Category: World

TYRA Banks is returning to television and will be facing her critics head-on when ANTM returns for Cycle 25 with some major changes, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.

Nearly a decade after America’s Next Top Model went dark, the mogul is plotting a comeback and understands that this time around, she needs to “correct past mistakes,” The U.S. Sun has learned.

ANTM is officially gearing up for Cycle 25, and insiders have exclusively spilled that the revamped season will include at least three big shake-ups that will help right the wrongs from the show’s earlier years.

The iconic modeling competition, created and hosted by Tyra, 52, at the height of her career, originally premiered in 2003 on the UPN network before later moving to The CW.

The series ran for 24 cycles, ultimately ending in 2018.

Now, nearly a decade after its final season, a source revealed that Tyra is determined to reframe the franchise for a new era.

“Tyra wanted to correct the mistakes from the original show,” an insider exclusively told The U.S. Sun. “She did not think that a simple interview would be enough for everything that happened in the original seasons.”

“She knows that the show took it too far and she knows that things that they did back then would not fly by today’s standards.

“This is her chance and her way of trying to have a more positive impact on the modeling industry.

“She learned a lot during the show and has learned a lot from her mistakes and the viewer feedback in the years since it’s been off the air.”

One of the biggest changes? A renewed focus on inclusivity.

According to the insider, Cycle 25 will spotlight “diverse body types, backgrounds, and more modern designers that are going to be a part of the show.”

The group was swept away by an avalanche after venturing off piste in the Val d’Isere area. Heavy snowfall brought by storm Nils has increased the avalanche risk in some French ski resorts.

Three skiers died in the French Alps after they went off piste and were caught in an avalanche, authorities said Friday.

They were part of a group of six that went into the mountains with a ski instructor in the Val d’Isere area in southeastern France.

The identities and nationalities of the victims were not immediately known.

According to local authorities, the group had mandatory safety equipment with them but set off despite a warning of increased avalanche risk.

Storm Nils brought heavy snow to the French Alps this week, prompting some ski resorts to close their slopes entirely on Thursday. Many ski areas in the region remained under the second-highest avalanche warning level on Friday.

The Val d’Isere municipality warned all skiers to stay on marked slopes and follow safety recommendations given the heightened danger.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/avalanche-kills-3-skiers-in-french-alps/a-75962655

US President Donald Trump says regime change in Iran is “the best thing that could happen”, signifying one of his clearest endorsements for replacing the clerical establishment.

“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives,” he said on Friday.

Trump declined to specify who he wants to lead Iran, but noted “there are people” who could take over. Iran’s clerical ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not yet responded to Trump’s latest remarks.

Meanwhile, the US sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to add pressure on Iran to secure a nuclear deal.

A Palestinian official in the occupied West Bank has described Israel’s latest expansion of control there as “the end of the road” for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Asma al-Sharabati, acting mayor of Hebron, said new legal changes recently announced by Israeli cabinet ministers would leave Palestinian authorities shut out of decisions on urban planning and development, even in areas under Palestinian control.

Hebron is a regular flashpoint in the West Bank – a divided city, where soldiers guard hundreds of Israeli settlers living alongside Palestinians in an Israeli military garrison.

After pleading not guilty to federal civil rights charges over his coverage of a protest at a church linked to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Don Lemon called the case an attack on press freedom.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon pleaded not guilty on Friday (Feb 13) to federal civil rights charges stemming from his coverage of an immigration protest in Minnesota.

Lemon, now an independent journalist, was among reporters who covered a protest last month at a St. Paul church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor.

Lemon, another reporter and seven other people are accused of conspiring against the right to religious freedom and with interfering with the right to exercise religious freedom at a place of worship.

Lemon, who livestreamed the church protest, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief appearance in a federal courtroom in St. Paul, the twin city of Minneapolis.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Lemon said the charges are an attack on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.

“This isn’t just about me,” Lemon said. “This is about all journalists, especially here in the United States.”

“For more than 30 years I’ve been a journalist and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work,” he said.

“I will not be intimidated. I will not back down. I will fight these baseless charges and I will not be silenced,” Lemon said.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/don-lemon-cnn-minneapolis-immigration-crackdown-ice-trump-us-5930816

The US military said on Friday (Feb 13) it killed three alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the Caribbean, bringing the death toll in Washington’s anti-narcotics campaign to at least 133.

President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting alleged smuggling boats in early September, insisting it is effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists” operating out of Venezuela.

Dozens of strikes have been carried out since then.

Administration officials have provided no definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations that have expanded from the Caribbean to the Pacific.

“Three narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed,” US Southern Command said in a statement on X.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/3-dead-in-latest-us-military-strike-alleged-drug-boat-in-caribbean-5931086

The referendum sought people’s consent to the July National Charter 2025, which aims to completely change how the country is governed. The July Charter outlines a total of 84 reform points related to state restructuring.

February 12 was more than just general elections for Bangladesh. The results showed that the BNP-led alliance has triumphed in 210 seats, setting the stage for the formation of a new government led by party chairman Tarique Rahman, who is set to become Bangladesh’s first male prime minister in almost 35 years.

However, there was also the national referendum on the implementation of a reform package, which saw a 60.26 per cent voter turnout in Bangladesh, with the ‘yes’ vote winning a clear majority, the Election Commission announced Friday.

Per the official figures, 4,80,74,429 votes were cast in favour of “yes”, while 2,25,65,627 voters chose “no”, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said while talking to reporters at the EC.

What is the July Charter?
The referendum sought people’s consent to the July National Charter 2025, which aims to completely change how the country is governed. The July Charter outlines a total of 84 reform points related to state restructuring.

It was drafted after the July 2024 student-led uprising that resulted in the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

A Constitutional Reform Council is expected to execute these reforms within 270 working days.

What does the Charter propose?

The Charter’s main aim is to prevent the concentration of executive power to prevent a “recurrence of authoritarian and fascist rule” by fundamentally restructuring key state institutions. Out of the 84 reform proposals, 47 require constitutional amendments, while the rest of the 37 will be implemented through laws or executive orders, according to Bangladesh’s Business Standard.

Term Limits: Implementation of strict term limits for prime ministers to prevent long-serving autocratic rule.

Bicameral Parliament: Creation of a new 100-seat upper house, with seats allocated based on party national vote share, aimed at balancing legislative power.

Reduced Executive Power: Strengthening the role of the president to reduce the concentration of power in the prime minister’s office.

Judicial And Institutional Independence: Measures to ensure the judiciary and other key state institutions are free from political influence.

Opposition Participation: Inclusion of provisions for opposition leaders to head key parliamentary committees and serve as deputy speaker.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/70-bangladeshis-voted-yes-to-july-charter-what-does-it-mean-11001022?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The administration of President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the repeal of a scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, and eliminated federal tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks.
It is the most sweeping climate change policy rollback by the administration to date, after a string of regulatory cuts and other moves intended to unfetter fossil fuel development and stymie the rollout of clean energy.

“Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said, saying it was the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.
The Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release the endangerment finding had relied on an incorrect interpretation of federal clean air laws meant to protect Americans from pollutants that do harm through local or regional exposure, not through warming the global climate.
“This flawed legal theory took the agency outside the scope of its statutory authority in multiple respects,” it said.

Trump announced the repeal beside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House budget director Russ Vought, who has long sought to revoke the finding and was a key architect of conservative policy blueprint Project 2025.
Trump has said he believes climate change is a “con job”, and has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement, leaving the world’s largest historic contributor to global warming out of international efforts to combat it. He has also signed legislation killing Biden-era tax credits aimed at accelerating deployment of electric cars and renewable energy.
Former President Barack Obama blasted the move on X, saying without the endangerment finding, “we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”

“HOLY GRAIL”

Zeldin said the Trump administration took on the most consequential climate policy of the last 15 years, something that the agency avoided during his first term amid industry concern about legal and regulatory uncertainty.
“Referred to by some as the holy grail of federal regulatory overreach, the 2009 Obama EPA endangerment finding is now eliminated,” he said.
The endangerment finding was first adopted by the United States in 2009, and led the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act of 1963 to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and four other heat-trapping air pollutants from vehicles, power plants and other industries.
It came about after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 in the Massachusetts vs. EPA case that the agency has authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Its repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but may not initially apply to stationary sources such as power plants.
The transportation and power sectors are each responsible for around a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas output, according to EPA figures.
The EPA said the repeal and end of vehicle emission standards will save U.S. taxpayers $1.3 trillion, while the prior administration said the rules would have net benefits to consumers through lower fuel costs and other savings.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing major automakers, did not endorse the action but said “automotive emissions regulations finalized in the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace demand for EVs.”
The Environmental Defense Fund said that the repeal will end up costing Americans more, despite EPA’s statement that climate regulations have driven up costs for consumers.
“Administrator Lee Zeldin has directed EPA to stop protecting the American people from the pollution that’s causing worse storms, floods, and skyrocketing insurance costs,” said EDF President Fred Krupp. “This action will only lead to more of this pollution, and that will lead to higher costs and real harms for American families.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA aimed to cut passenger vehicle fleetwide tailpipe emissions by nearly 50% by 2032 compared with 2027 projected levels and forecast between 35% and 56% of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would need to be electric.
The agency then estimated that the rules would result in net benefits of $99 billion annually through 2055, including $46 billion in reduced fuel costs, and $16 billion in reduced maintenance and repair costs for drivers.
Consumers were expected to save an average of $6,000 over the lifetime of new vehicles from reduced fuel and maintenance costs.
The coal industry celebrated the announcement on Thursday saying it would help stave off retirements of aging coal-fired power plants.
“Utilities have announced plans to retire more than 55,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation over the next five years. Reversing these retirement decisions could help offset the need to build new, more expensive electricity sources and prevent the loss of reliability attributes, such as fuel security, that the coal fleet provides,” said America’s Power President and CEO Michelle Bloodworth.

UNCERTAINTY UNBOUND

While many industry groups back the repeal of stringent vehicle emission standards, others have been reluctant to show public support for rescinding the endangerment finding because of the legal and regulatory uncertainty it could unleash.
Legal experts said the policy reversal could, for example, lead to a surge in lawsuits known as “public nuisance” actions, a pathway that had been blocked following a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that GHG regulation should be left in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency instead of the courts.
“This may be another classic case where overreach by the Trump administration comes back to bite it,” said Robert Percival, a University of Maryland environmental law professor.
Environmental groups have slammed the proposed repeal as a danger to the climate. Future U.S. administrations seeking to regulate greenhouse gas emissions likely would need to reinstate the endangerment finding, a task that could be politically and legally complex.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-administration-set-revoke-basis-us-climate-regulation-2026-02-12/

Trump administration officials signed a final reciprocal trade agreement that confirmed a 15% U.S. tariff rate for imports from Taiwan, while committing Taiwan to a schedule for eliminating or lowering tariffs on nearly all U.S. goods.
The document released by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Thursday also commits Taiwan to significantly boost purchases of U.S. goods from 2025 through 2029, including $44.4 billion of liquefied natural gas and crude oil, $15.2 billion of civil aircraft and engines, $25.2 billion of power grid equipment and generators, marine and steelmaking equipment.

The agreement adds technical language, and specific details to a trade framework deal first reached in January that cut tariffs on Taiwanese goods, including from its powerhouse semiconductor industries, to 15% from the 20% initially imposed by Trump. That puts Taiwan on an equal footing with its closest Asian export competitors, South Korea and Japan.
“This is a pivotal moment for Taiwan’s economy and industries to ride the winds of change and undergo a major transformation,” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te wrote on his Facebook page.
It will optimize the Taiwan–U.S. economic and trade framework, build trustworthy industrial supply chains and establish a Taiwan–U.S. high-tech strategic partnership, he added.

Taiwan also won exemptions from reciprocal tariffs for more than 2,000 product items exported to the United States, meaning the average tariff on U.S. exports will drop to 12.33%, Lai said.
The deal will need approval by Taiwan’s parliament, where the opposition has a majority.

INVESTMENT PLEDGE

The January agreement included a pledge by Taiwan that its companies would invest $250 billion to boost production of semiconductors, energy and artificial intelligence in the U.S., including $100 billion already committed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (2330.TW). The Taiwan government would guarantee another $250 billion in U.S. investments, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
The final language did not provide further details on those investments, but said Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. would collaborate with U.S. authorities to facilitate additional new greenfield and brownfield investments “in strategic high-technology manufacturing sectors, including AI, semiconductors, and advanced electronics.”

The deal will immediately eliminate Taiwan’s tariffs of up to 26% on many U.S. agricultural imports, including beef, dairy and corn. But some tariffs, including the current 40% tariff on pork belly and 32% on ham, will only fall to 10%, according to the tariff schedule.

The U.S. said under the deal, Taiwan will remove non-tariff barriers on motor vehicles and accept U.S. auto safety standards as well as those on medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-taiwan-finalize-deal-cut-tariffs-boost-purchases-us-goods-2026-02-12/

Americans are shouldering almost all of President Donald Trump’s import tax surge, a report, from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday.
The bank said 90% of the tariffs imposed by the president on imported goods are borne by American consumers and companies. The report pushes back against the Trump administration’s argument that the levies are paid by foreigners.

The report evaluated how tariffs impacted the economy last year, when the average of the taxes went from 2.6% to 13%. The report noted that the average level shifted over the course of the year and was at its highest in April and May, when Trump pumped up tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% before lowering them back to a still heady 113%.

The authors based their analysis on how tariffs worked in the first Trump term. When faced with these types of taxes, “our past work found that foreign exporters did not lower their prices at all, so the full incidence of the tariffs was borne by the U.S. That is, there was 100% pass-through from tariffs into import prices.”
The paper said that between January and August of last year Americans took 94% of the hit from Trump’s tariffs. During September and October, that ebbed to 92%, settling to 86% in November.

The New York Fed findings jibe with a report, put out by the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday.

It said “higher tariffs directly increase the cost of imported goods, raising prices for U.S. consumers and businesses.” When it comes to who will pay the tariffs, the CBO said foreign exporters will absorb 5% of the cost, and in the near term, “U.S. businesses will absorb 30% of the import price increases by reducing their profit margins; the remaining 70% will be passed through to consumers by raising prices.”

European Union leaders agreed on Thursday on a wide-ranging set of commitments to improve how the bloc’s border-free internal market works so Europe’s businesses can be competitive and survive aggressive economic rivalry from the U.S. and China.
Meeting at a Belgian castle, the leaders stressed how urgent it was to act and agreed to speed up the completion of a savings and investment union, review merger rules to help create European champions, make it easier for companies to get started and scale up and cut red tape throughout, top EU officials said.

“One Europe one market … this is our ambition,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said, adding that the EU executive would also crack down on additional layers of legislation that member states add when implementing EU decisions.

SPEED THINGS UP

The European Commission will present in March a plan on how to proceed with this deepening of the European Union’s single market of 450 million consumers, with the aim for leaders to agree on a concrete timetable.
That will include allowing a preference for European goods in public purchases in strategic sectors, von der Leyen told a press conference at the end of the meeting.

EU growth has persistently lagged that of the United States and China and EU productivity and innovation in fields such as AI has fallen short, with the bloc also squeezed by tariffs and export curbs by its global rivals.
“The European Union must act quickly and decisively. And this commitment was unanimously emphasized by all participants today,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters.

SAVINGS UNIONS

To speed things up, von der Leyen said the EU executive arm would push on with a long delayed capital markets union that would allow some 10 trillion euros ($11.86 trillion) of savings now languishing in bank accounts to be invested in the EU economy.
“We agreed that we want to be done with phase one of the Savings and Investment Union, that includes market integration, supervision and securitisation by June,” she said.

If it is impossible to move forward quickly with all 27 EU countries at the same time, the EU would push on with the project in a smaller group of at least nine member states, she said.

ACT TOGETHER?

A key question now will be whether the EU’s 27 member states can overcome self-interest and implement a joint plan of action.
While all EU countries want a more competitive bloc, they disagree on how to get there, and have done so for years, on key issues such as whether to issue joint euro bonds, or on how to cut electricity prices.
But European Council chief Antonio Costa, speaking of Thursday’s decisions to speed up unifying Europe’s single market, said: “I think it’s really a game changer.”
One after the other, EU leaders stressed it was urgent to act.
“We share the same sense of urgency. We have to accelerate. We are shaken by competition, sometimes by unfair competition and tariffs,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/eu-leaders-brainstorm-how-compete-with-us-china-castle-retreat-2026-02-12/

Nick Jonas has some words of wisdom for men who love to use a Squatty Potty.

Calling the toilet stool — which allows its user to draw their legs up higher in order to ease bowel movements — “the best thing ever,” Jonas imparted advice to BBC Radio 1 host Matt Edmondson on convincing his own wife to use it.

“I’ve got one, and honestly, it’s not gone down well,” Edmonson told Jonas of his “poop stool” during the Wednesday interview — a tool the hitmaker also admitted to owning.

“Not to give you marriage advice here … you should write a letter explaining why it’s so important to you to have this,” Jonas hilariously explained.

“And even though it gets in the way, it shouldn’t get in the way of your relationship,” he added. “That’s my unsolicited marriage advice for you today.”

Fans joined the conversation in the comments thread of the interview clip. “@nickjonas you are so REAL for this!” one person wrote, while another noted the singer’s “down to earth” attitude.

A third remarked, “As a nutritionist specialist in gastroenterology and gut health, I assure you: the little bench to elevate your feet is the best thing you could do to your intestines health! :)”

Jonas, 33, tied the knot with “Citadel” star Priyanka Chopra, 43, in a lavish, multi-day ceremony back in 2018, and subsequently welcomed daughter Malti Marie via surrogate in 2022.

The “Jealous” hitmaker has shared intimate details of his marriage to the former beauty queen before. In August, he revealed a quirky bedroom habit with Chopra.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/12/celebrity-news/nick-jonas-shares-bathroom-related-marriage-advice/

The FBI has revealed new details about the suspect in Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping, and increased the reward for key information to $100,000.

FBI Phoenix shared on X Thursday that the suspect is a male who’s approximately 5’9” – 5’10” tall, with an average build.

“Today, the FBI is increasing its reward up to $100,000 for information leading to the location of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance,” the post read.

“New identifying details about the suspect in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie have been confirmed after a forensic analysis of the doorbell camera footage by the FBI’s Operational Technology Division.”

The FBI noted that the suspect was wearing a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack. They also shared that they’ve already collected over 13,000 tips from the public related to the case.

“Every tip is reviewed for credibility, relevance, and information that can be acted upon by law enforcement,” the post read. “Threat Intake Examiners at the National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) and FBI personnel are supporting a 24-hour command post in which dozens of agents and investigators are assigned leads and tips to action each shift.”

The post concluded, “Continue to submit information to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or http://tips.fbi.gov to help us bring Nancy home.”

Officials’ last press conference was on Feb. 5, with an initial $50,000 reward offered for “information leading to the recovery of Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance” at the time.

Guthrie was last seen on Jan. 31. Authorities have been searching the missing 84-year-old’s home in Tucson, Ariz. as well as the neighborhood of her daughter Annie, who also lives in Tucson. Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni, was the last one to see Nancy when he dropped her off at home after having dinner with her and his wife.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department noted Thursday that all evidence in the case, including a suspicious black glove found Wednesday, are being “submitted for analysis … as part of the investigative process.”

The Post was first to report news of the glove, which the FBI discovered on a dirt path near Nancy’s house.

Officials are anticipating a “higher presence of law enforcement activity going forward” in the area as they “continue to follow up on viable leads throughout the community … as more leads come in” regarding Nancy’s disappearance.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/12/celebrity-news/fbi-releases-description-of-nancy-guthrie-kidnapping-suspect-as-they-increase-reward-for-key-information-to-100k/

It felt like the moment the baton was passed on.

Chloe Kim, the greatest women’s halfpipe snowboarder, and Choi Ga-on, the young protege, standing side by side on the podium.

It was expected to be a procession for American Kim to win a third consecutive Winter Olympic gold, a feat no snowboarder has ever achieved. And yet it was 17-year-old Choi on the top step at the Milan-Cortina Games.

The South Korean had defied a brutal fall in her opening run to score 90.25 points on her final attempt, a total 25-year-old Kim could not better.

It was, as Kim told BBC Sport, a “full circle moment”.

The two had met nine years ago, at a test event in Pyeongchang before the 2018 Games in which Kim, then also aged 17, would announce herself on a global stage with her first Olympic gold.

Realising her potential, Kim and her father helped Choi to travel to the United States to train.

Kim’s father, who is from South Korea, was one of the first to embrace Choi and her emotional team after her Olympic gold was confirmed.

“She’s someone I’ve known since she was little,” said Kim.

“It’s such a full circle moment seeing her from when she was so young to now standing next to her on the Olympic podium.”

