insurance.

It is too early to say whether this has had any impact, but the authorities hope that the country can eventually follow the trend of the rest of the world.

Globally, maternal deaths have dropped by 40% since 2000, thanks to expanded access to healthcare. The numbers have also improved in Nigeria over the same period – but only by 13%.

Despite Mamii, and other programmes, being welcome initiatives, some experts believe more must be done – including greater investment.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yk8ek86kdo

An al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out a major attack on the Malian town of Boulikessi and the seizure of an army base there.

More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday’s attack, according to sources quoted by the news agency Reuters, however that figure has not been confirmed by the authorities.

On Monday the same group, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), said it targeted the military in the historic city of Timbuktu, with residents reporting hearing gunfire and explosions.

Mali’s army said in a statement late on Monday that it had repelled an “infiltration attempt by terrorist fighters” in Timbuktu, “neutralising” 14 militants and arresting 31 suspects.

It added that weapons, vehicles and other items were seized, but did not name the group responsible for the attack. The army said search operations across Timbuktu were ongoing.

In an earlier statement, the army said it “reacted vigorously” to Sunday’s attack, before “withdrawing” – suggesting a tactical retreat.

“Many men fought, some until their last breath, to defend the Malian nation,” the statement added.

An unnamed local source told Reuters that JNIM had left many casualties and “cleared the camp”.

Unverified video footage showed dozens of militants storming the base, including one which captured them stepping on bodies, according to Reuters.

In Monday’s attack, JNIM said its fighters had attacked a military airport and Russian mercenaries.

Military and security sources told the AFP news agency they were “fighting back”, but that the militants were “everywhere in the city”.

A local official said the attackers had arrived “with a vehicle packed with explosives” that detonated close to the army camp.

Timbuktu, a UN World Heritage Site, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 before they were driven out, but has once more been under siege in recent years.

The attacks, the latest sign of collapsing security in Mali and the wider Sahel region, came after the United States Africa Command warned about growing efforts by various different Islamist militant groups which operate in the Sahel to gain access to West Africa’s coastline.

Source :https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3exnnd6po

The festival, created to mirror Spain’s La Tomatina festival, was hosted in Sutamarchan, north of Colombia’s capital Bogota, for its 15th edition this year after many years of suspension.

Source :https://www.reuters.com/pictures/tomatoes-fly-during-colombias-gran-tomatina-festival-2025-06-02/

Katie Thurston is going through the wringer in her Stage 4 breast cancer battle.

The “Bachelorette” alum, 34, gave a heartbreaking health update in an Instagram video posted Sunday.

“I just finished my second month of treatment and if you’re asking how long treatment is, technically forever,” Thurston told her followers. “I am optimistic about medical advancements in the future — fingers crossed as a stage 4 girly.”

“But right now, after finishing two months of my medication, my hair is coming out in an unnatural amount of clumps,” the reality star shared. “I’m losing my memory. That’s great. Going through customs and them being like, ‘Where are you coming from?’ And I looked at him and I was like, ‘I don’t remember.’”

Thurston explained that she recently got into a “little disagreement” with her husband, comedian Jeff Arcuri, where she couldn’t defend herself because of her memory issues.

“I was like, ‘This has happened before,’” she recalled. “He was like, ‘When?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know but I know it has!’ We’re able to laugh about it now.”

“Cancer is s–t,” Thurston continued. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Stop feeling bad for yourself.’ Other times I’m like, ‘You’re allowed to feel bad for yourself. Cancer f—ing sucks.’”

Thurston explained that she’s reached the phase of her treatment where she has to make “big decisions” about how to treat her liver. She said she’s opted for histotripsy, which uses focused ultrasound to destroy cancer cells without cutting into the body.

“It’s National Cancer Survivors Day,” she said. “Every day that I’m alive, I’m a survivor. So go me, I guess.”

Thurston originally competed on Matt James’ season of “The Bachelor” in 2021 and then became the star of “The Bachelorette” Season 17.

One month before her intimate wedding to Acuri, 37, in New York City in March, Thurston publicly revealed her breast cancer diagnosis.

“I experienced a range of emotions over the past two weeks. Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength. Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot,” she said in a message on Instagram.

In March, Thurston shared that her cancer had spread to her liver and was Stage 4.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/02/entertainment/bachelorette-star-katie-thurston-losing-memory-amid-cancer/

THE suspect accused of the antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, has admitted that he spent over a year planning his sick crime.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, allegedly threw Molotov cocktails and used a makeshift flamethrower to target a crowd that peacefully gathered to raise awareness on Israeli hostages in Gaza, injuring 12 people.

Witnesses said they saw Soliman yelling “Free Palestine” as he used a converted garden sprayer as a flamethrower in the attack on Sunday.

Soliman confessed to the crime with vile remarks after being taken into custody.

He told police that “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” according to an FBI affidavit.

“Soliman stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”

He was charged with a federal hate crime on Monday, and his mugshot was released, showing his face covered in bruises and a large bandage.

Soliman admitted that he planned the attack for a year, wanting to target what he called a “Zionist group,” said the FBI.

The attack happened at the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder, where the group gathers weekly to bring attention to the hostages.

Soliman hid behind bushes near the mall and allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into the crowd, burning himself in the process.

After taking off his shirt and revealing that he had a bulletproof vest underneath, Soliman allegedly used the flamethrower and gasoline to set several people on fire.

Video showed Soliman holding two clear bottles with a clear liquid in them as he yelled at onlookers.

Twelve people were injured in the attack, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, but there were no deaths.

“As a result of these preliminary attacks, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge at the FBI’s Denver field office, said on Sunday.

His bond is set at $10 million.

CHILLING FIND

More than a dozen unlit Molotov cocktails were found near where Soliman was arrested, said the FBI.

Inside his car, investigators found papers with the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “USAID.”

Soliman told authorities that he made the Molotov cocktails at home after researching on YouTube.

“He stated that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack,” said the FBI.

Soliman had been living in the US illegally after entering the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was given a work authorization in March 2023 that had expired, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

President Donald Trump blamed former President Joe Biden for the attack in a statement on Monday.

“Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/us-news/14382914/mohamed-sabry-soliman-colorado-attack-anti-semetic/

United States President Donald Trump on Monday (Jun 2) ruled out allowing Iran to enrich uranium under any nuclear deal between the foes – as Tehran defended what it said was its “peaceful” pursuit of fuel for power generation.

Uranium enrichment has remained a key point of contention in five rounds of talks since April to ink a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

“Under our potential Agreement – WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump said on his Truth Social network after the Axios news outlet said Washington’s offer would let Tehran enrich some of the nuclear fuel.

Republican Trump also blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the impasse, saying the Democrat “should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching'”.

Axios said the latest proposal that Washington had sent Tehran on Saturday would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, for an amount of time that has yet to be determined.

Iran has insisted that it has “nothing to hide” on its nuclear program.

Speaking in Cairo, where he met the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “If the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then certainly no agreement will be reached.”

The remarks came after Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday called for more transparency from Iran following a leaked report that showed Tehran had stepped up uranium enrichment.

“NEED FOR MORE TRANSPARENCY”

The IAEA report showed that Iran has ramped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent – close to the roughly 90 per cent level needed for atomic weapons.

“There is a need for more transparency – this is very, very clear – in Iran, and nothing will bring us to this confidence (besides) full explanations of a number of activities,” Grossi said ahead of meeting Araghchi.

Grossi added that some of the report’s findings “may be uncomfortable for some, and we are … used to being criticised”.

Iran has rejected the report, warning it would retaliate if European powers that have threatened to reimpose nuclear sanctions “exploit” it.

“Some countries are trying to abuse this agency to pave the way for escalation with Iran. I hope that this agency does not fall into this trap,” Araghchi said of the IAEA.

Iran meanwhile pushed for the United States to drop sanctions that have crippled its economy as a condition for a nuclear agreement with Trump’s administration.

Araghchi said on Saturday that he had received “elements” of the US proposal for a nuclear deal following the five rounds of talks, mediated by Oman.

“WITH OR WITHOUT A DEAL”

Both Araghchi and Grossi met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who praised the US-Iran talks and called for “de-escalation in order to prevent a slide into a full-fledged regional war”.

On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a news conference: “We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted.”

“So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue,” he said.

The US envoy in the nuclear talks said last month that Trump’s administration would oppose any Iranian enrichment.

“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News.

Following a phone call with Witkoff the day before about the ongoing nuclear talks, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged a peaceful solution and a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East, saying in Monday’s press conference that “the region is already experiencing enough problems and crises”.

He warned that military confrontation would create “a state of chaos from which no one will be spared”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-says-iran-deal-would-not-allow-any-uranium-enrichment-5162736

When the Earth shakes, the impact doesn’t stop at the surface. New research reveals that powerful earthquakes can send shockwaves all the way into space, disrupting satellite signals and GPS systems by disturbing the charged upper layers of our atmosphere.

Scientists from Nagoya University in Japan have made the first 3D visualisation of how the atmosphere reacted to a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula on 1 January 2024. They used data from over 4,500 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers across Japan.

