Category: World

The former president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, says his US visa has been revoked.

Arias, a Nobel laureate, said he was informed of the decision weeks after he had publicly criticised Donald Trump, comparing the behaviour of the US president to that of a Roman emperor.

The 84-year-old, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in brokering an end to conflicts in Central America, said US authorities had given no explanation.

Arias hinted, however, that it may be due to his rapprochement with China during the time he was president from 2006 to 2010.

Speaking at a news conference in the Costa Rican capital, San José, Arias said he had “no idea” what the reason for the cancellation was.

He said he had received a “terse” email “of a few lines” from the US government informing him of the decision.

He added that he thought that it was not President Trump but the US State Department which had taken the decision.

While he said it would be conjecture on his part to speculate about the reason behind the visa revocation, he did point out that “I established diplomatic relations with China.

“That, of course, is known throughout the world,” he told journalists of his 2007 decision to cut ties with Taiwan and establish them with China instead.

The Trump administration has sought to oppose China’s influence in the Western hemisphere and has accused a number of Central American governments of cosying up to the Chinese government and Chinese companies.

However, it has been supportive of the current Costa Rican President, Rodrigo Chaves, praising his decision to exclude Chinese firms from participating in the development of 5G in Costa Rica.

But this perceived closeness between President Chaves and the US was criticised by Arias, who wrote a post on social media in February saying that “it has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the US government, less so when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do”.

He added that “during my governments, Costa Rica never received orders from Washington as if we were a banana republic”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75dl7rdxexo

Technology stocks plummeted Thursday for their worst session since the Covid pandemic after President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies sparked widespread market panic.

Apple led the declines among the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group, dropping more than 9% for its worst drop since 2020. The iPhone maker makes its devices in China and other Asian countries. Suppliers such as Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions plunged about 16% and 12%, respectively.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed about 6% for its worst session in more than five years. The index is down more than 14% year to date.

Other megacaps also felt the pressure. Meta Platforms and Amazon fell about 9% each, while Nvidia dropped nearly 8%. Nvidia builds its new chips in Taiwan and relies on Mexico for assembling its artificial intelligence systems. Tesla slumped more than 5%, while Microsoft and Alphabet both fell about 2% and 4%, respectively.

Semiconductor stocks also felt the pain, with Marvell Technology, Broadcom and Lam Research falling at least 10% each. Micron Technology sank more than 16%, while Advanced Micro Devices
declined more about 9%. Personal computer makers Dell and HP tanked 19% and about 15%, respectively. Dell registered its worst session in since 2018.

The drop in technology stocks came amid a broader market selloff spurred by fears of a global trade war after Trump unveiled a blanket 10% tariff on all imported goods and a range of higher duties targeting specific countries after the bell Wednesday. He said the new tariffs would be a “declaration of economic independence” for the U.S.

Companies and countries worldwide have already begun responding to the wide-sweeping policy, which included a 34% tariff on China stacked on a previous 20% tax, a 46% duty on Vietnam and a 20% levy on imports from the European Union.

China’s Ministry of Commerce urged the U.S. to “immediately cancel” the unilateral tariff measures and said it would take “resolute counter-measures.”

Source : https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/tech-stocks-sink-after-trump-tariff-rollout-apple-leads-drop.html

The White House pushed back on critics who have pointed out President Donald Trump conspicuously missed Russia from sweeping new round of global tariffs issued Wednesday.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios the omission was by design, explaining that existing sanctions against Moscow already “preclude any meaningful trade.”

But that explanation raised more questions than it answered. After all, as Mediaite’s Sarah Rumpf pointed out, the U.S. still trades more with Russia than it does with some of the microstates and territories that did make the list — in its piece, Axios pointed to Tokelau (population: 1,500) and Norway’s Arctic outpost of Svalbard (population: 2,500).

Leavitt defended the move by pointing out that countries like Cuba, Belarus, and North Korea were also skipped due to already sky-high restrictions.

“Russia could still face additional strong sanctions,” she added — a nod to Trump’s recent frustrations with the country’s President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war peace talks progress.

The president told reporters this week he was “pissed off” at the Russian leader over his latest remarks on Ukraine, and even floated the possibility of secondary tariffs on Russian oil.

Source : https://www.mediaite.com/news/white-house-spins-as-russia-omitted-from-tariffs-list/

Elon Musk is no stranger to a wild idea, but his latest remarks have sparked concern – as he thinks robots could soon outnumber humans.

The billionaire, who is also the mastermind behind the Tesla Bot (AKA Optimus), took to X to share his thoughts on the direction in which the robot revolution could be heading, and it’s not good news if you were already worried about their sentience.

It comes as Tesla vows to produce 10,000 of the robots by the end of 2025, having launched the first version in 2021.

“Long-term, I think there will be more… the ratio of humanoid robots will be more than one to one. There might be two humanoid robots or more, maybe 10

A trio of secretive Russian satellites launched earlier this year has released a mysterious object into orbit, sparking interest among space trackers and analysts.

The three satellites, designated Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583, launched on a Soyuz-2.1V rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome early on Feb. 2 (GMT). Since then, the satellites, whose purpose is unknown, have displayed interesting behavior, while in a near-polar orbit roughly 364 miles (585 kilometers) above Earth.

In March, the satellites appeared to be conducting potential proximity operations, or maneuvering close to other objects in space, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and spaceflight activity tracker.

Following this, the U.S. Space Force cataloged a new object in orbit, which was possibly released by Kosmos 2581 on March 18.

Russia has provided no details about the satellites and their mission. Many Kosmos missions are classified.

The released object could be used for a number of objectives, including military experiments, such as satellite inspection or target practice, testing technology for docking or formation flying. It may also be a scientific payload or even the result of an unintentional fragmentation, though this would usually result in numerous pieces of debris.

The Kosmos (or Cosmos) designation has been used by the Soviet Union and later Russia for a very wide range of military and scientific satellites since 1962. The satellites have covered a range of apparent uses, some of which are experimental, secret, or part of military programs, including early ASAT (anti-satellite) tests and satellite inspection, reconnaissance and electronic intelligence.

Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/secretive-russian-military-satellites-release-mystery-object-into-orbit

It looks like someone finally turned in his homework on time.

James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Water,” the third and only installment in the saga that hasn’t been plagued by endless release date delays, unveiled the very first trailer on Thursday afternoon at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners in Las Vegas. (To be fair, Cameron shot the follow-up films back-to-back, so the rest of the otherworldly sci-fi series should arrive on time).

CinemaCon attendees were given 3D glasses to watch the trailer, which hasn’t been released to the general public. The dazzling footage begins on Pandora and introduces two new Na’vi clans — the Wind Traders, who soar in the sky using what resemble highly stylized hot air balloons, and their adversaries, the Fire People, who arrive by riding Ikran flying creatures. As a battle begins in the skies, one Na’vi is shot with a flaming arrow and killed.

“We can not live like this, baby” Jake Sully tells his beloved Neytiri. “We can not live with this hate.”

The latest round of new tariffs unleashed by Donald Trump will hit almost every industry across the globe, setting an unprecedented challenge for businesses already grappling with weak demand and inflationary pressures.
Industry executives warn the biggest victim will be US consumers who will be paying more to buy everything from Adidas trainers to Modelo, the country’s top-selling beer.
The US unveiled a baseline levy of 10 per cent with additional tariffs of up to 50 per cent on multiple trading partners, including the EU, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Retail and consumer goods

As the weekend deadline for TikTok to find a buyer approaches, bidders for the short-video social media site are piling up.
Amazon(AMZN.O), and, separately, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are the latest to throw their hats into the ring for TikTok. The site faces an April 5 deadline to reach a deal to find a non-Chinese buyer under threat of being banned from the United States.

U.S. officials have raised security concerns over the app’s ties to China, which TikTok and owner ByteDance have denied. Trump administration officials are meeting on Wednesday to discuss the various options for TikTok.

Startup Zoop, which is run by Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to bid for TikTok, the two told Reuters Wednesday.
A U.S. administration official confirmed Amazon had sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shares of Amazon rose about 2% following news of the last-minute TikTok bid.

Amazon has long harbored ambitions for an in-house social media network that could help it sell more goods and appeal to a younger audience. It bought live video site Twitch in 2014 for nearly $1 billion and book review site Goodreads in 2013 as part of its efforts to build a viable social network.

Amazon also developed and tested a TikTok-like short-form video and photo feed called Inspire that it shuttered earlier this year.
Trump said last month his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of the platform, without identifying them.
Private equity firm Blackstone (BX.N), is discussing joining ByteDance’s non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s U.S. business, Reuters reported last week.

U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to add outside funding to buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle (ORCL.N), and other American investors to carve it out of ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
White House-led talks entail plans to spin off a U.S. entity for TikTok and dilute Chinese ownership in the new business to below a 20% threshold required by U.S. law, Reuters reported last month.
The New York Times first reported Amazon’s involvement on Wednesday. Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously, the Times reported.
The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a 2024 law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/amazon-has-bid-buy-tiktok-new-york-times-reports-2025-04-02/

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose a 10% tariff on its ally was “not the act of a friend,” but ruled out reciprocal tariffs against the United States.
In comments outside the White House, Trump singled out Australian beef, which saw a surge in exports to the United States last year, reaching A$4 billion amid a slump in U.S. beef production.

“They won’t take any of our beef. They don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers and you know, I don’t blame them but we’re doing the same thing right now,” Trump said in an event in the White House Rose Garden announcing tariffs on a wide range of U.S. trading partners.
Australia banned U.S. fresh beef products in 2003 due to the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease, in U.S. cattle. BSE poses a risk to human health and has never been detected in cattle in Australia.

Albanese said Trump had not banned Australia beef, but had imposed a 10% duty on all Australian goods entering the United States, equivalent to the U.S. baseline tariff on all imports, despite U.S. goods entering Australia tariff free.

“The (Trump) administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership. This is not the act of a friend,” Albanese told reporters.
Australia would not impose reciprocal tariffs as this would increase prices for Australian households, he added.
“We will not join a race to the bottom that leads to higher prices and slower growth,” Albanese said.
Australian shares (.AXJO), dropped 0.9% and the local dollar , a proxy for global risk sentiment, fell 0.5% to $0.6269.
Australian officials said countries in the Indo-Pacific region were among the hardest hit by the U.S. tariffs, with Albanese suggesting this could advantage China.

“There’s no doubt that the response on a range of issues, be it action on climate change as well as trade issues will affect the strategic competition that’s here in the region,” he said.
Australia would seek to negotiate with the U.S. to remove the tariffs without resorting to a dispute resolution mechanism in the two countries’ Free Trade Agreement, he said.

Amid the campaign for parliamentary elections set for May 3, opposition Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton criticised Albanese for not winning a tariff exemption, and said Australia should leverage its critical minerals deposits and defence alliance to quickly strike a deal with Trump.
“This is a bad day for our country,” Dutton said.
Australia had used all elements of its diplomacy, Albanese said, including seeking advice last night over dinner from sport star Greg Norman, who plays golf with Trump.

BEEF OVER BIOSECURITY

Negotiations to avoid a tariff stalled over beef as Australia insisted on U.S. meat imports meeting its biosecurity standards, Albanese said.
Biosecurity is one of three areas, alongside subsidised pharmaceuticals that lower health costs to Australians, and rules on U.S. social media platforms, raised by the U.S. as trade barriers that Australia would not compromise on, he told reporters.
Australia will offer financial support to affected exporters to help them find new markets, with a fund offering A$1 billion ($627 million) in zero interest loans, and direct government departments to ‘buy Australian’.
National Farmers Federation President David Jochinke said the tariffs were a “disappointing step backward for our nations and for the global economy”, but the industry would prevail because its farmers are “among the least subsidised farmers in the world”.
Exports to the United States are less than 5% of Australia’s total goods exports, compared to one in four export dollars coming from trade with China.
Australian steel and aluminium exports are also subject to U.S. tariffs on the metals announced in March, though its shipments to the U.S. are a fraction of the value of country’s total annual exports. Less clear is the impact from those levies on Australia’s mining sector, which supplies much of the world’s iron ore and other metal-making raw materials.
Trade Minister Don Farrell said Australia was opening new exports markets in India and the Middle East, and would seek to revive free trade negotiations with the European Union that had stalled last year over access for Australian beef.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/australia-says-us-tariffs-not-act-friend-rules-out-reciprocal-move-2025-04-02/

US President Donald Trump ignited a potentially ruinous trade war Wednesday as he slapped sweeping 10 percent tariffs on imports from around the world and harsh additional levies on key trading partners.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags, Trump unveiled particularly stinging tariffs on China and the European Union on what he called “Liberation Day.”

Trump’s tariffs triggered immediate anger, with US ally Australia blasting them as “unwarranted” and Italy calling them “wrong,” while other countries have already vowed retaliation.

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump said.

Wall Street was closed when Trump made his announcement but the S&P index was down 1.5 percent in after-hours trading. The dollar fell one percent against euro as he was speaking, but then recovered.

Trump reserved some of the heaviest blows for what he called “nations that treat us badly,” including 34 percent on goods from superpower rival China, 20 percent the European Union and 24 percent on Japan.

But the 78-year-old Republican — who held up a chart with a list of the biggest levies — said that he was “very kind” and so was only imposing half the amount that the “worst offenders” taxed US exports.

For the rest, Trump said he would impose a “baseline” tariff of 10 percent, including another key ally, Britain.

An audience of cabinet members, as well as workers in hard hats from industries including steel, oil and gas, whooped and cheered as Trump said the tariffs would “make America wealthy again.”

“This is Liberation Day,” Trump said, adding that it would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn.”

Sweeping auto tariffs of 25 percent that Trump announced last week are also due to take effect at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Thursday.

Canada and Mexico are not affected by the new tariffs as Trump has already imposed levies on the two US neighbors for what he says is their failure to crack down on trafficking of the drug fentanyl.

Trump had telegraphed the move for weeks, insisting tariffs will keep the United States from being “ripped off” by other countries and spur a new economic “Golden Age.”

But many experts warn the tariffs risk triggering a recession at home as costs are passed on to US consumers, and a damaging trade war abroad.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned nations not to impose countermeasures, saying on Fox News: “If you retaliate, there will be escalation.”

The world has been on edge ahead of Trump’s announcement, and his tariffs hit countries all over the globe.

Some of the worst hit were in Asia, including 49 percent for Cambodia, 47 percent for Vietnam and 44 percent for military-ruled Myanmar, which was recently hit by a devastating earthquake.

One country attracting the highest rate of 50 percent was Lesotho — the southern African nation that Trump recently called a country “nobody has ever heard of.”

The tariffs will also reinforce fears that Trump is backing even further away from US allies towards a new order based on a vision of American supremacy.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday said the tariffs were “totally unwarranted” and would change the perception of the relationship with the United States.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a close Trump ally, said the levies on the EU were “wrong” but pledged to work with Washington for a deal.

Britain escaped relatively lightly after a diplomatic offensive that included Prime Minister Keir Starmer turning up to the White House with an invitation from King Charles III for a state visit.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-sparks-trade-war-sweeping-global-tariffs-3768612

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has triumphantly deemed Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs a “reordering of fair trade” as tensions with global allies reach a peak.

Lutnick predicted countries will “stop picking on” the US after the European Union plotted its response to Trump’s fiery “Liberation Day” announcement.

In an interview with CNBC, Lutnick said the tariffs would open up the world market for US goods and remove “non-tariff trade barriers” plaguing American manufacturers.

“I expect most countries to start to really examine their trade policy towards the United States of America and stop picking on us,” he said.

“Stop saying that we can’t sell our corn to India, stop saying that we can’t sell our beef anywhere. Just stop treating us so poorly.”

Since Trump announced his sweeping new taxes on global imports Wednesday evening, world leaders have started rushing to respond.

Austria’s conservative economy minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer said the EU will need to “hit the US states” in a tit for tat response to Trump’s fiery “Liberation Day” announcement.

He said, “We have to hit Republican states and we have to hit Donald Trump’s friends, the tech companies.”

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck also warned that Trump will buckle under the growing pressure from Europe.

He said in a news conference, “That is what I see, that Donald Trump buckles under pressure, corrects his announcements under pressure.

“But the logical consequence is that he must also feel the pressure, and this pressure must now be exerted from Germany, from Europe.”

Europe’s strong reactions to the tariffs overnight have already led the US to respond to the uproar.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged nations to “sit back, take a deep breath, don’t immediately retaliate” after the explosive new trade program.

He told CNN, “Doing anything rash would be unwise.

“If you retaliate, that’s how we get escalation.”

Stocks plummeted in after-hours trading due to the tariffs, which include a baseline 10% tax on all imports starting April 5.

The new rates “prevent cheating” by raising what the US charges on imports to match the fees other countries put on American goods, Trump said.

“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said while announcing the new measures.

He said the US would use the money generated from tariffs to “reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt.”

The fresh rates are kicking off with new auto tariffs slapping a 25% tax on all foreign-made automobiles starting Thursday at midnight.

But European leaders didn’t take it lightly.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen slammed the tariffs as a “major blow to the world economy”, saying Brussels is “preparing for further countermeasures.”

French officials said the EU is “ready for a trade war.” Italian PM Giorgia Meloni blasted the tariffs as “wrong,” while Poland’s Donald Tusk warned “really and truly reciprocal tariffs” were on the table.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13926666/tariffs-trump-liberation-day-live-updates-tax-canada/

Polyakov set out from Kurma Dera Beach at about 1 AM on March 29, taking a boat with a coconut and a can of cola as “offerings for the Sentinelese”.

A man from the United States was arrested in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for allegedly entering the restricted area of North Sentinel Island. Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, was arrested on March 31 by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Police said that he ventured to North Sentinel Island without permission after arriving in Port Blair on March 26, reports PTI.
Polyakov set out from Kurma Dera Beach at about 1 AM on March 29, taking a boat with a coconut and a can of cola as “offerings for the Sentinelese”. He reached the northeastern shore of North Sentinel Island by 10 AM, where he used binoculars to survey the area but saw no inhabitants. After spending an hour offshore and blowing a whistle to draw attention without success, he briefly landed on the island, left the offerings, gathered sand samples, and filmed a video before returning to his boat.

He started his return trip at 1 PM and arrived back at Kurma Dera Beach around 7 PM, where local fishermen spotted him.

The Sentinelese, the indigenous people of North Sentinel Island, are a protected tribe and are known to be hostile to outsiders. In 2018, American missionary John Chau was killed by the tribe while attempting to contact them. The Sentinelese are considered one of the last uncontacted tribes in the world.

The Director General of Police (DGP) HS Dhaliwal said authorities are investigating Polyakov’s intentions and activities during his time in the islands. Police are also questioning hotel staff from his stay in Port Blair.
Police confiscated several items from Polyakov, including an inflatable boat, an outboard motor, and GPS equipment. He had reportedly researched sea conditions, tides, and the accessibility of North Sentinel Island before making the journey, police said.
Polyakov, who is of Ukrainian descent, had a GoPro camera with footage of his visit to the island. He remains in police custody for further questioning.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/us-national-arrested-for-entering-restricted-north-sentinel-island-in-andamans-article-151337624

Val Kilmer’s health had seriously deteriorated near the end of his life … leaving him unable to get out of bed for years before his death, TMZ has learned.

Family sources tell TMZ … Val had a lack of energy related to his cancer treatment — and, as a result, he was bed-bound for a long time.

While he was cancer-free, we’re told his body simply couldn’t keep fighting at the end … and, his body eventually shut down.

According to our sources, Val was very frail near the end of his life … and, his death wasn’t sudden. His health seriously declined in the past week, and his friends and family came to Val’s side at the hospital in the days before his death. He had been previously hospitalized earlier this year.

We are also told that a video of Kilmer donning a Batman mask he posted to Instagram in February was taken years ago… so, his appearance in it isn’t accurate to how he looked in the last months of his life.

Kilmer hadn’t appeared in public for years before his death … last attending the Thespians Go Hollywood Gala back in 2019 with his daughter, Mercedes.

Val has two children … and, we’re told they’re working on his funeral arrangements. As you know, Mercedes confirmed her dad’s passing to the New York Times yesterday … revealing he died after a battle with pneumonia.

Kilmer was hospitalized with throat cancer back in 2015 … and, while he eventually went into remission, his voice was irreparably harmed by the disease.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/04/02/val-kilmer-out-bed-years-before-death/

The emotional moment a woman who had a double hand transplant hugged her donor’s twin sister has been revealed in a newly released video.

Corinne Hutton is seen holding hands with Deborah Gosling – who agreed for her sister Julie Wild’s limbs to be donated after she died from a sudden brain bleed in 2019.

As they met for the first time, Ms Hutton told Ms Gosling: “I’ll shake your hand because I can.”

Ms Gosling then held Ms Hutton’s fingers and said: “Julie had beautiful hands.”

Ms Hutton, who lost both her hands and legs to sepsis in 2013, replied: “I know that, they were perfect when I got them. Just wonderful.

“Every day they’re doing more than they were the day before.”

Ms Gosling responded by saying her sister would be “so proud”.

The video was filmed when the pair met at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds in 2019.

They have decided to share their story now to support the NHS Blood and Transplant campaign, which is calling for more people to donate organs and tissue.

‘I didn’t hesitate’

Ms Wild, a mother of two, was rushed to hospital by Ms Gosling in 2019 after she complained of a headache and began struggling to speak.

“I got her in the car, took her to hospital – she got worse and worse en route to the hospital,” said Ms Gosling.

“A nurse and a doctor came on to the scene, took her to a resuscitation room. She was unconscious from then. I knew I had lost my sister.”

She added that a specialist nurse later came to see her to discuss organ donation.

Ms Gosling continued: “It wasn’t a hard decision. I said straight away ‘no problem’.

“They also asked about donating limbs. And I was quite taken aback by it because I had not heard of that before.

“But to give somebody a chance of enhancing their life is absolutely incredible. I didn’t hesitate. Julie didn’t need them anymore, but someone else did.”

Ms Wild’s hands, pancreas, liver and both kidneys were all donated after her death.

The 51-year-old had worked as a phlebotomist – a health worker who takes blood from patients for analysis – at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

‘I will never forget where they come from’

After Ms Wild’s death, Ms Hutton received a call telling her that donor hands had been found.

The 54-year-old, from Lochwinnoch in Scotland, had a 12-hour operation to have her new hands fitted, becoming the sixth person in the UK to receive a double hand transplant.

Reflecting on the meeting, Ms Hutton said: “I was hopeful that, for Deborah, holding the hands and touching and seeing them would give them some light after an otherwise dark situation.”

She added: “The difference [the transplant has made] has been absolutely life-changing.

“I’m so grateful to Julie and her family. I’ll never forget that I am lucky and I will never forget where they’ve come from. And hopefully I will give them a good life.”

Ms Hutton now has about 95% function in her right hand and about 75% in her left hand.

Meanwhile, Ms Gosling said Ms Hutton’s recovery has “been a source of pride” for the family.

“I always wanted to meet Corinne and I will always keep in touch,” said Ms Gosling, a 57-year-old paramedic from Sheffield.

“It’s hard to describe, but it’s quite comforting to know someone has got her hands, that part of her lives on in a way. I couldn’t take my eyes off them when we met.”