Olympic gold in Italy marks the realisation of Choi’s potential, a name that has been on the lips of many in the snowboard world for some time but is now catapulted into global consciousness.

In 2023, aged just 14, Choi won X Games superpipe gold, breaking Kim’s record as the youngest rider to win the title.

That same year, she won the first World Cup she entered but was later ruled out of the remainder of that season after fracturing her back.

This Olympic season, however, she underlined her ability by winning every World Cup she entered coming into the Games.

She had managed only sixth in qualification on Wednesday as Kim topped the pile with a score of 90.25 – the exact score Choi would win gold with little more than 24 hours later.

But her final looked to be over on her very first run when she hit the icy lip of the pipe and flipped into its centre, lying motionless for some time.

As heavy snow fell, she eventually brushed herself down and later stunned the onlooking crowd with her spellbinding third run, her coach bursting into tears at the realisation of what Choi had achieved.

“It’s the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I’m incredibly happy,” said Choi.

“During the final, mentally it was so tough. But right now I am the happiest.

“My knees are a bit bad, but I feel like I’m overcoming it all with happiness.”

She later said: “After the first run, I actually cried really hard, thinking maybe I should just quit the Olympics here.

“I cried because I thought I wouldn’t be able to compete. But the thought kept coming back to me: ‘You can do this. You have to go on’. That’s what pushed me forward.”

For Kim, the build-up to the Games had been far from ideal.

With just one competition under her belt this season, she dislocated her shoulder and sustained a torn labrum in what she described as the “silliest fall” in training in Switzerland last month.

In Livigno she was competing with her shoulder in a brace but showed little sign of it affecting her.

Watched on by Team USA ‘honorary coach’ Snoop Dogg and snowboarding legend Shaun White in Thursday’s final, the eight-time X Games champion had looked set for gold after her opening run scored 88.00, with few coming close.

But Choi’s last score, met by both cheers and gasps of shock from the onlooking crowd, piled the pressure on Kim, only for a fall – one of many in what was a chaotic final – to ensure she would leave an Olympics with silver for the very first time.

Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took bronze with a score of 85.00.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Kim – who will now have surgery on her shoulder – said: “I’m so proud of myself.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/cly2jknym20o

Iran has been fortifying an underground complex near one of its nuclear facilities, according to analysis of new satellite images.

This activity comes at a time of heightened tensions as talks between Iranian and US officials continue, with President Donald Trump threatening fresh military action against Iran if it does not agree a new deal on its nuclear programme.

The photos, first analysed by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based think tank, show tunnel entrances being strengthened at Mount Kolang Gaz La – also known as Pickaxe Mountain.

Experts say this facility may be designed to protect Iran’s uranium enrichment activities or key equipment, but its exact purpose – and whether it is operational – remains unclear.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

However, Trump said Iran was as little as a month away from having a nuclear weapon in June 2025, when he ordered strikes on three underground nuclear sites where centrifuges were being used to produce highly enriched uranium during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran last year.

Trump said the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s enrichment capacity, but that Iranian officials “were thinking about starting a new site”.

Pickaxe Mountain was not one of the locations attacked in US and Israeli air strikes in June 2025, but the Natanz nuclear facility, located about 2km (1.24 miles) north, was hit.

A satellite image from 10 February shows what appears to be fresh concrete laid on top of one of the Pickaxe Mountain entrance areas.

A boom pump used to deliver concrete can be seen at the location, analysts from both ISIS and UK-based intelligence analysis firm Maiar agreed.

At another tunnel entrance, rock and soil has been pushed back and flattened. There’s also a new concrete-reinforced structure nearby.

Experts at ISIS suggest these changes are intended to strengthen the tunnel entrances and give additional protection against a potential air strike.

ISIS says the ongoing presence of heavy construction machinery and material indicates the facility is not likely to be ready for operations yet.

“In the past, Iran has tied the construction to rebuilding an advanced centrifuge assembly plant, but the size of the facility, as well as the protection provided by the tall mountain, raised immediate concern whether additional sensitive activities are planned, such as uranium enrichment,” they said.

Satellite images also show repair work and defensive strengthening has been taking place at the nearby Natanz nuclear site and at the Isfahan nuclear complex, 125km (77 miles) to the north, in recent weeks.

At Isfahan, all entrances to its tunnel complex now appear to be sealed off with earth, satellite images reviewed by ISIS reveal.

Backfilling the tunnel entrances like this would “help dampen” any air strike, ISIS says, as well as help to defend against a land-based assault to seize or destroy any highly enriched uranium that may be housed inside.

Also at Isfahan nuclear site, a new roof has been constructed. The building, attacked in an Israeli strike last year, is thought have been used in the manufacture of centrifuges.

Above-ground work is also visible at Natanz nuclear facility at a location damaged in air strikes by both Israel and the US last June. Between early December and January a roof has been built over a damaged anti-drone cage at an enrichment plant.

ISIS has assessed the roof was added to block the view of anyone trying to observe what Iran was doing beneath it.

Prof Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Washington University in the US, says Iran is “operating under the assumption that the attacks are going to happen and they need to protect the facilities as much as they can”.

“[The] Iranian nuclear programme hasn’t been destroyed,” he added. “Clearly once you have the knowledge and capacity and technology to reconstruct the programme, you can always rebuild everything.”

Rafael Grossi, the head of the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC a new nuclear deal between Iran and the US was possible and was urgently needed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwygxz81330o

Kim Ju Ae, the daughter of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, is estimated to be around 13 years old. She has already appeared by her father’s side at military events.

Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter is close to being designated as his successor to lead North Korea, according to South Korea’s spy agency.

South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun on Thursday shared details from a closed-door briefing with Seoul’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS).

“In the past, the NIS described Kim Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’ but today the ‌expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed ‌successor’,” he told reporters.

Lee said the NIS is “taking into account a range of circumstances — including her increasingly prominent public presence at official events.”

Who is Kim Ju Ae?

Little information has been officially confirmed about Kim Ju Ae, but she has increasingly appeared beside her father at high-profile engagements in North Korea, beginning with a long-range missile test in 2022.

Her name was made known in the West by American basketball icon Dennis Rodman, who visited Pyongyang in 2013.

She is believed to be around 13 years old.

Lee, the South Korean lawmaker who shared details of the intelligence briefing on Thursday, said there were signs that Kim Ju Ae had started to weigh in on policy decisions.

Some experts also believe that Kim Jong Un may have other children, including a son who has not been presented to the public.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-kim-jong-un-daughter-successor-kim-ju-ae/a-75937480

The vessel’s captain was ordered to stop for an inspection, but failed to comply and fled, Japan’s fisheries agency said.

Japan seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its skipper, authorities said on Friday (Feb 13), an incident that could deepen a spat between the Asian giants.

The episode on Thursday off southern Japan came three months after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that Japan would intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force.

“The vessel’s captain was ordered to stop for an inspection by a fisheries inspector, but the vessel failed to comply and fled,” Japan’s fisheries agency said.

“Consequently, the vessel’s captain was arrested on the same day,” according to a statement.

The boat was inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone 166km south-southwest of Meshima island in the Goto archipelago, Japan’s statement said – not a disputed area.

China was yet to comment.

It was the first time since 2022 that the agency has seized a Chinese fishing boat.

The captain was named as Chinese national Zheng Nianli, 47. The status of the other 10 people on board the vessel, named the Qiong Dong Yu, was unclear.

“To prevent illegal fishing operations by foreign vessels, we will continue to take firm action and engage in enforcement activities,” chief government spokesman Minoru Kihara said.

China has a number of territorial disputes with Japan, and there have been repeated incidents around the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China.

The 2010 arrest of another Chinese fishing boat captain off those islands in the East China Sea became a major diplomatic incident.

TAIWAN SPAT

Japan and China have close economic ties but Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan have sent relations spiralling downwards again.

China has long insisted that Taiwan, occupied for decades by Japan until 1945, is its territory and has not ruled out force to achieve “reunification”.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te told AFP in an interview this week that other countries – including Japan – would be China’s next targets should Beijing seize the island.

“The next countries under threat would be Japan, the Philippines, and others in the Indo-Pacific region, with repercussions eventually reaching the Americas and Europe,” he said.

After Takaichi’s comments, Beijing summoned Tokyo’s ambassador, warned Chinese citizens against visiting Japan and conducted joint air drills with Russia.

In December, J-15 jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft in international waters near Okinawa, according to Japan.

China also tightened controls on exports to Japan for items with potential military uses, fuelling worries that Beijing may choke supplies of vital rare-earth minerals.

Japan’s last two pandas were even returned to China last month.

HAWKISH LEADER

Takaichi, 64, was seen as a China hawk before becoming Japan’s first woman prime minister in October.

She won a landslide victory in snap elections on Sunday, putting her in a strong position for the next four years to stamp her mark on Japanese domestic and foreign policy.

Takaichi said Monday that under her leadership, Japan – which hosts around 60,000 US military personnel – would bolster its defences and “steadfastly protect” its territory.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-seize-china-fishing-boat-skipper-arrested-exclusive-economic-zone-5928286

Donald Trump announced that he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in April this year.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, while Xi is expected to visit the United States later this year.

“I’ll be visiting President Xi Jinping in April. He’s coming here later in the year, and I look forward to it. Our relationship with China is very good right now,” Trump said while addressing reporters.

However, no exact date of travel was mentioned by the US President.

In a recent interview with NBC News on February 4, Trump said that Xi will be coming to the White House, toward the end of the year. “We have a very good relationship. And, you know, it’s important that I have a good relationship and for him, that he has a good relationship with me.”

“We have to have a good — these are the two most powerful countries in the world and we have a very good relationship,” he added.

Trump and Xi also had a 90-minute telephonic conversation on February 4.

Detailing the call details, Trump said that the call focused almost entirely on trade, without touching on other geopolitical issues like Iran and Ukraine.

The call “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated. As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing,” he said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/trump-confirms-meet-with-xi-jinping-in-april-says-relationship-with-china-very-good-now-9899998.html

Labelling the elections “deceptive”, ouster Prime Minister Hasina said that they were arranged without her party — the Awami League — and without voters.

Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded the cancellation of the “voterless, illegal and unconstitutional” election in Bangladesh in her first statement after the polls concluded. The South Asian nation held its first election since the 2024 mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Labelling the elections “deceptive”, Hasina said that they were arranged without her party — the Awami League — and without voters.

“In this situation, we demand the cancellation of this voterless, illegal, and unconstitutional election; the resignation of Yunus”, she wrote.

She also demanded the withdrawal of false cases and the release of all political prisoners as well as teachers, journalists, intellectuals, and professionals; the removal of the suspension imposed on the activities of the Awami League; and the restoration of the people’s voting rights through the arrangement of a free, fair, and inclusive election under a neutral caretaker government.

She claimed that voter turnout was extremely low and polling stations in Dhaka and other parts of the country were “completely empty of voters”.

“According to the Election Commission’s briefing, voter turnout until 11 a.m. (within three and a half hours) was only 14.96%. This low participation at the peak voting period proves that the public boycotted and rejected this election without the Awami League”, she stated.

The former leader accused interim government chief Muhammad Yunus of disregarding people’s voting rights, democratic values and the constitution.

“From the evening of 11 February, this farce began through the capture of polling centres, gunfire, the widespread use of money to buy votes, stamping ballot papers, and taking agents’ signatures on result sheets”, she claimed.

Hasina said that in recent days, there were attacks, arrests, intimidation and an atmosphere of fear targeting Awami League supporters and minority communities to “forcibly take them to polling stations”.

She also highlighted that the number of voters on the voter list, especially in Dhaka, has increased abnormally. Hasina said that the increase is “questionable and unbelievable”.

More than 127 million people are eligible to vote in what was the country’s first election since Hasina’s ouster after weeks of mass protests, dubbed by many as a Gen Z uprising. Hasina fled the country and is living in India in exile while her party has been banned from the polls.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/voterless-illegal-sheikh-hasina-wants-bangladesh-election-cancelled-10994254?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Goyal said the trade deal between New Delhi and the White House will include a clause on duty benefits if cotton yarn is imported from the US.

India is likely to receive textile-related trade benefits, similar to those extended to Bangladesh under its trade arrangement with the United States, said Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. This means, like Bangladesh, Indian garment traders could also get zero-tariff access to the US market for clothes made using American cotton after the deal is signed.

Goyal said the trade deal between New Delhi and the White House will include a clause on duty benefits if cotton yarn is imported from the US. Neither the joint statement nor the White House factsheet on the India-US deal explicitly mentioned the clause.

The Commerce Minister rejected the allegations that Bangladesh secured a better deal than India, saying Washington will extend the same benefits to New Delhi. “He (Rahul Gandhi) spread another lie in the Parliament that Bangladesh has got more benefits from the trade than India,” he said, referring to the Congress leader’s claims.

“Just as Bangladesh has a facility that if raw material is purchased from America, then if you process it and make cloth and export it, then it will be available at zero reciprocal tariff. India also has the same facility, and India will also get it. Right now, our framework agreement is being made,” the minister added.

Goyal assured that the “fine print” under the deal will be clearer after the interim agreement is finalised.

The minister’s comments offer more insight into the recently announced India-US interim trade deal, whose key details have so far remained sparse. President Donald Trump announced the trade deal last week, agreeing to cut reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 25 per cent. He also scrapped a 25 per cent punitive duty imposed on India for buying Russian oil.

Indian farmers, however, are concerned that New Delhi may have made too many concessions in the agricultural sector to secure lower tariffs.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/like-bangladesh-piyush-goyal-india-to-get-0-tariff-deal-from-us-on-textiles-10997064?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

A Chicago woman shot multiple times by a Border Patrol agent plans to sue the agent and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after a trove of evidence was released that casts doubt on the Trump administration’s account of the incident, her lawyers told a press conference on Wednesday.
The agent, Charles Exum, was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Reuters, but did not respond to queries on the timing.

Soon after the October 4 shooting, DHS, which oversees border patrol, said Marimar Martinez, 31, had rammed agents with her car. But the footage suggested that the agents could have struck her vehicle themselves.
The statement echoed others by DHS after violent encounters involving federal agents that portrayed those shot as aggressors and defended the agents’ use of lethal force.
A Reuters review of such incidents has shown that video and other evidence repeatedly contradicted those narratives.
Video, text messages, emails and other records were released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago late on Tuesday after a district court judge said that the government had shown “zero concern” about Martinez’s reputation even after the government dropped the case in November.

Martinez, a Montessori school teacher in Chicago, was following the agents to warn residents of their presence when the collision occurred. In the bodycam video released Tuesday, one agent could be heard saying “do something, bitch” shortly before the vehicles made contact.
An agent in the vehicle, driven by Exum and bearing an Uber carshare sign, said they were being boxed in. “It’s time to get aggressive,” the agent said, adding, “we’re going to make contact.”
After the collision, Exum stepped out of the vehicle and fired five shots. FBI photographs in the records release showed a smattering of bullet holes in the windshield of Martinez’s vehicle and a shattered back passenger window. The interior of the vehicle was streaked with blood.
Martinez’s lawyer, Christopher Parente, said on Wednesday that Exum was under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Bend, Indiana.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in South Bend did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago declined to comment.
Following the shooting, Martinez drove off, and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. DHS released a statement after the shooting saying that Martinez had “ambushed” the border patrol vehicle, and that an agent had fired in self-defense.
Martinez was indicted on charges of impeding a federal officer. Months after the charges were dismissed, a DHS statement labeling her a “domestic terrorist” has remained online.

Martinez said she sought the records release after the fatal shootings by federal immigration agents of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month and to clear her name.

AGENT BRAGGED ABOUT MARKSMANSHIP

In the bodycam footage, agents, including Exum, could be seen inside a Border Patrol vehicle driving as protesters honked their horns outside.
In the moments before the collision, just after an agent said they would make contact, the video showed Exum, at the wheel, turn the steering wheel sharply to the left.
“Be advised we’ve been struck, we’ve been struck,” the agent wearing the bodycam said into a radio.
Exum then opened the door with his weapon drawn.
During Martinez’s court case, evidence was shared that Exum had driven the vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe, back to his base in Maine, and that repairs were made by a Customs and Border Protection mechanic before the defendants could examine it.
Text messages from Exum after the shooting also surfaced in court, including one in which he bragged about his marksmanship in a group chat with other agents. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys,” he wrote.
Records released on Tuesday show Exum exchanging a flurry of additional text messages with colleagues and family members, many of which had a celebratory tone.
One person, who Exum identified in a text to a family member as “the guy from Vermont,” called him a “legend among agents.”
“Beers on me when I see you at training,” the person wrote.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/its-time-get-aggressive-border-patrol-agent-says-chicago-shooting-video-2026-02-11/

The suspect in a deadly school shooting in western Canada was an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues who killed her mother and stepbrother before attacking her former school, police said on Wednesday, but investigators did not offer a motive for one of the worst mass slaughters in Canadian history.
The killer, whom police identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, died by suicide after the shooting on Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of 2,400 people in the Pacific province of British Columbia. Police revised the death toll down to nine, including Van Rootselaar, from the initially reported 10.

On more than one occasion, Van Rootselaar had been apprehended under the provincial Mental Health Act for an assessment, said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia.
“Police had attended that (family) residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” McDonald said.
Unlike the United States, school shootings are almost unheard of in Canada, and federal politicians initially struggled to maintain their composure.
“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” a visibly upset Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. He postponed a trip to Europe and ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.

Hours later, legislators in the House of Commons observed a moment of silence and listened as a somber Carney said the killings had left the country in shock and mourning.
“Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada,” Carney said.
The mayor of Tumbler Ridge, Darryl Krakowka, told reporters late on Wednesday that the close-knit community was “one big family.”
“Lend your ear when someone needs your ear,” he said, growing emotional at times. “Lend your shoulder when someone needs your shoulder. Give somebody a hug.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began identifying as a female six years ago, had first killed her mother, 39, and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home.
She then went to the school, where she shot a 39-year-old female teacher as well as three 12-year-old female students and two male students, one aged 12 and one aged 13. Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun.

Dozens were injured, and two severely wounded victims remain in the hospital. One of those victims, a 12-year-old girl named Maya, was fighting for her life after sustaining gunshot wounds to the head and neck, her mother, Cia Edmonds, said in a Facebook post.
Police officers who arrived at the scene two minutes after the initial call encountered active gunfire, including rounds fired in their direction, according to authorities, before discovering Van Rootselaar dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound.
She once attended the school but dropped out four years ago, police said.

“We do believe the suspect acted alone … it would be too early to speculate on motive,” McDonald told a press conference, saying police did not have information to suggest anyone had been specifically targeted.
Several prominent world leaders sent messages of condolence. King Charles, Canada’s head of state, said he was “profoundly shocked and saddened.”

SHOOTING AMONG DEADLIEST IN CANADIAN HISTORY

Details about some of the deceased victims were slowly emerging on Wednesday.
In an anguished Facebook post, Abel Mwansa said his 12-year-old son, also named Abel, had died in the shooting. Abel had once cried when his father proposed home schooling because he loved going to school so much, his father wrote.
He raised his son, Mwansa added, to respect his elders, “be strong, work hard, put a smile on the face like I do, focus on his studies, never miss school and to be a good kid.”
Another woman, Shanon Dycke, said her 12-year-old niece, Kylie May Smith, was among the victims.
“Pray for the other families who have lost their child, or are waiting to hear news,” she wrote on Facebook. “Just pray for Tumbler Ridge.”
The attack sent shockwaves through the tiny community.
“Everybody knows everybody,” Jordon Kosik, a resident, said in an interview. “People don’t lock their homes. They don’t lock their cars. You can just go to your neighbor’s house, just walk right in.”
McDonald said police had seized firearms from the family residence about two years ago but returned them after the owner, who he did not identify, successfully appealed the decision.
Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms with a license.
Van Rootselaar previously had a firearms license, but it expired in 2024. Canadians between the ages of 12 and 17 can obtain a minor’s firearms license after taking a firearms safety course and passing tests.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-sending-top-minister-scene-school-shooting-says-carney-2026-02-11/

President Donald Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday they reached no “definitive” agreement on how to move forward with Iran but he insisted negotiations with Tehran would continue to see if a deal can be achieved.
Netanyahu, who had been expected to press Trump to widen diplomacy with Iran beyond its nuclear program to include limits on its missile arsenal, stressed that Israel’s security interests must be taken into account but offered no sign that the president made the commitments he sought.

In their seventh meeting since Trump returned to office last year, Netanyahu – whose visit was more muted than usual and closed to the press – was looking to influence the next round of U.S. discussions with Iran following nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday.
The two leaders spoke behind closed doors for more than two and a half hours in what Trump described as a “very good meeting” but said no major decisions were made and stopped short of publicly accepting Netanyahu’s entreaties.
Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war as the U.S. amasses forces in the Middle East. He has repeatedly voiced support for a secure Israel, a longstanding U.S. ally and arch-foe of Iran.