Their research, published in the journal Earth, Planets and Space, shows how earthquakes can send complex sound waves into the upper atmosphere, disturbing a layer called the ionosphere. These disturbances can affect satellite communications and GPS signals, and challenge what scientists previously believed about how these waves travel.

What is the Ionosphere, and why does it matter?

The ionosphere is a part of the atmosphere that lies 60 to 1,000 kilometres above the Earth. It’s filled with charged particles and plays an important role in sending radio signals from satellites to the ground.

When the earthquake happened, it created sound waves that travelled upward into the ionosphere. These waves changed the amount of charged particles, which slowed down satellite signals. By measuring the delays in these signals, the researchers were able to calculate these changes and use a technique similar to a medical CT scan to build 3D images of the disturbances.

Surprising patterns in the sky

About 10 minutes after the earthquake, wave-like ripples appeared in the ionosphere, similar to the way water ripples after a stone is dropped in a pond. However, the team noticed something unusual – some of the waves tilted in a strange direction, south of the earthquake’s epicentre, and slowly straightened out as they rose higher.

Old models, which assumed that these waves came from a single point, couldn’t explain this pattern.

The breakthrough came when the scientists considered that the earthquake didn’t rupture in one spot, but along a 150-kilometre fault line. Dr Weizheng Fu, the lead author, said, “Earthquakes don’t rupture at one point, but spread along faults.” Their updated model showed that the sound waves were created at different places along the fault, around 30 seconds apart. This matched what they observed in the sky.

Why does this matter for technology and safety?

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh on Sunday indicted former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for ordering police action against protesters last year, and directed the authorities in Bangladesh to produce her before the tribunal on June 16.

The proceedings of the tribunal came nearly ten months after Ms. Hasina left Bangladesh and took refuge in India on August 5, 2024. The ICT has issued warrants to arrest Ms. Hasina and former Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal. Former Bangladesh Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun was also indicted.

The ICT is a domestic war crimes tribunal which Ms. Hasina’s government had set up in 2010, primarily to prosecute those accused of collaborating with Pakistan in 1971.

‘Systematic attack’

“We do hereby take into cognizance the charges,” the ICT’s three-judge bench said, after a prosecution team argued that as Prime Minister, Ms. Hasina had overseen a “systematic attack” against students and common people who were demanding that she step down from power.

The tribunal’s verdict, telecast live on state-run BTV, came as the result of multiple cases lodged against Ms. Hasina by the victims of police violence in July and August 2024, when an anti-quota movement led by students quickly turned into a wider “single-agenda movement” to overthrow Ms. Hasina.

During the last stages of her government, a video went viral on social media showing Mr. Kamal inspecting the police crackdown. The video was cited by the interim administration as a proof of the former Home Minister’s involvement in the violent crackdown.

Strain on bilateral ties

Ms. Hasina’s presence in India was confirmed by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. On August 6, 2024, he had briefed both Houses of Parliament about the Union government’s decision to grant her refuge on short notice due to the volatile developments in Bangladesh.

Bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh have been uneasy since last August because of Ms. Hasina’s presence in India. The ICT’s demand to Dhaka’s interim government to produce Ms. Hasina before the tribunal is expected to exacerbate frictions in the relationship.

Mr. Kamal’s location is not known, though it is believed that he has also been living abroad. Mr. Al Mamun is currently in police custody in Dhaka, as he was arrested along with former IGP A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque on September 4, 2024.

ICT’s mixed record

The ICT faced a setback last week after A.T.M. Azharul Islam, a leader of the Al Badr militia and the Jamat-e-Islami of Bangladesh, was acquitted by an appellate bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. Mr. Islam had been given a death sentence by the ICT in 2014 but the appellate bench of the Supreme Court overturned the ICT’s verdict on May 27

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladeshs-international-crimes-tribunal-hears-ex-prime-minister-sheikh-hasina-charges-update-on-june-1/article69644825.ece

VOLODYMYR Zelensky has hailed Ukraine’s daring drone blitz on Russian airbases as one for the “history books”.

Dramatic footage captured the moment 117 expertly smuggled drones being stored inside trucks in Russia were launched by Ukraine.

President Zelensky revealed it took over 18 months to pull off the masterful attack.

It marks Kyiv’s longest range operation of the conflict so far with at least 40 aircraft being attacked as part of the expert operation codenamed “Spiderweb”.

In an embarrassing result for a raging Vladimir Putin 34 per cent of his cruise missile carriers at the targeted airfields were blasted, Zelensky said.

A £260million AWACS aircraft and bombers capable of dropping nuclear weapons were also struck.

Dramatic video shows one Ukrainian FPV drone taking off from the back of a lorry and heading towards an enemy airbase.

Another clip then captures the moment one of the drones locks on to a target before diving near the aircraft, believed to be a Tu-95 bomber, and explodes.

Zelensky hailed the strikes as he described it as an “absolutely brilliant result”.

Speaking on X, the heroic leader said: “A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation.

“Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books.

“Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defence also confirmed the strikes.

They branded them “terrorist attacks” and claimed that the drones had all been “repelled” despite the damning footage.

Stunned Kremlin commentators described the blitz as “Russia’s Pearl Harbour” as they called on Putin to hit back with a nuclear response.

In total, four airbases were targeted, according to Ukrainian media.

Large swarms of drones attacked Olenya airbase in the Murmansk region, home to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.

The second base under fire was the Belaya airbase in the Irkutsk Oblast in Sibera – some 2,500 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The two other airbases hit were Ivanovo and Diaghilevo, with Moscow later claiming the Amur Oblast had also been attacked.

More than £1.5billion worth of damage has been inflicted on the Russian air force, say Ukrainian sources.

This included to long-range Tu-22M3 bombers – used in daily raids on Ukraine – as well as an A-50 air reconnaissance aircraft.

The A-50 is an Early Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) (AWACS), carrying a price tag of £260million.

A source told Kyiv Post it marked a “turning point” in the war and said Russia’s “impunity is over”.

The air assault is believed to have been launched from within Russia – from the backs of lorries driving near the bases.

Ukraine’s RBC news agency reported that the SBU special operation – said to be supervised by President Zelensky – took more than 18 months to plan.

These FPV drones were hidden under remote-controlled roofs on trucks.

When triggered, the roofs opened and kamikaze drones launched toward Russian bombers.

The drones were reportedly trained by artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise the Russian bombers and execute automatic dive attack algorithms.

Pictures shared by the Ukrainian intelligence service showed a huge stockpile of FPV drones – some of them appeared to be placed inside lorries.

Maria Avdeeva, Senior Fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute, said: “Ukraine secretly delivered FPV drones and wooden mobile cabins into Russia.

“The drones were hidden under the roofs of the cabins, which were later mounted on trucks.

“At the signal, the roofs opened remotely. Dozens of drones launched directly from the trucks, striking strategic bomber aircraft.

“Russia can’t produce these bombers anymore. The loss is massive.”

Unconfirmed reports also said that explosions were heard in Severomosk – the home port of Putin’s nuclear submarine base and prized Northern Fleet.

Unverified footage showed plumes of black smoke rising over the town located on the Kola Bay near the Barents Sea.

A source told the Kyiv Independent: “Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia — this is the result of a special operation by the SBU.

“Right now, the Security Service of Ukraine is conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy enemy bomber aircraft in the rear of the Russian Federation.

“SBU drones are practising on aircraft that bomb Ukrainian cities every night.”

They added: “Currently, more than 40 aircraft are known to have been hit, including the A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3.

Russia’s governor of the Murmansk region confirmed that the drone strike had taken place.

Unverified footage showed smoke billowing from Russian air bases as local civilians watched on in horror.

Ukraine’s Pravda Gerashchenko Telegram channel said: “A special operation ‘Web’ is being conducted to demilitarise Russia.

“The [SBU] report the destruction of Russian bomber aircraft behind enemy lines.”

Local residents reported hearing explosions as swathes of Ukrainian UAVs struck Putin’s bases.

Both airfields are miles from the bloody frontline, but were still “under drone attack” by Ukrainian forces.

It marks one of the bleakest days of the war for President Putin, who continues to blitz Ukraine relentlessly.

A report said the driver of the truck that released the drones “may not have known” that his vehicle was full of the Ukrainian UAVs.

According to Baza Media, the driver has since been detained.

Local reports said: “A truck stopped at a gas station at the entrance to the city.

“Drones started flying out of the back of the truck and then attacked various objects.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14371994/ukraine-drone-blitz-destroys-russian-airfields/

On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war with one of the biggest drone battles of their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.

After days of uncertainty over whether or not Ukraine would even attend, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the biggest prisoner exchange of the war – but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting.

Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war.

At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board. No one has yet claimed responsibility.

Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on Sunday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said, the first such attack so far from the front lines, more than 4,300km away.

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU, acknowledged it carried out the attack, codenamed “Operation Spider’s Web”, planned for more than a year and a half.

The intelligence official said the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases.

A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said.

Zelenskyy expressed delight at the “absolutely brilliant outcome”, and noted 117 drones had been used in the attack.

“And an outcome produced by Ukraine independently,” he wrote. “This is our longest-range operation.”

RUSSIA SAYS AIRCRAFT FIRES PUT OUT

A Ukrainian government official told Reuters that Ukraine did not notify the United States of the attack in advance.

Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday.

Air attacks were repelled in all but two regions – Murmansk in the far north and Irkutsk in Siberia – where “the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire”.

The fires were extinguished without casualties. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said.

Russia launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the air force said.

Russia said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and open source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450 square km of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.

US President Donald Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace and he has threatened to walk away if they do not – potentially pushing responsibility for supporting Ukraine onto the shoulders of European powers – which have far less cash and much smaller stocks of weapons than the United States.

According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, the two sides will in Turkey present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, though it is clear that after three years of intense war, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart.

Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. The United States says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.

In June last year, Putin set out opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/russia-ukraine-step-up-war-drone-attacks-eve-peace-talks-5162001

Taylor Swift celebrated regaining the masters to her first six albums by enjoying a lavish dinner outing in NYC with her bestie Selena Gomez.

The “Bad Blood” singer and the “Only Murders in the Building” actress were photographed Saturday night together inside Monkey Bar, a restaurant that was established in 1936 and serves shellfish, steaks, pastas and more.

In the photo shared on X, Swift, 35, was seated across from Gomez, 32, and the women appeared to be engaged in a deep conversation, with the “Cruel Summer” songstress sporting a look of shock on her face while her BFF stared at her.

Monkey Bar posted on its website that it would be closing the bar at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday for a “private event,” however, it’s unclear if that was due to the presence of the two pop stars.

Page Six has reached out to the Monkey Bar for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The celebratory outing came one day after Swift announced on her website that she bought back the masters to her first six albums.

“I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow,” she began in her handwritten letter.

“A flashback sequence of all the time I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell this news. All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through,” the 14-time Grammy winner added.

“I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now. I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found that this is really happening. I really get to say those words.

“All of the music I’ve ever made … now belongs… to me.”

Scooter Braun bought the rights to Swift’s first six albums — “Taylor Swift,” “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” “1989” and “Reputation” — in 2019 when his company Ithica Holdings acquired her former label, Big Machine Records.

The retired music manager then sold her masters to Shamrock Capital.

At the time, the billionaire pop star claimed “bully” Braun, 43, “stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/06/01/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-celebrates-regaining-masters-with-bestie-selena-gomez-during-nyc-dinner-outing/

More than 30 Palestinians were killed and nearly 170 injured on Sunday in south Gaza near a food distribution site, the health ministry said, as witnesses reported Israeli soldiers fired on people trying to collect aid and Israel denied it.
The U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said food was handed out without incident on Sunday at the distribution point in Rafah and there were no deaths or injuries.

GHF released undated video to support its statement that showed dozens of people gathering around piles of boxes. Reuters could not independently verify the video or what took place.
Witnesses said the Israeli military opened fire as thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive food aid. Israel’s military said that an initial inquiry found soldiers had not fired on civilians while they were near or within the distribution site.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 31 people were killed with a single gunshot wound to the head or chest from Israeli fire as they were gathered in the Al-Alam district aid distribution area in Rafah. It said 169 were injured.

In addition to Israeli gunshots, residents and medics said an Israeli tank had opened fire at thousands of people en route to the Rafah site.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah received 179 casualties, most with gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site. This is the highest number of weapon-wounded in a single incident since the establishment of the field hospital over a year ago,” ICRC said.
The United Nations has said most of Gaza’s 2 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week and said it would launch more. The Israeli military has said GHF had established four sites so far.

The organization’s aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations which say GHF does not follow humanitarian principles.
There were chaotic scenes as hungry Gazans rushed its sites last last week. Hamas reported deaths and injuries in the tumult, and Israel said its troops fired warning shots.
Because the GHF distribution points are few and all in south Gaza, U.N. officials have said its plans force Palestinians, especially in the north, to relocate and face unsafe conditions.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, condemned Sunday’s deaths and said in a statement on X that “aid distribution has become a death trap”.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office accused Israel of using aid as a weapon, “employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military”.
At Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city where some casualties were brought, Gaza paramedic Abu Tareq said there was “a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points.”
Israel denies that people in Gaza are starving because of its actions, saying it is facilitating aid deliveries and pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centres and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that a lot of people in Gaza were “starving”.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza. Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
Reda Abu Jazar said her brother was killed as he waited to collect food near the Rafah aid distribution centre. “Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us,” she said, as Palestinian men gathered for funeral prayers.
The Red Crescent reported that 14 Palestinians were injured on Sunday near a separate GHF aid site in central Gaza.

CEASEFIRE TALKS FALTER

Israel and Hamas meanwhile traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and U.S. mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, but Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable”.
Egypt and Qatar said in a joint statement that they are continuing efforts to overcome disagreements and reach a ceasefire.
Hamas on Sunday welcomed those efforts and expressed its readiness to start a round of indirect negotiations immediately to reach an agreement, the group said on Sunday in a statement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-strike-aid-point-kills-26-rafah-hamas-affiliated-media-say-2025-06-01/

The northern lights are expected to put on a breathtaking show over parts of the U.S. Sunday night due to a powerful geomagnetic storm hitting Earth.

The storm reached “severe” strength early Sunday morning, strong enough to push the glowing aurora borealis further south than usual — possibly lighting up skies from Michigan and Washington State, down to Northern California and even Alabama, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

“This is going to be a great night to view the lights where skies are clear,” Shawn Dahl, a coordinator at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told the New York Times.

Clear skies are expected across much of the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, the Midwest, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley, making them prime viewing spots.

Star-gazers in the Big Apple, however, shouldn’t count on seeing much due to cloudy skies forcast basically all night.

“New York City isn’t looking great,” Peter Mullinax of the National Weather Service told the outlet.

The aurora is triggered when a burst of material from the sun, called a “coronal mass ejection,” smashes into Earth’s magnetic field.

This specific storm is hitting hard enough to reach G4 levels, one notch below the most extreme level, experts said.

Usually, the lights are only visible if you take a trek to Iceland or Greenland.

For your best shot at catching the lights, head outside the city, get away from light pollution, and face north, Dahl explained.

Even if you can’t see the lights with your own eyes, smartphone cameras may be able to pick up the light show.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/06/01/us-news/northern-lights-will-be-visible-across-most-of-us-thanks-to-a-severe-geomagnetic-storm/

The striking feature of this election has been the leading opposition candidate, Lee Jae-myung, campaigning in a bullet-proof vest.

At a recent rally, he was escorted to the podium by close protection officers, ready to shield him with their ballistic briefcases. He then addressed the crowd from behind bullet-proof glass, under the gaze of rooftop watchers.

This is not South Korean politics as usual. But South Korea has not been itself lately.

It is still recovering from the martial law crisis last December, when the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, tried to orchestrate a military takeover.

He failed, because of resistance from the public and politicians, and was impeached, triggering this snap election to choose his successor.

But the chaos Yoon unleashed that night has festered.

While stuck in limbo, without a president, the country has become more polarised and its politics more violent.

At street protests earlier this year it became commonplace to chant for various political leaders to be executed. And since launching his presidential bid, Lee has been receiving death threats, and his team say they have even uncovered a credible plot to assassinate him.

This election is an opportunity to steer South Korea back onto safer, more stable ground, and heal these fractures.

Given this, the ruling party was always going to struggle, marred by President Yoon’s self-defeating coup. But rather than break away from the disgraced former president, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) has chosen a candidate who repeatedly defended Yoon and his actions.

Kim Moon-soo, Yoon’s former labour minister, was the only cabinet member who refused to stand and apologise during a parliamentary hearing into martial law. He said sorry only well into his campaign, after he had won Yoon’s public endorsement.

This has turned the election into more of a referendum on martial law than anything else. Given most of the public overwhelmingly rejected the move, it has also virtually gilded the path for the opposition leader Lee, who famously livestreamed himself scaling the walls of the parliament complex, to get inside and vote down the president’s order.

Now the Democratic Party politician portrays himself as the only candidate who can ensure this never happens again. He has said he will change the constitution to make it more difficult for future presidents to declare martial law.

“We must prevent the return of the rebellion forces,” Lee urged voters at his recent rally from behind fortified glass.

Such promises have pulled in people from across the political spectrum. “I didn’t like Lee before, but since martial law I now trust and depend on him,” said 59-year-old Park Suh-jung, who admitted this was the first time she had attended a political event.

One man in his 50s said he was a member of another smaller political party, but had decided to back Lee this time: “He is the only person who can end Yoon’s martial law insurrection. We need to stop those who destroyed our democracy.”

Most recent polls put Lee about 10 points ahead of his rival Kim, but he was not always so popular. This is his second time running for president, having lost out to Yoon three years ago. He is a divisive character, who has been embroiled in a series of court cases and political scandals. There are many who do not trust him, who loathe him even.

Kim, hoping to capitalise on this, has branded himself “the fair and just candidate”. It is a slogan his supporters have adopted, many seemingly backing him not for his policies, but because he is not Lee.

“I don’t like Kim but at this point there’s no real choice. The other candidate has too many issues,” said one elderly woman who is planning to vote for him.

Kim has charted an unusual political path. As a student who campaigned for workers’ rights, he was tortured and imprisoned under South Korea’s right-wing dictatorship in the 1980s but then moved sharply to the right himself.