Ms Hutton has become an advocate for organ donation. She has founded the charity Finding Your Feet, which supports families affected by amputation or limb absence.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/absolutely-life-changing-watch-the-moment-a-woman-who-had-a-double-hand-transplant-hugs-donors-twin-sister-13340406

The beachside town of Balneario Camboriu, dubbed the “Dubai of Brazil” for having the country’s tallest buildings and most expensive real estate, is now taking aim at the title of world’s highest all-residential tower.
The Senna Tower project, inspired by the late Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, is being developed by FG Empreendimentos and will include investments from retail billionaire Luciano Hang.
The company, which has constructed about 60 buildings in the area, expects the tower to surpass 540 meters (1,772 feet) and have 157 floors at a cost of 3.5 billion reais ($616 million). Though they’re just preparing to drill the foundations and it won’t be finished until around 2033, sales have begun and should reach 8.5 billion reais when completed, according to FG Chief Executive Officer Jean Graciola.

The three-floor penthouses, with 910 square meters (9,795 square feet), could fetch 300 million reais each. Graciola said he’s held talks with Sotheby’s about selling them through the auction house.

“We’re a company that constructs regionally but sells Brazil to the world,” Graciola said in an interview at his office in Balneario Camboriu.
The current record-holder is Central Park Tower along Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row at 472 meters. Another project in Dubai is in development with plans to go as high as 530 meters, Graciola said. Senna’s final height will be determined after details of the building’s pinnacle are hashed out, he said.

Land Prices

Graciola disputed the idea that they’re simply competing for the title. Given how costly land has become in Balneario Camboriu — an average of 14,206 reais per square meter — building such a tall tower will help compensate for that and provide greater returns on investment, Graciola said.
The real estate fever gripping Balneario Camboriu has spread to neighboring cities including Itajai and Itapema, with the three among the top five most expensive locales in Brazil, according to FipeZAP, which tracks the data.

The bulk of buyers in Balneario Camboriu come from wealthy families in Santa Catarina, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul states along with rich landowners and farmers from the center west of the country. Graciola has been trying to sell more to Sao Paulo state, the country’s largest, and is also opening a Miami sales office. He plans to use Portugal as an entry to European clients.
The group has engaged actress Sharon Stone and Cristiano Ronaldo for advertisements over the past decades.

Sales Climb

FG’s 2024 sales jumped 54% from a year earlier to 2 billion reais with a profit margin of close to 85%, Graciola said. The closely held company, started by Jean’s father Francisco, finances purchases directly and currently has a credit book with 4.3 billion reais.
With just 170,000 year-round residents, Balneario Camboriu has little to no industry outside of tourism and construction. By contrast, Sao Paulo, South America’s biggest city with about 20 million people in the metropolitan area, is currently constructing its tallest tower for corporate use that will reach 219 meters with nearly 40 floors.
FG, which recently created a consulting business for high rises called Talls Solutions, is working with Fatih Yalniz and Harry Poulos, who’ve been involved in the engineering and design of some of the world’s tallest structures, according to the company.

Source : https://archive.is/2025.04.02-122136/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-02/-dubai-of-brazil-takes-aim-at-world-s-tallest-residential-tower#selection-1661.0-1672.0

Jean-Claude Van Damme has been accused of having sex with multiple Romanian women he knew were trafficked.

CNN affiliate Antena 3 reported Wednesday that a criminal complaint was filed with the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), alleging that the married martial artist-turned-actor, 64, engaged in sexual relations with five women trafficked by a criminal group believed to be led by Romanian businessman and modeling agency owner Morel Bolea.

The women were allegedly presented to Van Damme — who is also a martial artist and bodybuilder — as a “gift,” and the alleged acts took place in Cannes at an event he organized, according to Antena 3 CNN.

A timeframe for the alleged acts was not noted.

Attorney Adrian Cuculis, who represents one of the alleged victims, told the outlet that the women “were in a state of vulnerability, with the suspicion that they were exploited within the meaning of Article 182 of the Criminal Code.

“At one point in Cannes, at an event organized by Jean-Claude Van Damme, several Romanians who are currently being investigated for the establishment of a criminal group and pimping allegedly offered Jean-Claude Van Damme five Romanian women — photo models in Romania — for him to have sexual relations [with],” Cuculis told the outlet, according to an English translation.

“The person who received those benefits knew their condition. From the witness statements, it is very clear that Jean-Claude Van Damme knew that these people were being exploited.”

One of the women who witnessed the alleged acts reported what she saw to prosecutors, which prompted DIICOT to open a criminal investigation, per Antena 3 CNN.

Given that the alleged acts took place in Cannes, the High Court of Cassation in France must now authorize the initiation of criminal proceedings.

Once identified, the alleged perpetrators in the case will then be summoned to Romania to give statements, Antena 3 CNN reported.

According to Cuculis, the “outrageous” case is part of a larger investigation into human trafficking and the trafficking of minors that began in 2020 by Romania’s prosecutor’s office.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/04/02/celebrity-news/jean-claude-van-damme-accused-of-having-sex-with-trafficked-women/

An Indian court is due to hear a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s social media company X, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of misusing the law to censor content on its platform.

Last month, X sued the government saying a new website – Sahyog – launched by the federal home ministry last year, was being used to expand its censorship powers and take down content.

X argued the portal gave government officials wide-ranging powers to issue blocking orders that were “in violation” of India’s digital laws. It said it could not be compelled to join Sahyog, which it called a “censorship portal”.

The Indian government has said that the portal is necessary to tackle harmful online content.

Other American technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta have agreed to be on Sahyog.

Sahyog describes itself as a portal developed to automate the process of sending government notices to content intermediaries like X and Facebook.

The lawsuit filed in the southern state of Karnataka came after the federal railway ministry ordered X to remove “hundreds of posts”.

These included videos of a crush in Delhi in which 18 people died as they were making their way to the world’s largest religious gathering, the Kumbh Mela.

In its petition, X argues that the portal and the orders issued through it fall outside the remit of the original law that allows the government to block content.

Under this law, senior officials have the power to issue takedown orders, but after following due procedure like giving notices, opportunities for hearings and allowing for a review of any decision.

But X says the government is bypassing these procedures to issue arbitrary content takedown orders through other legal provisions that have no safeguards.

As a result, “countless” government officials, including “tens of thousands of local police officers”, are “unilaterally and arbitrarily” issuing orders, X argues in its petition.

India’s federal IT and home ministries did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

In court, the government has argued that its actions are lawful. It said it was not sending blocking orders but only issuing “notices” to platforms against unlawful content.

The government also defended the Sahyog platform saying it was a “necessity” because of the “growing volume of unlawful and harmful content online”.

The case is of “vital importance” as the blocking mechanism of the Sahyog portal has resulted in “a wholesale increase in censorship”, said Apar Gupta of the digital rights organisation, Internet Freedom Foundation.

This is not the first time the Indian government and X are at loggerheads.

The Delhi police had raided the offices of X (then Twitter) in 2021, before Musk took over, after a tweet by a ruling party spokesperson was marked as “manipulated media”.

In 2022, the company had sued the Indian government against blocking orders, at least one of which pertained to a year-long protest by farmers against new laws brought in by the government. However, the court ruled against the company and imposed a fine of 5m rupees ($58,000; £45,000).

Under Musk’s leadership, X appealed against this decision, which is currently separately being heard in the Karnataka high court.

In 2023, India called X a “habitual non-compliant platform” during the appeal proceedings.

India is also reportedly investigating X’s chatbot Grok regarding its use of inappropriate language and “controversial responses” after it made politically sensitive comments to user prompts recently.

The timing of the lawsuit is interesting as it comes when Musk’s other companies Starlink and Tesla have just begun making inroads into India with their business plans.

Earlier in March, Starlink signed an agreement with two of India’s biggest telecoms firms to bring satellite internet to India and is awaiting government approval to start providing its services.

Tesla could finally be making its debut and has begun hiring for a dozen jobs in Delhi and Mumbai. It is also reportedly hunting for showrooms in both cities.

Musk also met Prime Minister Modi when he visited the White House last month.

His growing business interests in India and closeness with US President Donald Trump give him “ample leverage” with India, Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute in Washington, told the BBC.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv4974k27wo

Donald Trump’s decision to impose new tariffs on all goods entering the US is a “major blow to the world economy”, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said.

Her comments echo those of a number of other countries, including China, which has expressed its opposition to the move and has warned it will take “resolute countermeasures” against the US.

Their words of warning come after the US president announced a universal 10% tariff on all imports into the US from 5 April. Around 60 countries will also be hit with steeper tariffs from 9 April.

Trump said the measures were payback for unfair trade policies, adding that he had been “very kind” in his decisions.

Trump has said the tariffs will be used to boost US manufacturing, saying on Wednesday that the move would “make America wealthy again”.

Giving a statement on Thursday morning, von der Leyen said the new tax imports will see “uncertainty spiral”, causing “dire” consequences “for millions of people around the globe”.

She emphasised the impact on the most vulnerable countries, pointing out that some of those nations are now subject to some of the highest US tariffs.

The EC chief vowed Europe would take a unified approach and warned that the European Union – which will be subject to a 20% tariff – is preparing countermeasures in case negotiations fail.

“If you take on one of us, you take on all of us”, she said.

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, a Trump ally, said the decision was “wrong” but that she would work towards a deal with the US to “prevent a trade war”.

Her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez said Spain would “continue to be committed to an open world”, while in Ireland, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Trump’s decision was “deeply regrettable” and benefitted “no-one”.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron will meet representatives from business sectors hit by the new taxes at the Élysée Palace on Thursday, the French presidency said.

At a glance: What president’s new taxes mean for EU, China and others
Full story: Trump charges high tariffs on ‘worst offenders’ globally
Canada: No additional US tariffs for Canada, but no relief either
Analysis: Trump’s tariffs are a longtime goal fulfilled – and his biggest gamble yet
Explainer: What are tariffs, and why is Trump using them?
Outside the EU, China – one of the countries deemed the “worst offenders” by the US president – was hit with a 34% tariff on goods, on top of an existing 20% levy, bringing total duties to at least 54%.

The ministry of commerce urged the US to “immediately cancel” the tariffs, adding that China would “resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.”

Taiwan, which is set to face a 32% tariff for exports to the US, called the move “highly unreasonable”.

Premier Cho Jung-tai also said it would make “serious representations” to the US.

South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo said the global trade war “has become a reality” and his government would be looking at ways to “overcome the trade crisis” after the East Asian country was hit with a 25% rate.

Japan said its 24% levy was “extremely regrettable” and could violate World Trade Organization and US-Japan agreements, while Thailand said it would negotiate its 36% tariff.

Economic officials in Israel, which had scrapped all tariffs on American imports ahead of the announcement, were said to be in “complete shock” over its 17% tariff, local media reported.

“We were sure that the decision to completely cancel tariffs on imports from the US would prevent this move”, an official told local media.

White House officials said its levies were reciprocal to countries, such as China, which it said charge higher tariffs on US goods, impose “non-tariff” barriers to US trade or have otherwise acted in ways the government feels undermine American economic goals.

Leaders from countries subject to the 10% baseline rate have also reacted to Trump’s measures, with Australia’s Anthony Albanese saying Americans would end up paying the biggest price for what he called “unjustified tariffs”.

His government will not impose reciprocal measures, he said, adding: “We will not join a race to the bottom that leads to higher prices and slower growth”.

A Downing Street source told the BBC that the UK’s lower tariff “vindicates” the government’s recent efforts towards a trade deal with the US.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the government remained “fully focused on negotiating an economic deal with the US that strengthens our existing fair and balanced trading relationship”.

In Latin America, its biggest economy, Brazil, approved a law in congress on Wednesday – the Economic Reciprocity Law – to counter the 10% tariff imposed by Trump.

The foreign ministry said it would evaluate “all possible actions to ensure reciprocity in bilateral trade, including resorting to the World Trade Organization”.

Shortly after Trump’s announcement, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned countries not to “retaliate” and “sit back, take it in”.

“Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation”, he told Fox News.

Noticeably, the US’s two biggest trade partners, Canada and Mexico, were not mentioned in Wednesday’s announcements.

The White House said it would deal with both countries according to previous executive orders, which imposed 25% tariffs on the two nations as part of efforts to address fentanyl and border issues.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgql020y5lo

U.S. stock futures and the dollar tumbled on Wednesday after President Donald Trump unveiled “liberation day” tariffs that were larger than investors had expected.

President Trump strode up to the lectern in the White House’s Rose Garden shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern time to the sound of trumpets and applause from the audience.

The initial market reaction was relatively benign — with stock futures ticking higher while the dollar climbed against rivals like the euro
EURUSD +0.50% — as Trump kicked things off by announcing a 10% across-the-board tariff on all goods entering the U.S. That figure was in line with some of the more benign media reports ahead of the event.

But then, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick handed Trump a giant table enumerating the higher rates that would be applied to certain individual American trading partners, and investors’ mood suddenly shifted. Futures turned sharply lower, along with the dollar.

According to the table, which was shared on X by the White House, the U.S. will slap a 34% tariff on Chinese goods, a 20% tariff on goods entering from the European Union and 46% on those from Vietnam.

“Futures rose about 30 or 40 points initially when he said ‘reciprocal tariffs,’” noted Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at Interactive Brokers, during an interview with MarketWatch.

“Reciprocal doesn’t sound so bad. Then, when people actually saw what the numbers were — 10% across the board and in many cases much higher — it became very tangible for them. And down we went.”

Stock futures were sharply lower when trading paused for an hour at 5p.m. Eastern. By the time it started back up an hour later, S&P 500 futures
ES00-2.70% were down 3.4% at 5,520; Nasdaq-100 NQ00 -3.21% futures were down 4.2% at 18,927; and futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00 -2.00% were off by 892 points, or 2.2%, at 41,559. Investors were bracing for a beatdown for the stock market
SPX +0.67% DJIA +0.56% COMP +0.87% at the open on Thursday.

Currency markets reacted in similar fashion to stocks, with the U.S. dollar seeing an initial pop that quickly reversed. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY -0.71%was off by 0.5% at 103.74 in recent trade. The buck was roughly flat compared with the Canadian dollar USDCAD -0.01% and Mexican peso USDMXN +0.09%

“It’s a seismic day for global trade. Trump is blowing up the postwar system that made the U.S. and the world more prosperous, and he’s doing it with reckless confidence,” said Nigel Green, chief executive of global financial advisory giant deVere Group.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered no new details Wednesday about his massive restructuring of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the day after thousands of layoffs ricocheted through its agencies, hollowing out entire offices around the country in some cases.

Kennedy’s silence is prompting questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, with a bipartisan request for President Donald Trump’s health secretary to appear before a Senate committee next week to explain the cuts.

As many as 10,000 notices were sent to scientists, senior leaders, doctors, inspectors and others across the department in an effort to cut a quarter of its workforce. The agency itself has offered no specifics on which jobs have been eliminated, with the information instead coming largely from employees who have been dismissed.

“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said on social media, in his only comments addressing the layoffs so far. “It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”

The move, the department has said, is expected to save $1.8 billion from the agency’s $1.7 trillion annual budget — about one-tenth of 1%.

The department has not released final numbers but last week said it planned to eliminate 3,500 jobs from the Food and Drug Administration, 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health. Public health experts and top Democrats have raised alarms about how the deep cuts — about 25% of the department — will affect food and prescription drug safety, medical research and infectious disease prevention.

Still unclear is why certain jobs were eliminated and others were spared.

As the cuts were underway on Tuesday, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, sent a letter to Kennedy calling him before the Senate’s health committee. In a statement, Cassidy said Kennedy’s appearance is part of his promise to appear quarterly before the committee.

“This will be a good opportunity for him to set the record straight and speak to the goals, structure and benefits of the proposed reorganization,” Cassidy’s statement said.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, said the House’s health subcommittee also has questions about job cuts.

“We’re going to find out what the layoffs were all about — 10,000 — we didn’t know it,” Harshbarger said Wednesday at a health care forum hosted by Politico. “We’re going to find out what the premise was for those layoffs.”

At the same event, special government employee Calley Means, a close adviser to Kennedy who is working at the White House, defended the cuts. He struggled, however, to offer an explanation on how the overhaul will improve Americans’ health. Some of his claims were met with shouts and hisses.

“The system is really on the wrong track,” Means said, later adding that he wants to see more research from the NIH.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/hhs-rfk-jr-layoffs-health-cdc-nih-4135c9e91ea67c8bb8ee272e2bc468bd

Val Kilmer, who played Bruce Wayne in “Batman Forever,” channeled Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone‘s “The Doors” and starred as a tubercular Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. His daughter Mercedes told The New York Times the cause was pneumonia. He was 65. He had been battling throat cancer for several years.

Kilmer’s reps did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

The baby-faced blonde actor had a solid run as a leading man with a volatile reputation in the ’80s and ’90s, starring in “Top Gun,” “Real Genius,” “Willow,” “Heat,” and “The Saint.” He returned briefly to screens in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick” although he could no longer speak due to his cancer.

In 2021, a documentary on his life, “Val,” was released. His son provided the actor’s voice and the film utilized hundreds of hours of video he had recorded over the years, giving a revealing look at the sets he worked on and showing the actor to be an introspective thinker with an artist’s soul.

Kilmer took over from Michael Keaton for Joel Schumacher’s 1995 “Batman Forever,” receiving mixed reviews for his take on the Dark Knight. He was replaced by George Clooney for 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” a notorious flop that nearly killed the franchise. The New York Times said of “Batman Forever,” “The prime costume is now worn by Val Kilmer, who makes a good Batman but not a better one than Michael Keaton.”

After reportedly turning down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders,” Kilmer broke out with a starring role in 1984 spy spoof “Top Secret!,” in which he played a rock star and sang his own songs. Following his turn as a brainy college student in the 1985 sci-fi comedy, “Real Genius,” he became a major star, appearing opposite Tom Cruise in the worldwide hit “Top Gun.” Kilmer met his future wife, actress Joanne Whalley, on the set of Ron Howard’s fantasy film “Willow,” and then appeared with her in “Kill Me Again” in 1989.

One of his most memorable roles was playing the charismatic and doomed Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 “The Doors.” Kilmer memorized the lyrics to all of Morrison’s songs before his audition, and he immersed himself in the role, wearing clothes similar to the singer’s for close to a year. Roger Ebert wrote of his turn as Jim Morrison, “The performance is the best thing in the movie — and since nearly every scene centers on Morrison, that is not small praise.”

After “Batman Forever,” New Line persuaded him to come on board the troubled production of “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” where Kilmer tangled with both the film’s star, Marlon Brando, and director John Frankenheimer. Frustrations on the production mounted when Brando refused to come to the set, and the documentary “Val” revealed a tense set where crew members grimly joked about Brando’s stand-in, named Norm.

Frankenheimer, the second director to work on completing the film, reportedly said, “There are two things I will never ever do in my whole life. The first is that I will never climb Mt. Everest. The second is that I will never work with Val Kilmer ever again.”

In the 1990s, Kilmer starred in Michael Apted’s Western “Thunderheart” and “The Real McCoy” and had a small but memorable role as an Elvis-like mentor in Tony Scott’s “True Romance.” His role as a sardonic Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” (1993) was one of his most beloved performances, and in 1995, he appeared in “Heat” alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

He went on to star in “The Ghost and the Darkness” and the forgettable remake “The Saint,” which he shot instead of returning as Batman in “Batman & Robin.” Kilmer implied he didn’t return as Batman because of scheduling issues, though Schumacher’s description of him as “psychotic” could have also been a factor.

After the mid-1990s, the studio roles dwindled amidst his reputation as difficult and combative, and he appeared mostly in independent films and supporting roles such as Stone’s poorly-reviewed “Alexander.”

Born in Los Angeles, Kilmer was raised in Chatsworth and attended Hollywood Professional School and the Juilliard School. He appeared off Broadway in “The Slab Boys,” co-starring with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon, before his first TV role in the afterschool special “One Too Many,” which also starred Michelle Pfeiffer.

He did voices for animated films including “The Prince of Egypt.” His other films included “At First Sight,” “Red Planet,” “Pollock,” “The Salton Sea,” “Wonderland” and “The Missing.” Kilmer continued working in films including “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” with Robert Downey, Jr., “Déjà Vu” with Denzel Washington, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “The Snowman.”

A lifelong Christian Scientist, Kilmer was unwilling to confirm his cancer diagnosis when it was revealed by Michael Douglas in 2016. He combined his fascination with Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy with his love of Mark Twain in a screenplay that featured the two figures. He toured the country with his one-man show “Citizen Twain” for several years, which incorporated film and live readings of the humorist’s work.

In 2012, Kilmer received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word for an audio production of “Zorro.” His memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry,” named for a line in “Tombstone,” was published in 2020.

Source : https://variety.com/2025/film/news/val-kilmer-dead-batman-forever-tombstone-1236354606/

Which American cities are leading the way in fostering wellness for their residents? According to WalletHub’s annual “Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities in America” report, San Francisco claims the top spot as the nation’s healthiest metropolitan area, followed by Honolulu and Seattle. The elaborate study examines factors ranging from healthcare access to green space availability to obesity rates.

City Planning Meets Health Outcomes

“Location matters when it comes to health,” explains Adam McCann, WalletHub Financial Writer, in a statement. “Some places promote wellness by expanding access to nutritious food and recreational facilities. Others strive to keep healthcare costs affordable for everyone or keep parks clean and well-maintained.”

This analysis comes at a critical time when public health experts are increasingly focusing on how built environments and community resources shape individual health outcomes. The study compared more than 180 of the most populated U.S. cities across 41 key indicators of good health, examining everything from medical costs to fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity rates.

What Makes San Francisco America’s Healthiest City?

San Francisco secured its position at the top of the rankings largely due to having the second-lowest share of obese adults in the country, with just 18% of the population meeting obesity criteria. The city’s excellence in nutritional habits is evident in the fact that San Francisco has the second-lowest percentage of residents consuming less than one serving of fruits or vegetables daily.

The city’s commitment to accessible recreation shows in its infrastructure: 100% of residents live within reasonable proximity to locations for physical activity. San Francisco also ranks second nationally in per capita spending on parks and recreation, investing heavily in maintaining spaces where residents can stay active and connect with nature.

Transportation design plays a crucial role in the city’s health outcomes as well. The Golden Gate City ranks among America’s most walkable and bikeable cities, allowing residents to incorporate physical activity into their daily commutes rather than relying exclusively on sedentary transportation options.

San Francisco also boasts one of the highest concentrations of healthy restaurants per capita and excels in providing vegetarian and gluten-free dining options, making nutritious eating more accessible to residents with varying dietary needs.

Honolulu: Island Paradise Promotes Mental and Physical Wellness

Hawaii’s capital secured the second position, with particular strength in addressing mental health needs. Honolulu has one of the nation’s lowest rates of prolonged mental health challenges, with approximately 13% of adults reporting 14 or more mentally unhealthy days in the past month.

The city’s healthcare coverage is impressive, with over 95% of adults and 98% of children having health insurance, placing Honolulu in the top 25 cities nationally for coverage rates. Nutritional access is another strong point, as the city has the highest number of farmers markets per capita, giving residents direct access to fresh, locally grown food.

Honolulu’s natural environment also contributes significantly to its high ranking, boasting the most hiking trails per capita among all cities studied, allowing residents to stay physically active while enjoying the island’s stunning landscapes.