In media interviews on Tuesday, Trump reiterated his blunt warning to Iran, while saying he believes Tehran wants a deal.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” Trump said in a social media post after the meeting with Netanyahu. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference.”
“If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” Trump added, noting that the last time Iran decided against an agreement the U.S. struck its nuclear sites last June.

TRUMP SAYS NO TO IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS, MISSILES

Trump told Fox Business in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that a good deal with Iran would mean “no nuclear weapons, no missiles,” without elaborating. He also told Axios he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group as part of a major U.S. buildup near Iran.

Israel fears that the U.S. might pursue a narrow nuclear deal that does not include restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program or an end to Iranian support for armed proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, according to people familiar with the matter. Israeli officials have urged the U.S. not to trust Iran’s promises.
Iran has rejected such demands and says the Oman talks focused only on nuclear issues.
“The Prime Minister emphasized the security needs of the State of Israel in the context of the negotiations, and the two agreed to continue their close coordination and tight contact,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after Wednesday’s talks.
The two leaders had also been expected to talk about potential military action if diplomacy with Iran fails, one source said.
Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions but has ruled out linking the issue to missiles.

“The Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities are non-negotiable,” Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Wednesday.
Netanyahu’s arrival at the White House was lower-key than usual. The two leaders were shown shaking hands in a photo released by the Israeli Embassy. But unlike previous Netanyahu visits with Trump, a press pool was not allowed into the Oval Office. It was not immediately known why he received such low-profile treatment.

GAZA ON THE AGENDA

Also on the agenda was Gaza, with Trump looking to push ahead with a ceasefire agreement he helped to broker. Progress on his 20-point plan to end the war and rebuild the shattered Palestinian enclave has stalled, with major gaps over steps such as Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw in phases.
“We discussed the tremendous progress being made in Gaza, and the Region in general,” Trump said after the meeting.
Netanyahu’s visit, originally scheduled for February 18, was brought forward amid renewed U.S. engagement with Iran. Both sides at last week’s Oman meeting said the negotiations were positive and further talks were expected soon.
Trump has been vague about broadening the negotiations. He was quoted as telling Axios on Tuesday that it was a “no-brainer” for any deal to cover Iran’s nuclear program, but that he also thought it possible to address its missile stockpiles.
Iran says its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes, while the U.S. and Israel have accused it of past efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
During a 12-day war last June, Israel heavily damaged Iran’s air defenses and missile arsenal. Two Israeli officials say there are signs Iran is working to restore those capabilities.
Trump threatened last month to intervene militarily during a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran, but ultimately held off.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/israels-netanyahu-expected-press-trump-over-iran-diplomacy-2026-02-11/

U.S. forces in Qatar’s al-Udeid, the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East, put missiles into truck launchers as tensions with Iran ratcheted up since January, analysis of satellite images showed, meaning they could be moved more quickly.
The decision to keep the Patriot missiles in mobile trucks rather than semi-static launcher stations — meaning they could rapidly deploy to strike or be moved defensively in case of an Iranian attack — shows how risks heightened as frictions grew.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, its backing for allied groups in the Middle East and crushing of internal dissent, though talks to avert a war continue.
There are also U.S. bases in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned that in case of strikes on Iranian territory, they could retaliate against any U.S. base.
A comparison of satellite photographs in early February with those taken in January shows a recent build-up of aircraft and other military equipment across the region, said William Goodhind, a forensic imagery analyst with Contested Ground.

At al-Udeid, the Patriot missiles were visible parked mounted into M983 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT) at the start of February, Goodhind said.
“The decision to do so gives the Patriots much greater mobility, meaning they can be moved to an alternative site or repositioned with greater speed,” he said.

It was not clear on Tuesday whether the missiles were still in the HEMTTs.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.
Iran says it has replenished its missile stocks after two weeks of conflict last summer when Israel bombed its nuclear facilities and some other military targets, a campaign that the United States joined late on.
Iran has underground missile complexes near Tehran, as well as at Kermanshah, Semnan and near the Gulf coast.
The Iranian naval drone carrier IRIS Shahid Bagheri was visible in satellite photographs on January 27 at sea some 5 km from Bandar Abbas. It was also visible near Bandar Abbas on February 10.

A POPULAR food influencer has died after eating a venomous crustacean known as a “devil crab”.

Emma Amit, 51, chewed on the rare shellfish before collapsing at her home once the cocktail of toxins entered her bloodstream.

Footage shows the food vlogger lifting the crab to her mouth and then gorging on it with a smile on her face.

Emma and her friends had been hunting shellfish and crabs in a mangrove forest near her house in the Palawan Province of the Philippines on February 4.

It took less than 24 hours before the mother fell gravely ill as the potent cocktail of neurotoxins flooded her bloodstream.

Neighbours said she was convulsing as she was rushed to a local hospital where her health took a fatal turn.

She was pronounced dead on February 6 – just two days after she ate the crab.

Laddy Gemang, chief of Luzviminda Village, urged locals not to “gamble” with their lives by eating the dangerous animal.

He was left puzzled by the influencer’s death as she and her husband were both known to be experienced fishers.

“This is really saddening because they should have known,” he said.

“She and her husband, they are both fisherfolk.

“They live by the sea, so I know they know about this devil crab that’s dangerous to eat. So why did she eat it? That is what I’m confused about.”

Gemang said that village officers were sent to Emma’s home to look into the case.

Brightly coloured shells of the devil crabs were found discarded among her rubbish.

“I saw the shells, there were around eight. I don’t know if all of them were devil crabs, but they all looked alike,” he added.

“So to the residents of Puerto Princesa, I am urging you to be doubly vigilant.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15928886/food-influencer-dies-eating-toxic-devil-crab-social-media-stunt/

Investigators found a suspicious glove similar to the one Nancy Guthrie’s suspected kidnapper used in her abduction near her Arizona home on Wednesday.

According to photos obtained by The Post, FBI officers discovered the glove on a dirt path.

The glove, which appeared to be insulated, was collected by forensics.

The discovery comes after the FBI unveiled surveillance footage of a suspect disarming Guthrie’s front doorbell camera and breaking into her Arizona home in the early morning of Feb. 1.

The footage, which was released on Tuesday, showed the masked individual approaching the Tucson home, wearing gloves and a jacket.

The suspect also appeared to have a weapon holstered at his waist and a backpack in tow.

A clear view of the perpetrator’s eyes could be seen in the footage before the camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m MT.

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that his team and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department worked together to recover footage “that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors — including the removal of recording devices.”

The images of the suspect were reshared on Nancy’s daughter Savannah Guthrie’s Instagram.

The “Today” host pleaded for the return of her 84-year-old mom, captioning the photos, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”

Additionally, Savannah and her siblings, Anne and Camron, have been sending several messages of desperation to their mom’s kidnapper, begging to get in contact with the culprit so Nancy can return home.

Shortly after the surveillance footage was released, a DoorDash deliveryman identified as Carlos was pulled over and “detained for kidnapping.”

“I asked, ‘The kidnapping of who?’ and they told me this lady … I don’t know her name,” he told ABC15 Arizona after being released.

“I told [officers], ‘I work in Tucson for GLS. I might have delivered a package to your house, but I never kidnapped anybody.’”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/11/celebrity-news/cops-hunting-for-nancy-guthrie-find-suspicious-black-glove-near-her-home-as-hunt-intensifies/

Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the military’s “fight against corruption”, state media reported on Wednesday (Feb 11), in a rare acknowledgement of graft weeks after Beijing escalated a sweeping purge by probing its top general.

Beijing’s defence ministry said last month it was investigating Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

The pair were the latest to fall under a huge drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state since Xi came to power more than a decade ago. The drive has targeted the military in recent years.

Speaking to soldiers in a virtual address on Tuesday, Xi said the military had “undergone revolutionary tempering in the fight against corruption”, using a phrase commonly associated with strengthening military and party loyalty.

“The People’s Liberation Army has advanced in-depth political rectification (and) effectively responded to various risks and challenges,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The anti-graft drive in the military has decimated the powerful CMC from its seven-person roster in 2022 to one general alongside Xi, who serves as its chair.

Leaders across the military’s service branches have also been investigated or expelled.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-xi-jinping-fight-against-corruption-zhang-youxia-5923686

In response to CNA’s queries, a spokesperson from BMW Group Asia said that a total of 2,303 BMW vehicles were part of the safety recall in Singapore.

BMW is recalling hundreds of thousands of cars due to a potential fire hazard, the German premium carmaker said on Wednesday (Feb 11).

The global recall is affecting a mid-six-figure number of cars, a BMW spokesperson said.

Newspaper Bild earlier reported on the recall, citing the Munich-based carmaker.

Speciality publication kfz-betrieb said a total of 575,000 vehicles from various series are affected.

In response to CNA’s queries on Thursday (Feb 12), a spokesperson from BMW Group Asia said that a total of 2,303 BMW vehicles were part of the safety recall in Singapore.

BMW said that product inspections and customer complaints revealed that the starter motor in the identified vehicles could be defective, with an increase in wear and tear in the magnetic switch after a high number of starts, making it potentially harder or impossible to start the car.

This carries the risk of causing a fire in the vehicle in the worst-case scenario, the spokesperson said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/bmw-recall-potential-fire-hazard-cars-5923871

JAMES Van Der Beek shared a hopeful and now-heartbreaking final message to fans.

Less than a month before his shocking death on Wednesday at 48, the iconic Dawson’s Creek star shared that he planned to “recover and rest” before springtime.

Van Der Beek’s family announced his passing on social media just over a year after he first revealed his diagnosis with stage 3 colorectal cancer.

“Anyone else out there finding that your New Year’s resolution was impossible to keep? I’m going to say something: I don’t think it’s your fault,” the actor said in an Instagram video January 15.

“Why are we celebrating a new year in the dead of winter? Why are we celebrating new beginnings at a time when nature rests?

“I’m going to take winter to recover, to rest, and I’m going to make New Year’s resolutions in the spring. Who’s with me?” Van Der Beek said in the gutwrenching final video.

The actor went on to explain his reasoning.

“Animals are hibernating! Birds fly south for the winter!” he said.

“The time to celebrate a new beginning, and a new you, and a new resolution, is in the spring, at the vernal equinox, when the flowers bloom and it gets warmer and the birds return.

“That’s how nature does it. Why are we fighting nature?”

TRAGIC DEATH

The actor died 6:44am Pacific on Wednesday, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office in Texas.

Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly, confirmed the news in an Instagram post.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” she wrote.

“He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time.

“Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

Along with his wife, Kimberly, Van Der Beek is survived by their six children Olivia, 14, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 8, Gwen, 6, and Jeremiah, 3.

He first announced his diagnosis in a November 2024 interview with People.

“I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family,” he said at the time.

In November, Van Der Beek auctioned off some outfits he wore on Dawson’s Creek to pay for treatment, including the clothes he wore in the pilot episode of the show.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15928017/james-van-der-beek-last-video-message-before-death/

Japan’s Nikkei share average climbed past the 58,000 mark for the first time on Thursday, extending its scorching rally since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a resounding electoral victory on a campaign of increased economic stimulus.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index was up 0.4 per cent at 57,874.61 after rising as high as 58,015.08 earlier in the day, as trading resumed after a holiday. So far in 2026, the Nikkei has surged 15 per cent. The broader Topix climbed 0.8 per cent to 3,884.16 on Thursday.

The earnings season is underway in the world’s fourth-largest economy, and domestic markets have been buoyed by bets that a decisive showing by Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday’s national election will enable her to push through spending and tax-relief measures.

Since she began her rise to become the nation’s first female premier in October, the “Takaichi trade” has pushed local shares to successive record highs while spurring declines in government bonds and the yen.

“Following recent strong earnings results and the LDP’s landslide victory under the Takaichi administration, the market has been on a significant upward trend,” said Wataru Akiyama, a strategist at Nomura Securities.

“The sense of overheating seems to be intensifying, so profit-taking movements could emerge from here on.”

Honda Motor shares slumped 3 per cent after the automaker posted a 61 per cent drop in third-quarter profit after market hours on Tuesday.

Results from SoftBank Group after the bell on Thursday will be closely watched for details on how it will fund its massive investments in AI.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/japans-nikkei-rises-past-58000-first-time-takaichi-trade-5925026

US Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the justice department’s handling of the Epstein files and faced a barrage of angry questions on other issues during a fiery congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Her testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee descended at times into a shouting match, with Bondi at one point calling a Democrat a “washed up loser” and, after another heated exchange, one lawmaker even stormed out.

Here are some of the key exchanges from the four-hour hearing.

Australian opposition leader Sussan Ley, the first woman to head the Liberal Party, is facing a leadership challenge from her shadow defence minister after he resigned from the front bench.

Angus Taylor confirmed he would run for the leadership on Thursday, saying the country was in “trouble” and that the Liberal Party “has lost its way”.

Ley narrowly defeated Taylor in a leadership contest last year, after her party’s worst ever election loss. But since then she has been plagued by poor poll numbers and infighting among the conservative Liberal-National coalition.

The partnership, which dates back to the 1940s, has twice split and reunited under her leadership, further undermining her tenure.

Taylor – from the conservative faction of the party as opposed to Ley’s moderate wing – on Wednesday announced he had quit the party leadership team. Local media say he has long been plotting to oust Ley.

“We have failed to hold a bad Labor government to account,” he told reporters, adding that the party needed to “protect Australians’ way of life” and “focus on restoring their standard of living”.

He said he did not believe Ley was “in a position to be able to lead the party as it needs to be led from here”.

After his announcement on Thursday, several of his Liberal colleagues also submitted their front bench resignations, including shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam and shadow finance minister James Paterson.

According to local media, Taylor’s supporters have requested a special party room meeting to consider a so-called spill motion, which would mean the party’s leadership is up for contest. Such a meeting could come as soon as Thursday, but would be up to Ley’s discretion.

Ley has yet to publicly comment on the leadership challenge but her supporters told local media she was considering the spill motion request.

A victory for Taylor would put an end to months of speculation around Ley’s leadership, which has never seemed secure.

The coalition reunited after its most recent split just days ago, following a row over hate speech laws for which Ley had pushed after the Bondi Beach attack in December, but which her Nationals colleagues refused to support.

When announcing the initial split in January, Nationals leader David Littleproud pointedly said his party could not serve in a shadow cabinet under Ley.

A series of recent polls have shown the populist One Nation party – which only got 6% of the national vote last year – overtaking the Coalition to take second place behind Labor. Ley’s personal ratings are also poor.

The coalition has failed to agree on what caused its crushing election defeat to Labor, which saw the Liberals all but wiped out in the major cities.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2r4d5mnero

The EU is increasing its efforts in drone security following multiple drone incursions into EU airspace in 2025. The new action plan aims to improve cooperation, but Europe’s drone security network remains patchy.

The European Union (EU) is getting ready to counter drones more effectively. The commissioners for Tech Sovereignty, Transport and Internal Affairs presented a new strategy on Wednesday, February 11, in Strasbourg. The aim: boost resilience and cooperation among member states.

A series of foreign drone and balloon incursions across the EU in 2025 has added urgency. In September, an unprecedented wave of Russian drones entered Polish airspace and were shut down by the military. In Denmark, airports temporarily closed after unidentified drones were spotted overhead.

A new drone and counter-drone strategy for the EU
With the new plan, the Commission wants to strengthen Europe’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to malicious drone activity. It focuses on improving coordination between EU countries, drone detection systems and tightening rules for civilian drones. Among the proposals are a counter-drone center of excellence, better tracking and risk assessment tools and joint procurement of counter-drone technology.

The plan also aims to push Europe’s drone industry to increase production and technology innovation. Additionally, the strategy seeks to deepen coordination between civil actors and the military to better protect critical infrastructure and borders.

Hybrid threats from drones have often taken place around civil infrastructure, like airports, ports or energy infrastructure, Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s commissioner for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, tells DW.

“That’s why it’s important that now we are combining different actions and that the private sector, our civilian authorities and the military are working together,” she said. “That’s how we are able to really identify, detect and also eliminate the drones if needed.”

EU ‘getting more involved in security’
In many ways, the new EU strategy builds on work already in progress. But it also signals a stronger focus on security policy, says Chris Kremidas-Courtney, senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Center.

“It’s a serious plan. This is the European Union getting more involved in defense and security,” they told DW, adding that the plan for a sovereign European command and control capacity to track and engage drones in Europe was a level of ambition they hadn’t seen before.

At the same time, the security expert cautions that much of the strategy document remains regulatory rather than operational.

“A lot of the language has to do with risk assessments and certification schemes,” Kremidas-Courtney said — suggesting the EU is still operating largely within its regulatory comfort zone.

Looming hybrid threats add urgency
For Kremidas-Courtney, the airspace incursions seen in 2025 accelerated political momentum.

“Seeing drones flying around [EU] airports has added urgency to” the issue of drone defense, they said.

Still, they argue that Europe would have moved in this direction eventually anyway, as drone warfare and hybrid tactics are playing a front and center role in modern security threats.

Europe a fragmented landscape
Drone defense across Europe remains patchy.

“[France], Germany, Poland, Sweden have really good capabilities. And Greece, as well has really good capabilities for defending against drones for specific places,” Kremidas-Courtney said. “But most of our member states don’t have enough sensors. We don’t have enough shooters” to take down hostile drones.

The new strategy aims to close some of those gaps, although many of the measures will depend on voluntary participation by member states.

Better information sharing is central.

“We have to be able to share information, if there is that kind of incidents,” Virkkunen said.

The plan includes an annual European drone security exercise to test cross-border coordination in practice.

Pressure to move faster on defense
The strategy comes as the EU and NATO ramp up broader defense efforts. Growing global instability and shifting alliances are putting pressure on Europe to move more quickly on defense — something the bloc is not necessarily known for.

“If we don’t move fast enough, I think in two or three years we might find ourselves in a situation where we will wish we had moved much faster,” Kremidas-Courtney warned.

EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner acknowledged that during the presentation on Wednesday.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/eu-ups-drone-cooperation-amid-hybrid-threats/a-75920686

Thwaites Glacier, better known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is in rough shape. It has enough frozen water in it to raise global sea levels by a tad over two feet — which would be absolutely devastating to many places around the globe — but there’s a plan hatching that’s straight out of a science fiction movie: build a giant wall around it.

Now, one would be excused for thinking that this seems a little far-fetched. That’s because it is far-fetched, but hell, going to the moon seemed far-fetched in the ’50s, and look what happened in 1969. One small step, right? As science advances, two things can happen: we can plunder the planet for resources needed to create the things advances in science affords us, and we can also attempt to solve the problems that come along with plundering the planet for resources.

If the project, called the Seabed Curtain Project, were to go ahead, it would be both a monumental undertaking and achievement. To make any real difference, it would need to stretch over 50 miles and be nearly 500 feet high. That alone would be a big fence to make, but this one would need to be be built over 2,000 feet down in a very inhospitiable part of the ocean. It would also need to be able withstand everything that inhospitable part of the ocean can throw at it — and it can throw a lot. Billions of dollars would need to be spent to make it a reality, but despite all of those seemingly impossible hurdles, the Seabed Curtain Project isn’t daunted.

“Just because it’s extremely difficult is not an excuse not to try,” Marianne Hagen, co-lead of the Seabed Curtain Project and former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway told IFLScience. “For me, it’s kind of a no-brainer. If it’s possible to take 65 centimeters of global sea level rise off the table for everybody, with one single targeted intervention in one location, I’m willing to explore it. I think we have an obligation to do so.”

It’s not a great sign that people are considering something this drastic to leave a habitable planet for future generations. First things first, we’ve got to figure out a way for all of us to stop belching all manner of filth into our home planet.

“I truly believe that reducing emissions is what’s going to save the planet,” Hagen continued. “There is no way around it, with or without any climate interventions.”

You likely know what’s happening up there on the northern edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, but here’s a quick explanation: Thwaites Glacier is on the edge of West Antarctica. It’s about the size of Florida and is the widest glacier in the world, spanning some 80-or-so miles. It’s melting incredibly quick from all sides, including the underside, which is a tad worrisome considering the amount of ice it holds. As oceans warm, glaciers around the world are melting at alarming rates that have doubled from the ’90s to the 2010s. There are some estimates that the glacier could collapse entirely in the next two or three decades, which affect billions of people around the world. Avoiding that is… well, it’s good. The Seabed Curtain Project believes that installing a fix now will be cheaper than fixing the damage later.

“If you compare [the project costs] with the coastal repair and damage cost, it’s a fraction,” Hagen explained. “The cost of this project will run in billions. The cost of the damages will run into trillions.”