He was picked by the party base, many of whom are still loyal to Yoon. The party leadership, realising he was not the best choice, tried to replace him at the last minute with a more moderate, experienced politician, only to be blocked by furious members.

This has left the party weak and divided, with many suspecting it will splinter into rival factions after voting day. “Haven’t we already imploded?” one party insider said to me recently, their face crumpled in their hands. “This is a miserable campaign.”

“Choosing Kim is the biggest mistake the conservative party have made in this election, and they do know that. They will have to be held accountable for this decision,” said Jeongmin Kim, the executive director of Korea Pro, a Seoul-based news and analysis service.

Lee has seized this opportunity to hoover up centrist votes. He has shifted his policies to the right, and even claimed his left-leaning party is, in fact, conservative.

This, despite his reputation as a staunch leftist. He grew up in a slum outside Seoul, working in factories rather than attending school, and is someone who has previously quoted US senator Bernie Sanders.

But gone are his previous pledges to introduce a universal basic income. This time, he is courting South Korea’s powerful conglomerate businesses, the chaebols. He has even incorporated the conservative colour red into his own blue logo, and hits the campaign trail wearing red and blue trainers.

He has rebranded his foreign policy too. Typically, his Democratic Party is cautious about Korea’s security alliance with the US, preferring to prioritise relations with China and North Korea.

But Lee is casting himself as a “pragmatist” who can adapt to a changing security environment. “The US-Korea alliance is the backbone of our national security. It should be strengthened and deepened,” he said in a recent televised debate.

All this has left voters and diplomats here unsure of what he really stands for, and what he will do if elected – though this seems to be the point.

Ms Kim, Korea Pro’s analyst, believes his makeover is more genuine than might appear. “He was already high up in the polls, so he didn’t need to work hard to win votes,” she said. “I think he is playing a longer game. He wants to be a popular leader, someone who can be trusted by more than half of the country.”

Bringing the country together will be the biggest challenge for whoever wins.

When people vote on Tuesday, it will be six months to the day since they came out onto the streets to resist a military takeover.

After months of chaos, they are desperate to move forward, so the country can start addressing pressing issues that have been on hold, including tariff negotiations with US President Donald Trump.

But more than anything they hope this election can restore their own confidence in their democracy, which has been badly shaken.

At a baseball game in the capital Seoul last week – arguably the only place where Koreans are as tribal as they are about politics – both sides were united, acutely aware of this election’s importance.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7069pg4zpko

Two people have died and hundreds have been arrested across France after Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) fans celebrated the club’s victory in the Champions League final, according to the French interior ministry.

In the south-west town of Dax, a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed in the chest late on Saturday evening, local media reported.

A 23-year-old man who was riding a scooter in central Paris was also killed after being hit by a vehicle, the prosecutor’s office said.

Flares and fireworks were set off, bus shelters smashed and cars torched amid wild celebrations as PSG won the biggest prize in European club football for the first time in their history.

PSG condemned the violence in a statement, adding that these “isolated acts are contrary to the club’s values and in no way represent the vast majority of our supporters”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the clashes were “unacceptable” and unjustifiable, and that those involved will be found and punished.

The club’s victory parade in central Paris went ahead on Sunday afternoon despite the clashes, but with an increased police and military presence on the ground.

Police set a cap of 100,000 fans for the event, which saw PSG make their way down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe on an open-top bus.

A second commemoration is currently taking place at the club’s home stadium, Parc des Princes, with thousands of fans invited to celebrate their win.

France’s interior ministry said 192 people were injured in the clashes in the early hours of Sunday and 559 people arrested, including 491 in Paris.

Twenty-two police officers and seven firefighters were injured, the ministry said, adding that 264 vehicles were set on fire.

One of the officers was injured by a firework amidst the chaos and had to be put in an induced coma – with Macron later saying the officer had travelled to a different city to help with policing efforts.

Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez said: “The toll is lower than what we have seen in the past, but we will never get used to this kind of abuse, with people who only came to commit acts of vandalism and who did not even watch the match, and we will always have a very firm response.”

Nuñez said police expect there to be further clashes on Sunday, but added that supporters “shouldn’t be mixed up with gangs of looters and vandals”.

Separately, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office told the BBC “several shops were looted” in the Place des Ternes area. About 30 people were arrested and taken into custody near a Foot Locker on the Champs-Élysées that was robbed, the office said.

Elsewhere across France, Dax mayor Julien Dubois, reacting to the fatal stabbing, said his “thoughts are with the young victim, his family and friends”.

“We are floored by all the drama tonight,” he wrote on social media. “It is advisable to quickly shed light on these facts in order to severely punish the perpetrator.”

While clashes broke out near the city’s Champs-Élysées avenue and PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium, the majority of fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 win over Inter Milan peacefully, with many singing and dancing in the streets or blaring their car horns.

The Eiffel Tower was illuminated with PSG’s blue and red colours.

Macron, a keen supporter of rivals Olympique de Marseille, posted on X: “A glorious day for PSG! Bravo, we are all proud. Paris, the capital of Europe this evening.”

The president hosted a ceremony for PSG at the Élysée Palace after Sunday’s parade and congratulated coach Luis Enrique and his team on their victory.

Approximately 5,400 police were deployed across Paris in anticipation of the raucous celebrations.

At least 300 people detained were suspected of possessing fireworks and causing disorder, Paris police said.

“Troublemakers on the Champs-Elysees were looking to create incidents and repeatedly came into contact with police by throwing large fireworks and other objects,” police said in a statement.

Riot police reportedly used a water cannon to stop a crowd reaching the Arc de Triomphe, and fired tear gas into the crowds.

Other clashes between police and crowds occurred on the Paris ring road. At least two cars were torched near the Parc des Princes.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau took a hard line against the disorder, writing on social media: “True PSG supporters are enjoying their team’s magnificent match.

“Meanwhile, barbarians have taken to the streets of Paris to commit crimes and provoke the police.

“It’s unbearable that it’s unthinkable to party without fearing the savagery of a minority of thugs who respect nothing.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgqyg325gno

It’s a grim paradox, doctors say.

On the one hand, antibiotics are being overused until they no longer work, driving resistance and fuelling the rise of deadly superbugs. On the other hand, people are dying because they can’t access these life-saving drugs.

A new study by the non-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) looked at access to antibiotics for nearly 1.5 million cases of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative (CRGN) infections across eight major low- and middle-income countries, including India, Brazil and South Africa. CRGN bacteria are superbugs resistant to last-line antibiotics – yet only 6.9% of patients received appropriate treatment in the countries studied.

India bore the lion’s share of CRGN infections and treatment efforts, procuring 80% of the full courses of studied antibiotics but managing to treat only 7.8% of its estimated cases, the study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal reports. (A full drug course of antibiotics refers to the complete set of doses that a patient needs to take over a specific period to fully treat an infection.)

Common in water, food, the environment and the human gut, Gram-negative bacteria cause infections such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia and food poisoning.

They can pose a serious threat to newborns and the elderly alike. Especially vulnerable are hospital patients with weakened immunity, often spreading rapidly in ICUs and proving difficult – and sometimes impossible – to treat. Treating carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections is doubly difficult because those bacteria are resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics.

“These infections are a daily reality across all age groups,” says Dr Abdul Gaffar, infectious disease consultant at Apollo Hospital in India’s Chennai city. “We often see patients for whom no antibiotic works – and they die.”

The irony is cruel. While the world tries to curb antibiotic overuse, a parallel tragedy plays out quietly in poorer nations: people dying from treatable infections because the right drugs are out of reach.

“For years, the dominant narrative has been that antibiotics are being overused, but the stark reality is that many people with highly drug-resistant infections in low- and middle-income countries are not getting access to the antibiotics they need,” says Dr Jennifer Cohn, GARDP’s Global Access Director and senior author of the study.

The study examined eight intravenous drugs active against carbapenem-resistant bacteria – ranging from older antibiotics including Colistin to newer ones such as Ceftazidime-avibactam. Of the few available drugs, Tigecycline was the most widely used.

Researchers blame the treatment gap on weak health systems and limited access to effective antibiotics.

For example, only 103,647 full treatment courses were procured of Tigecycline across eight countries – far short of the 1.5 million patients who needed them, the study found. This highlighted a major shortfall in the global response to drug-resistant infections.

What prevents patients with drug-resistant infections in India from getting the right antibiotics?

Physicians point to multiple barriers – reaching the right health facility, getting accurate diagnostic tests, and accessing effective drugs. Cost remains a major hurdle, with many of these antibiotics priced far beyond the reach of poorer patients.

“Those who can afford these antibiotics often overuse them; those who can’t, don’t get them at all,” says Dr Gaffar. “We need a system that ensures access for the poor and prevents misuse by the well-to-do.”

To improve access, these drugs must be made more affordable. To prevent misuse, stronger regulation is key.

“Ideally, every antibiotic prescription in hospitals should require a second sign-off – by an infection specialist or microbiologist,” says Dr Gaffar. “Some hospitals do this, but most don’t. With the right oversight, regulators can ensure this becomes standard practice.”