Seattle: The Emerald City’s Active Lifestyle

Securing third place, Seattle stands out for having the highest physical activity rates nationwide, with an impressive 87% of adults engaging in physical activity during the past month. Like San Francisco, Seattle ranks among the top cities for parks and recreation spending per capita, ensuring residents have well-maintained spaces for outdoor activities.

Notably, Seattle residents demonstrate a strong interest in healthy living through their online search behaviors. They search for health-related terms like “healthy dinner ideas” and “health food stores” more frequently than people in most other cities, indicating a community-wide commitment to nutritional wellness.

The report also highlights Seattle’s status as one of America’s greenest cities, noting that environmental quality and sustainability initiatives contribute positively to residents’ overall health.

Expert Insights on Urban Health

“Staying healthy is a personal responsibility, and everyone should strive to eat nutritious food, exercise regularly and look after their mental health,” notes Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst. “However, where people live can have a big influence on how successful they are at staying in good health, so the best cities are the ones that provide the greatest access to high-quality healthcare, green spaces, recreation centers, and healthy food.”

Dr. Amy Justice, a professor of medicine and public health at Yale University, emphasizes the importance of neighborhood-level factors beyond city-wide metrics.

“At a city level, air and water quality, traffic safety, commute times, and availability of reliable public transport (to encourage walking rather than driving) are important,” Dr. Justice explains. “However, the most important factors have more to do with neighborhood than with city level factors. Safety, green space and sidewalks are clearly important to encourage outdoor activities and exercise.”

Dr. Justice also highlights the role of food environments and social connectivity in community health: “Groceries that carry affordable fresh food and a lower density of stores that only carry liquor, sugar-infused drinks, and highly processed food are also important factors. Social fabric is another very important factor. People need to feel connected to each other and to their communities.”

The Bottom of the Rankings

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Brownsville, Texas, ranked as America’s least healthy city (182nd), preceded by Gulfport, Mississippi (181st), and Shreveport, Louisiana (180th). These cities consistently underperformed across multiple health indicators.

Other cities in the bottom ten include Laredo, Texas (178th); Columbus, Georgia (179th); Huntington, West Virginia (177th); Corpus Christi, Texas (176th); and Fort Smith, Arkansas (175th). Many of these cities face challenges with healthcare access, limited healthy food options, and fewer recreational opportunities.

Notable Health Disparities Across America

The study revealed significant disparities in key health metrics across American cities. For instance, the cost of a medical visit in the least expensive city (Laredo, Texas) is approximately three times lower than in the most expensive cities, which include Milwaukee, Anchorage, Madison, Seattle, and Juneau.

Even more striking is the difference in premature death rates—measured as years of potential life lost—between cities. San Jose, California, has a premature death rate approximately four times lower than Huntington, West Virginia, representing a substantial gap in life expectancy and quality of life.

Other interesting findings include Scottsdale, Arizona, which ranked first for fitness despite ranking only 16th overall, and South Burlington, Vermont, which topped the healthcare rankings while placing 17th overall.

Health as a Community Responsibility

While individual choices matter, community resources and infrastructure play crucial roles in enabling healthy behaviors. Cities providing better access to quality healthcare, nutritious food options, and recreational facilities create environments where making healthy choices becomes easier for residents.

Dr. Justice emphasizes this point: “Health is not owned by healthcare. As people age, healthy longevity requires a well-integrated fabric of personal, social, and community resources.”

She suggests that local authorities can improve health outcomes by facilitating better coordination between healthcare systems and community resources: “Healthcare systems need to know how to refer individuals to these resources and these resources need to understand how to help individuals navigate healthcare systems. At present these groups largely function in silos—both providing redundant services and leaving large gaps in services that are not provided anywhere.”

For cities looking to improve their health rankings, Dr. Justice recommends concrete actions: “Create and maintain safe green spaces. Support farmers markets and other programs providing access to affordable fresh food. Maintain sidewalks where they exist and create walking paths that are safe and accessible. Bring people together in support of these activities.”

Source : https://studyfinds.org/san-francisco-americas-healthiest-cities-in-2025/

Nike (NKE.N), could soon face another blow in its effort to revive its brand and reverse a long decline in sales: U.S. tariffs on imports from Vietnam.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce which countries and products he will target with a new round of tariffs aimed at encouraging domestic production and coaxing other nations to buy more U.S. goods.

Vietnam, which runs a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the United States, is a prime target.

Nike is one of several sportswear brands heavily reliant on Vietnam as a production site and higher tariffs would force the company to absorb higher costs or hike its prices at a time when it is already discounting some items to clear inventory.
Nike produced 50% of its footwear and 28% of its apparel in Vietnam in its 2024 financial year, according to its annual report. Rival Adidas (ADSGn.DE), is slightly less exposed, relying on Vietnam for 39% of its footwear and 18% of its apparel.
The average U.S. tariff rate on footwear from Vietnam is 13.6%, while the rate on apparel is 18.8%, according to calculations, based on January trade data made by Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

“If tariffs are extended there, then Nike’s got a problem,” said Morningstar analyst David Swartz.
Nike and Adidas are hardly alone. Vietnam has become a hub for high-tech running shoes, sportswear, and outdoor apparel as brands have sought to reduce exposure to China.

Lululemon (LULU.O), Columbia Sportswear (COLM.O), and Amer Sports (AS.N), which owns Salomon and Arc’Teryx, count Vietnam as their top manufacturing country.
But the potential tariffs come at a critical moment for Nike, which has lost market share of late to competitors viewed as fresher and more innovative, like On and Hoka.
In a quarterly earnings call last month, Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said Nike’s revenue was expected to continue to fall next quarter.

Lionel Messi’s bodyguard Yassine Cheuko said he has been banned from protecting the Argentine forward from the touchline during Inter Miami matches.
Cheuko gained widespread recognition after social media videos showed him closely watching the crowd to stop potential pitch invaders from harming the eight-times Ballon d’Or winner.

“They don’t allow me to be on the field anymore,” the bodyguard was quoted as saying by Spanish media.

“I was in Europe for seven years, working for Ligue 1 and the Champions League, and only six people invaded the pitch. I came to the USA and in just 20 months 16 people have already done so. There’s a huge problem here, let me help Messi.”
Major League Soccer said on Tuesday that its protocols regarding team security guards had not changed and multiple sides had designated team security guards that are stationed near team benches on the field.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/messis-bodyguard-banned-touchline-inter-miami-games-2025-04-01/

Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Tuesday against a law that aims to ban the annual Pride march by LGBTQ+ groups, and which is seen by critics as part of a wider crackdown on democratic freedoms ahead of a 2026 parliamentary election.
Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces a strong challenge from a surging opposition party ahead of the vote, has criticised the LGBTQ+ community and pledged to curb foreign funding of independent media and non-governmental organisations in Hungary.

Parliament, dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party, passed a law last month to ban the Pride march on the grounds that it could be harmful to children. Orban, who has been in power since 2010, promotes a Christian-conservative agenda.
The law says police can use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend the event, and impose fines on participants, which critics say could become a tool to target Orban’s political opponents.
Orban has said the fact that rallies such as the one on Tuesday could take place meant there was no threat to democracy, calling opposition protests against the new law “provocation.”

However, some demonstrators attending the protest, the third rally over Orban’s reforms, voiced concerns about the health of Hungary’s democracy more than two decades after it joined the European Union.
A group of embassies in Budapest, including European states but not the United States, has also expressed concern over the changes.
“We, the undersigned Embassies, are deeply concerned about the legislation…that results in restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression,” 22 embassies including France, Germany and the United Kingdom said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarians-keep-up-protests-against-orbans-move-ban-pride-2025-04-01/

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting and killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH.N), insurance division, in New York last year.
In a statement, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo called the decision to seek the death penalty “barbaric.”

“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

Mangione, 26, has pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offenses. He could face life in prison without parole if convicted in that case. New York does not have the death penalty for state charges.
Mangione faces a parallel federal indictment in Manhattan federal court over Thompson’s killing, which is where Bondi said prosecutors will aim for the death penalty. He has not yet been asked to enter a plea to the federal charges.
If Mangione is convicted in the federal case, the jury would determine in a separate phase of the trial whether to recommend the death penalty. Any such recommendation must be unanimous, and the judge would be required to impose it.

Thompson was shot dead on December 4 outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, where the company was gathering for an investor conference.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson – an innocent man and father of two young children – was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement.
“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” Bondi said.
The brazen killing of Thompson and ensuing five-day manhunt captivated Americans.
Police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, found Mangione on December 9 with a 9-millimeter pistol and silencer, clothing that matched the apparel worn by Thompson’s shooter in surveillance footage, and a notebook describing an intent to “wack” an insurance company CEO, according to a court filing.

While public officials condemned the killing, some Americans have cheered Mangione, saying he drew attention to steep U.S. healthcare costs and the power of health insurers to refuse payment for some treatments. He is currently being held in federal lockup in Brooklyn.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-luigi-mangione-bondi-says-2025-04-01/

Here’s an embarrassing history lesson for Rep. Lauren Boebert … as she tries to grill director Oliver Stone about something President Trump’s ally Roger Stone actually did!

The Congresswoman from Colorado made the mix-up Tuesday during a congressional hearing about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination — confusing Oliver’s Oscar winning film “JFK” with Roger’s theory on the killing.

Check out the clip … Lauren asks Oliver about a book he wrote accusing Lyndon B. Johnson of being involved in JFK’s assassination.

Problem is … Oliver wrote no such book. He directed the conspiracy-based movie, of course, but Roger is the one who authored the New York Times bestseller, “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ,” which Lauren is referencing.

Oliver seems confused at first before nicely answering the question … explaining how his movie amplifies conspiracy theories around LBJ’s alleged involvement in a cover-up after the assassination.

The director was on Capitol Hill as part of his call for Congress to reopen the investigation into the JFK assassination … this after the feds finally released a mountain of JFK assassination files.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/04/01/lauren-boebert-confuses-oliver-stone-roger-stone-jfk-assassination/

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday there will be no “eye for an eye” approach as the country braces for new US import tariffs kicking in this week.

The leader of the United States’ biggest trading partner spoke on the eve of President Donald Trump’s expected announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs, with 25 percent levies on imported cars and car parts.

Mexico has previously vowed a “comprehensive response” to Trump’s tariffs, sticking to a strategy of prioritizing dialogue.

But Sheinbaum said Tuesday “we do not believe in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, because that always leads to a bad situation.”

She added that “of course, measures are taken (in Mexico) because measures are taken on the other side, but the dialogue must continue.”

Trump has said he will unveil a raft of so-called “reciprocal tariffs” Wednesday, on what he has dubbed America’s “Liberation Day.”

He insists the duties are necessary to combat trade imbalances with other countries.

Mexico’s economy is considered one of the most vulnerable to Trump’s tariffs due to its close trade relations with the United States.

The Latin American nation is home to many foreign-owned vehicle assembly plants operated by companies including Ford, General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen and Toyota.

More than 80 percent of Mexican exports go to the United States, including around three million vehicles a year.

Sheinbaum said her government would wait to hear the details of Trump’s announcement Wednesday to respond accordingly.

“We are not certain, no country in the world is certain exactly what will be announced on April 2,” she said at her daily press conference.

On the topic of migration, another point of contention with Mexico’s northern neighbor, Sheinbaum insisted her government was willing to “coordinate” approaches with the United States, but “not subordinate” to it.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/no-eye-eye-approach-us-tariffs-mexico-3768439

Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, are officially parents to four girls!

Kylie announced the birth of their fourth child, a baby girl named Finnley “Finn” Anne Kelce, on Instagram Tuesday night with a sweet carousel of her newborn, including one precious snap of Jason cradling her in his arms.

Conservative TV company Newsmax has seen its stock market valuation surge by more than 2,200% since its debut in New York on Monday.

The US firm’s shares, which were originally priced at $10 (£7.75) each, stood at $233 at the end of Tuesday’s trading session.

That means it has a market value of almost $30bn, which surpasses Fox Corp – the owner of rival Fox News – and other media giants Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global.

Newsmax is seen as friendly to US President Donald Trump and was promoted by him during his first term in the White House.

The share price surge has made Newsmax’s founder and chief executive Christopher Ruddy one of the richest people in the US, with a net worth of more than $9bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Analysts said retail investors drove gains, drawing comparisons to the soaring price of GameStop.

The video game retailer’s popularity among some investors during the pandemic helped coin the idea of meme stocks.

The meme-stock phenomenon was part of a wider increase in trading by retail investors – people not working for investment houses or other private firms.

Newsmax was founded in 1998 as an online platform. It launched its cable news channel in 2014.

Its ratings were boosted in 2020 when it was endorsed by Trump, who had become increasingly angry at Fox News.

Mr Ruddy, who is a friend of Trump, insisted at the time that he did not want Newsmax to become “Trump TV”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7871277kjgo

As the call to prayer rang out in Sagaing last Friday, hundreds of Muslims hurried to the five mosques in the city in central Myanmar.

They were eager to hold their last Friday prayers for Ramadan, just days away from the festive period of Eid that would mark the end of the holy month.

Then, at 12:51 local time (06:21 GMT), a deadly earthquake struck. Three mosques collapsed, including the biggest one, Myoma, killing almost everyone inside.

Hundreds of kilometres away, the former imam of Myoma mosque, Soe Nay Oo, felt the quake in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

In the following days, he found out that around 170 of his relatives, friends and members of his former congregation had died, mostly in the mosques. Some were leading figures in the city’s close-knit Muslim community.

“I think about all the people who lost their lives, and the victims’ children – some of them are young children,” he told the BBC. “I can’t hold back my tears when I talk about this.”

More than 2,700 people have died in the quake which happened near Sagaing and Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers continue to pull out bodies from rubble.

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan have been confirmed as part of the all-star line-up who will play members of the Beatles in four major new films about the band.

Normal People and Gladiator II actor Mescal will portray Sir Paul McCartney, while Saltburn star Keoghan will step into Ringo Starr’s shoes.

The acting supergroup will also feature Harris Dickinson, who was most recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, as John Lennon.

And Joseph Quinn will go from Marvel’s Fantastic Four to the Fab Four, playing George Harrison in the big-screen quadrilogy, which will be directed by Sir Sam Mendes.

The Oscar-winning director was joined by the four actors for the announcement at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Monday.

Each film will focus on a different member of the legendary group.

“Each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys,” Sir Sam told the event. “They intersect in different ways – sometimes overlapping, sometimes not.

“They’re four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply. But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.”

The films will be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

The director explained: “I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie, and that turning it into a TV mini-series just somehow didn’t feel right.”

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/more-than-20-new-potential-victims-come-forward-after-prolific-rapist-jailed-for-assaulting-10-women-13339807

Virginia Giuffre has said she is “overwhelmed with gratitude” for the support she received after saying she had days to live.

The woman – who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault – said in a post on Instagram on Monday she was told she had “four days to live” after her vehicle was hit by a school bus.

In a statement seen by Sky News on Tuesday, her family said Ms Giuffre was “overwhelmed with gratitude” and “remains in serious condition while receiving medical care”.

Her family said a school bus hit her car in rural western Australia on 24 March, adding: “The police were called but said that there was no one available to come to the scene.

“They asked if anyone was injured and suggested that if they were, they should make their way to the hospital.

“The school bus driver had a bus full of distraught children and left the scene to get them back, saying he would file a police report, which he did later.”

The family added that Ms Giuffre was “banged up and bruised and returned home” but her condition “worsened and she was admitted to the hospital”.

Regarding her post, the family said she “thought that she had posted on her private Facebook page”.

Ms Giuffre originally said she was told “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure” and that “I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time”.

Australian police said after Ms Giuffre’s post that they received a report of a “minor crash” between a school bus and a car in Neergabby, about 12 miles north of Perth, on 24 March.

A spokesperson for the East Metropolitan Health Service, which runs Royal Perth Hospital, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, however, that Ms Giuffre was not at any of their facilities.

A Western Australia Public Transport Authority spokesperson also told ABC that they were unaware of any such bus crashes.

Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/virginia-giuffre-overwhelmed-with-support-after-saying-she-had-days-to-live-13340074

Prosecutors are being urged to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting the chief executive of a major healthcare company last year.

In February, Mangione pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder following the killing of 50-year-old Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel in New York in December.

Mr Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

Now, US attorney general Pam Bondi has issued a statement saying she has “directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case”.

She added that the murder of Mr Thompson, an “innocent man and father of two young children”, was a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”.

Ms Bondi said her intervention was part of President Donald Trump’s “agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again”.

She said that because the shooting happened in a public place with “bystanders nearby”, there could have been a “grave risk of death to additional persons”.

The US Department of Justice said Ms Bondi’s actions were in line with her “day one memo as attorney general” entitled “Reviving The Federal Death Penalty And Lifting The Moratorium On Federal Executions”.

Mangione, 26, is accused of ambushing and shooting Mr Thompson as he walked to an investor conference.

He pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of murder and murder as an act of terrorism just before Christmas last year.

The death penalty is not used in New York, meaning Mangione faces life in prison without parole if convicted in those cases.

However, Mangione also faces a parallel indictment from the Manhattan federal court for Mr Thompson’s killing.

He has not been asked to enter a plea in that case but could face the death penalty if convicted.

He also faces charges of forgery, carrying firearms without a licence, and other counts in Pennsylvania, where authorities arrested him at a McDonald’s.

‘Decision to execute is political’

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s lawyer, said the district attorney’s direction to the prosecution means the justice department “has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric”.

She added: “Their decision to execute Luigi is political and goes against the recommendation of the local federal prosecutors, the law, and historical precedent.

“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi. By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorise the American people.”

She said Mangione’s lawyers are prepared to “fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless justice department” alongside the charges in New York State and Pennsylvania – “and anything else they want to pile on Luigi”.

Police said that upon his arrest, Mangione was in possession of a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs and a handwritten document expressing “ill will” towards corporate America.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/us-prosecutors-directed-to-seek-death-penalty-for-luigi-mangione-man-accused-of-killing-healthcare-boss-13339868

French hotel group Accor SA has warned that forward bookings from Europe to the US are down 25% this summer as travelers that feel put off by US President Donald Trump’s ’s crackdown on immigration divert to other locations.
The company is seeing a “pretty strong deceleration” across the Atlantic, Chief Executive Officer Sébastien Bazin said on Tuesday in a Bloomberg TV interview. The drop is an acceleration from an 18-20% decline in the first 90 days of the year, he said. Travelers are deciding to visit places such as Canada, South America of Egypt instead of the US, Bazin said.
“It’s probably anxiety to go in an unknown territory,” Bazin said. While cases of people being detained at the border are anecdotal for now, they have nevertheless created a “bad buzz” that’s starting to show up in booking trends, he said.
“You don’t need any bad buzz today,” Bazin said.
Transatlantic travel has long been a mainstay of airlines and tourism companies, counting as one of the most lucrative routes anywhere in the world. Now there’s a growing number of companies cautioning that the link has come under strain — with both US tourists tightening their belts and avoiding Europe, and Europeans circumventing the US for political reasons.

While European airline executives said last week that there was no change in demand for now across the North Atlantic corridor, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sounded the alarm this week about a recent weakening of travel to the UK. That caused shares of transatlantic carriers such as British Airways parent IAG SA to slide.

Source : https://archive.is/2025.04.01-092705/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-01/european-tourists-start-avoiding-the-us-as-unknown-territory#selection-2301.0-2322.0

Thousands of people took to the streets in Budapest on Tuesday night to protest against a recently adopted bill aimed at banning the annual Pride march.

The legislation is the latest in a series of measures under Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which critics say curtail the rights of the EU country’s LGBTQ community.

The adopted bill aims to ban the Pride march on the basis that it infringes on Hungary’s criticised “child protection” law, enabling authorities to fine those who attend or organise such an event, and use facial recognition tools to identify potential offenders.

Waving Hungarian and rainbow flags and holding up signs that read “Enough of the lies” and “Down with Orban! We want democracy”, more than 10,000 people gathered in central Budapest according to an AFP photographer.

“We’re standing up for the freedom of assembly,” said 26-year-old psychologist Emese, who declined to give her surname.

Another protester, 60-year-old pastry chef Agica Tothne, told AFP that she also plans to join the upcoming demonstrations since “this corrupt system needs to fall, and people are starting to wake up”.

Independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy and organiser said the protests “won’t stop until the law is repealed”, slamming what he called a “techno-fascist law” that was modelled after similar ones in China and Russia.

Dorottya Redai of the Labrisz lesbian organisation spoke at Tuesday’s rally, saying that the bill goes beyond restricting the “fundamental right to peaceful assembly”.

The gender studies researcher said it is “clearly meant to erase LGBTQ people from public life”.

The law against Budapest Pride has already sparked protests in Hungary.

Source : https://www.yahoo.com/news/thousands-hungarians-protest-against-pride-193659314.html

Conservative media outlet Newsmax Inc. is having a meme-stock moment, with shares surging 1,160% since its debut as a public company on Monday.
The stock opened up another 51% at $125.98 apiece on Tuesday, building on a 735% surge in its debut session which saw the shares halted multiple times. The gains give the company a market value of more than $16 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The surge is reminiscent of the meme stock craze in 2020 and 2021, with investors piling into stocks to power eye-popping gains which detach shares from their fundamental value.
Newsmax reported $171 million in revenue last year, meaning it trades at a trailing price-to-sales ratio of more than 85, calculations by Bloomberg show. That blows away the peak metrics for meme stocks GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which peaked at four and 14 respectively, data compiled by Bloomberg show. However, it pales in comparison to the lofty levels investors powered President Donald Trump’s media company to, which soared well above 2,000 times ahead of his reelection.

Source : https://archive.is/2025.04.01-135435/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-01/newsmax-becomes-a-meme-stock-with-1-160-post-ipo-surge#selection-1533.0-1540.0

Sweden has announced a £7.7million plan to modernise its civil defence bunkers after warning Swedes to prepare for the risk of war. The Scandinavian country which shares a border with Russia has 64,000 such bunkers. Space is said to be sufficient enough for seven million people, almost three quarters of Sweden’s 10.5 million population.

The country’s Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) is reported to be inspecting the shelters, some of which can accommodate thousands of people. The bunkers offer protection against the blast and heatwaves triggered by a nuclear weapon as well as radioactive fallout, gas from chemical or biological weapons and bomb fragments.

MSB said on Monday (April 1) that the modernisation work would take two to three years, with work already underway on 25 of the 80 largest shelters.

Sweden’s action comes amid rising tensions over the war in Ukraine and doubts over US President Donald Trump’s commitment to defending Europe.

In January, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country “is not at war, but there is no peace either” in the run up to Sweden marking a year since it joined the NATO military alliance.

Mr Kristersson has vowed to increase defence spending to 2.4% this year, rising to 2.6% in three years as Sweden seeks to strengthen its armed forces after slashing military spending after the Cold War ended.

Authorities in Sweden reactivated the country’s “total defence” strategy in 2015 after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. It combines both civil and military defence action.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced today (April 1) that RAF fighter jets will patrol Poland’s airspace on NATO’s eastern flank.

British-built Typhoon jets arrived in eastern Poland on Tuesday from RAF Lossiemouth to take part in a “NATO enhanced air policing mission”.

The MoD said six UK Typhoon fighter jets from II (AC) Squadron will be deployed alongside Swedish Airforce Gripen fighter jets.

Defence minister Lord Coaker met with his Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Marcin Kosiniak-Kamysz and Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson on Tuesday to “outline the UK’s commitment to European security and to mark the start of the operation”.