The reason the Doomsday Glacier is melting so quickly is because there’s a stream of warmer water that’s getting into a gap between the continental shelf and the glacier itself. The plan would be relatively simple, if not for the scale of it. Basically, a series of huge “curtains” would be anchored to the seabed. The top of them would be made of something that floats. The hope is that that would lessen the amount of warm water flowing under the glacier, slowing down its melting rate.

Obviously, this is still a bit of a pie-in-sky idea, but a team of scientists from all over the globe have assembled and are working on it. One of the first steps for the Sea Curtain Project is a small-scale test.

Source : https://www.theinertia.com/environment/seabed-curtain-project-doomsday-glacier/

Madeleine McCann’s name appeared in newly released Epstein-related court documents due to an uncorroborated witness claim involving Ghislaine Maxwell.

The name of Madeleine McCann resurfaced following the recent declassification of court documents linked to the Jeffrey Epstein case, prompting renewed online speculation about a possible connection to Ghislaine Maxwell. However, authorities have repeatedly stated there is no official link between McCann’s disappearance and the Epstein case.

Madeleine McCann, a British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation under the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Grange.

The police have also asked residents to stay indoors as additional forces are being deployed in the region.

At least 10 people, including the suspected shooter, were killed in a shooting at a high school in Canada’s British Columbia on Tuesday.

Another 25 people were being assessed for injuries at a local medical center, the police said.

The incident took place at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia’s Peace region.

The suspected shooter was also found dead from self-inflicted wounds, the police said, adding that it was a woman.

“Multiple injuries and multiple deceased ⁠were inside the school as officers progressed through the scene,” police Superintendent Ken Floyd told the media.

“We have the scene secured right ‌now. We have investigators there to try to determine the ‌nature of the extent of the injuries and ‌what weapons may or may not have been involved,” Floyd said.

The police have also asked residents to stay indoors as additional forces are being deployed in the region.

Larry Neufeld, member of the legislature for Peace River South, told the media that an “excess” of resources, including RCMP and ambulance support, have been sent to the community.

He said he did not want to release any more information over concerns that it might jeopardise the safety of the ongoing operation.

“We do understand that a few folks are out looking for loved ones, and again, please, please go back to your homes and shelter in place and allow the amazing people of the RCMP to make this community, this beautiful community, safe again,” he said.

According to the provincial government website, the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has about 175 students from classes 7 to 12.

Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms ⁠with a license.

The Trudeau government introduced a number of restrictions on handgun ownership and assault-style weapons since 2020, partly in response to a mass shooting in Nova Scotia and the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.

However, attempts ‌to ban certain types of rifles and shotguns were abandoned after opposition from farmers and hunters.

Tumbler Ridge, the scene of ‌the shooting, is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in ‌northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155 km (717 miles) northeast of Vancouver. Images of the town show a snow-covered landscape filled with pine trees.

Tumbler Ridge ‌Secondary School has 160 students in grades seven through 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school was closed for the rest of the week and counseling will be made available to those in need, school officials said.

Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving ⁠a call, and that ⁠victims were still being assessed hours after the incident.

“This is a small, tight-knit community with a small RCMP detachment as well, who responded in two minutes, no doubt saving lives today,” Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s public safety minister, told reporters.

The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history.

In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station about 90 km (60 miles) from the site of his first killings.

In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, ​Quebec, before committing suicide.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/world/multiple-casualties-feared-in-shooting-at-school-in-canadas-british-columbia-3894225

India’s government said social media companies would have to take down unlawful content within three hours of being notified about it, tightening on Tuesday an earlier 36-hour timeline in what could be a compliance challenge for Meta, YouTube and X.
The changes amend India’s 2021 IT rules, which have already been a flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and global technology companies.

The new regulations will take effect from February 20.
The move reinforces India’s position as one of the world’s most aggressive regulators of online content, requiring platforms to balance compliance in a market of 1 billion internet users against mounting concerns over government censorship.
The government directive did not give any reason for the change in the timeline for takedowns.
“It’s practically impossible for social media firms to remove content in three hours,” said Akash Karmakar, a partner at Indian law firm Panag & Babu who specialises in technology law. “This assumes no application of mind or real world ability to resist compliance.”

India has taken many steps to control online speech, empowering scores of officers in recent years to order content removal. That has often drawn criticism from digital rights advocates and prompted clashes with companies including Elon Musk’s X.

THOUSANDS OF TAKEDOWN ORDERS

Facebook-owner Meta (META.O), declined to comment on the changes, while X and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O), which operates YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
There is mounting global pressure on social media companies to police content more aggressively, with governments from Brussels to Brasilia demanding faster takedowns and greater accountability.
India’s IT rules empower the government to order the removal of content deemed illegal under any of its laws, including those related to national security and public order.
The country has issued thousands of takedown orders in recent years, according to platform transparency reports. Meta alone restricted more than 28,000 pieces of content in India in the first six months of 2025 following government requests, it disclosed.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/india-gives-social-media-companies-three-hours-take-down-unlawful-content-2026-02-10/

U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard told Reuters on Tuesday that she has wound down a task force she launched last year with the declared goal of rooting out politicization from intelligence agencies, but which critics accused of being a tool for partisan attacks by the Trump administration.
Gabbard said in a statement she had reassigned members of the Director’s Initiatives Group elsewhere in her agency. Her comments to Reuters came after two sources said the decision to wrap up the DIG, as it was commonly known, was taken after alleged missteps.

A spokesperson at Gabbard’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence denied any missteps and said the DIG was meant to be only temporary, a view Gabbard echoed.
“The Director’s Initiatives Group was created as a temporary effort to surge resources to deliver on high-priority projects with near-term deadlines, including Presidential Executive Orders,” Gabbard told Reuters.
“We are continuing to deliver results focused on our mission by maximizing the expertise and experience of those who were temporarily assigned to the Director’s Initiatives Group by assigning them to teams across ODNI.”
The DIG has been scrutinized by members of Congress, many of whom saw its structure as secretive. Congress passed legislation in December requiring Gabbard to provide a classified report last month that included details on DIG leadership, staffing levels and hiring practices.

Gabbard’s office missed the deadline but the ODNI spokesperson said the agency would still provide the information to Congress.
The disclosure that the DIG has been wound down comes at a sensitive moment for Gabbard, as Democrats raise alarms over her presence at a January 28 FBI raid that seized ballot boxes and other materials from a Georgia county’s election archive.
Reuters first reported last week that Gabbard’s office also oversaw an investigation last year into voting machines in Puerto Rico, with officials taking possession of an unspecified number of them.
The White House has defended Gabbard’s role in reviewing U.S. election security. But Democratic leaders of Congress argue that she has exceeded her spy agency’s purview and say that the Trump administration could attempt to interfere in future U.S. elections.

Advocates of the DIG cite accomplishments such as the declassification of files related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, and making good on a raft of President Donald Trump’s executive orders shortly after he took office.
But critics saw its efforts to root out politicization in the intelligence community as highly partisan.
The ODNI, for example, claimed as a major accomplishment declassifying documents that Gabbard alleged showed that former President Barack Obama had U.S. intelligence officials concoct an assessment that Russia sought to sway the 2016 presidential vote in favor of Trump.
Her allegation, however, was contradicted by a 2025 CIA review, a 2018 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who indicted 25 Russians. Obama denied any wrongdoing.

In an interview with Reuters last year, Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he suspected the DIG was pursuing a “witch hunt” for intelligence officers it deemed disloyal to Trump. He did not cite specific evidence.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trumps-spy-chief-gabbard-winds-down-intelligence-task-force-2026-02-10/

A newly uncovered FBI interview raised new questions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion he knew nothing about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, while Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, faced a barrage of questions from lawmakers on Tuesday about his own ties to the financier.
The day’s developments underscored how the fallout from the Epstein scandal remains a major political headache for the Trump administration, weeks after the Justice Department released millions of Epstein-related files, to comply with a bipartisan bill.

The files have also created crises abroad after revealing new details of Epstein’s ties to prominent people in politics, finance, business and academia.
In July 2006, as Epstein’s first sex crime charges became public, the police chief in Palm Beach, Florida, received a call from Trump, according to the summary of a 2019 FBI interview with the police chief that was among the files.
The police chief, Michael Reiter, cited Trump as having told him: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
Trump told Reiter that people in New York knew about Epstein and advised him that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate, was “evil,” according to the document. Trump also said he had once been around Epstein when teenagers were present and that he “got the hell out of there.”

Reiter, who retired in 2009, confirmed the details of the FBI interview to the Miami Herald, which first reported its existence.
Asked about the reported conversation, the Justice Department said, “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”
Trump was friends with Epstein for years, but they had a falling out before Epstein’s first arrest, Trump has said. The president has repeatedly said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that Trump has been “honest and transparent” about ending his association with Epstein.
“It was a phone call that may or may not have happened in 2006,” she said. “I don’t know the answer to that question.”

LUTNICK GRILLED AT SENATE HEARING

Separately on Tuesday, Lutnick sought to distance himself from Epstein while testifying at a Senate hearing, alleging he “barely had anything to do with” him.

The Justice Department files included emails that showed Lutnick appears to have visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island for lunch in 2012, seven years after he claimed to have cut off all ties. The revelations have prompted calls from both Republicans and Democrats for him to resign.
Lutnick told senators that the two men had met only three times over 14 years and that the lunch, which included his family, occurred simply because he was on a boat near the island.
“I know and my wife knows that I have done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard,” Lutnick said at the hearing.
But the emails contradicted Lutnick’s previous statements that he vowed in 2005 never to see Epstein again, after Epstein, his neighbor at the time, showed Lutnick a massage table at his townhouse and made a sexually suggestive comment.

Republican Representative Tom Massie told CNN on Sunday that Lutnick should “make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign.”
Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Trump “fully supports” Lutnick.
Congressional Democrats also introduced legislation on Tuesday intended to make it easier for adult victims of sex trafficking to sue their abusers, even many years later.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-told-police-chief-everyone-knew-about-epstein-fbi-document-says-2026-02-10/

Asif said Pakistan’s decision to once again align with Washington after 1999, particularly in relation to Afghanistan, inflicted lasting damage on the country.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has made serious accusations against the United States, claiming that Washington exploited Islamabad for its strategic interests and then discarded it “worse than a toilet paper”.

He further described the US-backing as a mistake whose consequences Pakistan continues to bear decades later.

Khawaja Asif’s Big Afghan War Admission

A person has been detained for questioning in connection with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

The person was detained during a traffic stop in Rio Rico, Ariz., south of Tucson near the Mexico border, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday evening.

They also announced the department, assisted by the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, obtained a search warrant for a location in Rio Rico related to the investigation.

“This operation is expected to last several hours. No further details at this time,” they said in a statement.

While the person has not yet been identified, TMZ reports the person is not a member of the Guthrie family. The Post says the individual is a man.

Additionally, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed federal investigators were probing “persons of interest” during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday night.

“Without polluting the investigation, I will say we have made substantial progress in these last 36-48 hours, thanks to the technical capabilities of the FBI and our partnerships and I do believe we are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest,” he explained.

The update comes after horrifying photos and videos of a potential suspect were released by the FBI on Feb. 10. However, it’s not clear if the person detained is the person in the photos and videos.

In the images, an armed person in a ski mask was seen tampering with Nancy’s home security camera on the morning she was reported missing.

In a Feb. 5 press conference, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters that investigators were “actively looking at everybody” as a suspect.

“Does that mean we have a prime suspect? No,” he added, noting the Guthrie family had been “very cooperative.”

Nancy vanished from her Arizona home after being dropped off by son-in-law Tommaso Cioni on Jan. 31 following a family dinner. The matriarch was last seen around 9:30 p.m. — and caused alarm when she didn’t show up to church the morning of Feb. 1.

The following day, Nanos confirmed in a press conference that the 84-year-old’s Tucson residence was being treated as a crime scene due to “very concerning” circumstances.

Savannah, 54, released a statement at the time, reading, “On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support. Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom.”

Later that evening, the NBC personality pleaded with her Instagram followers to pray for her mother’s safe return.

The journalist, notably, remained off air while navigating the family crisis and pulled out of hosting the Winter Olympics.

Nanos revealed on Feb. 3 that Nancy was believed to have been “taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night.”

The sheriff had previously emphasized Nancy’s “sound mind,” explaining, “This is an elderly woman in her mid-80s who suffers from ailments. … She couldn’t go 50 yards.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that the home showed signs of forced entry, with NewsNation releasing a video of what appeared to be a trail of blood outside the front door. Nanos later confirmed during the Feb. 5 press conference that the blood was Nancy’s.

Nanos has consistently shared his hopes during the investigation that Nancy is still alive.

He noted on Feb. 4 that the “clock [was] ticking” because Nancy’s “critical” medication had been left behind, meaning her alleged captors had “placed her in great jeopardy.”

Multiple ransom notes were sent to local news organizations, allegedly containing chilling details about Nancy’s home and outfit pre-disappearance.

Savannah, Annie and Camron filmed an emotional Instagram video on Feb. 4 telling the alleged captors, who have asked for millions in Bitcoin, they’re “ready to talk” — and sending love to their mom.

Camron did the same in an additional video Feb. 5, then joined his sisters for a third plea two days later.

In the Feb. 7 upload, Savannah said, “We beg you now to return our mother to us, so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/10/celebrity-news/person-detained-for-questioning-in-nancy-guthrie-case/

Britney Spears sold the rights to her iconic music catalog in a massive music deal, Page Six has learned.

The Grammy winner released her shares to Primary Wave, a private music publishing company based in New York City, on Dec. 30, according to documents obtained by TMZ Tuesday.

An insider told the outlet that the “landmark deal” was estimated to be in the same ballpark as the $200 million-dollar check Justin Bieber received when he sold his catalog in 2022.

The source shared that Spears, 44, was happy and celebrating with her two sons, Sean Preston Federline, 20, and Jayden James Federline, 19.

A rep for the Princess of Pop wasn’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.

The sale, meanwhile, included the pop star’s greatest hits, such as songs from her 1999 debut album, “… Baby One More Time.”

Additionally, her fourth studio album, “In The Zone,” which included her 2003 track “Toxic,” was also in the deal.

After releasing “Toxic,” Spears won her first Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2005.

The contract also included Spears’ late 1990s and early 2000s songs, such as “(You Drive Me) Crazy,” “…Baby One More Time,” “Oops!… I Did It Again,” “Everytime,” “Piece of Me,” “Hold It Against Me” and “Gimme More.”

It’s not uncommon for musicians to sell their music videos, and Spears followed the lead of Stevie Nicks, Shakira, KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins and Bob Dylan.

The hitmaker’s massive business deal comes after she vowed “never [to] return to the music industry” in January 2024.

Spears, who was in a 13-year conservatorship from 2008 to 2021, released her last album, “Glory,” in 2016, and her last collab, “Mind Your Business,” in 2023.

Her final performance was in 2018 for her “Piece of Me” tour in Austin, Texas.

While the hitmaker has taken a personal step back from music, she’s reportedly been helping her son Jayden with his music career.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/10/entertainment/britney-spears-sells-her-iconic-music-catalog-in-landmark-9-figure-deal/

A band of Buddhist monks who have spent four months walking – sometimes barefoot or through the snow – on a 2,000-mile march from Texas to Washington DC completed their journey on Tuesday.

The group’s arduous so-called Walk of Peace has gone viral, capturing the attention of millions of Americans at a time of heightened political division in the US.

Along the way, the troupe has shared a message of mindfulness, with its leader, the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, saying: “My hope is, when this walk ends, the people we met will continue practicing mindfulness and find peace.”

Their journey began on 26 October 2025 at the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth.

After arriving in the US Capital, the monks visited the Washington National Cathedral where they attended an interfaith service. Later in the week, they will make stops at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial and the Peace Monument, which stands on the US Capitol grounds.

The group also reportedly plans to appeal to lawmakers to declare Buddha’s birthday – called Vesak – a national holiday – but their expedition has gained traction beyond this policy request.

“Their long journey and gentle witness invite us all to deepen our commitment to compassion,” said Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, who will help host the monks at an interfaith reception, according to the Associated Press.

The 19 travelling monks are from Theravada Buddhist monasteries around the globe.

The final day of their single-file trek across the country began on Tuesday morning in Arlington, Virginia, roughly five miles (9.1km) outside the US capitol.

A livestream on the group’s Facebook account shows them walking past piles of snow, as the first days of above-freezing temperatures return after weeks of record cold across much of the eastern United States. They are cheered on by rows of onlookers in the video.

“May you be safe and warm. Thank you for your walk of peace. We desperately need this in our world now,” one user wrote.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g75wer084o

The suspect’s name has been made public to encourage other victims to come forward.

A 79-year-old man has been accused of raping and sexually assaulting 89 minors over more than 50 years in France, triggering a grim reminder of the Gisele Pelicot case across the country.

Grenoble prosecutor Étienne Manteaux made the suspect’s identity public: Jacques Laveugle, adding that he admitted to killing his mother and aunt as well, prompting another parallel case.

Authorities formally began probing Laveugle in February 2024, launching an investigation into aggravated rape and sexual assault of minors. He has been held in pretrial detention since April last year, The Associated Press reported.

The prosecutor stated that Laveugle had worked in several roles, including in schools, as a private tutor, and as a cave exploration guide.

USB drive unmasked paedophile

The serial rape case has reportedly been built on what investigators said were writings compiled by the suspect himself. He reportedly collated the writings in a digital “memoir”, which was later found on a USB drive by a relative and handed over to authorities.

Prosecutors described the text as ’15 volumes’, enabling law enforcement authorities to identify the alleged 89 victims, boys aged 13-17 at the time of the alleged incidents, from 1967 to 2022.

The prosecutor stated that the suspect’s ‘memoir’ describes sexual acts with minors in several countries, including India. Other countries named are Switzerland, Germany, Morocco, Algeria, Niger, the Philippines and the French territory of New Caledonia.

Manteaux said the suspect’s name was made public to encourage other victims to come forward. The clarification from the prosecutor came as people under investigation are normally not named in France.

“This name must be known because the goal is to allow possible victims to come forward,” he said during a press briefing.

Authorities set up a hotline and released Laveugle’s pictures over the decades, saying that anyone who believes they were a victim or has information about him should contact them.

The prosecutor affirmed that investigators are hoping to identify all the alleged victims without a public appeal. However, they found that the recovered documents contained several incomplete identities.

“We thought we would be able, internally, to identify all the victims,” Manteaux said, but “we realised we were up against a wall.”

Laveugle has also acknowledged smothering his mother to death when she was in the terminal phase of cancer, and later killing his 92-year-old aunt.

Manteaux revealed that investigators also found out why Laveugle killed his aunt. He allegedly told them that it was “because he had to return to the Cévennes (region of France) and she begged him not to leave, he also chose to put her to death.”

The prosecutor pressed on the need to move quickly in the investigation into the alleged rapes and sexual abuse carried out by Laveugle.

“There is urgency,” he was cited as saying on RTL radio. He cited the suspect’s age and the difficulty in tracing victims across 55 years.

Educator in foreign countries

Laveugle carried out the assaults in France and other foreign countries, where he was working as an educator.

He spent several years in Morocco as a tutor for low-income families, where he is suspected of having abused at least ten victims, Manteaux told AP. His stay in Morocco spanned from 1974 to 2024.

Laveugle, currently living in the North African country, was arrested during a return trip to France.

The suspect also lived in Algeria from 1967 to 1969 and 1971 to 1975, working as a teacher. There, he is suspected of abusing at least two children,

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/89-minors-over-55-years-french-man-jacques-laveugle-accused-of-rape-sexual-assault-case-stuns-france-101770773613900.html

The plan comes as Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto received an invitation from the United States on Monday (Feb 9) to attend a Feb 19 Board of Peace meeting.

Indonesia is preparing to send up to 8,000 troops to Gaza in support of United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, making it the first country to publicly commit troops to such a peacekeeping mission, according to state news agency Antara.

Indonesian army chief of staff general Maruli Simanjuntak said on Monday (Feb 9) that the plan was still tentative, and details such as troop deployment numbers were unconfirmed, although they would likely operate under one brigade.

“(We are deploying) a brigade, likely around 5,000 to 8,000 (personnel). But nothing is set in stone yet. So, the numbers aren’t final,” Maruli said.

He did not specify what activities the troops would be deployed for but said the plan would focus on humanitarian and reconstruction needs.

Maruli spoke on the matter after a joint meeting with the Indonesian Armed Forces and national police alongside President Prabowo Subianto at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Monday.

The plan comes as Prabowo received an invitation from the US that day to attend a Board of Peace meeting on Feb 19, the leaders’ first, a US government official reportedly confirmed on Sunday.