To fix the access problem and curb misuse, both smarter policies and stronger safeguards are essential, say researchers. But access alone won’t solve the crisis – the pipeline of new antibiotics is drying up. The decline in antibiotic R&D – and the limited availability of existing drugs – is a global issue.

India bears one of the world’s heaviest burdens of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but it may also hold the key to combating it – both at home and globally, researchers say.

“India is also one of the largest markets for new antibiotics and can successfully advocate for the development and access of new antibiotics,” says Dr Cohn. With a strong pharmaceutical base, the country is emerging as a hub for AMR innovation, from promising new antibiotics to advanced diagnostics.

Dr Cohn says India can strengthen its antibiotic response by generating local data to better estimate needs and pinpoint gaps in the care pathway.

This would allow for more targeted interventions to improve access to the right drugs.

Innovative models are already emerging – Kerala state, for instance, is using a “hub-and-spoke approach” to support lower-level facilities in managing serious infections. Coordinated or pooled procurement across hospitals or states could also reduce the cost of newer antibiotics, as seen with cancer drug programs, researchers say.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced262l83gjo

US President Donald Trump is not planning to extend the pause to his sweeping global tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.

The president’s plan – where countries face between 11% to more than 100% tariffs on goods brought into the US – was announced in April. But the majority of the tariffs were paused by Trump for 90 days in the wake of stock market volatility.

Speaking with Fox News, Lutnick said he expects the President to stand firm when that 90 day pause expires at the start of July.

A key trade deal would be with China, who US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said has “not been a reliable partner” and claimed it was holding back products in the global supply chain.

The president’s top trade advisers presented a united front in their appearances on separate US morning television programmes on Sunday.

They remained steadfast on the tariff agenda, which has faced ongoing challenges in the nation’s court system.

“Tariffs are not going away,” Lutnick said in response to the court cases.

He added that the US “could sign lots of deals now” but the Trump administration is working to “make them better”.

“You’re going to see over the next couple of weeks, really, first class deals for the American worker,” he said..

And on the expiration of the 90 day pause, Lutnick said: “I think that’s the deadline, and the President’s just going to determine what rates people have if they can’t get a deal done”.

When the pause expires, in theory it would enact sweeping tariffs on countries across the globe.

Imports from about 60 trading partners that the White House has described as the “worst offenders”, including the European Union, Vietnam, South Africa and more, will face higher rates.

On Friday, Trump announced the US will double its current tariff rate on steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%, beginning on Wednesday.

Like with most of the announced tariffs, Trump said the move would help boost local steel industry, while reducing US reliance on China.

US steel manufacturing has decreased in recent years and countries like China, India and Japan have become the world’s biggest producers.

The steel tariffs come as many hold their breath waiting for further announcements. from the Trump administration.

Trump’s tariff policies have upended global trade and cracks have formed – or widened – among relationships between the US and other countries, including some of its closest partners.

Indian-American student Megha Vemuri of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was banned from attending a graduation ceremony on Friday after she delivered a pro-Palestinian speech during a commencement event on May 29. Vemuri was designated to be the marshal at the graduation ceremony, however, the university announced that she and her family were barred from attending the event.

Vemuri, the elected class president and a double major in computation and cognition and linguistics, spoke at MIT’s OneMIT Commencement Ceremony in Cambridge. Her speech, which was not pre-approved, denounced MIT’s research ties with Israel and accused the university of being complicit in the “genocide” of the Palestinian people.

Following the speech, University Chancellor Melissa Nobles informed Vemuri that she would not be allowed to participate in the graduate ceremony on Friday, adding that she would receive her diploma by mail. In a statement, the university said: “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organizers and leading a protest from the stage.”

In response to MIT’s decision to bar her from the graduation ceremony, Vemuri said she was not disappointed about missing the event. “I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” she wrote. However, she expressed disappointment with the university’s handling of the situation, saying school officials “massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process.”

According to data from the United States Department of Education, MIT received $2.8 million in grants, gifts, and contracts from Israeli entities between 2020 and 2024, as reported by The Boston Globe and cited by The New York Times.

Who is Megha Vemuri?

Born and raised in Alpharetta, Georgia, Vemuri graduated from Alpharetta High School in 2021. She studied computer science, cognition, and linguistics at MIT, recently completing her degree while serving as the class president.

At MIT, Vemuri was also a part of the Written Revolution, a student group that “platforms revolutionary thought on campus” through writing and art, which it describes as “powerful tools for conducting a revolution.”

Before enrolling at MIT, she interned at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and participated in various youth leadership and science outreach programs.

Vemuri’s ONEMIT speech quickly went viral on social media, drawing widespread criticism. In response to the online backlash, she has since taken down her LinkedIn profile.

Taking the stage wearing a red keffiyeh – a symbol of solidarity with Palestine – Vemuri was one of nine speakers at MIT’s OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Thursday. Read from crumpled sheets of paper, her speech, roughly four minutes long, was addressed to her classmates, highlighting some of their efforts to protest against Israel.

“You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine,” she said, adding, “The MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide.”

After Vemuri left the stage to a round of applause, MIT President Sally Kornbluth spoke next. She paused as some people began chanting, and then responded, “OK, listen folks. At MIT, we believe in freedom of expression. But today is about the graduates.”

President Kornbluth has found herself on this type of tightrope before. In December 2023, she testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, alongside student presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. The hearing was on how universities were handling campus protests and allegations of antisemitism. Unlike her counterparts Claudine Gay and Liz Magill —both of whom were replaced by their schools — Kornbluth managed to avoid serious consequences.

Source : https://indianexpress.com/article/world/who-is-megha-vemuri-mit-indian-american-us-pro-palestine-speech-10042316/

THE fate of an abandoned £15million mansion perched on a 400ft skyscraper hangs in balance after the tycoon owner fled to the UK.

Details of what’s inside the unbelievable White House replica have been revealed for the first time – but it remains unclear whether the sprawling home will have any residents.

Businessman Vijay Mallya, 69, who lives in the UK, commissioned the Sky Mansion on the 34th and 35th Kingfisher Towers in Bengaluru, India in 2010.

But the tycoon could never live in his dream home after he fled the country in 2016 after defrauding at least 17 banks of nearly £1billion.

Now sources familiar with the case say the future of the mansion remains uncertain as lenders and agencies probing the fraud are still trying to recover cash from Mallya.

Sprawled over an unbelievable 40,000sqft on two levels, the wacky mansion sticks out like a sore thumb on the gargantuan tower.

For its ultra-rich owner – if it ever gets one – there’s a helipad, infinity pool and an open deck that offers a 360-degree viewing platform of the city.

And despite the penthouse being part of the skyscraper, it’s a private villa with two of its own elevators.

The Kingfisher Towers were built on 4.5 acres of land where the father-in-law of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Narayan Murthy, reportedly bought a flat last year.

The mansion was one of the first residential penthouses in the country built at such a height.

Chairman of Prestige Group Irfan Razack previously said constructing the gargantuan mansion was a challenge as it was mounted on cantilever – a structure only supported at one end.

He said to local media: “It’s a complex structure. It was a challenge to construct the mansion on a huge cantilever at that height.”

It’s unknown when the build was completed – but the exterior of the mansion appears to be fully finished.

But it’s not clear if the White House replica is finished on the inside.

Interior firm Morph Design and Co, an arm of Prestige Group hired to work on the interiors of the mansion, revealed to The Sun that the “interiors of the mansion were not done”.

While the house is reportedly taken care of by the developers and regularly cleaned, the penthouse lies unoccupied due to legal tangles.

Prestige Constructions didn’t respond to a request from The Sun on its fate.

Before the penthouse was finished, Mallya fled the country after facing legal action over money laundering and alleged fraud charges.

He had taken a loan from a syndicate of banks for the operations of his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines – but he failed to make the payment.

The tycoon later declared himself bankrupt in the UK.

Indian banks have since been seeking to recover the outstanding loan amount through various legal mean – including the sale of his assets.

Several of his properties have been seized by the Enforcement Directorate, otherwise known as the financial crimes police.

And the mansion is likely part of the recovery procedure.

SS Naganand, the counsel who appeared for one of the banks, told The Sun: “The tower was part of the entire recovery proceeding and all the assets belonging to him are part of the process, certainly that mansion.

“The building was constructed long before the litigation started.

“Prestige Group put up the structure and kept a portion of it, the rest of which came to [his] company and Mallya had built something for him on the top and belonged to him personally.

“From my understanding there were proceedings relating to that both in Indian courts and the UK courts.”

Mallya’s former lawyer EC Agrawala said that the fate of the property can only be decided by the Indian government.

He said: “The mansion was under construction.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14349811/wackiest-mansion-skyscraper/

THE explosive Karen Read murder trial has torn a small town apart – and left its residents fearing for the future.

Ever since Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead in the snow outside a house party in January 2022, conspiracy theories and unbridled rage have swamped Canton, Massachusetts.

The first trial last year was unable to reach a verdict on whether Read was guilty of killing her boyfriend O’Keefe by backing into him with her SUV, before leaving him for dead in the snow.

Read is back in court again, currently in the middle of a retrial that started in April, which experts fear could once again end with a hung jury and no closer to finding out the brutal, chilling truth.