Source : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2035509/sweden-nuclear-bunkers-ww3

Germany has launched its first deployment abroad since World War II. The country’s parliament said troops will be sent to eastern Lithuania, which is NATO’s eastern flank. The unit is to be fully operational by 2027. It will be the first time German troops have been serving abroad permanently since the Second World War.

Brigadier General Christoph Huber, commander of the brigade, explained: “We have a clear mission. We have to ensure the protection, freedom and security of our Lithuanian allies here on NATO’s eastern flank.”

Germany did join allied nations by sending troops to Afghanistan, but they were not stationed there on a permanent basis.

The newly created 45th Armored Brigade will contain 5,000 servicemen and women and be stationed in the east of the country. The brigade was activated during a ceremony outside the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. A temporary headquarters has been established, and the unit is under the command of Brigadier General Huber. The official headquarters in Rūdninkai is expected to be up and running by 2027.

The brigade is made up of frontline infantry, and support units – including a medical centre, signal company and command support teams.

Plans for the deployment were initially reported back in 2023. It was a major break from Germany’s defence policy, which has prevented the permanent deployment of troops abroad since the end of WWII.

Source : https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-germany-launches-first-foreign-34972270

A bitcoin investor who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers blasted off Monday night on the first rocket ride to carry people over the North and South poles.

Chun Wang, a Chinese-born entrepreneur, hurtled into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket steered southward over the Atlantic, putting the space tourists on a path never flown before in 64 years of human spaceflight.

Wang won’t say how much he paid Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the 3 ½-day ultimate polar adventure.

The first leg of their flight — from Florida to the South Pole — took barely a half-hour. From the targeted altitude of some 270 miles (440 kilometers), their fully automated capsule will circle the globe in roughly 1 ½ hours including 46 minutes to fly from pole to pole.

“Enjoy the views of the poles. Send us some pictures,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the capsule reached orbit.

Wang has already visited the polar regions in person and wants to view them from space. The trip is also about “pushing boundaries, sharing knowledge,” he said ahead of the flight.

Now a citizen of Malta, he took along three guests: Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian polar guide Eric Philips.

Mikkelsen, the first Norwegian bound for space, has flown over the poles before, but at a much lower altitude. She was part of the 2019 record-breaking mission that circumnavigated the world via the poles in a Gulfstream jet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.

The crew plans two dozen experiments — including taking the first human X-rays in space — and brought along more cameras than usual to document their journey called Fram2 after the Norwegian polar research ship from more than a century ago.

Until now, no space traveler had ventured beyond 65 degrees north and south latitude, just shy of the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The first woman in space, the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova, set that mark in 1963. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and other pioneering cosmonauts came almost as close, as did NASA shuttle astronauts in 1990.

A polar orbit is ideal for climate and Earth-mapping satellites as well as spy satellites. That’s because a spacecraft can observe the entire world each day, circling Earth from pole to pole as it rotates below.

Geir Klover, director of the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway, where the original polar ship is on display, hopes the trip will draw more attention to climate change and the melting polar caps. He lent the crew a tiny piece of the ship’s wooden deck that bears the signature of Oscar Wisting, who with Roald Amundsen in the early 1900s became the first to reach both poles.

Wang pitched the idea of a polar flight to SpaceX in 2023, two years after U.S. tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman made the first of two chartered flights with Musk’s company. Isaacman is now in the running for NASA’s top job.

SpaceX’s Kiko Dontchev said late last week that the company is continually refining its training so “normal people” without traditional aerospace backgrounds can “hop in a capsule … and be calm about it.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/space-tourism-north-south-pole-6ac8d097572ce019e962db5386c1cecb

A Maryland man with protected legal status was sent to the notorious prison in El Salvador following an “administrative error,” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted in a sworn declaration on Monday.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child is currently at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador.

The filing is part of a new lawsuit filed by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys who are requesting that the government of El Salvador return him to the U.S. after being sent there “because of an administrative error.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said that he “is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang” and said that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”

In response to the error, the government has acknowledged the error but said in a filing that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor can the court order El Salvador to return him.

According to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, in 2019, a confidential informant “had advised that Abrego Garcia was an active member” of the gang MS-13. He later filed an I-589 application for asylum and although Abrego Garcia was found removable, an immigration judge “granted him withholding of removal to El Salvador.”

But earlier this month, Abrego Garcia was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed.” After being detained over gang affiliations, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas. He was then sent to El Salvador on March 15.

“Abrego Garcia, a native and citizen of El Salvador, was on the third flight and thus had his removal order to El Salvador executed,” said Robert L. Cerna, acting field office director for ICE in a sworn declaration. “This removal was an error.”

In response, the government said Abrego Garcia had the opportunity to present evidence to show he was not a part of MS-13. “Abrego Garcia had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue,” the government said. “He had the opportunity to give evidence tending to show he was not part of MS-13, which he did not proffer.”

Vice President JD Vance said in a statement on X that Abrego Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right” to be in the U.S. Vance added that “it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”

In the filing, Yaakov M. Roth Acting Assistant Attorney General Civil Division for the Department of Justice said the court lacks jurisdiction to review the removal of Abrego Garcia and said that the plaintiffs are seeking his release from Salvadoran custody by “financial pressure and diplomacy.”

Roth also added in the filing that there is no clear showing that “Abrego Garcia himself is likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT.”

“While there may be allegations of abuses in other Salvadoran prisons — very few in relation to the large number of detainees — there is no clear showing that Abrego Garcia himself is likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT,” Roth said. “More fundamentally, this Court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador.”

Source : https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ice-admits-administrative-error-after-maryland-man-el/story?id=120359991

Having repeatedly described April 2 as ‘Liberation Day’, US President Donald Trump has promised to roll out from Wednesday reciprocal tariffs or taxes on imports from other countries, saying that it would free America from depending foreign goods.

Donald Trump said that he will impose “reciprocal” tariffs to match the duty rates other countries have imposed on US products, a report from The Associated Press said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, however, on Monday said that the president will reveal his plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on all of US’ trading partners will elapse on Wednesday. She added that whether details of the tariffs be revealed, that depends on Trump himself.

Ever since he returned to office for a second term in January this year, Trump has constantly proved to be aggressive with tariff threats.

Why reciprocal tariffs?

The Republic leader has argued that tariffs will protect American industries from any unfair competition, raise money for the federal government and extend an anchor for demanding concessions from other nations. However, economists have reportedly suggested that broad tariffs at these rates might just backfire.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released satellite images of the widespread damages caused by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar and rattled neighbouring countries on Friday.

Using its most sophisticated Earth imaging satellite, the Cartosat-3, which can help with images at a resolution of less than 50 centimetres, the ISRO has managed to capture photos from a 500 kilometre altitude above the earth. The images show how a huge bridge over the Irrawaddy River collapsed. The damages to the Mandalay University and collapse of the Ananda Pagoda are also highlighted.

According to the space agency, Cartosat-3, which was launched in 2019, is a third generation agile advanced earth imaging satellite. ISRO rarely releases images from this highly sophisticated satellite.

The National Remote Sensing Centre, a part of ISRO, said the post-disaster Cartosat-3 imagery was acquired on Saturday, over the cities of Mandalay and Sagaing in Myanmar. Additionally, Cartosat-3 data acquired on March 18, covering the same area, was referred for change analysis and assessment of damage. Significant damage to infrastructure in Mandalay city was observed.

The damaged caused to Mandalay city and Ava bridge.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Myanmar on Friday, followed by a strong aftershock of magnitude 6.4. The epicentre was located at a depth of 10km near Sagaing-Mandalay border. Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, registered severe damage.

The earthquake also rattled the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw and other regions, resulting in the collapse of infrastructure, roads and residential buildings. The tremors were felt not only in Myanmar but also in neighbouring countries and as far as Chiang Mai and northern parts of Thailand, where some places reported damages.

The images showed significant damage to infrastructure in Mandalay city, with major landmarks such as Sky Villa, Phayani Pagoda, Mahamuni Pagoda and Ananda Pagoda, University of Mandalay and several others suffering either complete or partial damage.

In Sagaing city, the Ma Shi Khana Pagoda and several monasteries and other buildings were damaged.

The damage caused to Mandalay city.

As seen from the imagery, the earthquake led to the collapse of the historic Ava (InnWa) Bridge on the Irrawaddy River, near Inn Wa City. Cracks in flood plains of the Irrawaddy river with associated liquefaction were also observed.

In its damage assessment summary, ISRO said Myanmar is located near the convergent boundary of the Indian and Eurasian plates, where the Indian Plate is moving northward toward the Eurasian Plate at a rate of about 5 cm per year.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/isro-satellite-images-show-damage-after-earthquake-rattled-myanmar-8056364

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite posted on Monday their worst quarterly performances since 2022, as uncertainty around the Trump administration’s economic agenda roiled U.S. equity markets in the first quarter of 2025.
The two benchmarks also suffered heavily in March, recording their biggest monthly percentage drops since December 2022, as President Donald Trump rolled out a swathe of new tariffs which raised fears of a global trade war that would hurt economic growth and spur inflation.

For the quarter, the S&P 500 (.SPX) slumped 4.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) plummeted 10.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was not immune to the unease, slipping 1.3% in the opening three months.

“Investors, more or less in this first quarter, threw their hands in the air, as you really cannot trade around this,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial.
The Magnificent Seven technology names, which drove markets higher over a bull market which stretched through 2023 and 2024, weighed heavily on U.S. equity markets as investors sold off growth names.

Tesla was down almost 36% in the first quarter, and Nvidia dropped nearly 20%.
“Our big lesson from the first quarter is diversification is not dead,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede.
“Whether you’re looking between, or within, asset classes, if you avoided the perils of market concentration, you actually held up quite a bit better versus some of the headline indexes.”
While information technology (.SPLRCT), and consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD), – both sectors with heavy influence from big-tech names – posted double-digit percentage declines for the quarter, a majority of the 11 S&P sectors were higher in the same period, led by energy’s (.SPNY) 9.3% increase.

On Monday, both the S&P 500 and the Dow temporarily shook off the uncertainty around the Trump administration’s upcoming tariff plans, which are expected to be outlined in greater detail on Wednesday.

Trump said on Sunday that expected tariffs he is set to announce will include all nations. He has already imposed tariffs on aluminum, steel and autos, along with increased tariffs on goods from China.
The S&P 500 (.SPX),  gained 30.91 points, or 0.55%, to 5,611.85 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), rose 417.86 points, or 1%, to 42,001.76. The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), lost 23.70 points, or 0.14%, to 17,299.29. The

Financial stocks helped boost the S&P 500 on Monday. Both Discover Financial Services (DFS.N) and Capital One Financial (COF.N) advanced, up 7.5% and 3.3% respectively, as investors bet their merger would ultimately be approved by regulators.

The S&P 500 consumer staples index (.SPLRCS), often considered a safe haven within stock markets, was the leading sector though with its 1.6% increase. Energy also rose, tracking a jump in crude prices.

The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX), Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge, jumped to a two-week high at 22.28 points.

As a result of tariff uncertainties, Goldman Sachs raised the probability of a U.S. recession to 35% from 20%, cut its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 5,700, and forecast more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Focus this week will also be on economic data, including ISM business activity surveys and the crucial non-farm payrolls report. Also due this week are speeches from several U.S. central bank officials, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Drugmakers’ shares slid after reports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official had been forced to resign. Moderna (MRNA.O) dropped 8.9%.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-tumble-tariffs-fuel-recession-worries-2025-03-31/

China began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan on Tuesday as a “stern warning” against separatism and called Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te a “parasite”, as Taiwan sent warships to respond to China’s navy approaching its coast.
The exercises around the democratically governed island, which China views as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring under its control, come after Lai called Beijing a “foreign hostile force” last month.

China detests Lai as a “separatist,” and in a video accompanying the Eastern Theatre Command’s announcement of the drills depicted him as cartoon bug held by a pair of chopsticks above a burning Taiwan, calling him in English a “parasite”.
“The focus is on exercises such as combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets, and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes,” the Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement.
Taiwan’s government condemned the drills, with the presidential office saying China was “widely recognised by the international community as a troublemaker” and that the government has the confidence and ability to defend itself.

TAIWAN DISPATCHES WARSHIPS

“CLOSING IN”

China’s military released a series of propaganda videos in quick succession after the drill announcement, depicting Chinese warships and fighter jets encircling Taiwan, Taipei being aimed at from above, and military vehicles patrolling city streets.
A video of a poster accompanying the drills titled “Closing In,” and showing Chinese forces surrounding the island, was released on the Eastern Theatre Command’s Weibo.
This was followed by a video titled “Shell”, depicting president Lai as a green cartoon bug spawning parasites across the island, on the Eastern Theatre Command’s WeChat page.
“Parasite poisoning Taiwan island. Parasite hollowing Island out. Parasite courting ultimate destruction,” the animation said.
Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said such rhetoric was not conducive to peace and “shows their provocative character,” when asked about Lai’s cartoon depiction.
A third video, “Subdue Demons and Vanquish Evils”, featured Sun Wukong, the magical monkey king from the Ming Dynasty epic “Journey to the West” as he is depicted in the “Black Myth: Wukong” hit video game.
It opens with the video’s title flashing across the screen and the Chinese mythical warrior riding on clouds before cutting to footage of Chinese fighter jets.
“The joint exercise and training conducted by the Eastern Theatre of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the vicinity of Taiwan Island is a resolute punishment for the Lai Ching-Te authorities’ rampant ‘independence’ provocations,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
Taiwan’s Koo told reporters the PLA should focus first on resolving its issues with corruption instead of destroying peace and stability in the region.
China’s military has undergone a sweeping anti-corruption purge over the past few years, which saw former Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu ousted in October 2024.
China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Koo’s remarks.
The Taiwan security source, citing internal intelligence assessments, said China was trying to busy its military with exercises as a way of distracting and stopping its soldiers from discussing the corruption crackdown amongst themselves on base.
China’s coast guard said it was also taking part in the drills, saying it was simulating “inspection and capture, interception and detention operations against unwarranted vessels” to show its exercise of “legitimate jurisdiction” over Taiwan.
The Global Times, which is owned by the People’s Daily newspaper of the governing Chinese Communist Party, said the drill had not been given a code name to show that Chinese military forces surrounding the island “has become a normal practice,” citing Zhang Chi of National Defence University.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinese-military-says-it-is-conducting-exercises-around-taiwan-2025-03-31/

The United Arab Emirates on Monday sentenced three people to death for the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who was killed in November in the Gulf country, state news agency WAM reported.
The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court ruled the murder of Zvi Kogan, 28, was committed by the defendants in pursuance of a “terrorist purpose,” according to WAM.

Kogan, who had been living in the UAE, was a representative in the UAE of Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish group that has chapters around the world and seeks to build links with non-affiliated and secular Jews or other sects of Judaism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had denounced Kogan’s killing as an “antisemitic terrorist act”.
Three of the defendants were found guilty of Kogan’s murder, while a fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the killing. Death penalty sentences can be challenged on appeal under Emirati law.
The UAE interior ministry said in November that three of the people arrested were citizens of Uzbekistan.
Such crimes are rare in the UAE, which is largely viewed as one of the safest places in the Middle East.

Kogan had been living in the UAE for several years and had been involved in outreach to the country’s Jewish community. He was reported missing in November with his body discovered days later in the Emirati city of Al Ain which borders Oman.
The UAE’s Israeli and Jewish community has grown more visible since 2020, when the UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a U.S.-brokered agreement dubbed the Abraham Accords.
The UAE has maintained the relationship during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in October 2023. However, Israelis and Jews have been less evident in public since the Hamas attack on Israeli communities of October 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza conflict.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uae-sentences-killers-israeli-moldovan-citizen-death-2025-03-31/

A French court on Monday barred French far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running in the 2027 presidential election after she was convicted of embezzlement, in a seismic ruling that could fuel global tensions over judicial efforts to police politics.
The French court’s ruling was a catastrophic setback for Le Pen, 56. The National Rally (RN) party chief is one of the most prominent figures of the European far right, and a front-runner in polls for France’s 2027 contest.

The ruling could have wide-ranging repercussions on French politics, upending the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron and placing additional pressure on his weak minority government enfeebled after months of consecutive crises.
It is also likely to exacerbate growing global anger among right-wing leaders over unelected judges meddling in their mandates.
In a prime time TV interview on TF1, Le Pen said she was innocent, and would appeal as soon as possible against what she described as a politicized ruling aimed at blocking her presidential bid. She said she was currently out of the running for 2027, but would continue to fight for her future.

“Tonight there are millions of French people who are outraged, outraged to an unimaginable degree, seeing that in France, in the country of human rights, judges have implemented practices that we thought were reserved for authoritarian regimes,” she said.
Le Pen’s five-year public office ban cannot be suspended by appeal, although she will retain her parliamentary seat until her term ends. She also received a four-year prison sentence – two years of which are suspended and two years to be served under home detention, and a 100,000-euro ($108,200) fine, but they will not apply until her appeals are exhausted.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has led calls to impeach U.S. judges blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda, while also lending his support to European far-right figures, alleged an establishment plot behind Le Pen’s defenestration.

“When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents,” he wrote on X. “This is their standard playbook throughout the world.”
Judge Benedicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of a scheme to misappropriate more than 4 million euros ($4.3 million) of EU funds and use them to pay the far-right party’s staff back home.
The lack of remorse by Le Pen and other defendants was among the reasons that prompted the court to ban them from running for office with immediate effect, de Perthuis said.
Le Pen’s allies, as well as far-right leaders from Europe and around the world, joined in condemning the ruling as judicial overreach.
“Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly convicted: It was French democracy that was killed,” said Le Pen’s right-hand man, RN president Jordan Bardella.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was barred from office until 2030 for abuse of power, told Reuters Le Pen’s sentence was “left-wing judicial activism.”

‘POLITICAL DEATH’?

Kanye West did not want to have kids with Kim Kardashian so soon in their relationship.

In a bizarre new interview with DJ Akademiks, the “All Falls Down” rapper explained why he did not see himself becoming a father while dating his now-ex-wife.

Akademiks, 33, said, “When you speak about Kim, people might be like, ‘Well, you picked her. You put yourself in that.’”

West — who wore an all-black Ku Klux Klan outfit, complete with the hate group’s infamous pointed hood, during the disgraceful interview — replied, “Absolutely, I did. That was my fault. No, that was my fault.”

The Grammy winner, 47, added: “I didn’t want to have children with this person after the first two months of being with them, but that wasn’t God’s plan.”

Page Six has reached out to Kardashian’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.

West and the Skims co-founder, 44, share four children: daughters North, 11, and Chicago, 7, and sons Saint, 9, and Psalm, 5.

Recently, the Yeezy founder and the reality TV star had a war of words over their eldest child, whom West wanted to have featured on one of his songs with disgraced rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Kardashian tried to get a judge to stop the song from being released because she did not want her daughter tied to the Bad Boy Records founder, who is awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking.

A source told Page Six, “Kim’s priority is the well-being and safety of her children and to protect them from being around Kanye’s controversial behavior.”

Despite Kardashian’s concerns, West dropped the track anyway on social media and demanded she amend her trademark of North’s name to include him.

He then accused his ex and the “Kardashian mob” of restricting his parenting and compared their current custody agreement to “visitation” in “jail.”

“ALL THESE RIGHTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM ME BY THE KARDASHIAN MOB HULU AND DISNEY AND THE BIGGER AGENDA TO USE THE SELECTIVELY BRED BLACK CHILDREN TO BE PLATFORMS TO INFLUENCE BLACK PEOPLE,” he wrote via X on March 15.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/03/31/parents/kanye-west-says-he-didnt-want-to-have-kids-with-kim-kardashian/

South Korean star Kim Soo-hyun has made a tearful public statement denying allegations made by the family of actress Kim Sae-ron, who died in an apparent suicide in February.

“I can’t admit to something I didn’t do,” the 37-year-old said on Monday at a press conference in Seoul.

At the centre of the controversy are two allegations: that Kim Soo-hyun dated Kim Sae-ron when she was 15 – a minor – and that his agency pressured her to repay a loan she owed him.

The scandal has shocked South Korea and its entertainment industry – and has generated a backlash against Kim Soo-Hyun, whose roles in multiple hit drama series and films has made him one of its best-known stars.

Kim wept as he said that although he dated the actress for a year when she was an adult, they never dated while she was underage.

Monday’s media conference came after weeks of accusations and counter-accusations between Kim Sae-ron’s family and Kim Soo-hyun’s camp in the wake of her death.

The scandal broke on 10 March, less than a month after Kim Sae-ron’s death. A YouTube channel, known for its controversial political content, claimed that the two had dated for six years, when she was 15. The channel has since released videos and photos it claims were taken during their relationship.

Last week, the attorney representing Kim Sae-ron’s family held a press conference, revealing more chat history allegedly between the two actors from 2016, when she was 16.

Kim Soo-hyun’s agency initially denied the allegations but later clarified that they dated, though only between 2019 and 2020, when she was an adult.

The actor himself had remained silent until Monday. At the press conference, he became emotional, reiterating to reporters that they only dated as two adults.

“Many people are suffering because of me,” he said, apologising to his fans and staff. “I also feel sorry that the late actress [Kim Sae-ron] isn’t able to rest in peace.

“I never dated her when she was a minor,” he continued. “Except for the fact that both of us were actors, our relationship was just like that of any other ordinary couple.”

He also explained why he denied the relationship when she uploaded a later-deleted photo of the two of them to her Instagram account in 2024 during the airing of Netflix hit show Queen of Tears, in which he played the lead role.

“I had so much to protect as its lead actor. What would have happened if I had admitted to a year-long relationship? What would happen to the actors, the staff who were working overnight and the production team who had everything staked on that project?” he said. “The more I thought of it, the more I thought that shouldn’t be what I do.”

Any admission of a romantic relationship or a partner is still seen as scandalous to fans in South Korea’s entertainment industry, where celebrities’ personal lives come under intense scrutiny.

Kim Sae-ron herself was a victim of online hate by fans after she was fined 20 million won (£11,000; $14,000) for a 2022 drink-driving incident.

Prior to that, she had been seen as one of the most promising young actresses in South Korea.

At the time, she was managed by the same agency as Kim Soo-hyun, which was co-founded by his relative. Kim Sae-ron joined GoldMedalist in January 2020 and left in December 2022.

Kim Sae-ron’s family claimed that GoldMedalist covered the compensation for her drunk-driving incident. They allege that the agency later pursued legal action for repayment and that, while the actress asked Kim Soo-hyun for more time to settle the debt, her request went unanswered.

On Monday, Kim Soo-hyun denied claims that “she made the tragic choice because of me or my agency pressuring her over a debt”.

He released a voice recording of a phone call from a year ago, allegedly between his agency and Kim Sae-ron’s representative.

In the recording, the CEO of GoldMedalist appears to explain that the document they sent her regarding the debt was merely for “procedural reasons” and that her team could take time to respond.

He also accused Kim Sae-ron’s family of manipulating chat records as evidence and stated that he had submitted his own evidence to the relevant authorities for verification. He urged her family to do the same.

Kim Soo-hyun, 37, is an A-list actor in South Korea, known for his roles in multiple hit drama series and top-grossing movies, including My Love from the Star, Netflix’s Queen of Tears, and the film Secretly, Greatly.