That day, Indonesia’s State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi confirmed the invitation but not whether Prabowo would attend.

“No (information) yet. We will announce if there is certainty (on whether the president will join),” said Prasetyo.

He added that Indonesia hoped to sign a trade deal with the US during the trip.

In November last year, the Indonesian Armed Forces started screening troops for a possible peacekeeping deployment to Gaza as Indonesia awaited a final United Nations (UN) Security Council mandate and decision from the government.

This was part of efforts for the Gaza International Stabilization Force (ISF), a UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping force outlined in the Gaza peace plan.

Indonesian Armed Forces spokesperson major-general Freddy Ardianzah said on Nov 18 last year that the vetting for troops includes reviewing soldiers’ past experience in humanitarian operations both at home and abroad, Antara reported.

Prabowo previously said in September 2025 at the UN General Assembly that Indonesia was ready to deploy at least 20,000 peacekeepers in Gaza, stressing Indonesia’s role as one of the “largest contributors of the UN peacekeeping forces”.

Indonesia is among several countries willing to contribute to the ISF, which US officials say could reach up to 10,000 troops, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan have also reportedly weighed in on deploying troops, while several US allies including Saudi Arabia and Jordan have declined to send troops under any circumstances.

On Jan 22, Indonesia officially became a founding member of Trump’s peace board for Gaza, a move which drew widespread resistance at home.

However, on Feb 3, Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said that Prabowo was leaving the option of withdrawal open if the board’s direction “did not align” with Indonesia’s priorities.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-8000-troops-gaza-support-trump-peace-plan-publicly-commit-5920106

“Now, as external threats continue to rise and force-building becomes ever more urgent, we are once again seeing efforts to obstruct the strengthening of national defence,” says Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Wednesday (Feb 11) urged the opposition-controlled parliament to pass his US$40 billion special defence budget, which has been stalled by lawmakers, saying that given the rising threat level, strengthening the military cannot wait.

Lai last year proposed the defence boost to counter China, which views the island as its own territory. But parliament has instead advanced its own, less expensive proposals, which only fund some United States weapons.

The main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), whose vice chairman visited Beijing last week, said it supports defence spending but will not sign “blank cheques” and has a right to fully scrutinise the legislation, blaming Lai for the impasse.

Speaking to reporters at the presidential office, Lai said he had never asked lawmakers to pass the spending unconditionally, reiterating that the government was happy to provide a detailed explanation of its plans.

“I want to emphasise: political parties may compete, and policies may be fully communicated so that the public can choose. But national defence, so closely tied to national security, sovereignty, and our very survival, should be an area where we unite and present a common front to the outside,” he said.

“Now, as external threats continue to rise and force-building becomes ever more urgent, we are once again seeing efforts to obstruct the strengthening of national defence.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/taiwan-president-lai-parliament-pass-special-defence-budget-5922071

Trump voters urge him to tone down the rhetoric and focus more on domestic issues, especially clearer pathways to legal status for law-abiding immigrants, healthcare reform, curbing waste and fraud, and lowering US debt.

Joyce Kenney is even happier with Donald Trump today than when she voted for him in 2024.
“I would gladly vote for him any time,” said the 74-year-old retiree in Prescott Valley, Arizona.
As Trump heads into the second year of his presidency, Kenney hopes he continues his crusade against government waste and fraud, cuts costs for senior citizens, and deports more criminal immigrants – but also makes it easier for law-abiding immigrants to stay in the U.S., even those who entered illegally.
“He needs to find a gentler way on the illegal aliens, not to just say everything’s black or white, because there is a lot of gray in everything,” she said. “We need to show a lot more humanity to people that are not Americans as well.”
With Trump confronting nationwide protests against his immigration policies, mounting cost-of-living complaints, and tensions with countries from Denmark to Colombia, Kenney and 19 other Trump voters spoke to Reuters about what they want him to accomplish in the year ahead.

Almost all of them praised his first-year performance. They backed policies that polls show have alarmed many Americans – surging immigration enforcement in U.S. cities, tariffs on trading partners, deep cuts to the federal workforce and capturing Venezuela’s president.

TRUMP UNDER PRESSURE TO DELIVER BEFORE MIDTERMS IN NOVEMBER

The voters – whom Reuters has spoken with monthly for the past year – said they hoped the president would deliver further change in the months ahead, as pressure builds to help his fellow Republicans keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Six of the voters had virtually no criticism of Trump’s presidency to date, while three were highly dissatisfied with his performance last year. The remaining 11 voters were more mixed in their appraisals, though none of them said they regretted their vote.
The most common objectives the voters wanted Trump to pursue were immigration reform and a sharper focus on domestic issues – healthcare reform, cutting fraud in public programs and lowering the national debt – over foreign policy.
Fourteen said they were disappointed by the president’s recent rhetoric about annexing foreign countries and his tendency to inflame divisions through social media posts.
“I would like him to really focus way more on America,” said Robert Billups, 34, an unemployed accountant in Washington state.

Billups voted for Trump hoping for cheaper healthcare and more transparent government spending. Although he sees little improvement on those fronts, Billups maintains Trump was still “probably the best option” in the 2024 election.

Asked for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement: “The Trump administration remains laser-focused on continuing to cool inflation, accelerate economic growth, secure our border, and mass deport criminal illegal aliens.”
Trump’s tariffs, disdain for U.S. judges and officials with whom he disagrees, and recent “saber-rattling” about taking over Greenland and other countries – earned the president a “failing grade” from Steve Egan, 65, a promotional product distributor in Tampa.
Egan said his main hope for 2026 was that Trump would “stay in his lane” and not trigger a constitutional crisis.
“When Trump’s out of office, I’m sorry, I can’t vote Democratic generally, but if there’s a Democrat that talks more sense than Trump’s doing, then I’ll probably vote for him,” said Egan.

IMMIGRATION REFORM

The voters’ top ask for this year was a clearer pathway to legal status for law-abiding immigrants who are already contributing to the U.S. economy. Trump backed some such measures in his first term, but has not done so since retaking office.

Last spring, 14 of the voters told Reuters they wanted Trump to ease legalization for deserving foreigners. In January, eight of the voters said immigration reform should be a second-year priority.

“Latino voters, Asian-American voters who voted for the president, they voted because they wanted to see immigration reform. I don’t think all Republicans realize that the president would not have won if it wasn’t for those voters.”

Juan Rivera, a 26-year-old content creator near San Diego who has some relatives seeking legal residency in the U.S. and others who work for Border Patrol, said he was “a little disappointed” that Trump had not pursued it.
Rivera, who does Latino outreach for California’s Republican Party, said prioritizing immigration reform would help the party in November’s midterm elections.
“Latino voters, Asian-American voters who voted for the president, they voted because they wanted to see immigration reform,” Rivera said. “I don’t think all Republicans realize that the president would not have won if it wasn’t for those voters.”
Across the country, Pennsylvania state corrections worker and former National Guardsman Brandon Neumeister, 36, also wants the president to focus on immigration reform this year.
“If they’ve been here, they’ve been productive, they’ve stayed out of trouble, I feel like those are the type of people we would want,” Neumeister said.
Rather than deporting immigrants “after they’ve been a fixture in communities for decades,” he added, the administration should create “a more streamlined method for them to attain citizenship.”

Like Rivera and Neumeister, Lesa Sandberg of St. George, Utah, said she approved of Trump’s efforts to secure the U.S. border but would “love to see the same emphasis on making it legal to be here as there is on getting rid of the criminals.”
Of roughly 60,000 people currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of late January, about 44% had no pending criminal charge or prior conviction, according to agency statistics.

‘JUST CHILL’

As with most of the voters, Sandberg hoped Trump would continue his signature economic policies this year.
Sandberg, 58, who runs an accounting business, rents properties and works for a Republican political action committee, said last year’s deregulatory moves and tax cuts left her “satisfied” and “hopeful.” She said her grocery and gas bills had fallen, although the U.S. Consumer Price Index in January showed food prices were up while gas prices were down across the country.
But Sandberg is unsure how Trump plans to pay for hiking the military budget by two thirds over what Congress approved, and wants to know where the savings went after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed the federal workforce.

Trump’s top priority in 2026 should be “to balance a freaking budget and stop the progression of the debt,” Sandberg said.
Terry Alberta, 65, a pilot in Michigan, agreed that while “in my world, the economy is doing great,” he hoped Trump would do more this year to curb government waste.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-presidency-enters-second-year-his-voters-share-hopes-concerns-2026-02-10/

An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested last year as part of its targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said on Monday.
Lawyers for the Turkish student detailed the immigration judge’s decision in a filing, with the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to her release from immigration custody in May.

An immigration judge on January 29 concluded the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving she was removable and terminated the proceedings against her, her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union wrote.
Her immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said the decision was issued by Immigration Judge Roopal Patel in Boston.
That ended, for now, proceedings that began with Ozturk’s arrest by immigration authorities in March on a street in Massachusetts after the U.S. Department of State revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities provided for revoking her visa was an editorial she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper a year earlier criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Ozturk said in a statement.
The immigration judge’s decision is not itself public, and the administration could challenge it before the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
A spokesperson for DHS, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a statement said the decision reflected “judicial activism.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again,” the spokesperson said.
The arrest of Ozturk, a child development researcher, in the Boston suburb of Somerville, was captured in a viral video that turned her case into one of the highest-profile instances of the effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport non-citizen students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views.

The former Fulbright scholar was held for 45 days in a detention facility in Louisiana until a federal judge in Vermont, where she had briefly been held, ordered her immediately released after finding she raised a substantial claim that her detention constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of her free speech rights.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/immigration-judge-rejects-trump-effort-deport-pro-palestinian-tufts-student-2026-02-09/

The final ransom deadline has passed as the frantic search for Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, continues.

The 84-year-old’s purported captors demanded $6 million by Monday at 5 p.m. MT (7 p.m. ET) in a ransom note.

The legitimacy of the message has not yet been verified and sources tell Page Six the family still has not been given any proof of life.

Ahead of the deadline, Savannah made a desperate plea on social media for help in the “nightmare” search.

“She was taken, and we don’t know where, and we need your help,” she said Monday. “If you see anything, if you hear anything, if there is anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement.”

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced there was no new additional information on Monday.

They added, that activity at the Guthrie residences will “continue tonight and into tomorrow as part of the ongoing investigative process, including the expansion of the search and follow-up on new leads.”

Savannah and her siblings, brother Camron Guthrie and sister Annie Guthrie, did not send the requested bitcoin sum by the first deadline: Thursday at the same time.

As the initial deadline passed, Camron issued a social media plea to Nancy’s alleged kidnappers.

“We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward,” he said. “But first we have to know that you have our mom. we want to talk to you and we are waiting for contact.”

In a press conference earlier that same day, FBI agent Heith Janke revealed there was a second deadline.

“While we advise and recommend, from a law enforcement perspective, any action taken on any ransom is ultimately decided by the family,” he noted.

Two days later, Camron and his sisters released another video — their second as a trio, with the first being released Feb. 4 — offering to pay the ransom.

“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah said in Saturday’s Instagram upload. “We beg you now to return our mother to us, so that we can celebrate with her.

“This is the only way we will have peace,” the journalist continued over the weekend. “This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

Nancy has not been seen since Jan. 31 when she was dropped off at her Tucson, Ariz., home following a family dinner with Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/09/celebrity-news/nancy-guthries-second-ransom-deadline-passes-as-desperate-search-for-savannahs-mother-continues/

Angelina Jolie is taking couture to the next level.

The Academy Award-winning actress arrived on the “Couture” Paris premiere red carpet Monday in a semi-sheer silver Givenchy gown that showed hints of skin between sequined embellishments.

The dress featured an asymmetric hem and beaded fringe along the sleeves and skirt.

She accessorized with custom Garatti jewelry: a 15-carat fancy green diamond ring and matching stud earrings. She paired the look with black pumps.

Jolie later changed into a black suit as she left the premiere.

During a visit by Vice President JD Vance, the US and Armenia agreed to cooperate in the civil nuclear sector. Vance will also travel to Azerbaijan, hoping to finalize a peace deal.

US Vice ‍President JD Vance and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol ⁠Pashinyan have agreed to collaborate in the nuclear energy sector.

The two leaders said they completed negotiations on Monday on what is known as a “123 Agreement.”

What do we know about the nuclear deal between the US and Armenia?

123 Agreements allow the United States to license nuclear technology and equipment to other countries.

The deal relates to small modular reactors, Vance said after meeting Pashinyan in the capital, Yerevan.

The agreement would allow up to $5 billion (€4.2 billion) in initial US exports ⁠to Armenia, plus an additional $4 billion in longer-term fuel and maintenance contracts, according to Vance.

Armenia is seeking an alternative to its ageing Russian-built nuclear power plant, Metsamor.

The new US agreement doesn’t bind Armenia to purchasing a nuclear reactor from the US.

Rather, it gives Armenia the possibility of selecting the US from a list of options, which also includes Russian, Chinese, French and South Korean companies.

Vance also said the US was ready to export advanced computer chips and surveillance drones to the former Soviet republic.

US seeking to finalize Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement

Vance’s visit comes just six months after Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders signed an agreement at the White House in August 2025.

The deal was seen as the first step towards peace ​after nearly 40 years of war.

Speaking to reporters before meeting Pashinyan on Monday, Vance said, “The prime minister has been a great friend of ours and a real ally in peace and development in this region [of] the world.”

As for Pashinyan, he thanked both Vance and US President Donald Trump and said that Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan are “very close” to achieving peace after decades of conflict.

US pushing for strategic transit corridor through Armenia

Vance was also advocating for the establishment of a major rail and road transit corridor through Armenia. Dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, the corridor would connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave.

The transit route in particular has been a major source of contention between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The two nations have been in conflict over the Karabakh region, internationally known Nagorno-Karabakh, for nearly 40 years. Ethnic Armenian forces controlled the area from 1994 until 2020, when Azerbaijan regained control after a six-week war.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a subsequent attack that dislodged separatists and forced most of Karabakh’s 120,000 Armenians to flee for safety.

Both sides agreed to renounce claims on each other’s territory as well as refraining from using force during their meeting with Trump, who promised that the new transit project would bring peace and prosperity to both nations.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-armenia-sign-nuclear-deal-during-vance-visit/a-75885494

Reinstalled with a supermajority, Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi is likely to maintain a hard line on China while seeking even closer security and trade ties with the US.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi scored a resounding victory in Sunday’s general election, with her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) securing a commanding two-thirds supermajority in parliament’s powerful lower house.

Together with its partner, the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin), and several allied independents, the LDP’s ruling coalition now has as many as 352 seats in the 465-seat chamber.

The massive electoral triumph grants Takaichi a mandate to push forward with foreign and security policy initiatives that are going to delight long-standing allies but antagonize regional rivals.

US President Donald Trump was quick to congratulate Takaichi for her “landslide victory,” adding that it had been his honor to endorse her campaign a few days earlier.

In a social media post, Trump added, “I wish you Great Success in passing your Conservative, Peace Through Strength Agenda.”

The response from China, on the other hand, has been muted, with state media on Monday limiting their coverage of Takaichi’s victory to announcing the result.

Analysts say that will change in the coming days as Beijing calibrates its position towards a leader who has now secured a clear mandate — arguably in part as a result of Chinese pressure.

China ‘trying to destabilize’ Takaichi

“China has been trying to destabilize the Takaichi administration by criticizing comments she made in November about Taiwan,” said Ben Ascione, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at Tokyo’s Waseda University.

The already strained diplomatic relationship between Beijing and Tokyo nosedived in November after Takaichi said in the Japanese parliament that a crisis involving Taiwan could be a threat to Japan’s national security and might compel Japanese involvement.

Her comments drew sharp criticism from Beijing.

“Politically, Takaichi and the Chinese Communist Party are at odds and they are doing their best to portray her as a historical revisionist, playing up her support for Yasukuni Shrine,” Ascione told DW, referring to the shrine in central Tokyo that honors Japan’s war dead yet remains controversial because it is also the final resting place of 14 Class A war criminals.

“The question has to be, how much was Takaichi’s victory a result of attacks by China?” the expert said, pointing out that the Japanese public is deeply concerned about Beijing ratcheting up the pressure on Taiwan.

China views the self-ruled democratic island as its territory and vows to bring it under Beijing’s control, even by force if necessary.

Another source of tension between Tokyo and Beijing involves competing territorial claims over a group of tiny, uninhabited islets and rocks in the East China Sea.

Agreeing to disagree

With relations between the two countries at historic lows, the next moves on both sides will be telling, Ascione said.

“There seems little point in Beijing continuing to try to destabilize Takaichi now that she is no longer politically vulnerable, so maybe the two sides can agree that they disagree on matters of history and territory, there is a way forward,” he underlined.

One way for that would be for Takaichi to follow in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who went to Beijing in 2018 after another sharp dip in bilateral relations over the East China Sea islands, known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. There, he signed a series of agreements on economic cooperation and trade, effectively smoothing the issue over.

Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo branch of Temple University, said such a move by Takaichi could provide an off-ramp for the two governments without too much loss of face on either side.

She, however, stressed that cooler heads may not prevail.

“If Takaichi decides that she wants to pay her respects at Yasukuni or she increases defense spending again or if she pushes ahead with plans to rewrite the post-war constitution, then China is not going to respond well,” she said.

“And Beijing has some powerful economic levers that it can apply,” Murakami pointed out.

China has already instructed its nationals not to travel to Japan for vacations and has severely restricted exports of critical rare earth minerals to Japan.

Beijing has in the past also banned imports of marine products and that is another pressure point that could be reintroduced, Murakami said.

“Taken together, the impact on the Japanese economy and society will be very serious,” she noted. “And this is important for Takaichi because although national security was an important factor for voters, rising prices and the cost of living was the top issue.”

A greater defense burden

Relations with the US, however, are on course to soar under the new Takaichi administration.

“We have seen Takaichi already embrace the US as a partner by accepting tariffs and agreeing to take on more of the defense burden in the region with increased spending on the Self-Defense Forces, so Trump has every reason to be happy,” she said.

“And he will know that for as long as Takaichi is in power, she will do what the US wants because Japan needs US security guarantees.”

Ascione agrees that the Japanese prime minister’s foreign policy priority is to “cultivate a stronger relationship with the US as a deterrent against China,” even though the 15% tariffs on Japanese exports have caused problems for Japanese companies and dented the national economy.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/japan-election-win-improves-takaichis-foreign-policy-hand/a-75875134

The crossing between Western Africa and the Canary Islands is considered the most deadly sea migration route to the EU. People who attempt to cross face rough seas in overcrowded boats, and, in some cases, violence.

The boat carrying Ismael Outtara and his family had been adrift in the Atlantic Ocean between southern Morocco and the island of Tenerife for several days. And then within 24 hours his 1-year-old daughter and his wife died.

“My daughter died in my arms,” Outtara told DW. “The next morning, my wife simply didn’t wake up. I think it was because of the shock of her death.”

Like thousands of people, Ouattara and his family had left Cote d’Ivoire to find more sustainable conditions in Europe. He never imagined what would unfold during the crossing. “The dead were simply thrown into the sea immediately,” the Ivorian remembers. “The others didn’t ask for permission.”

The tragedy happened four years ago. It still pains Ouattara how other passengers treated the bodies of his family. At least there were no outbreaks of violence among the surviving boat passengers afterward, according to the Ivorian. This is not unusual in such extreme situations on board.

Mohammed Manga told DW that he had survived a harrowing experience while crossing to the Canary Islands, an archipelago that is part of the EU member Spain. “There was a lot of violence on our boat,” the young Gambian, who arrived on the Canary Islands in 2023, said. “On the fourth day at sea, some panicked and accused each other of being witches.”

Many migrants who have made the voyage describe similarly explosive experiences.

Although no one died in the violent outburst on Manga’s boat, he said there were many injuries. To his knowledge, no one was held accountable — not even later, when the boat finally reached the Canary Islands.

“It’s very difficult to do anything then,” Manga said. “That’s why some people think they can get away with anything on the high seas.”

Thrown into sea

Crossings on the so-called Atlantic route between Western Africa and the Canary Islands have declined significantly. While official figures show that more than 40,000 migrants arrived on the islands in 2024, the number dropped to around 18,000 a year later. Observers attribute the drop to increased cooperation between Europe and traditional transit countries like Mauritania and Morocco, and, consequently, to stricter border controls in these countries.

Reports of extreme violence and murders on board the boats are on the rise, however.

Passengers on a journey in 2024 said three Senegalese men severely abused numerous people on their boat, causing some to suffer permanent injuries. In the autumn of 2025, Spanish police arrested 19 people after around 50 passengers on a boat died between Senegal and Gran Canaria Island. The suspects are accused of aggravated assault and murder.