Some locals allege a cop cover-up is central to the case, especially with the court performances of high-ranking officials coming under fierce scrutiny.

Others, however, are fully behind the family of O’Keefe, who accuse Read of a malicious attack after a night of drinking on the 46-year-old whom she had been dating for two years.

For local resident Rita Lombardi – who passionatley backs Read’s dramatic push for justice – the torrid saga which has sparked national headlines has also threatened to obliterate relationships and her own health.

During the first trial, she was outside the courtroom for days on end, rallying supporters desperate to uncover the truth. A Facebook group boasted over 20,000 members.

The support was so fervent, she ended up ordering special pom poms from Amazon.

Her dedication to Read’s cause, however, has implications.

People who she claims “wanted to silence me” threw bleach filled balloons onto her lawn, as well as other neighbors’.

It destroyed the grass, yet the 65-year-old’s resolve remained intact.

“It’s taken an enormous toll on me,” she told The U.S. Sun, “the suffering has been excruciating, but I won’t be silenced.”

Rita, who says she had to take five months off work after the first trial because of the “impact” it had on her, points to a tight-knit community with the main players all interlinked.

That in turn, she claims, has seen some family ties severed beyond repair. There have also been threatening letters from elsewhere.

Relatives have lived in Canton for centuries. Her great-grandmother came to the town, which is 18 miles from Boston, in 1907 and her father grew up there.

She says she has strong links with the “other side” – some of her family were in the fire department – and used to have the “upmost” respect for Canton Police.

But when news of O’Keefe’s death sent shockwaves through the town, Rita said she was “totally floored.”

“I’ve been grieving for months,” she admitted. “I lost a niece and a nephew – 23 and 26 years-old – 100 days apart in 2018. And then I lost more by speaking out about this.”

Despite the issues which have fractured relationships dear to her heart, Rita continues to be a “strong and effective” voice for Read who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Her defense argues she is the victim of a police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was killed by someone else at a party at the house of Brian Albert, a retired Boston cop and lifelong Canton resident.

“An innocent woman has been railroaded,” Rita added. “The town knew the power the police wield.”

COURT CASE HEATING UP

The case has seen extensive debates over forensic evidence, with the defense challenging the reliability of the prosecution’s claims.

Apple health data from O’Keefe’s phone and watch, which recorded a 36-step count around the time of his death, was forensically examined recently.

Read’s case for the defense began this week when her team called their first witness to the stand on Friday, stressing the car crash which is central to the prosecution’s case never occurred and the former finance professor was framed.

She told reporters that unlike the first trial, there will be more witnesses and her attorneys would take at least a week to go through a “broader and deeper” testimony.

It’s still unclear if Read will take the stand herself.

Although her supporters on the streets outside the small Norfolk County Superior Courthouse haven’t been at the same levels as before, she retains a groundswell of local support.

A recent petition to scrub a buffer zone in the vicinity was greenlit by a U.S. District Court judge amid fears of swathes of pom pom-waving supporters polluting the views of jurors.

Judge Myong J. Joun said the public has the right to access the area surrounding the courthouse, but anyone in the streets must protest in the correct manner.

“The Buffer Zone Orders may be enforced only against those individuals who engage in activities that are intended to interfere with the administration of justice or are intended to influence trial participants in the discharge of their duties within the buffer zone,” Joun wrote.

There was a small crowd wishing Read well at the end of proceedings on Friday and now the restrictions have been lifted, it’s believed more people will come to show their support.

“I get messages all the time asking me to go back outside the courthouse every day,” Rita continues, “but it took a lot out of me. I still support justice though – for John O’Keefe, his family, Karen Read, and our country. I believe in her innocence 100%.”

There have been other changes surrounding a case which has local new channels and bloggers producing nightly discussion shows and podcasts which are building up to an emotional, explosive climax.

The high-stakes retrial has a new face leading the prosecution: Hank Brennan, the mob lawyer who once defended notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Brennan was handpicked by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey to take over the case from Adam Lally, who led the original trial but has now been sidelined.

Morrissey praised Brennan as a “highly respected” legal heavyweight with deep experience in law enforcement cases.

Lally is still on the prosecution team, but he’s taken a backseat this time.

Read, who didn’t testify in her first trial, has been vocal in the media speaking out in TV interviews to waiting reporters outside court, conducting an interview with Vanity Fair, and even taking part in a true-crime docuseries.

In court, Brennan played a bombshell clip from Read’s October 2024 Dateline interview, where she seemed to admit she might’ve hit O’Keefe, with her car.

“I didn’t think I hit him,” Read said in the video.

“But could I have clipped him… knocked him out… and in drunkenness and in the cold, he didn’t come to again?”

TWISTS AND TURNS

Meanwhile, another big twist is that State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator, is no longer in uniform.

Proctor drew immense criticism during the first trial after he admitted under oath to sending vile, sexist texts about Read, calling her a “whack job c**t” and joking about not finding nude photos on her phone.

He apologized, but the damage was done. His credibility shredded.

Proctor was pulled off duty the same day the mistrial was declared last July.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14328244/karen-read-murder-trial-canton-john-o-keefe-police/

CHINA is “credibly preparing” for a military invasion of Taiwan and the attack is “real and imminent”, the US Defence Secretary has warned.

Pete Hegeseth said that Communist Beijing was “rehearsing for the real deal” and described the looming threat as a “wake-up call” for the world.

Speaking at the annual Singapore defence forum Shangri-la Dialogue, Hegeseth said China was preparing to use military force to upend the balance of power.

The Pentagon boss also accused Beijing of carrying out cyber attacks, harassing its neighbours, and “illegally seizing and militarising lands” in the South China Sea.

His warning comes after China deployed two hulking H-6 bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons on a strategic island in the South China Sea.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan and held multiple large-scale exercises around the island, often described as preparations for a blockade or invasion.

Hegseth said: “[Beijing is] credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

“The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent.”

China claims almost the entire disputed waterway in the South China Sea – through which more than 60 per cent of global maritime trade passes.

This is despite an international ruling that Beijing’s assertion has no merit.

In recent months, the Chinese navy has also repeatedly clashed with the Philippines in the strategic waters.

Hegseth warned the Chinese military was building the capabilities to invade Taiwan and “rehearsing for the real deal”.

He called on Asian countries to boost military spending to increase deterrence against China.

Reassuring US allies, Hegseth said the Indo-Pacific was “America’s priority theatre”.

Hegseth said: “[US] is reorienting toward deterring aggression by communist China.

“Asian allies should look to countries in Europe for a newfound example,” Hegseth said, citing pledges by Nato members to move toward Trump’s spending target of five per cent of GDP toward defence.

As Hegseth spoke in Singapore, China’s military announced that its navy and air force were carrying out routine “combat readiness patrols” around the Scarborough Shoal.

It is a chain of reefs and rocks that Beijing disputes with the Philippines.

Meanwhile, aerial photos showed two hulking H-6 bombers on an airfield on Woody Island in the South China Sea, taken on May 19.

The long-range aircraft date back to the 1950s and were modelled on Soviet-era warplanes.

But they’ve been souped up to unleash modern weapons, including hypersonic and nuclear missiles.

They are considered China’s most advanced bombers, and this is the first time they’ve been spotted on the outpost in five years.

The photos also show two Y-20 transport aircraft and a KJ-500 early warning plane around Woody Island on the same day.

The KJ-500 is thought vital to China’s expansion of its air and sea campaign, as it tackles increasingly complex operations.

Woody is part of the Paracel Islands, which are roughly halfway between China and Vietnam and the object of an ownership dispute between the two nations.

China built a city called Sansha on Woody Island in 2012, which Beijing uses to lord over the rest of the Paracels and the Spratly Islands.

Hegseth’s comments came after Trump stoked new trade tensions with China, arguing that Beijing had “violated” a deal to de-escalate tariffs as the two sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations.

Meanwhile, a report by the US Defence Intelligence warned that China could begin seizing Taiwan’s smaller outlying islands as a precursor to a full-blown invasion.

The vast majority of Taiwan’s population lives on the main island, but Taipei also controls a smattering of smaller island chains.

These include the Kinmen and Matsu islands close to the Chinese mainland, the Pratas and Taiping in the South China Sea, and the Penghu archipelago nearer to Taiwan.

Storming these islands is one of the options on the table for China’s military generals – who continue to brandish threats of a full-scale invasion of Taiwan.

Experts also told The Sun how China will look to exploit a fragmented West while it waits for the “perfect moment” to launch an attack on Taiwan.

Fears are that the weakening of Western alliances and the unpredictability of US foreign policy under Donald Trump could create the perfect atmosphere for Beijing to trigger an invasion.

And if China does decide to attack, it’s feared it will go in with “full force” using three major military strategies that would wreak havoc on the island.

Defence experts say it’s the “perfect moment” for Xi’s long-standing ambition to reunify Taiwan with the Chinese mainland – and it could launch an attack as soon as 2027.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14365687/china-attack-taiwan-us/

China’s top official at a global defence dialogue on Saturday (May 31) rejected “accusations” made against the country as unfounded and politically motivated, and asserted its commitment to protecting and improving regional security.