He has also been a favourite among advertisers in the country, though many brands have now distanced themselves from him amid the controversy. On 17 March, fashion brand Prada announced that it had mutually decided to end its collaboration with him, according to Reuters. This followed similar moves from Dinto, a Korean cosmetic brand.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx278d4702xo

Greenland’s new prime minister has issued a strong message to Donald Trump following the US president’s claims over the island. In a defiant message, Jens-Frederik Nielsen said: “We must listen when others talk about us. But we must not be shaken. President Trump says the United States is ‘getting Greenland.’

“Let me make this clear: The U.S. is not getting that. We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future. We must not act out of fear. We must respond with peace, dignity and unity.

“And it is through these values that we must clearly, clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours. It was like that yesterday. That’s how it is today. And that’s how it will be in the future.”

Mr Nielsen is the leader of the Demokraatit party, the largest in parliament. After officially becoming prime minister last week, the PM took to social media to hit back at Mr Trump’s bid for Greenland.

On Saturday, the U.S. president told NBC News that he will “not take anything off the table” after being questioned on the use of military force to take control of the country.

The Trump administration says they want to take over the world’s biggest island for national security purposes.

Greenland is rich in natural resources and offers a number of strategic advantages, especially as shipping through the Arctic region becomes easier due to warming temperatures.

Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark and has been part of the NATO nation for 600 years.

On Friday, vice-president JD Vance touched down on the island with his wife, Usha, where they proceeded to the U.S. military’s Pituffik Space Base for a national security briefing.

Mr Vance said during his visit: “Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland.

Source : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2033439/greenland-prime-minister-donald-trump

At the relatively young age of 27, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt approaches the podium with confidence and a smile. Don’t let her age fool you, though. She has proved to be unflappable and, as those in the press room can attest, her approach is no-nonsense and fearless.

When recently facing a reporter who tried to tout his personal ideas about the impact of tariffs, she replied, “I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made.”

In our one-on-one sit-down, Leavitt told CBN News how she draws that strength immediately before each briefing.

“I think that team prayer before is just a moment to be silent and still and ask God for confidence and the ability to articulate my words, knowledge, prayer, protection, and it is a nice moment to reset. It’s the last thing I do before I go out there, and then it just gives me the confidence to do a briefing,” she says.

That confidence comes from a childhood filled with love from blue-collar parents growing up in New Hampshire.

“I think that value of hard work and determination and drive was instilled in me in a very young age, just by watching my parents work so hard to earn a living,” Leavitt says.

She adds how Catholic education instilled discipline and shaped who she is today.

“My faith is incredibly important to me, I would argue, now more than ever, being in a role that is very demanding and at times controversial, and there’s a lot of public pressure and discussion online about who you are and your family. And you know, it could be difficult for someone who doesn’t have faith but with faith, all things are possible.”

Sports played a role as well. She excelled on her high school softball team and received a scholarship from Saint Anselm college in Manchester – good enough to be third on the team in homeruns. She’s still hitting homeruns, but of a different kind today.

“The game of softball in sports prepared me for the game of politics, no doubt about it,” Leavitt says. “Discipline, hard work, teamwork and also competing against yourself to be the best that you can in athletics, I think, has prepared me especially for this job now. You know, I can have a good briefing, but the next day I can go on television. I have to perform again, right? So every day is a new game in this job.”

She wouldn’t even be in her current job, however, without bumps along the way. She ran for Congress in 2022 and lost the general election.

“Well, certainly, God has a plan for everyone. I believe that firmly…” she says. “So God knew what He was doing, I believe, and you just have to trust the process and trust that he’s working in your life, and stay grounded in your faith throughout the way.”

She leans on that faith inside the briefing room as questions come fast and furious from all directions. But Leavitt says she’s ready for what’s coming. “Oftentimes, the questions are predictable.”

With liberal reporters everywhere in the press briefing room, it begs the question: Is political journalism dead in America today? “I think there are true journalists out there that still exist,” she says. “They are few and far between. I think many people in the briefing room here are trying out for their next big show…so I think the media has had to take a look in the mirror, especially after President Trump’s resounding victory on November 5th, and the American public sent a very strong message to the anti-Trump media that we don’t listen to you.”

Legacy media often still push back. New York Times Reporter Peter Baker has complained that outlets are losing direct access to the president if they print something the White House doesn’t like.

“That is utter fallacy and completely ridiculous,” Leavitt says. “We have expanded the pool to new voices, independent journalists, podcasters, social media content creators, while continuing to invite legacy media outlets like the one Peter Baker works for. The New York Times are still in the briefing room, still have access to the press pool, and we are going to continue to move forward with this method.”

In the middle of these ongoing battles, this administration is also facing rogue judges it sees as trying to stop the Trump agenda. Leavitt labels them part of the “resistance movement.”

“Absolutely,” she says. “Almost every single one of them is a registered Democrat, has been involved in Democrat campaigns or causes, have donated to Democrat candidates. Some of them have even put their anti-Trump bias on social media. They have not been shy about their hatred for this president and his policies, and they are abusing their judicial power.”

She also sees a much larger fight taking place: the one between good and evil.

“I certainly believe in spiritual warfare. And I think I saw it firsthand, especially throughout the campaign trail with President Trump. And I think there certainly were evil forces. And I think that the president was saved by the grace of God on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he’s in this moment for a reason.”

While that event is seen as a miracle, many believe Leavitt pulls one off each day in her high-level role that includes being a full-time mom to an eight-month-old baby boy.

“It’s certainly challenging. There’s no doubt about it. I think every working mother understands the demands. And no matter where you are, what you’re doing, there is a sense of guilt,” she says. “But I spend every second that I possibly can with my son when I’m home on weekends and evenings. I try to make it home for bedtime as much as I can throughout the week.”

Which doesn’t leave too much time for sleep.

“Actually, it’s usually about five to six hours a night is what I’m doing, which is all we need. As President Trump says, when you love your job and you love your life, you don’t need to sleep much.”

While awake, she soldiers on despite critics taking shots at her. While those critics might want to define her, how does Karoline Leavitt define Karoline Leavitt?

Source : https://cbn.com/news/politics/god-she-trusts-karoline-leavitts-journey-white-house-podium

“I’m President Donald J. Trump … and I approve this hookup” is essentially what No. 47 said of Tiger Woods’ new relationship with Vanessa Trump — telling reporters he’s giving the coupling a yuuuuge thumbs up.

POTUS was asked about El Tigre’s romance on Monday … and he couldn’t say enough good things about the golf superstar.

“Well, I love Tiger and I love Vanessa,” Trump stated before giving his take on what he thinks torpedoed his son Don Jr.’s marriage to Woods’ new lady after 13 years.

“They had a great relationship. I happen to think their relationship with my son … I happen to think their relationship was hurt very badly by the witch hunt that went on. Russia, Russia, Russia and all the crap that they put Don through, who knew nothing about it.”

“But Vanessa and Don had a very good relationship. They have incredible children, five incredible children, all good athletes, all great students. They broke up quite a while ago, which to me was very sad.”

Trump has spoken a lot about the claims Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election and he was in bed with the country …. but it’s unclear why he thinks that could’ve spelled trouble for Don Jr.’s relationship.

Trump then got back to his thoughts on Tiger … saying the athlete hit him up a few weeks ago to tell him about dating Vanessa, to which he replied it “was good.”

“I’m very happy for both, let them both be happy. They’re both great.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/03/31/president-trump-tiger-woods-vanessa-trump-relationship/

Virginia Giuffre, who accused the now-deceased Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking, has shared a troubling IG post from a hospital … claiming docs have told her she has 4 days to live — now down to 3 — after an apparent car crash.

In a Sunday IG post, Giuffre shared a photo of her bruised face from her hospital bed … asserting in the caption that she went into renal failure after a school bus crashed into her at a whopping “110km” (68 miles per hour) while she was slowing down for a turn.

Giuffre claimed her injuries were so severe that doctors gave her just days to live and transferred her to a specialist urology hospital … but despite supposedly being at death’s door, she still managed to muster up the strength to update her IG followers.

She seemed to accept her alleged fate, writing she was “ready to go” but wanted to see her kids one last time, but seemed to cast doubt on that happening — and ended the post by thanking her fans for being a great part of her life.

Right now, the details of Virginia’s hospital visit are unclear … and there don’t appear to be any media reports from Perth — the city where she lives with her 3 kids — or anywhere in Australia confirming her claim of a car accident involving a speeding school bus.

Source : https://www.tmz.com/2025/03/31/virginia-giuffre-4-days-to-live-instagram-traffic-crash-australia/

GENE Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa’s autopsies can be released – alongside any documents, pictures, and videos that do not show their bodies, a judge has ruled.

Judge Matthew Wilson sealed off any public records containing images of the bodies on Monday after the late actor and his wife’s estate pushed for privacy around the deaths.

A temporary hold had been placed on all records as the estate argued that Hackman, who was notoriously private, should be afforded the same rights after his death.

The hold was released on Monday but only on any files that don’t include the body images.

Hackman, Arakawa, and one of their dogs were found dead under mysterious circumstances at their sprawling New Mexico estate on February 26.

Santa Fe sheriff officials found the Academy Award-winning actor, 95, fully clothed in a mud room off the kitchen with his cane next to him.

Meanwhile, Arakawa, 65, was later discovered on the bathroom floor near a space heater with tablets from a prescription bottle scattered on the floor.

Arakawa’s body was said to have been found in a state of partial mummification.

Police and medical professionals quickly ruled out any foul play.

Dr. Heather Jarrell, the chief medical examiner of New Mexico, revealed that Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is caused by contact with rodents like rats and mice.

Hackman’s cause of death was ruled as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiac disease, Jarrell added.

An autopsy showed that Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s, which played a significant role in his death.

While most of the details from the autopsy were released in a press briefing on March 7, lawyers had argued over whether the full reports should be made public.

The hearing was attended by lawyers for Hackman’s estate, one of the actor’s children, attorneys for Sante Fe County, and the University of New Mexico for the Medical Examiner.

Lawyers for CBS and the Associated Press were also present at the First Judicial District Court.

“Gene and Betsy Hackman’s names, likenesses and images are valuable and need to be protected and that is clearly proven out by virtue of the press wanting to get their hands on the documents to exploit them for their own personal profit and gain,” Kurt Sommer, a lawyer for Hackman’s estate, argued before the judge.

“This estate has a duty to protect Gene and Betsy’s property, including photographs and videos of their dead bodies,” he added.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY

During his closing statement, Sommer stated that his clients, the Hackman children, have the right of privacy not to have pictures of their father’s body posted online.

Despite the pair’s public personas, Somer argued that the couple “took great pains” to make their lives private.

“They lived in a private gated community. They lived very quietly in Santa Fe and unfortunately, they died a very tragic death,” he said.

Sommer noted that Hackman would only ever do two hours of press for his movies and repeatedly denied CBS News Sunday Mornings’ interview requests.

The attorney called the media’s request to unseal photos and videos of Hackman’s death “nothing more than backdoor exposure to the Hackmans’ lifestyle that could not be attained by the press during their lifetime.”

“There’s no damage to the media by waiting until these matters are decided, a significant amount of videos have already been released to the press,” Sommer said.

Arguing for the release of the documents to the media, Walker Boyd said it was not common for a judge “to stop state entities from doing their statutory required jobs.”

Boyd mentioned that New Mexico’s privacy laws do not grant a person the same privileges in death as it does in life.

“The estate and intervening family members do not possess the right of privacy being asserted here,” he argued.

BODYCAM RELEASE

Some footage from the Hackmans’ home after their deaths was already released last week.

It was also revealed the couple had complained of a mystery man stalking them in the weeks before their deaths.

The footage showed a hairstylist telling police that Betsy Arakawa confided in him about a stranger who followed the pair twice in December.

In a video obtained by Fox News, the hairstylist, identified as Christopher, claimed Arakawa told him a man parked outside their gate and followed them on more than one occasion.

“She mentioned to me that there was a man that had parked outside of their gate and followed them,” he told officers.

“On two separate occasions. One occasion is when they went to White Rock.

“They went and had lunch there and the guy followed them from parked [outside of their gated community], followed them all the way to White Rock.

“She said, ‘Christopher, I’m surprised that security didn’t [know] how he got there… because when we left, I noticed that this car had followed us from the residence to White Rock.’”

REPORTS SCHEDULED

It is not clear when the remaining body cam footage will be released.

The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator also confirmed on Monday that it had not finalized all reports but would respect the judge’s ruling.

“As of today, the NM OMI has not finalized the post-mortem examination reports of Mr. Eugene Hackman and Mrs. Betsy Hackman,” the agency said.

“However, once those reports are finalized, the NM OMI will release the reports and will not release photos, as ordered.

“The NM OMI will release documents to those who have requested them through it’s normal protocol, which is through The University of New Mexico’s public records portal. The NM OMI offers condolences to the Hackman Family.”

Hackmen’s estate has not yet commented on the ruling.

The couple died on separate dates, as authorities believe Arakawa was last alive on February 12, while Hackman is suspected to have died around February 18 – the last day his pacemaker reported heart data.

Jarrell, the chief medical examiner, said that because of Hackman’s advanced Alzheimer’s, it is possible he did not know his wife was dead in the home.

“Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease. He was in a very poor state of health,” she said at a March 7 press conference.

“He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/13909740/gene-hackman-betsy-arakawa-death-verdict-new-mexico/

ASTRONAUTS left on the ISS for 286 days due to a fault with Boeing’s spacecraft have spoken out for the first time about their whirlwind trip.

Butch Wilmore, 62, and Suni Williams, 59, finally arrived back to Earth on March 18 travelling back in one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX capsules instead of Boeing’s Starliner they originally blasted out on.

The pair were asked who was to blame for the botched mission, which was only supposed to last eight days.

Butch said there is equal blame to share – including himself.

However, they hit back at suggestions Boeing “failed” them.

“There are many questions that as the commander of CFT (Crew Flight Test), I didn’t ask, so I’m culpable, I’ll admit that to the nation,” he told America’s Newsroom on Fox News, their first media interview since returning.

“There are things that I did not ask that I should have asked. I didn’t know at the time I needed to ask them.

“But in hindsight, the signals, some of the signals were there.

“Is Boeing to blame? Are they culpable? Sure. Is NASA to blame? Sure.

“Everybody has a piece in this because it did not come off.

“There were some shortcomings in tests, shortcomings in preparation that we did not foresee.”

The pair also spoke about suggestions they were “stuck” or “abandoned” in space.

“Okay, in certain respects, we were stuck,” Butch continued.

“In certain respects, maybe we were stranded.

“But based on how they were couching this, that we were left and forgotten and all that, we were nowhere near any of that at all.

“So stuck? Okay. We didn’t get to come home the way we planned.

“So in one definition, we’re stuck.

“But in the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck. We were planned, trained.”

Despite the issues, the duo said they would go back into space again.

“Okay, in certain respects, we were stuck,” Butch continued.

“In certain respects, maybe we were stranded.

“But based on how they were couching this, that we were left and forgotten and all that, we were nowhere near any of that at all.

“So stuck? Okay. We didn’t get to come home the way we planned.

“So in one definition, we’re stuck.

“But in the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck. We were planned, trained.”

Despite the issues, the duo said they would go back into space again.

Rabea Rogge made history on Monday as the first German woman in space, launching aboard a SpaceX rocket on the first-ever crewed mission to fly directly over Earth’s polar regions.

The days-long, privately funded orbital mission launched aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 9:46pm ET on Monday (0146 GMT Tuesday) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.

Cheers erupted in Elon Musk’s SpaceX control room as the powerful rocket soared toward Earth’s North and South Poles.

The Fram2 mission sent four private astronauts into polar orbit, the company’s livestream showed. The mission will orbit Earth from pole to pole, a trajectory in which no humans have traveled before.

The mission is led by Chinese-born Maltese entrepreneur Chun Wang. The other members of the crew include Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australian polar guide Eric Philips and Rogge, a robotics researcher.

Spaceship on an untraveled path

Fram2, named after the famous 19th-century Norwegian ship built for Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, aims to conduct groundbreaking experiments, including the first human X-ray in space and mushroom cultivation in microgravity.

After returning to Earth, the crew aims to exit the spacecraft without additional medical assistance, helping researchers assess astronauts’ ability to perform basic tasks post-spaceflight.

“With the same pioneering spirit as early polar explorers, we aim to bring back new data and knowledge to advance the long-term goals of space exploration,” mission commander Chun Wang said before the launch.

The crew trained for eight months, including an Alaskan wilderness expedition to simulate living in close quarters under harsh conditions.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/first-german-woman-in-space-on-historic-spacex-polar-orbit-mission/a-72101943

In one of its first major foreign policy moves, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on six senior officials from China and Hong Kong for their roles in what it calls “transnational repression” and undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

The US State Department announced on Monday that the individuals had used the controversial national security law — legislation which gives the Hong Kong government more power to crush dissent — to target pro-democracy activists, including Americans.

According to the statement, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities were accused of extending the reach of the law beyond their borders to “intimidate, silence, and harass” 19 activists living abroad — among them, one US citizen and four US residents.

Those sanctioned include Dong Jingwei, a former high-ranking official in China’s civilian intelligence agency who now heads Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong.

Previously, Dong was known as China’s chief counterintelligence official, tasked with tracking foreign spies and dissidents.

The other officials targeted are Sonny Au, Dick Wong, Margaret Chiu, Raymond Siu — Hong Kong’s police commissioner — and Paul Lam, the city’s secretary for justice.

Lawmakers and activists applaud the move

The sanctions, issued under a 2020 executive order first signed by US President Donald Trump during his first term, freeze any assets the individuals may have in the United States and bar American entities from conducting financial transactions with them.

Authorities in Washington described the move as a response to continued erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, particularly following the enforcement of the national security law in 2020.

The law, which allows for life imprisonment for acts like subversion or collusion with foreign forces, was imposed after massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. While Chinese officials claim the law has restored order, Western governments — including the US — argue it has been used to imprison opposition figures, dismantle media outlets, and restrict civil society.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-sanctions-6-over-hong-kong-security-crackdown/a-72101752

A Nigerian professional boxer passed away after collapsing during a fight in Accra, Ghana, local media have reported.

Gabriel Oluwasegun “Success” Olanrewaju, a former Nigerian and West African light-heavyweight champion, was fighting Ghanaian boxer Jon Mbanugu in a Ghana Professional Boxing League bout on Saturday.

However, he collapsed onto the ropes in the third round — without having received a punch.

After receiving first aid in the ring at the Bukom Boxing Arena, he was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes after arrival, the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) confirmed.

“Oluwasegun, a few seconds before the end of round 3, stepped back during the fight and leaned on the ropes with his back without any punch whatsoever from his opponent,” read a GBA statement on Sunday.

“The referee, sensing danger, waved his hand for the end of the fight and immediately invited the ringside physician with the support of paramedics from the national ambulance service to attend to the boxer to help resuscitate him.”

Was Olanrewaju’s fight officially sanctioned?

The GBA insisted that Olanrewaju, 40, had been “declared medically fit by the Nigeria Boxing Board Control (NBBC)” and that it had therefore “sanctioned and approved the international contest.”

However, the NBBC told Nigerian newspaper The Punch on Monday that it hadn’t approved the ultimately fatal bout, which was reportedly arranged at short notice after Olanrewaju had been judged too heavy to compete in a scheduled fight on Friday.

“[Olanrewaju] got our approval to fight in Ghana, a fight that was proposed to take place on a Friday,” NBBC secretary Remi Aboderin told The Punch. “Unfortunately, they did [the] weigh-in on Thursday and he was found to be overweight and they told him the person he was to fight was not his weight.”

Was Olanrewaju in debt?

According to Aboderin, Olanrewaju was on his way back to Nigeria and had reached the border between Ghana and Togo when he decided that he couldn’t return home empty-handed due to significant debts he had to pay.

“They called the matchmaker, who informed him that there was a fight on Saturday night, but we didn’t give him the approval for that,” said Aboderin, claiming the GBA got it wrong. “So, he turned back and went back to Ghana because he needed the money; he owed a lot of people money.”

Babatunde Ojo, one of Olanrewaju’s former coaches, told The Punch that he advised the boxer against fighting on short notice.

“These are the things I advise my boxers against,” he said. “You can’t just pick a fight at short notice; you need at least one month. I am very saddened by his loss; may his soul rest in peace.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-boxer-dies-after-collapsing-during-fight/a-72100403

South Korea, China and Japan held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the three Asian export powers brace from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The countries’ three trade ministers agreed to “closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high-level” talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement deal to promote “regional and global trade”, according to a statement released after the meeting.

“It is necessary to strengthen the implementation of RCEP, in which all three countries have participated, and to create a framework for expanding trade cooperation among the three countries through Korea-China-Japan FTA negotiations,” said South Korean Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun, referring to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The ministers met ahead of Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of more tariffs in what he calls “liberation day”, as he upends Washington’s trading partnerships.

Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo are major U.S. major trading partners, although they have been at loggerheads among themselves over issues including territorial disputes and Japan’s release of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

They have not made substantial progress on a trilateral free-trade deal since starting talks in 2012.
RCEP, which went into force in 2022, is a trade framework among 15 Asia-Pacific countries aimed at lowering trade barriers.
Trump announced 25% import tariffs on cars and auto parts last week, a move that may hurt companies, especially Asian automakers, which are among the largest vehicle exporters to the U.S.
After Mexico, South Korea is the world’s largest exporter of vehicles to the United States, followed by Japan, according to data from S&P.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-china-japan-agree-promote-regional-trade-trump-tariffs-loom-2025-03-30/

Richard Chamberlain, the Emmy-nominated actor and 1960s heartthrob who rocketed to fame in the TV medical drama “Dr. Kildare” and starred in the mini-series “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds” has died at the age of 90, publicist Harlan Boll said.
Chamberlain died late on Saturday in Hawaii from complications from a stroke, he said in a statement on Sunday.

Chamberlain was an instant hit, and became a teen idol, as the handsome Dr. James Kildare in the series that ran from 1961-1966. The Guardian newspaper said the then 27-year-old actor “looked like he had been sculpted by a loving god out of butter, honey and grace.”

The breakout role was the start of a six decade-career that spanned theater, films and television.
Chamberlain was dubbed the “king of the mini-series” after appearing in several TV dramas in the 1980s and earned plaudits on stage in roles ranging from Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” and Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Richard II.
He also was the original Jason Bourne in the 1988 mini-series “The Bourne Identity.”
“What’s fascinating about Richard is that his range is enormous. His ability to be different each time out is what makes him such a valuable property,” producer Susan Baerwald told the New York Times in 1988.

PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE ELSE

The versatile actor was nominated for four Emmys — as an English navigator in 17th century Japan in “Shogun” (1981), a love-torn priest in “The Thorn Birds” (1983), Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (1985) and for the title role in the 1975 TV movie “The Count of Monte-Cristo.”
Most of his roles were as romantic leading men, which is why he did not publicly reveal he was a homosexual until he was 68 years old. He feared it would ruin his career. For much of his life he said he pretended to be someone else.
“When you grow up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s being gay, it’s not only ain’t easy, it’s just impossible,” he told the New York Times in 2014. “I assumed there was something terribly wrong with me. And even becoming famous and all that, it was still there.”