Survivors of that journey report that the men attacked dozens of passengers, beating them to death and, in some cases, throwing them into the sea while they were alive. It remains unclear whether they were members of smuggling networks or simply passengers.

The Spanish National Police declined to comment on the incidents when contacted by DW.

‘They are terrified’

Loueila Sin Ahmed Ndiaye, a lawyer in the Canary Islands, regularly handles cases of violence on boats. She explained that a whole range of reasons make the prosecution of violent crimes on the migrant boats extremely difficult.

First, Sin Ahmed NdiayeIt said, there are questions of jurisdiction, as the crimes usually do not take place on Spanish territory and do not involve Spanish citizens. In addition, there are massive challenges with witness statements.

“The numerous police reports we have read show that people lose their sense of time. The cold, the uncertainty, no land in sight, the fear. All of this can significantly impair their mental health,” Sin Ahmed Ndiaye told DW.

Sin Ahmed Ndiaye said that often led to contradictions in witness statements.

“It makes a difference whether someone was sitting at the front or the back of the boat,” Sin Ahmed Ndiaye said, “so the statements often don’t paint a coherent picture.”

Furthermore, many surviving passengers refuse to cooperate with the Spanish authorities. Some don’t trust the lawyers provided to them. “After 10 to 14 days at sea, they are terrified, and the last thing they want is to be subjected to a court case and burden their fellow passengers.”

The most vulnerable people on board tend to suffer the most. “Children, unaccompanied minors and women,” the lawyer stressed.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/migrants-from-africa-brave-deadly-canary-islands-crossing/a-75840372

Hamidi’s death came as Iran stepped up its crackdown after recent protests, making more arrests while holding the door open to Washington for further nuclear negotiations.

An Iranian man has reportedly died by suicide after posting a social media video of himself urging US President Donald Trump not to make a deal with Iran’s theocratic regime. In a 10-minute and 44-second video, the man, identified by Iranian media as Pouria Hamidi, said the purpose of his appeal was to draw attention to what he called a deadly crackdown on protests in Iran and called for foreign intervention against the country’s clergy leadership.

“If you’re watching this, then I’m not around anymore,” Hamidi, a resident of Iran’s southern port city of Bushehr, said in a video going viral on social media.

“More than 40,000 people died, killed, massacred, more than the Russia-Ukraine war, and more than the Israel-Palestine war,” he said during the video posted on his YouTube channel ‘PoorY X’ on February 5. Hamidi captioned his video: “This Is My Sacrifice – Please, Free My Country”.

In the video recorded in English, Hamidi addressed the American leadership directly, urging them to pursue any diplomatic agreement with Tehran, saying any agreement with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime would “betray all those people who died.”

“So please, I beg you, do whatever you can to stop this deal,” he said.

He said that US President Trump had told the Iranians to “keep protesting, and we did, we trusted him.” But he added that fighting armed men is not possible, and Iranians can’t win against the Islamic regime without external support.

“America attacking Iran is the only hope we have right now,” said Hamidi. “We can’t fight this regime alone. Our people need foreign intervention.”

He also expressed support for Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, saying he’s “the best choice to make a transitional government.” He called on various opposition groups outside Iran to “come together and stop fighting each other.”

“You don’t know how hopeless our people are right now. I mean, I myself, I can’t eat. I can’t sleep,” he said.

“I can’t even cry about it because it’s so laughable to be born in a place like this, to have no future. But I hoped the people of my country would finally have a future after all this,” he added.

Hamidi described the purpose of making the video as giving meaning to his life and said he hoped Iranians would support one another. As the recording came to an end, he switched to Persian, saying, “We people of Iran are lonely people and have nobody, so please support each other. Long live Iran,” according to Iran International Report.

Hamidi reportedly took his own life after sharing the video.

Iran Steps Up Arrests 

Hamidi’s death came as Iran stepped up its crackdown after recent protests, making more arrests while holding the door open to Washington for further nuclear negotiations. The arrests—including that of Javad Emam, the spokesperson for the main reformist coalition—came after Iranian and US officials held talks in Oman that both sides painted as positive.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/just-attack-iran-dont-negotiate-iranian-man-pouria-hamidis-video-appeal-to-donald-trump-just-before-suicide-10978655?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Elon Musk announced SpaceX will build a system for Moon travel and a self-growing city on the Moon within 10 years.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday announced that his company will soon build a system that allows anyone to travel to the Moon.

“SpaceX will build a system that allows anyone to travel to Moon. This will so insanely cool”, Musk wrote in a post on ‘X’.

In a brief addition to the post, Musk wrote, “And Mars too”. Elaborating his point further, the tech billionaire went on to emphasise that “life cannot just be about one sad thing after another.”

“There must be things that make us super excited and inspired about the future. This is one of things. Bigtime”, he wrote on ‘X’.

Self-Growing City On Moon

The remarks come a day after the Tesla and SpaceX Boss announced that his company is focused on building a “self-growing city” on the Moon.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars”, Musk said in a post on ‘X’.

He added that SpaceX will also attempt to build a Mars city, which he said will kick off in about 5 to 7 years. The comments are in line with Musk’s advocacy towards the concept of making humanity a “multi-planetary species”, with Mars being touted as the primary destination.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has suggested to its investors that it would prioritise going to the moon first and attempt a trip to Mars at a later time.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/so-insanely-cool-musk-says-spacex-to-build-system-to-allow-anyone-to-travel-to-moon-mars-ws-l-9891223.html

Jimmy ​Lai’s trial has been the financial hub’s most high-profile national ‌security case

Hong ‍Kong media tycoon Jimmy ​Lai was sentenced ‌on Monday (February 9, 2026) ​to a total of 20 years in jail on three charges comprising two counts ​of conspiracy to ⁠collude with foreign forces and one count of ​publishing ⁠seditious materials.

The trial has been the financial hub’s most high-profile national ‌security case.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/hong-kong-tycoon-jimmy-lai-sentenced-to-20-years-in-national-security-trial/article70609487.ece

Israel has warned the US of its readiness to conduct a unilateral military strike against Iran if it exceeds a defined threshold concerning its ballistic missile program.

Israel has reportedly warned the United States that it is prepared to carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran if Tehran crosses a red line related to its ballistic missile program, according to a media report. The warning comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for an upcoming visit to Washington amid heightened concern over Iran’s military capabilities.

Israeli defense officials recently told their American counterparts that Iran’s ballistic missile program represents an existential threat to Israel. Israeli officials conveyed in recent weeks that Jerusalem is prepared to act alone if necessary to dismantle Iran’s missile capabilities and related production infrastructure.

“We told the Americans we will strike alone if Iran crosses the red line we set on ballistic missiles,” a source told The Jerusalem Post, adding that Israel believes Iran has not yet reached that threshold but is “continuously tracking developments inside Iran.”

Security sources said Israeli officials outlined operational concepts during high-level exchanges with US counterparts, including possible strikes on key manufacturing and missile-related facilities. Officials stressed that Israel reserves freedom of action and will not allow Iran to restore strategic weapons systems at a level that could threaten Israel’s existence.

One Israeli defence official described the current situation as a “historic opportunity” to deliver a major blow to Iran’s missile infrastructure and neutralise active threats to Israel and neighbouring states, according to the report.

At the same time, Israeli officials have expressed concern that US President Donald Trump could adopt a limited strike model if military action is considered. Several officials cited worries that such an approach – similar to recent US operations against the Houthis in Yemen – would leave Iran’s critical capabilities intact.

“The worry is he might choose a few targets, declare success, and leave Israel to deal with the fallout, just like with the Houthis,” another military official said, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post, adding that partial measures would not eliminate the core threat.

Following the incident, Thomas Sabula was temporarily suspended after calling the President a “pedophile protector” during his visit to a Ford facility in Michigan.

Ford Motor Company has declined to dismiss a factory worker who heckled President Donald Trump during a visit to one of the automaker’s plants last month, according to union officials, allowing the employee to return to work without disciplinary marks on his record.

The worker, Thomas “TJ” Sabula, 40, was temporarily suspended after calling the president a “pedophile protector” during Trump’s appearance at a Ford facility in Dearborn, Michigan. Laura Dickerson, a vice president of the United Auto Workers, said Sabula has since returned to his job and that the incident has not resulted in a negative entry in his personnel file.

Video footage from the visit showed Trump, 79, responding to the heckle by making an obscene gesture toward Sabula and saying, “F–k you.” Dickerson said the president also told the worker, “You’re fired,” during the exchange.

Speaking to a crowd in Washington on Monday, Dickerson said that outcome was never a possibility. “This ain’t The Apprentice,” she said, according to Reuters, referring to Trump’s former television programme.

Dickerson also described the confrontation during Trump’s tour of a plant producing the Ford F-150 pickup truck. “There was a worker at that plant that day who famously told Trump exactly what he thought of him,” she said. “Unfortunately, in that moment, we saw what the current president really thinks about working people and the way he responded — he gave us the middle finger.”

Bill Ford, the company’s executive chairman and the great-grandson of its founder, Henry Ford, said the incident was unfortunate and that he was embarrassed by it.

A crowdfunding campaign launched in support of Sabula raised more than $800,000 before being suspended. Donors praised him for confronting the president over what they described as his administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/ford-refuses-to-fire-thomas-tj-sabula-worker-heckled-donald-trump-article-153588191

China on Monday (Feb 9) denied US allegations it had conducted secret nuclear explosive tests, calling them “outright lies” and accusing Washington of making excuses to start up its own trials.

At the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Friday, Thomas DiNanno, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control accused China of conducting the tests, including one on Jun 22, 2020, and of preparing for more tests with massive yields.

“The US allegations are completely groundless and are outright lies. China firmly opposes the US attempt to fabricate excuses for its own restarting of nuclear tests,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement to AFP on Monday.

It also urged the United States to “immediately stop its irresponsible actions”.

US President Donald Trump said in October that Washington would start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Moscow and Beijing, but without elaborating or explaining what kind of nuclear testing he wanted to resume.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-reject-us-claim-secret-nuclear-tests-weapons-5917816

The UK Prime Minister says he is “not prepared to walk away” as pressure builds for him to resign.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted he would not “walk away” on Monday (Feb 9) after a prominent ally demanded the prime minister quit for embroiling the British government in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Senior ministers rallied around him over the most serious crisis yet of his stuttering 19-month premiership, as a rising far-right challenges him in the polls.

“After having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility,” Starmer told Labour MPs at a crunch meeting where he was greeted with applause.

The beleaguered prime minister appeared defiant as he insisted he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in”.

Earlier on Monday, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to resign for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing he had maintained links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“The distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” Sarwar told a press conference in Glasgow, becoming the most senior Labour politician to publicly urge Starmer to go.

Several cabinet ministers came out in support of the prime minister following several days of ominous silence, including his deputy David Lammy, foreign minister Yvette Cooper and finance minister Rachel Reeves.

Left-wing figurehead Angela Rayner and interior minister Shabana Mahmood, both tipped as possible replacements for Starmer, both said they had “full support” for their leader.

DEPARTURES

Earlier Monday, Starmer lost his second top aide in two days when his communications chief Tim Allan quit just months into the role.

On Sunday, Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned for advising Starmer to make the contentious Mandelson appointment.

McSweeney’s departure deprives the beleaguered UK leader of his closest adviser and the man who helped Starmer drag Labour back to the centre after succeeding leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.

Starmer has had several communications chiefs in his short tenure, with staff departures, policy reversals and missteps an increasing hallmark of his administration, denting his popularity.

Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC radio that Starmer’s position was “untenable”, while hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the leader’s tenure was “drawing to the close”.

Labour has trailed Farage’s anti-immigration party by double-digit margins in polls over the past year.

POLICE PROBE

Police are investigating Mandelson, 72, for misconduct in public office and raided two of his properties on Friday. He has not been arrested.

Starmer, a former human rights lawyer and top prosecutor for England and Wales, has apologised to Epstein’s victims and accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting for his appointment to Washington.

The government is to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents on Mandelson’s appointment, which could increase pressure on the prime minister and other senior ministers.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/keir-starmer-vows-remain-uk-pm-epstein-fallout-5918211

Global equities rallied on Monday, taking heart from a rebound in U.S. chip stocks and other beaten-down assets after a volatile week, while Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s resounding election win pushed Tokyo shares to a record high.
Bargain hunting in some of the markets that were hit by selling last week, like silver, bitcoin and technology stocks, helped shore up overall sentiment, as did heightened expectation for more policy easing from the Federal Reserve that, in turn, weighed on the dollar a little.

A rate cut by June is now seen as an odds-on bet, with a slew of economic data this week on jobs, inflation and spending expected to reinforce the case for stimulus.
A Bloomberg News report, citing unnamed sources, that China had urged banks to curb U.S. Treasury exposure weighed a little further on the dollar and pushed Treasury yields a tad higher.
In stocks, Japan’s Nikkei (.N225), headlined the gains with a rise of 3.9%, hitting all-time highs as the decisive majority for the ruling LDP party clears the way for more spending and tax cuts.
The yen strengthened across the board, but most notably against the dollar, which had recovered almost all of a steep slide against the Japanese currency in late January.

“The key focus for investors will be the scale of fiscal expansion. In particular, developments around the temporary food tax cut pledged during the election campaign will be closely followed,” Sree Kochugovindan, senior research economist at Aberdeen, said.
“The LDP landslide does not give Takaichi free rein to just spend. The LDP are fiscally conservative and Takaichi has been very mindful of bond investors,” she said.
The prospect of more borrowing pushed two-year Japanese government bond yields up to their highest since 1996 at 1.3% .
Equity investors took heart from the removal of some political uncertainty in Japan, coupled with a sense of relief over the apparent end to last week’s aggressive selloff in both the companies that are spending hugely to roll out artificial intelligence, as well as in those that investors see as most vulnerable to disruption from it.

Europe’s STOXX 600 index (.STOXX), rose 0.2% towards record highs, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures dipped modestly, down 0.2-0.3%. The indexes bounced more than 2% on Friday to break a run of heavy losses.
Concerns remained about whether the massive amounts being spent on AI will ever make a return. The four largest U.S. tech giants alone plan to spend $650 billion on capex this year.

US DATA TO TEST FED WAGERS

U.S. data this week could prove pivotal in setting expectations for monetary policy. Reports on jobs, inflation and consumer spending all land in the coming days and, in order to keep sentiment intact, they would need to be benign enough to keep rate cuts alive, but not so weak as to threaten consumer demand and earnings.
In currencies, the dollar eased against a basket of major currencies , falling 0.45% against the yen to 156.57, while the euro was up 0.5% at $1.1873 .

The pound was under pressure against the euro, which rose 0.3% on the day, leaving the single currency at 87.05 pence, as uncertainty grew over the political survival of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-global-markets-2026-02-09/

Indian refiners are avoiding Russian oil purchases for delivery in April and are expected to stay away from such trades for longer, refining and trade sources said, a move that could help New Delhi seal a trade pact with Washington.
The U.S. and India moved closer to a trade pact on Friday, announcing a framework for a deal they hope to conclude by March that would lower tariffs and deepen economic cooperation.

Indian Oil (IOC.NS), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL.NS), and Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), are not accepting offers from traders for Russian oil loading in March and April, said a trader who approached the refiners.
These refiners, however, had already scheduled some deliveries of Russian oil in March, refining sources said. Most other refiners have stopped buying Russian crude.

TRUMP SAYS INDIA ‘COMMITTED’ TO HALTING PURCHASES

The three refiners and the oil ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The trade minister on Saturday referred questions about Russian oil to the foreign ministry.
A foreign ministry spokesperson said: “Diversifying our energy sourcing in keeping with objective market conditions and evolving international dynamics is at the core of our strategy” to ensure energy security for the world’s most-populous nation.

Although a U.S.-India statement on the trade framework did not mention Russian oil, President Donald Trump rescinded his 25% tariffs on Indian goods, imposed over Russian oil purchases, because, he said, New Delhi had “committed to stop directly or indirectly” importing Russian oil.
New Delhi has not announced plans to halt Russian oil imports.
India became the top buyer of discounted Russian seaborne crude after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, spurring a backlash from Western nations that had targeted Russia’s energy sector with sanctions aimed at curtailing Moscow’s revenue and making it harder to fund the war.

INDIA’S RUSSIAN-OIL IMPORTS A FRACTION OF 2025 LEVELS

One regular Indian buyer is Russia-backed private refiner Nayara, which relies solely on Russian oil for its 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery. Sources said Nayara may be allowed to keep buying Russian oil because other crude sellers pulled back after the European Union sanctioned the refiner in July.

Nayara also does not plan to import Russian crude in April due to a month-long refinery maintenance shutdown, a source familiar with its operations said.
Nayara did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Indian refiners may change their plan and place orders for Russian oil only if advised by the government, sources said.
Trump’s order said U.S. officials would monitor and recommend reinstating the tariffs if India resumed oil procurement from Russia.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indian-refiners-avoid-russian-oil-push-us-trade-deal-2026-02-08/

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s coalition swept to a historic election win on Sunday, paving the way for promised tax cuts that have spooked financial markets and military spending aimed at countering China.
The conservative Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader who says she is inspired by Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, delivered 316 seats of the 465 in parliament’s lower house for her Liberal Democratic Party, its best ever result.

With coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, Takaichi controls 352 seats and a supermajority of two-thirds of seats, easing her legislative agenda as she can override the upper chamber, where she does not have a majority.

WINTER ELECTION BRINGS BLIZZARD OF VOTES

“This election involved major policy shifts — particularly a major shift in economic and fiscal policy, as well as strengthening security policy,” Takaichi said in a television interview as the results rolled in.
“These are policies that have drawn a great deal of opposition … If we have received the public’s support, then we truly must tackle these issues with all our strength.”

U.S President Donald Trump congratulated Takaichi on the result, wishing her “great success in passing your Conservative, Peace Through Strength agenda” in a social media post.
“Sanae’s bold and wise decision to call for an election paid off big time,” said Trump, who will host Takaichi at the White House next month.
Takaichi, 64, called the rare winter snap election to capitalise on her buoyant personal approval ratings since she was elevated to lead the long-ruling LDP late last year.
Voters have been drawn to her straight-talking, hardworking image, but her nationalistic leanings and emphasis on security have strained ties with Japan’s powerful neighbour China, while her promises of tax cuts have rattled financial markets.
Residents trudged through snow to cast their ballots with record snowfall in some parts snarling traffic and requiring some polling stations to close early. It was only the third postwar election held in February, with elections typically called during milder months.

Outside a polling station in the town of Uonuma in the mountainous Niigata prefecture, teacher Kazushige Cho, 54, braved below-freezing temperatures and deep snow to cast his vote for Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party.
“It feels like she’s creating a sense of direction – like the whole country is pulling together and moving forward,” Cho said.
But Takaichi’s election promise to suspend an 8% sales tax on food to help households cope with rising prices has rattled investors concerned about how the nation with the heaviest debt burden among advanced economies will fund the plan.

Takaichi said on Sunday she would speed up consideration of the sales tax cut while focusing on fiscal sustainability.
“Her plans for the cut in the consumption tax leave open big question marks about funding and how she’s going to go about making the arithmetic add up,” said Chris Scicluna, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in London.

PROPELLED BY YOUTH-LED CRAZE

The head of Japan’s top business lobby Keidanren, Yoshinobu Tsutsui, welcomed Takaichi’s win as restoring political stability. “Japan’s economy is now at a critical juncture for achieving sustainable and strong growth,” he said.
The LDP, which has ruled for almost all of Japan’s postwar history, had lost control of both houses in elections over the past 15 months under Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba.
Takaichi has managed to turn around the party’s fortunes by striking a chord with younger voters.
She has even sparked a “sanakatsu” craze, roughly translated as “Sanae-mania”. Her handbag and the pink pen she scribbles notes with in parliament have been in high demand.
China is not a fan, however.
Weeks after taking office, Takaichi touched off the biggest dispute with Beijing in over a decade by publicly outlining how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the democratic island claimed by China.
China responded with several countermeasures, including urging its citizens not to travel to Japan.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Takaichi, saying he hoped her victory would “bring a more prosperous and secure future for Japan and its partners in the region”.
Takaichi’s strong mandate could accelerate her plans to bolster Japan’s defences, further angering Beijing, which has cast her as attempting to revive its militaristic past.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/japan-votes-test-pm-takaichi-snow-weighs-turnout-2026-02-07/

Donald Trump has cast himself as Republicans’ chief messenger on the cost of living in an election year, but a Reuters review of his speeches shows a president repeatedly declaring inflation beaten while rarely acknowledging the strain many Americans say they still feel.
In five speeches on the economy since December, Trump asserted that inflation had been beaten or was way down almost 20 times and said prices were falling almost 30 times, assertions at odds with economic data and voters’ daily experiences. Much of the remaining time was spent on grievances and other issues, including immigration, whether Somalia was a country, and attacks on opponents.