“We do not accept groundless accusations against China. Some of these claims are completely fabricated, some distort the truth, and some are outright cases of ‘the thief crying thief’,” said Rear Admiral Hu Gangfeng, who is leading a delegation from the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“They are essentially aimed at provoking conflict, creating division, inciting confrontation, and destabilising the Asia-Pacific,” he said, adding that such actions “go against the tide of the times, are unpopular, and will not succeed.”

Speaking at a session titled “Cooperative maritime security in the Asia-Pacific”, Hu said maritime security in the region remains “generally stable” and the South China Sea remains “one of the world’s safest and busiest sea lanes” for navigation.

He also said China proposes upholding “true multilateralism” and preserving maritime security order in the Asia-Pacific.

“We support the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in Asia-Pacific governance. We oppose unilateralism, hegemonic bullying, and turning Asia-Pacific waters into arenas for power games,” he added.

“We firmly oppose illegal actions that sow division, obstruct reunification, and harm sovereign nations’ core interests.”

Hu did not specify which countries or which accusations he was rebutting.

But earlier in the day, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had warned of the “threat” China poses as he called on allies in the Indo-Pacific to spend more on their own defence needs.

“China’s army is rehearsing for the real deal,” Hegseth said in his speech. “We are not going to sugarcoat it – the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.”

Hegseth said the US would continue to strengthen its overseas military posture in response to what he described as intensifying threats from Beijing, particularly its assertiveness over Taiwan.

China’s military has repeatedly simulated scenarios resembling a blockade of the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

The US, while maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity, has pledged to support Taiwan’s ability to defend itself.

Besides Taiwan Strait tensions, China also has overlapping claims with various parties including Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia in the South China Sea, a vital waterway for global trade.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is a key annual defence summit organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Held from May 30 to June 1 this year, it brings together defence ministers, military chiefs, and senior officials from nearly 50 countries.

Hu emphasised the need for constructive engagement rather than confrontation at the forum.

“The original intention of holding this meeting is to address problems, not create them; to reduce differences, not widen them. There should be frank and sincere exchanges,” he said.

He was also asked about Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun skipping the event this year – the first time since 2019 that China was not represented by its defence minister.

“China attaches great importance to (the event) and has consistently sent delegations to participate over the years,” Hu replied.

It sends delegations of different levels from year to year, and this should be seen as part of normal operational arrangements, Hu said.

“This in no way affects our ability to articulate our national defence policies, engage in communication with various parties, or enhance mutual understanding,” he said.

“Objectively speaking, I was entrusted to come here today to share our views and engage with all of you. I believe everyone has clearly heard and understood our genuine position.”

QUESTIONS ABOUT AIRCRAFT CARRIER

The other officials who spoke at the session were Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao, commander of the Vietnam Coast Guard, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, UK’s chief of defence staff, Admiral Seguchi Yoshio, commandant of the Japan Coast Guard, and Ricardo Montero Allende, Chile’s undersecretary of defence.

Asked about the UK sending its aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales as part of a naval strike group on a mission – codenamed Operation Highmast – across the Indo-Pacific amid a war in Ukraine, Radakin noted the interconnectedness and global nature of security.

Britain’s engagement with Southeast Asia extends to other areas such as trade pacts and being a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said.

“There are a whole lot of other reasons why we should be here, diplomatically, culturally, but to just see it through the narrow lens of an aircraft carrier, I think is not correct,” he said.

The UK has no plans to use its aircraft carrier in the Russia-Ukraine context, Radakin said, adding that ships can turn back and return if they need to.

Responding to another question on whether UK would strengthen defence cooperation with China in any particular area following his trip there in April, Radakin said it was about establishing military-to-military channels and communication.

“When we operate in this region, we do it in a very transparent way,” Radakin said. “We see ourselves as operating under the rule of law, and we are doing activities that we consider to be entirely routine for a nation like the United Kingdom.”

Asked how he feels about a British aircraft carrier in the Asia-Pacific region, Hu said conducting mobile deployments and training across the oceans is intrinsic to the nature of naval vessels. When used properly, they can safeguard peace and convey goodwill, he said.

But there are inherent dangers of foreign military deployments near contested or sensitive waters, Hu said.

“When warships enter foreign coastal or near-shore waters, the risks are substantial,” He said. “These activities are prone to misunderstanding, miscalculation, or even direct friction and conflict.”

He cautioned that tensions could escalate rapidly even without hostile intent. “When a nation sends warships far from home, especially into another country’s coastal waters – or worse, territorial waters – the potential for serious consequences becomes logically unavoidable.”

The UK-led naval task group departed southern England in April and will make a port call in Singapore next month.

The deployment includes stops in Australia, Japan and India.

While not naming the UK directly, Hu called for efforts to “fundamentally eliminate” maritime and aerial risks, saying the key lies in upholding international law, avoiding provocations, and preventing actions that threaten other countries’ sovereignty or stability.

He also underscored the importance of adhering to protocols such as the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), which China supports updating to enhance regional safety.

IN THE “SAME ASIA-PACIFIC BOAT”, SAYS HU

Calling for cooperation in the region, Hu added: “We all share the same Asia-Pacific boat. While each country has its own national conditions, our security and prosperity are intertwined. In the 21st century, a civilised era, we should resolve issues through dialogue and consultation.”

Hu observed there were no major maritime military conflicts in recent years, but warned of “serious challenges” stemming from bloc politics and foreign interference under the pretext of “freedom of navigation.”

Hu, the vice-president of the PLA’s National Defense University, called out “certain countries” for expanding their military presence in the region and “frequently infringing upon the sovereignty and maritime rights of others”.

These actions, he said, are often justified under the banner of free navigation but, in fact, “deliberately support separatist forces advocating ‘Taiwan independence,’ gravely undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.

Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-rejects-groundless-accusations-shangri-la-dialogue-says-it-opposes-unilateralism-hegemonic-bullying-5161251

Rihanna’s baby bump is “Nobody’s Business” in her latest steamy summer Savage x Fenty campaign.

The pregnant Fenty beauty founder kept her growing stomach a secret in the collection of glam photos she shared from the shoot in her Friday Instagram post.

“It’s me playing ‘hide the baby bump’ whole shoot! boutta be a cheeky summer,” she captioned the photos, announcing her latest Savage x Fenty drop.

She wore a mosaic floral lace lingerie set as she posed in an empty pool for the sizzlin’ pictures.

For bottoms, the singer, 37, sported a pair of matching cheeky panties as she teased a glimpse of her backside in several photos.

She finished off the look with a pair of vibrant orange sandals.

It’s unclear how far along the singer was in her pregnancy at the time of the photo shoot, but the “Pon de Replay” hitmaker — who typically doesn’t shy away from showing off her baby bump — successfully kept it hidden as she playfully eased an ice cube down her body in the pictures.

The “Umbrella” singer revealed she was pregnant with baby No. 3 earlier this month by debuting her growing baby bump before arriving at the Met Gala.

She carried a black umbrella as she was photographed wearing a gray two-piece skirt set, matching knee-high stockings and gray pumps.

Her longtime partner, A$AP Rocky confirmed her pregnancy while speaking to reporters on the blue carpet at fashion’s biggest night, telling them her look for the night would be “whatever just don’t really cover her baby bump.”

Over the years, the singer — who is also mom to two other sons: RZA, 3, and Riot Rose, 1 — has become known as a queen of maternity style for the pregnancy looks she’s delivered. And of course, her outfit for this year’s Met Gala afterparty was no exception.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/30/style/pregnant-rihannas-playing-hide-the-baby-bump-in-sultry-new-savage-x-fenty-lingerie-campaign/

The White House withdrew on Saturday its nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, abruptly yanking a close ally of Elon Musk from consideration to lead the space agency.
President Donald Trump said he would announce a new candidate soon.

“After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

“I will soon announce a new nominee who will be mission aligned, and put America First in space.”
Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who had been Musk’s pick to lead NASA, was due next week for a much-delayed confirmation vote before the U.S. Senate. His removal from consideration caught many in the space industry by surprise.
Trump and the White House did not explain what led to the decision.
“It may not always be obvious through the discourse and turbulence, but there are many competent, dedicated people who love this country and care deeply about the mission,” Isaacman said in a post on X.

“That was on full display during my hearing, where leaders on both sides of the aisle made clear they’re willing to fight for the world’s most accomplished space agency.
“I am incredibly grateful to President Trump, the Senate and all those who supported me.”
His removal comes days after Musk’s official departure from the White House, where the SpaceX CEO’s role as a “special government employee” leading the Department of Government Efficiency created turbulence for the administration and frustrated some of Trump’s aides.
Semafor reported the news earlier.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to a person familiar with his reaction, Musk was disappointed by Isaacman’s removal.
“It is rare to find someone so competent and good-hearted,” Musk wrote of Isaacman on X, responding to the news.