Chamberlain said it was a tremendous relief after he acknowledged his sexuality in his 2003 autobiography “Shattered Love: A Memoir.”
“I had no fear left,” he said in a 2019 interview. “It was a wonderful experience. People were open, friendly and sweet.”

HONING HIS ACTING SKILLS

Born George Richard Chamberlain on March 31, 1934, in Los Angeles, he was the youngest of two sons. He had hoped to be an artist but switched to acting after attending Pomona College in California.
His acting career was put on hold when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1956 and served in Korea. After his discharge, Chamberlain returned to Los Angeles, where he co-founded a theater group and had small parts on TV before becoming Dr. Kildare.
The success of the TV show led to a brief singing career and film roles opposite Julie Christie in “Petulia” (1968) and “The Madwoman of Chaillot” (1969) with Katherine Hepburn. He had a brief run in the musical “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with Mary Tyler Moore. The show closed after four previews.

In the late 1960s, Chamberlain moved to England where he honed his acting skills in the BBC series “The Portrait of a Lady” and as Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theater.
“Dr. Kildare was a huge hit in England, and I heard that all the London reviewers were coming to rip this interloper to pieces,” he said in an interview. “But we got very good reviews.”
Chamberlain returned to the big screen as Lord Byron in the drama “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1972), “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and as a villain in the disaster film “The Towering Inferno” (1974).
Throughout his career he mixed roles in Broadway plays, including Tennessee Williams’ “The Night of the Iguana,” with musicals, TV and films.
After coming out publicly, he played both gay and straight characters in TV shows including “Brothers & Sisters,” “Will & Grace” and “Desperate Housewives.”
The actor released a book of haiku poetry in 2012 and narrated Audubon environmental television specials.
Chamberlain lived in Hawaii for many years and had a three-decade relationship with actor and writer Martin Rabbett, his co-star in the 1986 adventure film “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.” The couple parted in 2010 but remained close friends.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/heartthrob-actor-richard-chamberlain-star-thorn-birds-dies-aged-90-2025-03-30/

The new prime minister of Greenland has pushed back against claims from Donald Trump that the US will take control of the island.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen also urged Greenlanders to “calmly show the American president” that the island “is ours” after Mr Trump didn’t rule out using military force to capture the territory.

In a Facebook post shared two days after becoming prime minister, Mr Nielsen wrote: “We must listen when others talk about us. But we must not be shaken.

“President Trump says the United States is ‘getting Greenland’. Let me make this clear: The US is not getting that.

“We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future.”

Mr Nielsen also told islanders “they must not act out of fear” and must respond to Mr Trump’s remarks with “peace, dignity and unity”.

He continued: “And it is through these values that we must clearly, clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours.

“It was like that yesterday. That’s how it is today. And that’s how it will be in the future.”

Greenland, a huge, resource-rich island, is a self-governing territory of Denmark – a NATO ally of the US.

Mr Trump has said he wants to annex the territory, claiming the US needs it for national security purposes.

Meanwhile, a White House official has said Greenland’s supply of rare earth minerals would power the next generation of the US economy.

On Saturday, the US president told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News that military force was not off the table with regards to acquiring Greenland.

In Saturday’s interview, Mr Trump said: “I think there’s a good possibility that we could do it without military force.

“This is world peace, this is international security.”

He added: “I don’t take anything off the table.”

A star on Season 3 of The White Lotus revealed in a new interview that the show’s creators opted to cut one storyline in particular after Donald Trump won reelection last November.

Carrie Coon, who plays Laurie on the hit HBO series, claimed that the show opted to cut out a scene featuring a conversation about her character’s nonbinary, or possibly transgender child following President Donald Trump’s election win.

“There was a bit more context to her home life,” Coon explained of her character, Laurie, in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar published Friday. “You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans, and going by they/them.”

“You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting,” she continued. “It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question [in episode 3] of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world.”

Coon proceeded to clarify that The White Lotus’ third season was written before the election, and that the show’s creator, Mike White, felt the scene was too “small” to handle a “topic so big” in the aftermath of Trump’s win—and his administration’s attacks against the transgender community.

“The season was written before the election. And considering the way the Trump administration has weaponized the cultural war against transgender people even more since then, when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt that the scene was so small and the topic so big that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation,” Coon explained.

Set in Thailand, The White Lotus’ third season sees Coon playing a recent divorcée balancing motherhood with her career while reuniting with her longtime friends Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Kate (Leslie Bibb) for an all-inclusive and incredibly toxic girls trip.

As noted by Coon, in the season’s third episode, the trio—or as White has coined, The Blonde Bob—talk Trump during dinner after an awkward slip-up from Kate leads her friends to realize that she may have voted for Trump during the 2016 election—much to their surprise (and annoyance).

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/white-lotus-star-carrie-coon-reveals-trans-storyline-was-cut-after-trumps-reelection/

Taxpayers in South Dakota paid a whopping $150,000 for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to jet-set across the country last year, an analysis from the Associated Press found.

Camera-ready Noem—who has garnered the nickname “ICE Barbie” for dolling up for photo ops at immigration raids and detention centers—racked up the charges during her tenure as governor of South Dakota when President Donald Trump was campaigning for president.

That bills include almost $8,000 for plane tickets to a right-wing conference in Paris, a book tour through New York, and a bear-hunting trip to Canada with her niece, according to the AP. Noem also spent money for “numerous” trips to Palm Beach, Fla., where Trump lived before assuming office in January.

The news agency also reported Noem spent roughly $2,200 on a visit to a Texas dental clinic, which drew scrutiny after Noem posted a video showcasing her new pearly whites on Instagram last March.

A spokesperson for Noem declined to answer detailed questions about the expenses but said Noem paid out of her own pocket for trips that were not connected to her work as governor.

“Unfortunately, bad guys tend to make threats against high-profile public officials,” the spokesperson told the AP. “When it was a political or personal trip, she paid for her own travel out of her political or personal funds.”

Noem has repeatedly refused to disclose how much her various trips cost South Dakota taxpayers before she stepped down to assume her new role as Trump’s secretary for Homeland Security in the wake of his victory at the November polls.

The revelations add to the fevered debate about wasteful government expenditure as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency hacks away at the federal government.

“It seems like an incredible amount of money,” Taffy Howard, a Republican state senator in South Dakota who’d previously clashed with the former Governor over her travel expenses, told the AP.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/taxpayers-picked-up-150k-tab-on-kristi-noems-jet-setting-for-donald-trumps-presidential-campaign/

WELL, well, well — pot, meet kettle.

In a rather delicious twist of irony, Prince Harry has found himself embroiled in a row over bullying allegations, the very charge he and his wife, Meghan Markle, famously levelled against the Royal Family.

Harry will no doubt be reeling—especially because he’s modelled himself as the ultimate victim and made a fortune doing it.

The saga began last week when Prince Harry stepped down as patron of Sentebale, the charity he co-founded nearly two decades ago in memory of his mother, Princess Diana.

The organisation, which supports orphans and vulnerable children with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, now finds itself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

This shift occurred after the charity’s chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, threw down a heavy gauntlet by levelling serious accusations against it.

Dr Sophie alleges that for months, Harry tried to eject her from her position using tactics she describes as “bullying, harassment, and intimidation”—ouch!

Adding to the drama, Chandauka took the extraordinary step of reporting the charity to the Charity Commission.

Her allegations? A litany of governance failures: poor management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, and a cover-up.

This does not exactly paint the picture of the peaceful, community-led development Sentebale advocates for.

It’s hard to miss the irony here.

We have Prince Harry, who has made a substantial part of his post-royal career (and fortune) by claiming to be a victim of similar mistreatment.

He and Meghan have secured lucrative deals speaking out against the alleged injustices they faced while part of the Royal Family, including a reported $100 million deal with Netflix and a headline-making interview with Oprah. Yet, here he is, accused of similar—if not identical—behaviour.

Sophie’s narrative doesn’t stop at boardroom bullying.

At a charity polo event, Meghan’s unexpected appearance supposedly threw the event into chaos, culminating in an awkward shuffle on stage that left Chandauka in an unenviable position.

According to Chandauka, Harry even asked her to issue a statement in support of Meghan post-chaos, a request she declined, asserting that the charity could not be an extension of the Sussexes’ PR machine.

What’s more, when Prince Harry’s efforts to remove Chandauka via a vote failed due to legal challenges, he allegedly tried to sabotage the charity.

This included a suspicious release of news to the press, supposedly authorised by Harry, which only added fuel to the firestorm already engulfing the charity and its governance.

You simply couldn’t make it up. The Duke of Sussex, having departed from royal duties partly due to allegations of mistreatment and bullying within the Royal Family, now faces similar accusations in his own charitable organisation.

It appears that Harry’s dramatic exit from royal life was not so much an escape from the tribulations of royalty but rather a prelude to similar strife in his philanthropic endeavours.

Dr. Chandauka, despite her criticisms, praised Harry as an individual, noting his commitment when she asked him to visit Africa for the first time in five years.

Yet, the undercurrents of tension between the UK staff and those in Lesotho, as she described, suggest deeper issues of power and control, hinting at a discord that echoes the very disputes Harry aimed to leave behind.

As this royal saga unfolds, you can’t help but notice the cyclical nature of conflict and controversy surrounding Prince Harry. It’s like clockwork.

What began as a quest for freedom and fairness seems to have spiralled into a replication of the very dynamics he sought to escape.

Echoes of old disputes

Whether these allegations hold true or not, they have undoubtedly cast a shadow over Harry’s image as a reformer and advocate for fairness.

Reflecting on the journey from Buckingham Palace to the boardrooms of Sentebale, it’s apparent that escaping royal drama is not as simple as stepping down and moving away.

The issue, it seems, is the Sussexes themselves. These problems keep following them around like flies on rotting fruit.

In this theatrical twist, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are no longer just narrators of their own story but have become characters in a larger narrative about power, privilege, and the complexities of public life.

‘Doing good’ (as the Sussexes keep bleating on about) is about more than just noble intentions.

You have to turn up, do the work, and admit when you make mistakes.

I find it astonishing that he hadn’t been to sub-Saharan Africa for over five years, even though he had set up a charity there almost 20 years ago.

Sentebale employs over 500 people. Can the prince even name up to 10% of them?

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13904428/prince-harry-meghan-markle-bullying-sophie-chandauka/

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday rebuked the idea of direct negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration over its nuclear program.

Pezeshkian: US must ‘build trust’ after earlier breached promises

“We responded to the US president’s letter via Oman and rejected the option of direct talks, but we are open to indirect negotiations,” Pezeshkian said during a sitdown with his cabinet broadcast on Iranian TV.

“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian said. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

During Trump’s first term in 2018, he pulled the US out of a nuclear agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

That deal provided sanctions relief for Iran, with the Iranian government in exchange curbing its nuclear program and allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to periodically view its enrichment sites. France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the EU are some of the other parties signed onto the JCPOA.

Trump vows ‘bombing’ if no new Iran nuclear deal

Trump sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei earlier this month, urging Iran to reach a new nuclear deal with the US in his second term in the White House.

In an interview with US broadcaster NBC News, Trump made new threats towards Iran if there is no new nuclear agreement with the US.

“If they don’t make a deal,” Trump told the outlet on Saturday evening, referring to Iran. “There will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Trump claimed that representatives from the US and Iran are “talking” on the matter.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/iran-rejects-direct-nuke-talks-as-trump-threatens-bombing/a-72089397

Clocks were turned forward by one hour on Sunday morning in most European countries as daylight saving time started ahead of summer.

The controversial time-change sees clock go forward an hour every year on the last Sunday of March and back an hour on the last Sunday of October.

Initially introduced in the previous century as a power-saving strategy, nowadays many question the relevance of the time changes, with the European Union going as far as attempting to abolish the system back in 2018.

What is daylight saving time, and why did it come about?

During summer, central Europe therefore moves from Central European Time (CET) to Central European Summer Time (CEST). In Britain, where clocks are one hour behind, the kingdom moves from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST).

The practice was introduced in Germany during World War I to add an hour of light to the evening, before spreading across Europe. It returned again during World War II, then was abandoned until the oil crisis in the 1970s, when the measure was reintroduced to save energy.

Since then, Europe has been changing its clocks twice a year.

Why is daylight saving time controversial?

The practice has been generally divisive, with proponents appreciating the “extra hour” won while opponents argue against the potential disruption to sleep schedules. Research suggests that the practice has a negative impact on the economy as well as people’s health.

In 2018, the EU held an open consultation for citizens of its then 28 member states — before Britain’s formal exit. Nearly 4 million people supported abolishing daylight saving time, prompting the EU to put a proposal forward, and parliament to back it the next year.

However, the proposal was opposed by some EU states and has since fallen to the wayside.

What is the future of daylight saving time in Europe?

Poland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency until July, plans to put the issue back on the agenda despite acknowledging opposition within the now 27-member bloc.

“We are planning to informally consult member states to see whether it is still feasible to take the proposal forward,” the Polish presidency said. “As the clock is ticking, we will take our time to assess the situation.”

Opponents to abolishing the decades-old time change argue that it would be a waste of time, with the EU engaged in major challenges ranging from Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the threat of trade war with Washington.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/europe-turns-clocks-to-daylight-saving-time-despite-controversy/a-72087988

For weeks, the Ukrainian authorities have been looking for ways to repair a large hole in the protective shell that covers the fourth reactor of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant. On February 14, a Russian drone hit the structure, which is called the New Safe Confinement, or NSC, because it is meant to “confine” the reactor’s radioactive remains. The drone started a fire that caused considerable damage and was only extinguished three weeks later on March 7.

“The main mission is to close the hole, which is about 15 square meters [around 162 square feet] in size, but also the more than 200 small holes that the State Emergency Service of Ukraine drilled into the shell during firefighting operations,” said Hryhoriy Ishchenko, the head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, which is responsible for the area around the Chernobyl power plant.

He told DW that experts would soon be arriving on site to examine the structure and that “preliminary recommendations on the repair work should be available within a month.”

A €1.5 billion megaproject

The NSC was erected over a pre-existing protective shell called the sarcophagus, which is there to prevent the release of radioactive contaminants from the reactor, which exploded in 1986. The NSC was built after 45 donor countries came together and gathered around €1.5 billion for the project. Eventually 10,000 people from 40 countries would play a part in the shell, which took 12 years, from the signing of contracts to the moment the NSC was ready in 2019.

Ishchenko pointed out that there was still no preliminary estimate of the damage caused by the Russian attack. Research institutes involved in the investigation would provide estimates, he added.

“Radiation levels are normal” Ishchenko said. “The staff is still working normally too. Only the pressure regulation system is no longer functioning, and slightly higher humidity levels have been detected. This is because of the impact and the drop in pressure below the shell, which is no longer sealed.”

Although experts say the drop in pressure in the NSC does not pose any immediate threat, there are other dangers. Dmytro Humeniuk, a safety analysis expert at Ukraine’s State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety said it was currently impossible to dismantle the old sarcophagus. The NSC was built in part to replace the old shell but inside the old shell, there are still 18 unstable beams. Three of the main beams could reportedly collapse at any time. If this were to happen under the new-but-now-damaged protective structure, radioactive dust could be stirred up and radioactivity released, Humeniuk said. “The protective shell is currently not fulfilling its function, which is to contain the nuclear fission products beneath it.”

No need to stockpile iodine

Despite this, experts in Ukraine say that people should not start stockpiling iodine tablets or start worrying about evacuation. What they do regret, however, is that the efforts of the international community, which collected funds to build the NSC, have gone to waste.

“It is impossible to weld and repair the damaged shelter on site because the radiation levels there are very high and the workers would be contaminated,” Humeniuk explained. “The protective shelter was constructed some distance away and then with the use of rails it was slid over the old sarcophagus. Now that the rails have been dismantled, we will have to do something else.”

For Jan Vande Putte, a nuclear expert at Greenpeace Ukraine, there are very few options. “Due to the high radiation levels above the sarcophagus, the entire Chernobyl protective shell will probably have to be moved back to the place where it was built on rails before the expensive repairs can be carried out,” he said adding that the costs of doing this were completely unknown.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/risks-posed-by-hole-in-protective-shell-over-chernobyl/a-72078360

Rumours about Vladimir Putin’s health have circulated for years, driven by his occasional bloated appearance and stiff movements. Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has added to the speculation, questioning the Russian leader’s well-being. But are these claims based on fact, or are they merely wartime rhetoric?

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Zelensky bluntly stated that Putin “will die soon,” reinforcing long-standing speculation about the Russian leader’s deteriorating health.

‘He (Putin) will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to an end,’ Zelensky said. Even as he tries to portray a very strong image, rumors about Putin’s health have persisted. Observations of his sometimes swollen face, unsteady leg, and reddened eyes, particularly in recent years, have only amplified those concerns.

2022: Signs Of Declining Health Emerge

A prominent 2022 event revealed the president’s apparent discomfort as he slouched, gripped a table and spoke with unclear diction in a meeting with then-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Reports also mention his ongoing cough and sudden, uncontrolled movements of his hands and feet.

Furthermore, he has been seen walking with a noticeable limp on multiple occasions. Claims have surfaced, as reported by MailOnline, indicating potential cancer and Parkinson’s Disease diagnoses.

Zelensky Levels Grave Charges

During his interview, Zelensky also alleged that Putin is attempting to ‘hit the European Union from within,’ referencing Russia’s more sympathetic members within the group, such as Hungary. European leaders will convene with Macron and Zelensky on 27 March to discuss and establish security guarantees for Ukraine, contingent on a ceasefire in the more than three-year war.

Macron, speaking with Zelensky in Paris, stressed that this marked a ‘decisive phase to put an end to the war of aggression’ against Ukraine, especially as the United States, under Donald Trump, seeks dialogue with Moscow.

As Macron announced, France will provide Ukraine with a fresh £1.70 billion (two-billion-euro) military aid package. The nation is ready to quickly supply hardware from its current stockpiles.

Macron: End War Amid US Overture

Accusing Moscow of still displaying a ‘desire for war’, he insisted that Russia accept Ukraine’s 30-day ceasefire ‘without preconditions’ and commended Kyiv for having ‘taken the risk of peace.’ Macron said: ‘Russia shall have no right of say regarding the support we are providing and will provide Ukraine, nor shall they set the conditions.’

‘There is just one aggressor and one party that is resisting,’ he said. According to him, Russia had failed to respond to the ceasefire offer and was instead establishing ‘new conditions.’

‘Ukraine has clearly expressed to the United States its agreement to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, even though it is the victim of the aggression,’ said Macron. ‘We expect the same commitment from Russia,’ he added.

Expecting ‘strong decisions’, Zelensky looked forward to Thursday’s meeting, set to be attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Premier Keir Starmer, among others. ‘Now is definitely not the time to reduce pressure on Russia or weaken our unity for the sake of peace,’ he said.

Russia Dragging Out War?

Despite American attempts at peace, Zelensky maintained that Russia was prolonging the conflict. ‘Russia wants this war to continue. It is dragging it out. We need to put pressure on Russia so that the war ends indeed,’ he said.

A potential settlement might involve the deployment of European forces to deter future Russian aggression against Ukraine. While discussing the specific roles of these forces was premature, according to Zelensky, his key aide, Igor Zhovkva, emphasised to AFP in Paris that Ukraine required a strong European presence, exceeding mere peacekeeping.

Zelensky emphasised that the crucial question is ‘who will be ready’ to participate in potential missions. ‘It’s too early to say,’ he added, regarding the potential roles of those forces. ‘No one wants to drag any country into a war,’ he noted. He also emphasised that European contingents would be crucial for oversight.

‘In any case, a contingent is a combat force, but they are there primarily to control the situation, monitor the situation, conduct joint training, and ensure that Russia does not have any desire to return with aggression,’ he said.

Macron has clearly stated that it is ‘much too early’ to consider lifting sanctions against Russia. ‘Ultimately, sanctions depend solely on Russia’s choice of aggression, and therefore, their lifting depends solely on Russia’s choice to comply with international law,’ he said.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bloated-limping-twitching-putin-dying-zelensky-thinks-so-1732190

Why won’t India buy even a single bushel of American corn?

That’s the question US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised recently while criticising India’s trade policies, taking a swipe at its market restrictions.

In another interview, Lutnick accused India of blocking US farmers and urged it to open its agricultural market – suggesting quotas or limits as a possible approach.

Agriculture is a key battleground in US President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war, with tit-for-tat or reciprocal tariffs set to kick in on 2 April.

Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries.Trump has repeatedly branded India a “tariff king” and a “big abuser” of trade ties.

For years, Washington has pushed for greater access to India’s farm sector, seeing it as a major untapped market. But India has fiercely protected it, citing food security, livelihoods and interests of millions of small farmers.

To be sure, India’s transformation from a food-deficient nation to a food-surplus powerhouse is one of its biggest success stories.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the country relied on food aid to feed its population, but a series of agricultural breakthroughs changed that. India became self-sufficient in staples, and became the world’s largest milk producer. Rapid growth in horticulture, poultry and aquaculture expanded its food basket.

Today, India is not just feeding its 1.4 billion people but, as the world’s eighth-largest agri-produce exporter, also shipping grains, fruits and dairy worldwide.

Yet, despite such major gains, Indian agriculture still lags in productivity, infrastructure and market access. Global price volatility and climate change add to the challenge. Crop yields lag far behind the global best. Small landholdings worsen the problem – Indian farmers work with less than a hectare on average, while their American counterparts had over 46 hectares in 2020.

No surprise then that productivity remains low – agriculture employs nearly half of India’s workforce but accounts for just 15% of GDP. In comparison, less than 2% of the US population depends on farming. With limited manufacturing jobs, more people are stuck in low-paying farm work, an unusual trend for a developing country.

This structural imbalance also shapes India’s trade policies. Despite its farm surplus, India keeps tariffs high to shield its farmers from cheap imports. It maintains moderate to high tariffs – ranging from zero to 150% – on farm imports.

The weighted average tariff – the average duty rate per imported product – in India on US farm products is 37.7%, compared to 5.3% on Indian goods in the US, according to the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI).

Bilateral farm trade between India and the US is modest, at just $8bn (£6.2bn).

India mainly exports rice, shrimp, honey, vegetable extracts, castor oil and black pepper, while the US sends almonds, walnuts, pistachios, apples and lentils.

But as the two countries work on a trade deal, experts say Washington now wants to push “big-ticket” farm exports – wheat, cotton, corn and maize – to narrow its $45bn trade deficit with India.

“They’re not looking to export berries and stuff this time. The game is much bigger,” says Biswajit Dhar, a trade expert from the Delhi-based Council for Social Development think tank.

Pushing India to lower farm tariffs, cut price support and open up to genetically modified (GM) crops and dairy ignores the fundamental asymmetry in global agriculture, experts argue.

The US, for instance, heavily subsidises its agriculture and protects farmers through crop insurance.

“In some cases,” says Ajay Srivastava of GTRI, “US subsidies exceed 100% of production costs, creating an uneven playing field that could devastate India’s smallholder farmers.”

Farming is India’s backbone, supporting over 700 million people, nearly half the country’s population.

“The key thing to remember is that agriculture in the two countries is entirely different,” says Abhijit Das, former head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

“The US has commercial agriculture, while India relies on intensive, subsistence farming. It’s a question of the livelihoods of millions of Indians versus the interests of US agribusiness.”