Taken together, the speeches portray a president struggling to reconcile his central claim — that he has fixed the cost-of-living crisis — with inflation near 3% over the past year and voters’ lived experience of paying more for grocery staples. The price of ground beef, for example, is up 18% since Trump took office a year ago, while ground coffee prices are up 29%.

Republican strategists told Reuters that his mixed messaging on the top issue for voters risks creating a credibility gap for him and the Republican Party ahead of the November midterms, when control of Congress will be at stake. Opinion polls show voters are deeply unhappy with Trump’s handling of the economy.

“He can’t continue to make claims that are demonstrably false, particularly at the expense of Republicans who are in competitive House districts or Senate races,” said Rob Godfrey, a Republican strategist. Trump “must be disciplined and focused,” he added.
One source close to the White House said the president needed to hit the issue of affordability harder and through personal visits to critical districts.
“He needs to bring the message out because the message is not resonating,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss the issue.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said Trump’s focus on illegal immigration in his speeches is directly connected to his argument that people in the country illegally have an adverse impact on the economy. Desai said it causes “public services being overburdened, business activity disrupted by crime, housing markets flooded, and workers’ wages depressed.”

Trump has repeatedly stressed that much work remains to clean up the economic mess he says his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, left him, Desai added.

TRUMP VEERS OFF MESSAGE TO RAIL ABOUT IMMIGRATION

The Reuters analysis found that Trump – when not declaring inflation beaten – devoted nearly half his speaking time to grievances and other issues.
In about five hours of speaking time, he spent roughly two hours straying into about 20 topics unrelated to prices, the Reuters review found. When he veered off message, his top issue was illegal immigration, which he spent a total of about 30 to 40 minutes talking about.
In the speeches he insulted Somali Americans in Minnesota, who voted against him in the 2024 election. He referred to Somalia as “not even a country” – and in four speeches he disparaged Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

A progressive, high-profile Democrat and Muslim, Omar has been a frequent Trump critic, especially over his immigration policies.
“Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said last month, the day after a man sprayed a foul-smelling liquid on her at a town hall event.
Trump also talked about men in women’s sports, Venezuela, Iran, the Islamic State militant group, Greenland, Ukraine and Russia, military recruitment, his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged, U.S. weaponry, his exaggerated claim to have ended eight wars, and even how much a Fox News anchor likes him.

TRUMP’S MEANDERING WORRIES STRATEGISTS

“Inflation is stopped. Incomes are up. Prices are down,” Trump said in an Iowa speech on January 27.
Only twice in the five speeches did Trump acknowledge that prices are still too high, but he blamed them on Biden. Trump was elected in 2024 because of voter unhappiness with Biden’s handling of inflation – which spiked to over 9% in 2022 – and illegal immigration.
Democrats caused prices “to be too high,” Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania on December 9. “But now they’re coming down.”
In the same speech he called the term “affordability” a Democratic “hoax”. After a public backlash, he has ceased saying that in more recent speeches.
In four of the speeches Trump repeatedly and haphazardly switches topics, often when he is in the middle of talking about the economy, the Reuters review found.
Four Republican strategists interviewed by Reuters said Trump’s meandering style – which he proudly calls “the weave” – risked drowning out his core economic argument that he has brought inflation and prices down.
Speaking to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, Trump spent the first 22 minutes on topic, then suddenly, for the next 22 minutes, insulted Europeans, said they would be speaking German if it wasn’t for America, called NATO ungrateful, and decried the “crooked” media before pivoting back to the U.S. economy.
Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said voters want to hear what Trump is doing to lower costs. “But they have no memory of what Trump says about economic issues because of the volume of his own rhetoric.”
One source familiar with the White House’s thinking said Trump was likely to use his State of the Union address on February 24 as the kickoff for more intense domestic travel to amplify his message on affordability.

TRUMP DOES OFFER SOLUTIONS

For many Americans, the economy still feels unforgiving. Prices remain high, even though the inflation rate has inched down since Trump took office, from 3% to 2.7%. A lower inflation rate does not mean prices are decreasing – just that they are growing at a slower pace, economists stress.
In the 12 months through December 2025, food costs were up over 3%, while average hourly earnings were up only 1.1% year over year. The unemployment rate was 4.4% in December, up from 4% when Trump took office in January 2025, according to government data.

In some of the speeches Trump correctly identifies a drop in prices for a few everyday goods, including eggs and gas. The cost of eggs fell about 21% in December from a year earlier after being 60% higher during Trump’s first months back in office. Gas prices are about 4% lower since January last year.

But the cost of an average grocery basket has risen. The price of coffee, beef, and some fruits, among other items, has risen in the past year.
Trump does offer solutions in his speeches, including his tax cuts that kicked in last month that will produce greater savings for tens of millions of families; the scrapping of taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security payments; his plan to reduce mortgage interest rates; a proposal to lower housing prices; and deals with health insurance companies to reduce drug prices.

Most economists expect U.S. households and the economy at large to benefit in the months ahead from the tax cuts. But Trump’s more recent proposals are unlikely to have a significant impact on the cost of living between now and November, some economists told Reuters. One of Trump’s ideas – to cap credit card interest rates to 10% for a year – could even backfire since it could limit access to credit for lower-income families, some economists have warned.
Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports candidates for the House of Representatives, said Trump and Republicans were helping working families. “Voters are seeing this clear contrast, and the best is yet to come.”
Some 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s overall handling of the economy, according to a January 25 Reuters/Ipsos poll, up slightly from 33% in December. But it is well below his initial 42% rating on the issue when he first took office a year ago.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/economic-speeches-trump-claims-inflation-victory-nearly-20-times-even-prices-2026-02-07/

Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of publishing seditious materials.

Hong Kong’s most vocal China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was sentenced on Monday (Feb 9) to 20 years in jail, ending the city’s biggest national security case, which drew international concern about the city’s freedoms and autonomy.

Lai’s sentence on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one for publishing seditious materials ends a legal saga that has spanned nearly five years.

Lai, founder of the feisty but shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and was convicted last year.

His 20-year sentence was within the harshest penalty “band” for offences of a “grave nature” and is the most severe punishment meted out yet, the three national security judges said.

Lai’s sentence was enhanced by the fact that he was the “mastermind” and driving force behind “persistent” foreign collusion conspiracies, the judges said.

They cited prosecution evidence that the conspiracies had sought sanctions, blockades and other hostile acts from the US and other countries while involving a web of individuals, including Apple Daily staff, activists and foreigners.

Besides Lai, six former senior Apple Daily staffers, an activist and a paralegal were sentenced to jail terms ranging between six and 10 years.

“In the present case, Lai was no doubt the mastermind of all three conspiracies charged and therefore he warrants a heavier sentence,” the judges said. “As regards the others, it is difficult to distinguish their relative culpability.”

The 78-year-old, a British citizen, has denied all the charges against him, saying in court he is a “political prisoner” facing persecution from Beijing.

Lai’s plight has been criticised by global leaders, including US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, spotlighting a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled Asian financial hub, following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Those concerns reflected in part Lai’s long-standing international profile as a pro-democracy critic of China’s Communist Party leadership and his extensive political connections, particularly among US Republicans – ties that prosecutors cited during the case.

At the height of the protests in July 2019, Lai met then-US Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington.

Beijing in 2020 imposed the national security law upon Hong Kong, saying it was necessary to stabilise the city after months of sometimes violent unrest.

LIFE IN PRISON?

The case has drawn calls for Lai, who friends and supporters say is in frail health with diabetes and high blood pressure, to be freed.

Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, said from outside Hong Kong that the sentence “is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father”, marking the “total destruction” of the Hong Kong legal system.

“After more than five years of relentlessly persecuting my father, it is time for China to do the right thing and release him before it is too late.”

Jimmy Lai, who is also one of Hong Kong’s most prominent Roman Catholics, arrived at the court on Monday in a white jacket, with hands held together in a praying gesture as he smiled and waved at supporters.

“The harsh 20-year sentence against 78-year-old Jimmy Lai is effectively a death sentence,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “A sentence of this magnitude is both cruel and profoundly unjust.”

Hong Kong police swiftly played down concerns about Lai’s health. Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the force’s national security department said Lai’s health concerns had been “exaggerated” and added that the tycoon deserved his sentence.

The judges said they were not inclined to give Lai any deduction for his medical condition, age and solitary confinement but acknowledged he would face a “more burdensome” time than other inmates.

They cut a month off the sedition sentence and one year each for the collusion charges.

Beijing and Hong Kong officials have said that Lai has received a fair trial and all are treated equally under a national security law that they say has been vital to restoring order to the city.

Dozens of Lai’s supporters queued for several days to secure a spot in the courtroom, with scores of police officers, sniffer dogs and police vehicles – including an armoured truck and a bomb disposal van – deployed around the area.

“I feel that Mr Lai is the conscience of Hong Kong,” said a man named Sum, 64, who was in the queue.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-trial-sentence-20-years-prison-apple-daily-5916421

US President Donald Trump has said he will host Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House late this year, as the world’s top two economies look to reset ties marred by a roiling trade war.

Trump made the comment in an interview with NBC News taped on Wednesday (Feb 4) – the same day he and Xi had a wide-ranging conversation about trade, Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the situation in Iran.

Trump is expected to go to China in April, before Xi would then visit the United States.

“He’s coming to the White House, yeah – toward the end of the year,” Trump said in the interview, parts of which aired on Sunday.

“These are the two most powerful countries in the world and we have a very good relationship.”

Since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, he has been a prolific purveyor of tariffs, unveiling sector-specific levies on steel, autos and other items as well as broader measures to achieve a variety of policy objectives.

The White House has jousted with Beijing on trade but reached a broad truce with China after a major escalation last spring.

Despite moves from the United States intended to lessen its dependence on Chinese manufacturing, the two countries remain deeply entwined economically.

Xi, who last visited the United States in 2023, on Wednesday warned Trump to proceed with “caution” on selling arms to self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

The Chinese leader also voiced hope that bilateral issues including trade could be resolved amicably between Beijing and Washington.

“By tackling issues one by one and continuously building mutual trust, we can forge a right way for the two countries to get along,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/trump-xi-jinping-visit-us-5916511

Abbas Araghchi said that Iran had little trust in the US and questioned whether Washington was genuinely committed to negotiations

Iran on Sunday restated its stance amid renewed nuclear talks with the United States, with foreign minister Abbas Araghchi making it clear that Tehran will not give up uranium enrichment or bow to military pressure from Washington.

He also dismissed the US military buildup in the Middle East, including the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, saying, “Their military deployment in the region does not scare us” .

Araghchi was speaking at a forum in Tehran, when he said that Iran had little trust in the US and questioned whether Washington was genuinely committed to negotiations, reported AFP.

‘No one has the right to dictate our behaviour’

Araghchi ruled out any compromise on uranium enrichment, framing it as a matter of sovereignty rather than strategy.

“Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up, even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behaviour,” Araghchi said at the forum.

The comments came days after Iran and the United States reopened negotiations in Oman on Friday. This marks first such talks since Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June last year, a conflict the US briefly joined.

Iran is seeking relief from sweeping US economic sanctions in return for its limited steps on the nuclear front. At the forum, the foreign minister said that the country could offer “a series of confidence-building measures concerning the nuclear programme”.

Araghachi, however, added that ongoing “sanctions and military actions raise doubts about the seriousness and readiness of the other side (United States) to conduct genuine negotiations,” the AFP report added.

On atomic bomb

Amid the talks, Araghchi said Tehran was also coordinating with its key allies and “strategic partners” China and Russia about the negotiations with Washington.

“They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not looking for one. Our atomic bomb is the power to say ‘no’ to the great powers,” Araghchi said.

Western countries and Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, accuse Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, a claim Tehran has consistently denied.

Meanwhile, the United States and Israel want the negotiations to go beyond the nuclear issue. The Trump administration is seeking to include Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for armed groups across the region, under the ambit of discussion.

Iran has repeatedly refused to include these subjects in the talks.

The latest diplomatic push has unfolded after an intensified crackdown reportedly by the Iranian government following anti-regime protests across the coutry.

Trump’s military push

While maintaining a diplomatic front, Donald Trump has doubled down on its military posture. US envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner visited the nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), cited by AFP.

The fleet, dubbed an “armada” by Trump, was sent to the region weeks ago as part of a broader military build-up and is reportedly positioned in the Gulf.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/iran-says-military-deployment-does-not-scare-us-as-trumps-armada-approaches-101770601307828.html

Abbas Araghchi said that Iran has little trust in Washington and questioned whether the US is serious about renewed nuclear negotiations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday insisted that Tehran will never give up uranium enrichment, saying the country will not be intimidated by the United States’ military presence in the region.

Speaking at a forum in Tehran, Araghchi told AFP that Iran has little trust in Washington and questioned whether the US is serious about renewed nuclear negotiations. He added that Tehran is consulting with its “strategic partners” China and Russia on the talks.

“Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up, even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behaviour,” he said. “Their military deployment in the region does not scare us,” he added, referring to the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.

The US and Iran reopened talks on Friday in Oman for the first time since Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June last year. Iran is seeking the removal of US economic sanctions in exchange for what Araghchi described as “a series of confidence-building measures concerning the nuclear programme.”

Western nations and Israel have accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies. “They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not looking for one. Our atomic bomb is the power to say ‘no’ to the great powers,” Araghchi said.

Earlier today, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called Iran’s programme “a clear danger to peace.”

US negotiators, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, visited the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday. The US military said the carrier’s presence is aimed at “upholding President Trump’s message of peace through strength.”

Despite the talks, tensions remain high. US President Trump called the negotiations as “very good,” while Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said they were “a step forward.”

The US also imposed new sanctions on shipping entities and vessels linked to Iran’s oil exports.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/does-not-scare-us-iran-defies-us-military-buildup-vows-to-continue-uranium-enrichment-ws-l-9888631.html

Elon Musk announced SpaceX is prioritizing a self-growing city on the Moon within 10 years, targeting a 2027 uncrewed landing.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday announced that his firm has shifted its focus to building a “self-growing city” on the moon.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars”, Musk wrote in a post on ‘X’.

The billionaire CEO added that SpaceX will also attempt to build a Mars city, which he said will commence in about 5 to 7 years.

“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” Musk added.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, SpaceX has told investors it would prioritise going to the moon first and attempt a trip to Mars at a later time.

The report said the company was targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed landing on the Moon.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/in-less-than-10-years-elon-musk-says-spacex-focused-on-building-self-growing-city-on-moon-ws-l-9888765.html

A Russian national has been detained in the United Arab Emirates in connection with Friday’s shooting of military intelligence officer ⁠Vladimir ‍Alekseyev. The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for the attempted assassination.

The man suspected of shooting senior Russian military intelligence officer ⁠Vladimir ‍Alekseyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence agency said Sunday.

The FSB named the Russian national in his 60s as Lyubomir Korba, who it said was arrested by police in the United Arab Emirates and then extradited to Russia.

TASS news agency reported Sunday that a second man was arrested in Moscow, while a suspected female accomplice of the gunman has fled to Ukraine, citing the FSB.

Russian newspaper Kommersant cited a source close to the investigation on Saturday as saying that two suspects in the shooting “will soon be interrogated” and charged.

What do we know about the shooting?

Alekseyev, deputy head of the GRU, ‌Russia’s military intelligence arm, was shot ‌several ⁠times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said.

The 64-year-old, whose work has been recognized by President Vladimir Putin with a Hero of Russia award, was reported to be in a serious condition, requiring surgery.

Investigators said on Friday that an unidentified gunman had fired several shots at Alekseyev before fleeing the scene.

Authorities have opened a criminal case for attempted murder.

Alekseyev played a key role in intelligence operations in Ukraine and during Russia’s intervention in Syria on behalf of now-ousted leader Bashar Assad.

He was also sent to negotiate with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during his short-lived mutiny against the Russian military’s top brass in 2023.

Alekseyev is also subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union over Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in England in 2018.

Ukraine denies responsibility for shooting

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the ‍assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. Kyiv insisted it wasn’t involved in the shooting.

Since the start ‌of the invasion of Ukraine ⁠in 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for assassinating several senior Russian officers.

Three other ⁠officials of the same rank as Alekseyev have been ​killed in or near Moscow over the past year.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/arrest-in-dubai-after-shooting-of-russian-general-fsb/a-75859699

The close ally of Maria Corina Machado had been detained for over eight months. Guanipa is one of numerous prominent opposition figures who were released on Sunday, before being taken again by “heavily armed men.”

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Juan Pablo Guanipa, one of her closest allies, was kidnapped.

This came just hours after his release from prison.

“Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away,” she posted on her X account, demanding his release.

A close ally of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, Guanipa had been held in a detention facility in the capital Caracas since his arrest in May 2025.

He had been accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of leading a terrorist plot to sabotage the legislative election that same month.

Guanipa’s son Ramon posted a video on social media in which he described the kidnapping as an ambush by ten heavily armed, unidentified men.

‘Much to discuss’ about Venezuela’s future, says Guanipa

Before being held again, Guanipa spoke about his release on social media, with officers and armored vehicles being seen behind him.

“Much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront,” Guanipa said.

Prisoner rights group Foro Penal said 18 people were released on Sunday and that it was verifying additional cases.

Machado’s political organization said some of its local political organizers as well as her attorney, Perkins Rocha, were among those freed.

“Let’s go for the freedom of Venezuela!” she posted on X.

Machado also posted photos of several of those released, pictured with smiling family members.

“We will not rest until every single political prisoner is freed and until all of them return home,” Machado said.

Rodriguez under pressure to release prisoners

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez — who assumed the interim role following the US capture of Nicolas Maduro — has faced increasing pressure to release hundreds of political prisoners.

Government denies holding people for their political beliefs, and says those held in prison have committed crimes.

Rodriguez’s government announced on January 8 that it would free a significant number of prisoners, which had been a key demand from Venezuela’s opposition and human rights organizations, with the calls backed by the US.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-opposition-leader-guanipa-kidnapped-after-release/a-75864364

Epstein survivors released a new PSA during the Super Bowl to demand answers from the Justice Department. The ad urges Americans to pressure officials and support the call for full transparency in the Epstein case.

Epstein survivors are releasing a new public service announcement (PSA) on Super Bowl Sunday. The video is meant to send a clear message that they are not ready to “move on” from what they call the largest sex-trafficking scandal in the world.

The group says they want the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to release more information and take stronger action in the ongoing case.

The PSA is described as emotional and powerful. It features survivors speaking directly to the public, asking Americans to stand with them and demand transparency. The message at the end of the video says, “Stand With Us. Tell Attorney General Pam Bondi: IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH.”

The group says the ad is aimed at raising public pressure during one of the most-watched events of the year. Advocates supporting the survivors are urging people to share the message widely online. According to them, this is the “Super Bowl ad every American should see.”

The PSA also includes claims that Justice Department officials, including Donald Trump’s administration, did not reveal key information about the Epstein files. These are allegations made by the survivors and their supporters, and they are urging the DOJ to fully release all related documents.

The Department of Justice released newEpstein files including 3 million pages of records, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images on January 31. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on January 31 said the release was required under the new Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law created to make information about the Epstein case public.

SUPER BOWL LX is done and the Seattle Seahawks have won 29-13 in San Francisco.

But the Seahawks sensational defence has come up trumps with six sacks and a fumble TD was run in by Devon Witherspoon.

Drake Maye has been timid for the New England Patriots while Sam Darnold has been fantastic anchoring Seattle to the victory.

Hard work pays off at Levi’s Stadium

Seattle Seahawks put a project together to achieve this win.

It comes as the icing on the cake to all their hard work.

As General Manager John Schneider lifted the trophy in celebration.

Tough night for Pats’ supporters

This one will leave a bitter taste for New England Patriots and their fans.

The franchise are serial-winners, this is not supposed to be in the script.

Patriots fans will be drowing some sorrows to make this easier to forget.

Fifth time a charm for QB

Sam Darnold has had five teams in the last eight seasons.

It seems he may have found somewhere to call home now.

He was in the same draft class as Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson in 2018. He’s the first of this group of QBs to win the Super Bowl

Seattle fans loving life

Once you get to the Super Bowl, you are going to either have elation or depression at the end of the match.

The Seahawks’ fans will be glad they were the ones seeing Mike MacDonald guiding their team to victory.

A few businesses in the Seattle area may short a few employees tomorrow morning.

Seahawks write their names in history

Seattle Seahawks lifts the most-coveted trophy, the Lombardi Trophy.

Coach Mike MacDonald does not want to lift it alone so calls his players up with him as they celebrate.

This is some tight unit they have here, they would walk through walls for each other.