It was unclear whom the administration might tap to replace Isaacman.
One name being floated is retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Steven Kwast, an early advocate for the setting-up of the U.S. Space Force and Trump supporter, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Isaacman, the former CEO of payment processor company Shift4, had broad space industry support but faced concerns from lawmakers over his ties to Musk and SpaceX, where he spent hundreds of millions of dollars as an early private spaceflight customer.
The former nominee had donated to Democrats in prior elections. In his confirmation hearing in April, he sought to balance NASA’s existing moon-aligned space exploration strategy with pressure to shift the agency’s focus on Mars, saying the U.S. can plan for travel to both destinations.

As a potential leader of NASA’s roughly 18,000 employees, Isaacman faced a daunting task of implementing that decision to prioritize Mars, given that NASA has spent years and billions of dollars trying to return its astronauts to the moon.
On Friday, the space agency released new details of the Trump administration’s 2026 budget plan that proposed killing dozens of space science programs and laying off thousands of employees, a controversial overhaul that space advocates and lawmakers described as devastating for the agency.
Montana Republican Tim Sheehy, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, wrote on X that Isaacman “was a strong choice by President Trump to lead NASA” in response to reports of his departure.
“I was proud to introduce Jared at his hearing and strongly oppose efforts to derail his nomination,” Sheehy said.
Some scientists saw the nominee change as further destabilizing to NASA as it faces dramatic budget cuts without a confirmed leader to navigate political turbulence among Congress, the White House and the agency’s workforce.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-says-trump-will-soon-announce-new-nominee-nasa-head-2025-05-31/

Gilead Sciences’ (GILD.O), Trodelvy in combination with Merck’s (MRK.N), opens new tab blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda lowered the risk of an aggressive type of breast cancer worsening by 35% when used as an initial treatment, according to results of a large trial presented on Saturday.
The data is likely to change how patients are treated following a diagnosis for advanced triple-negative breast cancer, one expert said.

After a median follow-up of 14 months, patients treated with Trodelvy, a so-called antibody-drug conjugate, and Keytruda went 11.2 months without their cancer progressing, a measure known as progress-free survival. That compared with PFS of 7.8 months for those given the standard treatment of chemotherapy and Keytruda, researchers said.
Patients given the Trodelvy/Keytruda combination responded to the treatment for a median of 16.5 months, compared with 9.2 months for the chemo group, according to full results of the study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology scientific meeting in Chicago. The researchers said patients are still being followed to see if the regimen has an impact on overall survival.

Gilead previously said the Phase 3 study in 443 patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors express PD-L1 – the protein targeted by drugs like Keytruda – had met its goal.
The findings suggest that the combination of Trodelvy and Keytruda “will likely become a new front-line standard of care in this setting,” Dr. Jane Lowe Meisel, co-director of breast oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and a designated ASCO expert said in a statement.
ASCO estimates that about 10% of breast cancers in the United States are triple-negative. That tends to be more difficult to treat than hormone-sensitive subtypes, because it does not have the common biomarkers used to guide treatment, the tumors are often larger, and the recurrence rate is high.
The medical group said that about 40% of triple-negative breast cancers are also PD-L1 positive, making them candidates for Keytruda.

Antibody-drug conjugates like Trodelvy are designed to deliver an anti-cancer drug more precisely to malignant cells, causing less damage to healthy cells than chemotherapy.
Serious side effects for Trodelvy included neutropenia, a condition caused by cancer treatments that lower levels of infection-fighting white blood cells, reported in 43% of patients, and diarrhea in 10%. In the chemotherapy group, the incidence of neutropenia was 45%, while 16% of patients had anemia and 14% had low blood platelet counts.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/gileads-trodelvy-with-keytruda-cuts-breast-cancer-risk-by-35-trial-2025-05-31/

At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge collapsed onto railway tracks, derailing an approaching train in Russia’s Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, Russian authorities said early on Sunday.
Russia’s Railways had initially said on the Telegram messaging app that the bridge collapse was the result of an “illegal interference in the operation of transport,” but it has since removed the post.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, said on Telegram that 44 people were hospitalised. Three children were among those injured with one in serious condition, he added.
Russia’s ministry of emergency situations said on Telegram that efforts to find and rescue victims continued throughout the night, and that some 180 personnel were involved in the operation.
Among those killed was the locomotive driver, Russia’s state news agencies reported, citing medics.
Social media pictures and videos showed passengers trying to help others climb out of the train’s damaged carriages in the dark and firefighters looking for ways to reach passengers.

Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.
Reuters could not independently verify the Baza report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Since the start of the war that Russia launched more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids from Ukraine into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.
The train was going from the town of Klimovo to Moscow, Russian Railways said. It collided with the collapsed bridge in the area of a federal highway in the Vygonichskyi district of the Bryansk region, Bogomaz said. The district lies some 100 km (62 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/bridge-collapses-russias-bryansk-region-that-borders-ukraine-governor-says-2025-05-31/

A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from invalidating work permits and other documents granting lawful status to about 5,000 Venezuelans, a subset of the nearly 350,000 whose temporary legal protections the U.S. Supreme Court last week allowed to be terminated.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco in a Friday night ruling, concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely exceeded her authority when she in February invalidated those documents while more broadly ending the temporary protected status granted to the Venezuelans.

The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 lifted an earlier order Chen issued that prevented the administration as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda from terminating deportation protection conferred to Venezuelans under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program.
But the high court stated specifically it was not preventing any Venezuelans from still challenging Noem’s related decision to invalidate documents they were issued pursuant to that program that allowed them to work and live in the United States.
Such documents were issued after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during former Democratic President Joe Biden’s final days in office extended the TPS program for the Venezuelans by 18 months to October 2026, an action Noem sought to reverse.

TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.
Lawyers for several Venezuelans and the advocacy group National TPS Alliance asked Chen to recognize the documents’ continuing validity, saying without them migrants could lose their jobs or be deported.
Chen in siding with them said nothing in the statute authorizing the TPS program allowed Noem to invalidate the documents.
Chen, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, noted the administration estimated only about 5,000 of the 350,000 Venezuelans held such documents.
“This smaller number cuts against any contention that the continued presence of these TPS holders who were granted TPS-related documents by the Secretary would be a toll on the national or local economies or a threat to national security,” Chen wrote.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-judge-prevents-trump-invalidating-5000-venezuelans-legal-documents-2025-05-31/

Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the U.N. nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states seen by Reuters.
The findings in the “comprehensive” International Atomic Energy Agency report requested by the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors in November pave the way for a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for the board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

A resolution would infuriate Iran and could further complicate nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.
Using the IAEA report’s findings, the four Western powers plan to submit a draft resolution for the board to adopt at its next meeting the week of June 9, diplomats say. It would be the first time in almost 20 years Iran has formally been found in non-compliance.
Iran’s foreign ministry and the Iranian nuclear agency rejected the report, calling it “politically motivated” in a joint statement. They said Tehran will take “appropriate measures” in response to any effort to take action against the country at the Board of Governors meeting, state media reported, without elaborating.

Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
While many of the findings relate to activities dating back decades and have been made before, the IAEA report’s conclusions were more definitive. It summarised developments in recent years and pointed more clearly towards coordinated, secret activities, some of which were relevant to producing nuclear weapons.
It also spelled out that Iran’s cooperation with IAEA continues to be “less than satisfactory” in “a number of respects”. The IAEA is still seeking explanations for uranium traces found years ago at two of four sites it has been investigating. Three hosted secret experiments, it found.
The IAEA has concluded that “these three locations, and other possible related locations, were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material”, the report said.

Nuclear material and/or heavily contaminated equipment from that programme was stored at the fourth site, Turquzabad, between 2009 and 2018, it said.
“The Agency concludes that Iran did not declare nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three undeclared locations in Iran, specifically, Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, and Turquzabad,” the report said.
At Lavisan-Shian in Tehran, a disc made of uranium metal was “used in the production of explosively-driven neutron sources” at least twice in 2003, a process designed to initiate the explosion in a nuclear weapon, the report said, adding that it was part of “small-scale” tests.
The report is likely to lead to Iran being referred to the U.N. Security Council, though that would probably happen at a later IAEA board meeting, diplomats said.
More immediately, it is likely to lead to Iran again accelerating or expanding its rapidly advancing nuclear programme, as it has done after previous rebukes at the board. It could also further complicate talks with the United States aimed at reining in that programme.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT

A separate IAEA report sent to member states on Saturday said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, had grown by roughly half to 408.6 kg. That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Both IAEA reports said enrichment to such a high level was “of serious concern” since it is the only country to do so without producing nuclear weapons.
Israel, which has long urged strong action against Iran’s nuclear programme, said the IAEA report showed Tehran was determined to complete its nuclear weapons programme. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the world should act now to stop Iran from doing this.
U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons programme that it halted in 2003. Iran denies ever having had one.
Separately on Saturday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his Omani counterpart presented elements of a U.S. proposal for a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington during a short visit to Tehran.
In Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said later on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff “has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it.” She declined to provide further details.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/iaea-report-says-iran-had-secret-activities-with-undeclared-nuclear-material-2025-05-31/

A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Donald Trump has begun to unravel.

Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies.

But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.

As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.

In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said “the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.”

His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record. The revelations were first reported by CNN.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond.

Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July.

Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.

The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney’s office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/ice-letter-threatening-trump-21447adfd14eb1a043f95344f9ccb3d5