But India’s agricultural challenges aren’t just external. Mr Dhar says much of the sector’s struggles are “its own doing”. Farming has long been underfunded, receiving less than 6% of India’s total investment – funds meant for infrastructure, machinery and other long-term assets crucial for growth.

To protect millions of livelihoods, the government shields key crops like wheat, rice and dairy with import duties and price support. “But even that doesn’t inspire confidence,” he says.

Four years ago, tens of thousands of farmers held protests demanding better prices and legal guarantees of minimum government support-price for staples, mainly wheat and rice.

“Even relatively well-off farmers selling surpluses don’t see a turnaround anytime soon. And if they feel that way, imagine the plight of subsistence farmers,” says Mr Dhar.

Beyond domestic discontent, trade negotiations add another layer of complexity.

Mr Das says the real challenge for India will be how “to have an agreement with the US that takes into account US export interest in agriculture while balancing India’s interests in the farm sector”.

So what’s the way forward?

“India must not yield to US pressure to open its agriculture sector,” says Mr Srivastava. He warns that doing so would disrupt millions of livelihoods, threaten food security and flood local markets with cheap imports.

“India must prioritise its national interest and protect its rural economy. Trade cooperation should not come at the cost of our farmers, food sovereignty or policy autonomy.”

In the long run, experts say India must modernise its agriculture, making farming more remunerative, and become more competitive to boost exports. Unupom Kausik of agri-business Olam estimates that with top global yields, India could generate a surplus of 200 million metric tonnes of paddy – enough to supply global trade and combat hunger.

“In a way, Trump is holding up a mirror to us. We’ve done little to invest in agriculture’s productive capacity,” says Mr Dhar. “For now, buying time is the best strategy – maybe offering the US cheaper imports of industrial goods as a trade-off.”

But for the best outcome, he says, India will have to “play hardball. Basically, tell the US – we’re open to negotiations on other fronts, but don’t destabilise our agriculture”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c204q6n0lzvo

Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have agreed “productive negotiations” about an economic deal between the UK and US will “continue at pace”, Downing Street has said, ahead of a looming deadline on US tariffs.

The Sunday night phone call between the pair comes after sources at No 10 said the government was prepared to retaliate against US trade taxes if needed.

British negotiators are trying to win a last-minute exemption ahead of Trump’s 25% levy on car imports, which is expected to come in on Wednesday.

Trump has imposed a series of tariffs targeting goods from other countries in the first few months of his second term in the White House, with threats of wider taxes also being imposed.

The prime minister has previously said he does not want to jump into a trade war with the US. But Sir Keir has also said the UK “reserves the right” to introduce reciprocal tariffs on the US if a deal to exempt the UK cannot be reached.

The government has argued the UK has a relatively equal trading relationship with the US, compared to its other partners.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has warned a reciprocal trade war would wipe billions off economic growth and all but eliminate the headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves has to stay within her self-imposed fiscal rules.

The OBR’s latest economic forecast, published on Wednesday, said GDP would be 0.6% lower than forecast this year and 1% lower next year in the most “severe” scenario, in which the UK and other nations retaliated to Trump’s tariffs.

This scenario would “almost entirely eliminate” Reeves’ £9.9 billion headroom against her fiscal rules, which could lead her to implement tax rises or further spending cuts if she wanted to stay within them.

In an alternative scenario where the UK does not retaliate, the OBR has forecast a smaller reduction in growth, with GDP 0.4% lower than expected this year and 0.6% lower next year.

It is unclear how the UK would retaliate if tariffs do come into effect. There are a range of options available, from duties on sectors where British products are particularly important to the US, to focusing on specific products like Harley Davidson motorcycles.

UK car exports are worth about £7.6bn per year, and the US is the second largest market for UK cars after the European Union, according to car industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Trump’s plan is expected a to hit British luxury car makers such as Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin.

The US president argues his measures will help American manufacturers and protect jobs, despite warnings prices could go up for consumers.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump said that he “couldn’t care less” if carmakers raise prices as it meant “people are gonna buy American-made cars”.

During a meeting between the prime minister and president at the White House last month, Trump hinted at “a real trade deal”, which could see the UK avoid the kind of tariffs he has been threatening other countries with.

Also in their call on Sunday, the two leaders discussed continuing to pressure Russia over the Ukraine war, Downing Street’s spokesperson said.

“Discussing Ukraine, the prime minister updated the president on the productive discussions at the meeting of the Coalition of Willing in Paris this week,” they said.

“The leaders agreed on the need to keep up the collective pressure on Putin.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrzl1l9w95o

The Mayor of Amsterdam has given a “hero’s medal” to an English tourist who chased a knifeman through busy alleys and pinned him to the ground, bringing an end to his rampage.

Footage shows a man, in casual clothes, kneeling on top of the suspect and threatening to punch him as he waits for police while shoppers file past him near the central Dam’s Square on Thursday.

In a message on Instagram, Mayor Femke Halsema thanked him for his heroic actions.

He received a hero’s badge in her official residence, she told reporters.

“He is a very modest British man,” Halsema told Amsterdam news channel AT5. “He has no desire to become famous. He is now mainly concerned with the victims, he feels responsible for them.”

She said the man made a decision in “a split second for which there should be a lot of appreciation”.

“The tourist was walking on Nieuwendijk and heard a commotion”, she said.

“He saw someone pass by and instinctively thought ‘this is not right, something bad is happening here’. He managed to tackle him to the ground.”

She said the five victims were now all stable, adding: “Everything is being done to determine the identity of the perpetrator.

“At this point that is not clear. As long as there is no clarity about that, we know little about the motive.”

An Amsterdam police spokesman told Dutch news outlet AD the British man did a great job performing a “rare citizens arrest”.

“We’re very proud of him, but we also want to point out that you need to be very careful if you want to make a citizen’s arrest. Most people are not trained for this sort of thing.”

The mystery man’s actions were hailed on social media with locals saying he should be made an honorary “Amsterdamer”.

One said on a TikTok: “What a hero! What a stunner! He sees danger and immediately intervenes and ensures that other fellow human beings are safe. Respect!”

The stabbings reportedly took place in various locations. The seriously injured victims were identified as a 67-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man from the United States, a 73-year-old woman from Belgium, a 26-year-old man from Poland and a 19-year-old Dutch woman from Amsterdam.

Source : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amsterdam-knife-attack-hero-tiktok-b2723427.html

Tesla facilities worldwide have been the target of protests objecting to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s influential role in the Trump administration. On Saturday, anti-Musk protesters gathered again in what were their most ambitious and widespread rallies yet.

As part of the “Tesla Takedown” campaign, nonviolent demonstrations took place across the U.S. and even abroad on Saturday. Organizers called it a “global day of action” and said protests occurred in at least 253 cities around the world.

For weeks, the movement’s organizers have been encouraging people to boycott the EV maker by selling their Tesla cars and stocks. According to Tesla Takedown, thousands of grassroots groups and individuals worldwide are driving the decentralized effort.

Musk and the White House did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Protests erupt nationwide, raising alarms about Musk, democracy and the future of Social Security

At a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, Phil Ansell, 65, said he felt compelled to join because he believes President Trump and Musk pose a threat to democracy.

“I want to do everything possible to protect democracy in this country,” he said. “Trump and Musk are acting like kings.”

Ansell added that he was especially excited to participate, seeing how far and wide the protest movement had spread.

Many people at the Los Angeles rally voiced deep concern over the devastating effect that the Trump administration’s cuts and proposed changes could have on Social Security.

Francine Coeytaux, 72, who also attended the LA protest, said she showed up because she has a 37-year-old daughter with special needs who relies on Social Security benefits.

“It’s what allows her to live independently and to be able to pay rent and pay [for] food,” she said. “She’s literally existing and living thanks to Social Security.”

Beyond Los Angeles, demonstrations took place across small and major cities, in both red and blue states.

In Dallas, demonstrators held up a banner reading “Store closing. Everything must go!” outside of a Tesla dealership, according to a photo from an attendee posted on Facebook.

On a busy street in St. Louis County, Mo., protesters waved signs that read “No one elected Musk” and “Drive Tesla out of Biz” as cars passed by, FOX 2 reported.

And in New York City, near a Tesla showroom, a massive crowd chanted “Elon Musk shame on you. We deserve a future too,” according to a video on Facebook.

How the Tesla Takedown movement began

Organizers say the Tesla Takedown movement is fueled by anger over Musk’s slashing of the federal government, and that it aims to hit the billionaire where it hurts — the electric vehicle company that’s become his main source of wealth.

Joel Lava, who has been helping lead Tesla Takedown protests in Los Angeles, says Musk’s work to dismantle government agencies and workforce through the unofficially named DOGE initiative is the primary motivator for the movement’s members.

“He’s spearheading DOGE, which is spearheading our country’s destruction — literally destroying our country’s infrastructure,” Lava said. “Therefore, we are taking direct aim at his power, which is his wealth, which is Tesla.”

Musk critics point to a litany of other grievances, including his attacks on diversity, a gesture he made on the Inauguration Day stage that was widely interpreted to be a Nazi salute, and his support for far-right parties.

Musk’s response to the pushback against Teslas

Since Musk’s political turn, Tesla sales have slumped, and investors have grown uneasy. But market analysts question how much the dip in Tesla sales and shares can be pinned on its CEO’s actions. Tesla has been losing market share to EV competitors for years. And the stock price has fallen in anticipation of auto tariffs. But the Trump administration’s recently announced 25% import tariffs on cars made outside the U.S. could give the stock a welcome boost; auto industry analysts say that among domestic carmakers, Tesla will be the least impacted by the tariffs.

Some of the anti-Musk backlash has been violent. Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations across the U.S. and in Europe have been the target of arson and vandalism. Some have taken to spray-painting swastikas on Tesla sedans and Cybertrucks.

Tesla Takedown organizers say its participants are exercising their right to peacefully protest and that they oppose violence and property destruction.

But Musk did not make that distinction when he went after Valerie Costa, a community activist who has helped organize recent peaceful protests in the Seattle area as part of the Tesla Takedown demonstrations.

Musk, in a post on X earlier this month, accused Costa of “committing crimes,” without giving evidence or specific allegations. That was after he claimed that an environmental activist group she cofounded was backed by the ActBlue, a fundraising platform for Democrats.

Costa told NPR that the accusations were false, and that Musk supporters subsequently targeted her in direct messages that included threats of physical violence.

“When one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful person in the world is saying you’ve committed a crime, it doesn’t matter what the truth is,” Costa said.

Source : https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-protests-planned-worldwide

Arnold Haro held up a single bullet to his cellphone camera, loaded it into his Smith & Wesson and spun the chamber.
It was 3:28 p.m. on Feb. 21, and he was in his ranch home in an isolated corner of California. He seemed in distress, scratching his scalp, breathing heavily. “If I die, I hope you guys turn this into a meme coin,” he told his followers on X, where he was livestreaming.
About three hours later, his dying wish came true. A crypto token named after Haro’s social media handle skyrocketed to more than $2 million in total value, before crashing back to earth. It wasn’t an isolated event. A gold rush ensued, and dozens of other copycat coins sprang up, some branded with stills from the livestream, as the meme coin community tried to profit on Haro’s suicide.
Meme coins started out as a joke in 2013 with the rise of dogecoin, a digital token meant as a sendup of the crypto world. Over time, an online subculture developed around the idea that any cultural moment could merit its own cryptocurrency. Tokens tied to celebrities, political leaders and anonymous edgelords hit the market, carrying no intrinsic value while hyping internet memes and personalities.

The marketplace has grown into a multibillion-dollar slice of the wider $2.8 trillion crypto market. But it has also proven to be a hotbed of scams—a world of boom-and-bust speculation where coin creators reap fortunes and everyone else is left holding worthless symbols of a brief digital supernova. Federal authorities have treated memecoins as entertainment, not securities, meaning that many of the protections available to investors in traditional assets don’t apply.
The coins created in the wake of Haro’s death illustrate, in the extreme, the lack of boundaries in the meme coin world: It is a place where anything can be turned into a coin—even a horrific tragedy.
Maria Lucero Haro, Haro’s sister, said his immediate family had no comment on the events leading up to his death. “My brother’s death will no longer be anybody’s news line or entertainment,” she said.

Lucas Sielaff was in a car queue waiting to cross from Mexico into the US when a border guard, seeing his German passport, began bombarding him with questions.
The 25-year-old tourist, who had been travelling with his American fiancée, was shackled, taken in for questioning, and then interrogated for hours. He spent 16 days in detention before being escorted to the airport and allowed to fly back to Germany earlier this month.
“I still have nightmares [about the experience] and I’m not yet back to normal,” Sielaff told the Financial Times. “I’m trying to process everything properly. It’ll take a while.”
Sielaff, who had a valid visa waiver entry permit and had visited the US several times previously, is one of a string of high-profile cases of European and Canadian tourists to have suffered hostile treatment at the hands of border guards since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Others have included Becky Burke, a Welsh backpacker who was detained for 19 days. Her parents complained she was taken to the airport for deportation “in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs” after being accused of travelling on the wrong visa. “She’s not Hannibal Lecter,” her father Paul Burke told the BBC.
Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney said she felt like she had been kidnapped and forced to take part in “some sort of insane . . . psychological, social experiment”. She spent 12 days in detention after trying to renew an expired work visa at a border.
The apparent shift has prompted several nations to change their travel advice and triggered a frenzy of questions in online travel forums about whether it is safe to go to the US.
“Every day I’m getting calls from citizens, visa holders, immigrants and travellers,” said David Leopold, chair of the immigration practice group at UB Greensfelder. “There’s huge concern out there . . . The administration is creating an atmosphere that is very restrictive to immigrants and even visitors and tourists.”
The publicised cases of detentions and deportations are part of a pattern of “more aggressive enforcement” at the border since the start of Trump’s second presidency in January, according to Noor Zafar, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Immigration lawyers said that, while some nationalities have long been subject to enhanced scrutiny, any non-citizen arriving into the US should now expect more questioning than they were previously accustomed to.
No rules have officially changed for most visitors, said Ted Chiappari, head of the immigration law group at Duane Morris. But he warned that border officers’ discretion was “being applied differently”.

In some of the recent cases that have made the headlines, there appears to have been at least some legitimate grounds for the US authorities to act.
Sielaff, the German tourist, believes his ordeal may have stemmed from a misunderstanding caused by language issues. He said he had incorrectly said he lived in Las Vegas, rather than staying there temporarily, leading the border guard to believe he was residing in the country illegally.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.
In some instances US authorities have been accused of acting with more sinister motives. The French government last week claimed an academic who was travelling to a conference in Houston was denied entry to the US for expressing critical views about Trump in messages to friends and colleagues on his mobile phone.
The US interior department rejected that suggestion, claiming instead the academic had violated a non-disclosure agreement by possessing confidential information from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which conducts sensitive scientific research.
Multiple countries have responded to the shift by updating their travel advisories. The UK noted US border authorities “set and enforce entry rules strictly” and warned travellers “may be liable to arrest or detention if [they] break the rules”.
Some European countries also issued specific warnings for transgender tourists amid concerns that Trump’s executive order requiring federal agencies to only recognise two sexes — male and female — could cause problems with their travel documents.
Germany and Denmark specifically advised travellers whose gender on their passport does not match that assigned at birth, or who use the gender marker “X”, to contact their local US embassy ahead of travel.
This uptick in such warnings could damage the US tourism and hospitality sector, which accounted for about 11 per cent of US jobs and contributed $2.36tn to the economy last year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
“Travellers are already in a stressful situation and they don’t want anything to make that journey tougher,” said Marta Soligo, an expert on the tourism industry at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “People are seriously questioning whether they should travel to the US, and that’s a huge concern for the industry.”
Roland Lescure, a French member of parliament who represents French citizens living in North America, said some expats were also reconsidering their decision to live across the Atlantic. He conducted a recent survey that found about 19 per cent were having doubts.

Source : https://archive.is/2025.03.30-132232/https://www.ft.com/content/2197a2dd-9e22-4d9f-b963-9535104002a8#selection-2267.0-2270.0

The smell of decaying bodies permeated the streets of Myanmar’s second-largest city on Sunday as people worked frantically by hand to clear rubble in the hope of finding someone still alive, two days after a massive earthquake struck that killed more than 1,600 people and left countless others buried.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit midday Friday with an epicenter near Mandalay, bringing down scores of buildings and damaging other infrastructure like the city’s airport.

Relief efforts have been hampered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war.

The search for survivors has been primarily conducted by the local residents without the aid of heavy equipment, moving rubble by hand and with shovels in 41-degree Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) heat, with only the occasional tracked excavator to be seen.

A 5.1 magnitude aftershock Sunday afternoon prompted screams from those in the streets, and then the work continued.

Many of Mandalay’s 1.5 million people spent the night sleeping on the streets, either left homeless by the quake, which also shook neighboring Thailand and killed at least 18 people there, or worried that the continuing aftershocks might cause structures left unstable to collapse.

Many areas still have not been reached

So far 1,644 people have been reported killed in Myanmar and 3,408 injured, but many areas have not yet been reached, and many rescue efforts so far have been undertaken by people working by hand to try and clear rubble, said Cara Bragg, the Yangon-based manager of Catholic Relief Services in Myanmar.

“It’s mainly been local volunteers, local people who are just trying to find their loved ones,” Bragg said after bring briefed by her colleague in Mandalay.

“I’ve also seen reports that now some countries are sending search and rescue teams up to Mandalay to support the efforts, but hospitals are really struggling to cope with the influx of injured people, there’s a shortage of medical supplies, and people are struggling to find food and clean water,” Bragg added.

The organization was sending a team by road on Sunday to assess peoples’ most pressing needs so that it could target its own response.

With the Mandalay airport damaged and the control tower toppled in the capital Naypitaw’s airport, all commercial flights into the cities have been shut down.

Official relief efforts in Naypitaw were prioritizing government offices and staff housing, leaving locals and aid groups to dig through the rubble by hand in residential areas, the hot sun beating down and the smell of death in the air.

A team sent from neighboring China rescued an older man who had been trapped for nearly 40 hours beneath the rubble of a Naypitaw hospital, and many others are believed to still be buried under, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Myanmar sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate.

The earthquake occurred when a 200-kilometer (125-mile) section of the fault ruptured, causing widespread damage along a wide swath of territory down the middle of the country, including Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway and Bago regions and Shan State.

With widespread telecommunication outages, few details have come out so far from areas other than the main urban areas of Mandalay and Naypitaw.

Foreign aid starts to arrive in Myanmar

Still, two Indian C-17 military transport aircraft were able to land late Saturday at Naypitaw with a field hospital unit and some 120 personnel who were then to travel north to Mandalay to establish a 60-bed emergency treatment center, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry. Other Indian supplies were flown into Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, which has been the hub of other foreign relief efforts.

On Sunday, a convoy of 17 Chinese cargo trucks carrying critical shelter and medical supplies was expected to reach Mandalay, after making the arduous journey by road from Yangon.

The 650-kilometer (400-mile) journey has been taking 14 hours or longer, with clogged roads and traffic diverted from the main highway to skirt damage from the earthquake.

At the same time, the window of opportunity to find anyone alive is rapidly closing. Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, and then survival chances drop as each day passes.

An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued Saturday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities, and warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers.”

China said it has sent more than 135 rescue personnel and experts along with supplies like medical kits and generators and pledged around $13.8 million in emergency aid. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said it had flown in 120 rescuers and supplies to Yangon, and the country’s Health Ministry said Moscow had sent a medical team to Myanmar.

Teams from Singapore have been working already in Naypitaw. Malaysia dispatched a team of 50 personnel on Sunday with trucks, search and rescue equipment and medical supplies. Thailand said 55 of its soldiers arrived in Yangon on Sunday to help with search and rescue operations, while Britain announced a $13 million aid package to help its locally-funded partners already in Myanmar respond to the crisis.

18 people reported dead in Thailand

In neighboring Thailand, the quake rocked much of the country, bringing down a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) away from the epicenter.

So far, 11 people have been found dead at the construction site near the popular Chatuchak market. A total of 18 people have been reported killed by the quake in Thailand so far.

Rescue efforts in Myanmar complicated by civil war

In Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, rescue efforts so far are focused on Mandalay and Naypyitaw, which are thought to have been the hardest hit, but many other areas were also impacted and little is known so far about the damage there.

“We’re hearing reports of hundreds of people trapped in different areas,” said Bragg. “Right now we’re at 1,600 (known fatalities) and we don’t have a lot of data coming out but you’ve got to assume it will be increasing in the thousands based on what the impacts are. This is just anecdotal information at this point.”

Beyond the earthquake damage, rescue efforts are complicated by the bloody civil war roiling much of the country, including in quake-affected areas. In 2021, the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has since turned into significant armed resistance.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-burma-bangkok-earthquake-rescue-humanitarian-f966686f958ded1a3e97e529f4cd5149

Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years.
Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.

The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,644, the military government said on Saturday, according to BBC Burmese news service.
In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least nine people were killed.
Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent.
In Bangkok on Saturday, rescue operations continued at the site of the 33-story tower’s collapse, where 47 people were missing or trapped under the rubble – including workers from Myanmar.

The U.S. Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
A day after making a rare call for international assistance, Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, travelled to hard-hit Mandalay near the epicentre of the quake, which brought down buildings and triggered fires in some areas.
“The Chairman of the State Administration Council instructed authorities to expedite search and rescue efforts and address any urgent needs,” the junta said in a statement on state media, referring to Min Aung Hlaing.

AIRPORTS CLOSED

An initial assessment by Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government said at least 2,900 buildings, 30 roads and seven bridges had been damaged by the quake.
“Due to significant damage, Naypyitaw and Mandalay international airports are temporarily closed,” said the NUG, which includes remnants of the elected civilian government ousted by the military in a 2021 coup that triggered the civil war.

The control tower at the airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s purpose-built capital city, collapsed, rendering it inoperable, a person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
A Myanmar junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Hospitals in central and northwestern Myanmar were struggling to cope with the influx of injured people, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, warning that damage to roads was hindering access.
Seventeen cargo trucks of shelter and medical supplies were due to arrive on Sunday to address shortages of medicines, including blood bags and anaesthetics, the agency added.
A Chinese rescue team arrived at the airport in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon, hundreds of kilometres from Mandalay and Naypyitaw, and will travel upcountry by bus, state media said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with the junta chief, China’s embassy in Myanmar said on Saturday, and said Beijing would provide $13.77 million worth of aid, including tents, blankets and emergency medical kits.
The United States, which has a testy relationship with the Myanmar military and has sanctioned its officials, including Min Aung Hlaing, has said it would provide some assistance.
Relief supplies from India on a military aircraft also landed in Yangon, according to Myanmar state media, and India’s government said it was also dispatching ships with 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
Russia, Malaysia and Singapore were also sending planeloads of relief supplies and personnel.