It all feels like a dream for Sam

After having testing moments in his career, Sam Darnold must have wondered if it was going to happen for him.

Now he is a Super Bowl winning quarterback and it must seem like a dream.

This makes all those dark times and hard work seem so worth it.

We could be heroes, just for one day

As they prepare the stage, the end is in sight for Seattle.

The coach stands there glancing across at it like a the girl of his dreams he has spotted in a local bar.

Seahawks are going to be lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy for only the second-time in their history, becoming the 17th multiple winner of the competition.

Coach gets traditional shower for victory

The Seattle Seahawks made sure they celebrated the right way.

As coach Mike MacDonald had the barrel of drink thrown over him.

This is going to be some night for this group of players as they celebrate doing something most players can only dream of.

View from SunSport’s Sunni Upal at Levi’s Stadium

The confetti has fallen on the Seattle Seahawks.

They are Super Bowl champions and they have done it at the home of their biggest rivals the San Francisco 49ers.

Their fans are used to traveling to this stadium, but seeing their confetti and colors after this game will bring them more satisfaction than ever before.

Seahawks finally find their man

Every NFL team wants to find a young coach who can create a dynasty of teams over many years.

Mike MacDonald becomes the third-youngest coach to ever win the Superbowl.

What a moment this is for him as he brings Seattle Seahawks their second-ever Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Seattle Seahawks 29-13 New England Patriots

Q4 1:00. The Patriots manage to get a first-down on their own 17-yard line.

Maye is looking to get them downfield as quickly as possible.

However on the next play he is sacked but a flag is out and they award a five-yard penalty against the defence for offside.

Seattle Seahawks 29-13 New England Patriots

Q4 2:00. Walker runs in another touchdown but their is flag in play.

Offence is penalised for holding so it will not stand and they also receive a ten-yard penalty.

The Seahawks are just two-minutes away from winning their second-ever Superbowl.

Seattle Seahawks 29-13 New England Patriots

Q4 2:10. Walker picks up the ball and uses the blockers to go wide.

He smartly dives to the floor and stays inbounds so they can use a timeout.

On the next play Darnold cannot get his pass away and goes to ground with the ball.

Seattle Seahawks 29-13 New England Patriots

Q4 2:21. The Patriots get a touchdown as Maye runs it before offloading to Stevenson to score.

They opt to go for the extra point but it does not come off as Henry is hit hard in the N-zone.

Both players are back to theiir feet after a heavy clash of helmets.

Seattle Seahawks 29-7 New England Patriots

ANDREW Mountbatten-Windsor invited Jeffrey Epstein and a Russian model to dinner at Buckingham Palace on a four-day trip to London.

Emails released as part of the Epstein files last week reveal how the paedo financier hired a 26-year-old woman called Vera to attend a dinner party and took her to the Palace for a private meeting.

She is described as “enchanting” and a “great friend” in the tranche of documents.

Epstein’s London stay took place two months before Andrew repaid the favour and visited the paedophile in New York.

The revelation comes after it was alleged last week that Andrew was targeted by Russia using Epstein’s sex contacts to pull him in.

The woman first appeared in the files when she was invited to a dinner of the then President of South Africa Jacob Zuma at the Ritz London in 2010.

On March 4, Mark Lloyd, a pal of Epstein’s who helped him arrange high-profile meetings, messaged Vera telling her: “Jeffrey suggested I invite you, as you would be certain to add some real glamour.”

She responded, telling Lloyd she was “honoured”, adding: “I am from Russia and I have lived in London for the past two years.

“I am a model, represented by Select model agency.”

She went on to say how she had been modelling for the past six years and lived in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Japan.

The same day, further emails show Epstein bragging to disgraced peer Lord Peter Mandelson, writing: “Mark Lloyd is having dinner for Zuma tonight. I have invited a beautiful Russian.”

Days later, Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 awaiting trial for sex trafficking crimes, received an email from somebody whose name is redacted saying how “charming” Vera “enchanted all those she met”.

Later that year, Epstein wrote to Andrew to introduce him to the same woman. Andrew asked him who she was, and Epstein replied: “A great friend of mine. Very pretty. She is my future ex wife.”

Hours later Andrew moaned to Epstein: “No response from your future ex. I emailed her this morning but I suspect it went into her junk email.”

Epstein joked: “Why? Are you spamming beautiful Russians.”.

He then gave Andrew her details and said she was “expecting his call”.

Three months later, in September 2010, disgraced money man Epstein emailed Andrew to say he would see him “tomorrow night for dinner”.

Andrew replied: “Great! Where do you want to go — private at BP or out in a private room or in a restaurant?”

Epstein emailed somebody that day to brag: “I will be having dinner at Buckingham Palace tomorrow. Want to join?”

Andrew told him the next day: “I am just departing Scotland. Should be down by 1800. We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/royals/15906618/andrew-epstein-russian-model-buckingham-palace

THIS is the terrifying moment a man was attacked by a pet lion after trying to shake the paw of the dangerous predator.

Shocking footage shows a man approaching the beast being walked on a lead like a dog in Makhachkala, southern Russia.

At first, the animal appears calm, almost bored, as the man edges closer, reaching out towards its face.

The man offers a hand to the lion, and the beast grabs hold of it.

But trying to play with the powerful predator has dramatic consequences.

Alarmed, the man recoils – but the lion lunges.

It charges at the man, who tries to run.

The beast catches up and clamps its jaws around the man’s arm, as screams erupt from stunned bystanders.

The video shows the man desperately trying to pull free, with his hand briefly disappearing inside the animal’s mouth.

Panicked locals rush to help and the lion’s apparent owner yanks back on the leash in a frantic attempt to stop the attack.

Miraculously, the man is freed from the predator’s jaws — and quickly escapes.

He later claimed he did not have any serious injuries from the attack.

Authorities in Russia‘s Dagestan region, close to Georgia, are now investigating the incident.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15905370/lion-mauls-man-shaking-paw-onlookers-rush-to-help/

Ongoing surveillance of bat populations in Singapore has found no evidence of the Nipah virus, the Communicable Diseases Agency says.

Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Saturday (Feb 7) it is closely monitoring a reported case of Nipah virus infection in northwest Bangladesh, adding that no cases linked to those in India and Bangladesh have been detected in Singapore.

The case was reported in Naogaon District in Bangladesh’s Rajshahi Division. The World Health Organization said on Friday that a woman had died in January after contracting the deadly Nipah virus infection. She was said to have a history of consuming raw date palm sap, a known risk factor for Nipah virus infection.

Nipah is endemic in Bangladesh, said CDA, with recurring seasonal outbreaks linked to the consumption of raw date palm sap contaminated by fruit bats.

CDA said there is no evidence that the case is linked to recent infections reported in West Bengal, India, or of any human-to-human transmission in Bangladesh. It added that there is also no indication of active community spread in either Bangladesh or West Bengal.

To date, no Nipah virus cases associated with the situations in Bangladesh or India have been detected in Singapore, said CDA. Ongoing bio-surveillance of bat populations here, which has been conducted since 2011, has also not found evidence of the virus.

MEASURES TAKEN BY SINGAPORE

Singapore has progressively stepped up precautionary measures since Jan 28.

These include requiring medical practitioners and laboratories to immediately notify CDA of confirmed or suspected cases, and alerting doctors to be vigilant for patients with compatible symptoms and recent travel history to affected areas.

Temperature screening has been implemented at air and sea checkpoints for arrivals from affected areas in India, while health advisories are being issued to travellers.

Singapore’s arrival health declarations have also been adjusted to include Nipah virus, and surveillance of newly arrived migrant workers from South Asia has been enhanced.

CDA on Saturday reiterated its advice for travellers to affected areas to avoid food and drinks that may be contaminated by bats, such as raw date palm sap and fruit found on the ground.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/nipah-virus-bangladesh-india-fruit-bat-5914321

Bangladesh’s leading prime ministerial contender, Tarique Rahman, on Friday (Feb 6) rejected a proposal from his main rival for a unity government after elections next week, saying his party was confident of winning on its own.

Rahman, 60, who heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), returned home in December after nearly two decades in exile in London following a youth-led uprising that toppled long-time leader Sheikh Hasina, a bitter rival of his mother, the country’s first woman Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia.

The BNP’s main rival in the Feb 12 election is the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami, once banned but now resurgent.

The two parties governed together between 2001 and 2006, and Jamaat has said it is open to renewing the partnership for a unity government to help stabilise the country, whose giant garments industry was badly disrupted by months of turmoil in 2024.

“How can I form a government with my political opponents, and then who would be in the opposition?” Rahman said in an interview at his party office, sitting beneath portraits of his mother and his father, a former president.

“I don’t know what will be their seat number, but if they are in the opposition, I hope to have them as a good opposition.”

His aides said the BNP was confident of winning more than two-thirds of the 300 parliamentary seats up for grabs. The party is contesting 292 of them, with allies vying for the rest.

Rahman declined to give a number but said, “we are confident that we’ll have enough to form a government”.

All opinion polls have forecast a BNP victory but also a stiff challenge from the Jamaat alliance, which includes a Gen Z party that emerged from the youth-led anti-Hasina protests.

GOOD RELATIONS GLOBALLY

New Delhi’s decision to shelter Hasina, whom a Dhaka court last year sentenced to death for her role in the crackdown, has badly strained Bangladesh-India relations while giving China an opening to expand its investments and political outreach.

Asked whether he would pivot away from India toward China should he win, Rahman said Bangladesh needed partners capable of boosting economic growth for its nearly 175 million people.

“If we are in the government, we need to provide jobs for young people. We need to bring businesses into the country so that jobs can be created and people can have a better life,” he said.

“So whoever, while protecting the interests and sovereignty of Bangladesh, offers what is suitable for my people and my country, we will have friendship with them, not with any particular country.”

Asked whether Hasina’s children were free to return from abroad and engage in politics, he said: “If someone is accepted by the people, if people welcome them, then anyone has the right to do politics.”

Hasina’s Awami League is banned from contesting the election. Many senior leaders and members of her family were already abroad before her fall or fled around that time.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/bangladesh-pm-front-runner-rejects-unity-government-offer-says-his-party-set-win-5913536

Thousands of mourners gathered in Islamabad on Saturday (Feb 7) to start burying the 32 people killed in a suicide bombing at a Shia Muslim mosque during Friday prayers, as the city tightened security and authorities arrested four people believed to have helped the bomber.

In Friday’s attack, a man opened fire at the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, then detonated a bomb that killed 32 people, as well as himself, and injured more than 170.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest of its kind in Islamabad in more than a decade, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Minister of Interior Moshin Naqvi told a press conference that four people, including the alleged mastermind of the attack, had been arrested following an operation in Peshawar and Nowshera. During the operation, one counter-terrorism officer was killed and three more were wounded, he said.

“Yesterday’s suicide attack has rattled us,” he added.

While bombings are rare in heavily guarded Islamabad, this is the second such attack in three months and – given a recent rise in militancy – they have triggered fears of a return to violence in Pakistan’s major urban centres.

Security was visibly beefed up across the city, with police checkpoints set up on all main roads and streets leading to important sites. Police and elite commandos stood guard as funeral prayers for some of the victims were held in an open area near the Imambargah.

The government had boosted Islamabad’s security and would be taking further steps to make sure it was “foolproof”, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.

MOURNERS GRIEVE AT FUNERAL

Shia Muslims are a minority in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation of 241 million, have been targeted in sectarian violence in the past, including by the Islamic State group and the Sunni militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thousands attended the mass funeral, which ended with mourners beating their chests before stooping to lift 20 coffins and carry them away for burial. Many of the mourners openly wept and cried.

“Whoever did this terrorism, may God burn them in hell and turn them to ash,” the imam presiding over the funeral, Hussain Muqaddasi, told mourners.

Ashiq Hussain, who lost his 21-year-old nephew Mujtaba Ali in the attack, said the family was “broken”.

“I want to ask what sin this young man had committed that he died a useless death,” he added.

Ajmal Rahbar, a student of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, said two of his classmates died in the blast.

“They were too young to die,” he said.

Prayers were read for a further two victims in the city of Dera Ismail Khan on Saturday.

The injured, some in critical condition, remain in Islamabad hospitals. Yaqoob Bangash, an official at Islamabad’s largest public hospital, said major surgeries had been carried out and the hospital had moved on to minor surgeries.

Bangash, who works at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, said the hospital had sufficient resources to deal with the influx of patients after the attack.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thousands-mourn-victims-suicide-bombing-in-islamabad-four-arrests-made-5915076

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was reportedly spirited out of his longtime home at Royal Lodge in the middle of the night.

According to royal sources for the Daily Mail, the former prince was “dispatched by car to the depths of Norfolk” on Monday amid the ongoing Epstein scandal.

“It was hastily arranged and done under the radar, leaving Royal Lodge staff to pack up what remains of Andrew’s belongings,” an insider told the outlet on Saturday of the move, which reportedly saw Andrew moving to temporary housing on Wood Farm at Sandringham in Norfolk.

A source told the outlet that the decision was made by Prince William and King Charles on Sunday evening following an “urgent discussion” at Sandringham.

Now, Andrew is said to be waiting on renovations on a permanent residence at March Farm, though royal author Andrew Lownie told Page Six last month that Andrew could end up further away than Marsh Farm following the ongoing scandal.

The “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York” author told us he’s heard that the exiled prince will relocate to Bahrain.

The BBC reported earlier this week that the former prince was seen in Windsor horseback riding on Monday near Royal Lodge, and caught by photographers waving at bystanders while driving away from Windsor Castle.

“Waving at the public harked back to his royal days when he was used to adulation and respect,” an insider told the Daily Mail on Saturday.

“Andrew is having difficulty acknowledging reality and it was increasingly causing concern at the Palace – both as a sign of his mental state and because it wouldn’t play well with the public witnessing him still enjoying the trappings of royalty.”

Buckingham Palace did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.

Back in October, an announcement was made that “formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease” on Royal Lodge. Andrew was also stripped of the titles of “Duke of York” and “prince” at the time by King Chrarles.

“His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew,” Buckingham Palace told Page Six in a statement at the time.

“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.”

The statement continued, “These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”

Andrew’s official move from his longtime home comes following the release of new documents and allegations regarding late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last week, the DOJ released more than 3 million records on Epstein, who died in prison at the age of 66 in 2019.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/02/07/royal-family/how-prince-william-king-charles-ejected-ex-prince-andrew-from-royal-home-at-midnight

According to Russia’s interior ministry, the attacker stabbed several students and also two police officers in an attempt to resist arrest.

The Indian Embassy in Russia said on Saturday night that four Indian students were among several people injured in an attack in Russia’s Ufa.

The Indian students were among at least six people who were injured in a knife attack at a university in Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, news agency PTI reported citing the Indian mission.

“An unfortunate incident of attack has occurred in Ufa. Several persons including four Indian students have been injured,” the Indian Embassy in Moscow said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The Embassy added that it is in touch with the authorities and that the “officials from the Consulate in Kazan are on their way to Ufa to provide assistance to the injured students.”

What happened?

The incident happened on Saturday when a teenager entered the premises of the State Medical University in Ufa in Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, according to preliminary reports. The attacker reportedly entered the dormitory and attacked the students there, catching them unawares.

According to Russia’s interior ministry, the attacker stabbed several students and also two police officers in an attempt to resist arrest.

“The attacker resisted arrest, during which two police officers were stabbed. Furthermore, the suspect also inflicted bodily harm on himself,” said Interior Ministry spokesperson Maj General Irina Volk, as quoted by RTVI.com webportal.

Russia’s federal health ministry said that four of the people attacked were receiving medical care out of which, one is in critical condition.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/art-culture/step-inside-spacious-4bhk-bengaluru-twin-home-built-by-two-it-engineer-brothers-who-wanted-to-live-side-by-side-watch-101770471884630.html

The United States wants Ukraine and Russia to end their nearly four-year war by June, and has offered to host talks between the two sides in Florida next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

US-led efforts to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since WWII have stepped up a gear in recent weeks, but Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory.

Russia, which occupies around 20 per cent of its neighbour, is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal and has threatened to take it by force if talks fail.

But Ukraine says ceding ground will embolden Moscow and has signalled it will not sign an agreement that fails to deter Russia from invading again.

“The United States has proposed for the first time that the two negotiating teams – Ukraine and Russia – meet in the United States, probably in Miami, in a week’s time,” Zelenskyy told reporters in comments made public early Saturday.

“They say that they want to do everything by June,” he added.

The US has mediated two rounds of negotiation between the two sides in Abu Dhabi since January, brokering a major prisoner exchange but failing to reach a breakthrough on territory.

Both Moscow and Kyiv say talks have been difficult.

“FREE ECONOMIC ZONE”

Zelenskyy has repeatedly expressed frustration that his country is being asked to make disproportionate compromises compared to Russia.

Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.

But Russia has rejected this, and Washington has pushed for Kyiv to convert the land it currently controls in the Donetsk region into a “free economic zone” where neither side has military control.

“Even if we come to the creation of a free economic zone, we will need fair and reliable rules,” Zelenskyy said.

The two sides have also failed to reach a “common understanding” on the issue of control over the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Zelenskyy said.

Russian forces seized the plant, the largest in Europe, at the start of the conflict and have held onto it since.

Ukraine will not tolerate Russia and the United States making deals about Ukraine behind its back, Zelenskyy added.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-pressing-ukraine-and-russia-end-war-june-zelenskyy-says-5915026

The Indian government announced duty concessions for select American products as part of an interim trade deal with the United States. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted that while certain US goods will benefit from reduced tariffs, sensitive sectors like agriculture and dairy remain protected.

A disturbing photo showed showed a woman in a bikini crawling under a table while Jeffrey Epstein and two men work on laptops.

A disturbing photo earlier reportedly released by the US Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein sitting at a table with two other men, acting as if everything is normal. Under the table, a woman in a white bikini is crawling on the floor with her back facing the camera. Her face is turned toward the wall, and parts of her body were blacked out before the photo was released.

The setting appears strange and unsettling. On the wall behind them, there is a creepy painting of a naked baby inside a sink, and the baby’s private parts were also censored. A pair of orange flip-flops lies near the woman’s bare feet.

In the picture, Epstein is wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants with the initials “LSJ.” These likely refer to his private island, Little Saint James, known as “Pedo Island.” It is not known where or when the photo was taken, according to New York Post report.

Why Did DOJ Release Epstein Files?
The Department of Justice released the photo as part of a massive document dump including 3 million pages of records, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on January 31 said the release was required under the new Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law created to make information about the Epstein case public.

The DOJ originally reviewed 6 million documents, but only half could be released. The remaining documents include child sexual abuse material, personal information about victims, and records that cannot legally be made public.

Blanche also said that being named in these files does not prove anyone committed a crime.

The newly released documents reportedly include allegations involving several well-known public figures, including US President Donald Trump. Officials repeat that these are only mentions, not confirmed wrongdoing.

What Happened To Epstein And Maxwell?
Jeffrey Epstein has a long criminal history. In 2008–2009, he served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. Investigators had strong evidence he abused many underage girls, but prosecutors allowed him to plead to lesser charges.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/disturbing-jeffrey-epstein-photo-shows-naked-baby-picture-on-wall-bikini-clad-woman-under-table-article-153578313

In the streets of Lahore there are hints that the kite flying festival, Basant, has returned. Someone is fishing a kite from electricity cables, the distant sound of a drum beat, a flash of neon when you look up in the walled city’s narrow streets to a stretch of sky. This party is above.

As the sun sets across the city, on every rooftop we can see families and friends, laughing, shouting, watching as kites zig zag, circle, and soar through the city’s skies.

“It’s really difficult!” Abu Bakar Ahmad tells me.

The 25-year-old tech engineer has been coached by his cousin, coaxing the kite higher and higher with a twitch of the string.

“All our generations here are very excited; the elders know how to fly a kite, but we Gen-Zers don’t know.”

The festival has returned after nearly two decades. Marking the start of spring, it dates back centuries, but was banned in 2007 after several years of injuries and fatalities caused by sharp kite strings, falls and aerial firing.

It means for many this is their first time flying; they’ve never seen the skies above Lahore like this. Others are practicing the skill after years.

“It’s gathering, it’s love. Flying kites is ok, but the main thing is bonding,” Kanwal Amin, 48, tells me. “I like watching and eating good food.”

Kashif Siddiqui is a pharmacist, but admits his kite flying is a bit rusty. He shows me pictures of his last Basant – then Kashif’s son was three. Now his son is here with his own children.

“It’s special for Lahori’s – this runs in our blood. It’s not about kite and thread, it’s about tradition. My father and his father before him used to do it.”

Kashif’s aunt, Mina Sikander, 60, is here from Miami; she didn’t want to miss out.

“I’m very fond of this festival,” she says. “It was worth the journey!”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dkd5ql91lo