‘NO HELP COMING’

Residents in the hardest-hit areas are desperate for the help.
The quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, affected wide swathes of Myanmar, from the central plains around Mandalay to the hills of Shan in the east, parts of which are not completely under the junta’s control.
Rescue operations in Mandalay could not match the scale of the disaster, one resident said by phone, asking not to be named because of security concerns.
“Many people are trapped but there is no help coming just simply because there isn’t manpower or equipment or vehicles,” he said.
In Bangkok, 1,000 km (620 miles) from the epicentre, authorities on Saturday pushed ahead with efforts to find construction workers trapped under the rubble of the collapsed tower, using excavators, drones and search-and-rescue dogs.
Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said all possible resources had been deployed to search for survivors and to bring out bodies of the deceased.
“We always have hope,” he told reporters. “We’re still working around the clock.”
Chanpen Kaewnoi, 39, said she rushed over on Friday afternoon after seeing news reports that the under-construction building where her mother and younger sister were working had collapsed.
“I called my sister, but no matter how many times I tried to call her there was no connection,” she said after a sleepless night at the site.
“I want to wait for my mother and sister,” said Chanpen, herself a construction worker, “I want to see their faces again.”
Across the sprawling metropolis, where such quakes are rare, there may be up to 5,000 damaged buildings, including residential towers, said Anek Siripanichgorn, a board member of Council of Engineers Thailand, which is helping municipal authorities.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-quake-death-toll-nears-700-international-aid-starts-arrive-2025-03-29/

A close call between a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and a US Air Force T-38 jet, often used by the military for training, sounded alarms in the cockpit of the passenger plane Friday.

Delta 2983 was departing Reagan Airport around 3:15 p.m. and heading to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for a regularly scheduled flight.

Delta did not identify the other jet involved, but a review of tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows an Air Force T-38 jet flying past the Delta plane and DCA airport going more than 350 miles per hour at 800 feet. The military jet took off and landed at Langley Air Force Base, in Hampton, Virginia.

CNN has asked the Air Force for comment.

The Delta aircraft was cleared for takeoff at around 3:15 p.m. ET, while four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talons were inbound to Arlington National Cemetery for a flyover, the FAA said in a statement.

The Delta aircraft received an onboard alert that another aircraft was nearby and air traffic controllers issued corrective instructions to both aircraft, the FAA reported.

The FAA will investigate the incident.

The close call happened just south of DCA airport, close to the spot where an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided, killing 67 people, on January 29.

At a congressional hearing on Thursday Senators demanded to know why close calls between military helicopters and passenger planes went unchecked for so long at DCA.

The NTSB said investigators uncovered more than 15,000 occurrences for close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters between 2021 and 2024 where aircraft were within one nautical mile and 85 cases where two aircraft were separated by only 1,500 feet vertically and 200 feet laterally.

The FAA has since closed a helicopter route by the airport and Thursday vowed to required military aircraft near DCA to fly with specific collision avoidance equipment turned on.

But that wasn’t enough to prevent today’s close call as the Delta plane was taking off.

“On that departure … was there an actual aircraft about 500 ft below us as we came off of DCA,” the Delta pilot asked air traffic controllers on audio captured by website LiveATC.net.

“Delta 2983, affirmative,” the Departure controller responds.

The pilot also noted they received a warning in the cockpit, called a “resolution advisory” from the plane’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System. The system tells a pilot what to do to avoid a collision.

Source : https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/28/us/delta-military-jet-close-call-dca/index.html

Team GB has its first world figure skating medal since Torvill and Dean in 1984, ending a drought of more than 40 years.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson secured a bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday.

Their free dance to a Beyonce medley gained them a total score of 207.11 at Boston’s TD Garden.

The last time Britain secured a medal at the championships was when Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean had a run of four through to 1984.

Fear, 25, said she “cried non-stop” after winning the medal and that it was “a dream come true”.

“I can’t even describe my feelings. I’m still shaking,” she added.

Gibson, 30, also said the pair’s achievement was a dream come true and thanked those who cheered them on.

“The crowd here was amazing, and insane,” he said.

“I think we got to the moment we really worked for, they were so loud and supportive, we are thankful to the audience.”

Fear told Sky Sports last month that it was a “huge honour” to be considered in the same sentence as Torvill and Dean, after Gibson was inspired to take up skating by the pair.

Torvill and Dean are best remembered for winning the gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics, after their Bolero routine.

The duo, who recently announced their retirement, are about to embark on a farewell tour, called Torvill And Dean, Our Last Dance.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/britain-gets-first-world-figure-skating-medal-since-1984-13338488

The comedian who was set to perform at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was fired from the gig Saturday—after the Trump administration took offense at what she said on The Daily Beast Podcast.

On Thursday, Amber Ruffin had sparked MAGA rage when she said that she wouldn’t try to make sure that her jokes targeted both sides of the political spectrum during her set, as she had been instructed to do by the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).

She told hosts comedian Samantha Bee and Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles that the Trump administration are “kind of a bunch of murderers,” adding that playing to both sides “makes them feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, ‘cause they’re not.”

A Saturday letter from Eugene Daniels, the president of the WHCA, to its members announced that he had been “re-envisioning” the April 26 dinner “for the past couple of weeks.” The WHCA is independent from the White House.

“As a first step, I wanted to share that the WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year,” wrote Daniels, who is also a political correspondent for MSNBC. “At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the WHCA and Ruffin for comment.

Ruffin previously hosted a late-night talk show on Peacock and has since written for comedian Seth Meyers’s show. She was announced as the dinner’s headliner in February. At the time, Daniels lavished praise on Ruffin.

“When I began to think about what entertainer would be a perfect fit for the dinner this year, Amber was immediately at the top of my list,” he wrote in a statement announcing her appearance. “She has the ability to walk the line between blistering commentary and humor all while provoking her audience to think about the important issues of the day. I’m thrilled and honored she said yes.”

The two even appeared alongside each other on MSNBC to publicize Ruffin’s appearance, with Daniels calling her “fabulous.”

On Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich lashed out at Ruffin over her comments on the Beast’s podcast, calling her a “2nd rate comedian.”

“What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this?” he wrote. “More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such as hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?”

On Saturday, Budowich called the WHCA statement removing Ruffin a “cop out.”

“Many WHCA members are privately pointing the finger at Eugene for making the unilateral decision to recruit and sign this garbage, hate-filled comedian,” he claimed. “Yet, they are all turning a blind eye to it publicly. It’s an indictment on how broken and useless this organization has become… so sad that such a storied and consequential group has been so quickly driven into irrelevancy.”

First held in 1921, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner had traditionally brought together the press and members of the presidential administration, including the president and vice president. Since 1983, it has typically featured a comedian who cracks jokes at the president’s expense. Recent featured entertainers have included Colin Jost, Trevor Noah, and Hasan Minhaj.

During his first term, Donald Trump became the first U.S. president not to attend a single one of the annual dinners. In 2019, he disparaged it as “so boring and so negative.”

Since Trump entered office in January, tensions have run high between the correspondents association and the administration.

In February, the White House announced that the WHCA would no longer be allowed to decide which journalists were assigned to cover the president on a given day. The White House itself now assigns reporters to the pool, which has raised concerns about the opportunity for the press to cover the administration without fear of retribution.

Daniels said at the time that the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”

The same month, Trump moved to exclude the Associated Press from press events after outlet decided to stick with the name the “Gulf of Mexico” rather than, as Trump has tried to name it, the “Gulf of America.”

Daniels, speaking for the WHCA, said in February that body “stands with” the AP.

“The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions,” he wrote in a statement.

The crisis has led to internal turmoil at the WHCA and questions about Daniels’s leadership. A closed-door virtual meeting of the association this month became contentious even as he insisted that its board was doing everything it could, according to Status, a media newsletter.

“There were a lot of pointed questions,” a person familiar with the meeting told the newsletter. “You could tell there was a lot of frustration with Eugene and the board.”

Many of the journalists in attendance were pushing for a more aggressive response from the WHCA beyond just issuing statements.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/wh-correspondents-fire-comedian-after-insult-on-beast-podcast/

PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle have been slammed as “toxic” by the boss of the duke’s African charity, from which he resigned earlier this week.

In the latest update to their bitter row, Dr Sophie Chandauka also claimed the prince once “demanded” her to “publicly defend” Meghan.

The chair of charity Sentebale, set up by the Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006, has found herself at the centre of a dispute with trustees at the organisation.

After the two founding princes sensationally quit the charity this week, slamming Dr Chandauka’s leadership as “untenable”, the chair has hit back, calling Harry and Meghan’s brand “toxic”.

Speaking to the Financial Times, she said: “The number one risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand”.

The chair also claimed the Prince tried to use the charity “as an extension of the Sussex PR Machine” to try and protect Meghan’s reputation.

Dr Chandauka said she had been once asked by the prince’s team to defend Meghan in the face of negative media coverage.

She added: “I said no, we’re not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine.”

In her first interview since the row erupted, she also issued a strong message to the Duke of Sussex, saying: “The team is resolved that Sentebale will live on, with or without you.”

The Sentebale chair has also now accused Harry of “harassment and bullying at scale”, after he quit the organisation.

In an interview with Sky News, set to air on Sunday morning, she said: “The only reason I’m here… is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director.

“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family?

“That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”

A source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity has described Chandauka’s claims as “completely baseless”.

Another source who was familiar with the events said both Harry and Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chair as well as trustees on March 10.

Dr Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer, was selected to be chair of the trustees last year.

But it is understood these members strongly disagreed with the decision and wanted her to step down – a move which has seen her sue.

After her refusal to quit, many disgruntled trustees left the charity, as relations “broke down beyond repair” – a move that was followed by the charity’s two co-founders.

Following their departure, Chandauka released an explosive statement in which she slammed “unthinkable” infighting in the organisation as well as made claims that there had been a “cover-up”.

In a statement given to the Mail, Chandauka alleged there had been “weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir”.

Misogynoir is the term used to describe discrimination against black women.

Princes Harry and Seeiso had said it was “devastating” to leave the charity, but slammed Chandauka for her “untenable” leadership.

France’s Ministry of Foreign Trade on Saturday said US interference in the diversity and inclusion policies of French firms is “unacceptable.”

The ministry statement was in response to a letter sent by the US embassy in Paris to several French firms warning them against using diversity programs, a frequent target of the Trump administration.

“American interference in the inclusion policies of French companies, along with threats of unjustified tariffs, is unacceptable,” the trade ministry statement said.

“France and Europe will defend their companies, their consumers, but also their values,” it added.

Copies of the US letter were first published in French media late on Friday. It was apparently sent to some French companies currently doing or looking to do business with the United States.

It included an attached form, seen by several news agencies, that asked firms to certify that they “do not practice programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI.

US letter orders French companies to comply with US-DEI ban

Such initiatives “infringe on applicable federal anti-discrimination laws” in the United States, the questionnaire says.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning federal DEI programs the day he returned to office for his second term as president.

The letter states that Trump’s order “also applies to all contractors and suppliers of the US government, regardless of nationality or country of operations.”

It is unclear how many French companies received the letter. They have five days to fill out and return the questionnaire.

French state officially doesn’t recognize race, ethnicity

French law bans the consideration of origin, ethnic group or religion in hiring practices. It also bans the collection of race-based data. It’s part of the state’s “color-blind” approach to secularism (called laicite in French), which holds that all French are equally French.

Rather, French corporate efforts to diversify their workforce focus more on gender and socioeconomic background.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/france-slams-us-interference-in-firms-diversity-programs/a-72085616

A MENACING Vladimir Putin has defied Donald Trump and declared he can “finish off” Ukraine despite an impending ceasefire.

The brutal tyrant has also unleashed a wave of fresh strikes on civilian targets and retaken a border village in Kursk.

Putin made the threat while visiting a nuclear submarine base in Russia’s frozen north – just a week after Sir Keir Starmer had a similar visit.

He launched a new nuclear submarine named the Perm – the first of its kind to be equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles as a standard feature.

Vlad brushed aside peace moves declaring: “Not long ago I said we’d grind them [Ukraine] down — now it looks like we’ll finish them off.”

Putin also called for Volodymyr Zelensky to be ousted by generals and replaced by an internationally-supervised provisional government to hold elections.

The tyrant’s threats come as his forces bombed a liquid gas facility in the latest violation of pledges to halt such strikes.

Vlad’s forces also bombed a hospital in what Kyiv labelled as a “war crime”.

Russia also claims to have retaken the border village of Gogolevka from Ukraine in its Kursk region.

Putin has also given Trump his blessing to make a land grab for Greenland and said the US president’s ambitions should be taken “seriously”.

But the tyrant shot back saying Russian troops are ready for a war in the Arctic and warned Nato that Moscow would always protect its interest in the region.

Meanwhile, Zelensky called the ageing despot a “dinosaur who wants to eat us up” and insists the Kremlin is “not ready for talks”.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13853765/trump-ukraine-russia-peace-talks-saudi-arabia-riyadh/

U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not doing a good job keeping Greenland safe and suggested the United States would better protect the semi-autonomous Danish territory that President Donald Trump has pressed to take over.
During a visit to the U.S. military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island, Vance said the U.S. has no immediate plans to expand its military presence on the ground but will invest in resources including additional naval ships.

He pledged respect for Greenland’s sovereignty but also suggested the territory would come to see the benefit of partnering with the U.S., in remarks the Danish prime minister called unfair.
“Denmark has not kept pace and devoted the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and other nations,” Vance said. He gave no details of the alleged incursions.
Trump has frequently said that the United States has a security imperative to acquire the island, which has been controlled by Denmark since 1721.

Vance’s sharp attacks against Denmark – a longtime U.S. ally and NATO member – offered another example of the little regard the Trump administration holds for traditional U.S. alliances.
Vance, in particular, has not held back in his messaging. He lectured European officials on free speech and illegal migration on the continent during an overseas trip last month and later accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of not showing enough gratitude to Trump during a contentious meeting at the White House.
In Greenland on Friday, Vance said Russia, China and other nations are taking an “extraordinary interest” in Arctic passageways, naval routes and minerals in the region. He said the U.S. will invest more resources, including naval ships and military icebreakers that will have a greater presence in the country.

As Greenlanders expressed deep unease about the visit, Vance vowed the people of Greenland would have “self-determination” and the U.S. would respect its sovereignty.
“I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States,” Vance said. “We can make them much more secure. We could do a lot more protection. And I think they’d fare a lot better economically as well.”
His remarks came just hours after a new broad government coalition that aims to keep ties with Denmark for now was presented in the capital, Nuuk.
Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the U.S. visit signalled a “lack of respect,” while Danish leaders expressed their commitment to Greenland.
“For many years we have stood side by side with the Americans under very difficult circumstances. Therefore the vice president’s description of Denmark is not a fair one,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement to Danish news agency Ritzau.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Vance “has a point that we haven’t done enough, but I’m a little provoked because it’s also the Americans who haven’t done enough.”
Rasmussen said that the U.S. today has a base with 200 soldiers, while during the Cold War the Americans had 17 military installations in Greenland with 10,000 soldiers.
As Vance’s visit was underway, Trump told reporters at the White House the U.S. needs Greenland to ensure the “peace of the entire world.”

“We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security. We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t,” Trump said.
Trump said Greenland’s waterways have “Chinese and Russian ships all over the place” and the United States will not rely on Denmark or anybody else to handle the situation.

SCALED-BACK TRIP

Vance greeted members of the U.S. armed forces shortly after his arrival, thanking them for their service on the remote base located 750 miles (1,200 km) north of the Arctic Circle. The outside temperature at Pituffik was minus 3 degrees Fahrenheit (-19 C).
Vance’s wife Usha, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright accompanied him on the trip.
Under the terms of a 1951 agreement, the U.S. is entitled to visit its base whenever it wants, as long as it notifies Greenland and Copenhagen. Pituffik is located along the shortest route from Europe to North America and is vital for the U.S. ballistic missile warning system.
The island, whose capital is closer to New York than it is to the Danish capital Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and natural gas wealth, but development has been slow and the mining sector has seen very limited U.S. investment. Mining companies operating in Greenland are mostly Australian, Canadian or British.
A White House official has said Greenland has an ample supply of rare earth minerals that would power the next generation of the U.S. economy.
The question now is how far Trump is willing to push his idea of taking over the island, said Andreas Oesthagen, a senior researcher on Arctic politics and security at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
“It is still unlikely that the United States will use military means,” he told Reuters.
“But it is unfortunately likely that President Trump and Vice President Vance will continue to use other means of pressure, such as ambiguous statements, semi-official visits to Greenland, and economic instruments,” he added.
Polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States. Anti-American protesters, some wearing “Make America Go Away” caps and holding “Yankees Go Home” banners, have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in Greenland.
On Thursday, residents in Nuuk planted Greenlandic flags in the snow and a cardboard sign in English that said “Our Land. Our Future”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-vice-president-vance-visit-greenland-island-trump-wants-control-2025-03-28/

Elon Musk doubled down on his pledge to cut government spending by $1 trillion — an amount that would slash the federal budget deficit in half and, if implemented, put the U.S. much closer to stabilizing the growth of its debt burden relative to the size of the economy.

“Our goal is to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars,” Musk told Fox News Thursday evening — adding that he hoped to reduce overall federal spending by 15% solely through “eliminating waste and fraud,” a goal he said “seems really quite achievable.”

He pointed to a number of examples of wasteful spending, including a survey that Musk claimed was done for the Interior Department at a cost of $830 million to collect Americans opinions’ of national parks. Musk said that the survey could have been done by another vendor for just $10,000.

The “Department of Government Efficiency,” headed by the Tesla
TSLA

-3.51%

CEO, says on its website that it has saved $130 billion so far, which amounts to about $2 billion in savings per day since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

That’s about half of the $4 billion per day that Musk pledged to cut in his interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, but it’s difficult for reporters and analysts to confirm these claims.

DOGE has made it increasingly challenging to fact check its assertions after it removed federal identification numbers in its website’s source code that could help outsiders identify specifically what grants and contracts the agency is referring to.

That makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to know the vendors the government has contracted with and whether the government is actually saving the amount of money DOGE is claiming it has.

Meanwhile, there are claims on the website that are incorrect. The largest savings asserted by DOGE is a cancelled $1.9 trillion contract for IT modernization. But the contractor awarded the money told the New York Times last month that the award was actually cancelled in November 2024, under President Biden.

The Federal Procurement Data System, a database of federal procurement projects, indicates that no money was ever spent on this grant, despite it authorizing the IRS to spend $1.9 billion over 7 years.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A broader look at federal spending data also appears to counter claims that DOGE’s efforts are saving money for American taxpayers.

The Hamilton Project, an economic policy think tank, tracks federal spending using daily treasury statements published by the government.

These data show that the federal government had spent $1.893 trillion in 2025 as of March 26, compared to $1.763 trillion at the same date last year. In other words, federal spending in on pace to come in 7.4% higher this year than last.

It’s not uncommon for federal outlays to grow year by year along with the economy. But the government is currently operating under a continuing budget resolution that largely locks in spending levels signed into law by President Biden last year.

By comparison, federal spending at the end of the first quarter in 2024 was on track to be 1.6% lower than the prior year, though overall spending ended up 3.0% higher for full-year 2024 compared to 2023.

“You would expect, given the rhetoric, to see big decreases relative to last year,” Wendy Edelberg, former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office and director of the Hamilton Project, told MarketWatch.

“It’s less surprising when you consider that most of the cuts they have talked about are pretty small bore, and I think that’s the major takeaway,” she added.

Edelberg also noted that even federal spending on salaries is coming in ahead of last year, suggesting that despite the administration putting many federal workers on administrative leave, those people are still getting paid.

Source : https://www.marketwatch.com/story/despite-musks-claims-the-trump-administrations-spending-is-on-pace-to-surpass-bidens-levels-19cdf24c

Nikola founder Trevor Milton said in a social media post that he’s received “a full and unconditional pardon” by President Trump, adding that the president called him personally to inform him.

“I just got a call from the president of the United States on my phone that he signed a full and unconditional pardon of innocence,” Milton said in an Instagram video message posted Thursday. “I am free.”

In December 2023, Milton was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of exaggerating claims about his electric vehicle company’s production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, which prosecutors claimed caused investors to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Milton’s conviction came after a short seller called Hindenburg Research alleged in 2020 that the EV maker had misrepresented its technology.

In his video, Milton said, “The greatest comeback story in America is about to happen.”

Nikola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, a move that came months after it warned it could likely run out of cash in early 2025. Once valued at around $30 billion, exceeding the market capitalization of Ford Motor Co., the EV maker was a rising Wall Street star before it became embroiled in scandal.

Last month, Nikola said it plans to to continue limited service and support operations for vehicles on the road, including fueling operations through the end of March, subject to court approval. The company said that it would need to raise more funding to support those types of activities after that time.

Source : https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nikola-founder-trevor-milton-pardoned-by-trump-instagram/

‘Coalition of the willing ‘leaders are meeting in Paris to discuss supporting Ukraine but Moscow continues its bid to undermine these attempts, accusing France and Britain of provoking “direct military confrontation” between NATO and the Russian Federation.

Governments of over 30 nations and entities are represented at the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, so called, talks in Paris on Thursday, called to discuss sustaining military and economic support for Ukraine. Also on the table is the suggestion of security guarantees for Ukraine and even, as frequently discussed by the United Kingdom and France, the possibility of European peacekeepers in Ukraine to monitor any agreement achieved by the Trump talks.

The purpose of this is to “deter, in order to send that message to Putin that this is a deal that is going to be defended”, Britain’s Starmer said today.

Russia, meanwhile, which clearly would not benefit from a ceasefire being guaranteed by NATO troops on Ukrainian soil and, consequently, a nuclear tripwire for any future bids to expand territorial holdings in the country has long agitated against such notions. That process continued this morning, with the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova warning of bloody violence if Europe tries, and accusing the United Kingdom of trying to inveigle Europe into an “Anglo-Saxon” plot to fight Russia against their own interests.

Zakharova said: “We understand why they are doing this. They need to provoke Europe into a bloodbath [with Russia]… They themselves, London, let me remind you, left the European Union at one time. And now the golden dream, after they have disrupted the economy of the European Union, is to push together the European continent as a whole. And they will join the Anglo-Saxon coalition.”

That there is an “Anglo-Saxon” conspiracy to destroy Russia is a frequent Kremlin trope.

In other comments, the Foreign Affairs representative also said: “I’d like to note again that Russia resolutely opposes a scenario fraught with a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO”.

Further bids to undermine European confidence in the safety of supporting Ukraine came from Russian Member of Parliament Sergey Mironov, whose comments were amplified by Kremlin media on Thursday, who enunciated a hypothetical situation where the weapons now being handed to Kyiv may one day find their way back to Europe in the hands of terrorists. He said: “The West has been flooding Ukraine with weapons, and EU countries are willing to do so even to the detriment of their own security”.

One of Russia’s publicly professed excuses for fighting Ukraine in the first place is the allegation it is a state run by crypto-Nazis who worship Second World War-era ultranationalist Stepan Bandera. Mironov cited this alleged state of affairs as a rusk to Europe, as he continued: “A combination of terrorism and the neo-Nazi Bandera regime may create an infernal mix that will ‘blow up’ Europe from within”.

Meanwhile, all sides continue to accuse each other of bad faith, of undermining peace talks, and of being crypto-warmongers. Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, for instance, has accused Russia of “playing games” and “filibustering” to delay any progress on talks. He said: “It is a classic from the Putin playbook, but we can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion”.

Also speaking today was France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who criticised Russian “stories and untruths”. Ukraine for their part said Russia “distorts reality” and has been undermining the peace process by trying to “rewrite the outcomes of negotiations”.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky said this week: “The Kremlin is lying again, claiming that the Black Sea ceasefire supposedly depends on sanctions and that the energy ceasefire supposedly began on 18 March. Moscow always lies”.

Source : https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/03/27/russia-threatens-britain-and-france-with-bloodbath-for-ukraine-support/