Category: World

Jennifer Lopez showed a little too much skin last night.

The “Unstoppable” actress attended the Ring Them Bells benefit concert, honoring composer John Kander‘s 98th birthday in New York City, where she suffered a wardrobe malfunction in her plunging gown.

As Lopez strolled into the Stephen Sondheim Theatre with photographers capturing her every move, her silky peach The New Arrivals by Ilkyaz Ozel dress ($835) shifted a bit.

Lucikly, the multi-hyphenate, 55, topped the risqué look with a a coordinating statement-making feather jacket.

“💋🕷️” the A-lister, who starred in the 2025 film “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” composed by Kander, captioned an Instagram post of the bold look.

“Glow mode: activated. JLo. Peach perfection,” celebrity makeup artist Scott Barnes wrote. “LOVE THIS COLOR ON YOU. YOU LOOK SO DELIGHTFUL ❤️❤️❤️,” another said.

“THEY CALL HER J-GLOW cuz she’s hella GLOWING TONIGHT 💚 ✨ @jlo” a third commented.

Lopez, who was one of the performers at the Monday night concert, attended the afterparty at Bryant Park Grill in a second dress, which kept her much more covered up on top — though she showed plenty of leg with a wild hip-high slit.

Her white high-neck Stephane Rolland gown boasted shimmering stones around the collar and a long train.

She paired the look with silver platform stiletto heels and a glittering clutch.

Lopez’s attendance last night comes just a week after she suffered a painful face injury while rehearsing for the 2025 American Music Awards, which she’s set to host on Monday.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/20/style/jennifer-lopez-suffers-wardrobe-malfunction-in-plunging-peach-gown/

New eye-popping photos show Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spanking his fiancée Lauren Sánchez on his $500 million superyacht off the coast of Cannes this week.

Sánchez, 55, can be seen sunbathing in a tiny leopard print thong bikini and straw bucket hat on a lounge chair, as her billionaire groom-to-be raised his hand to take a swat at her rear.

A bikini-clad pal nearby appeared to laugh at the hijinks.

During the outing, Sanchez showed off her rear on all fours in the skin-baring two-piece suit while reaching out to grab her hat.

At one point, she sat up and raised her right arm as if to celebrate. In additional snapshots, Bezos, 61, rubbed his bride-to-be’s bikini clad body and kissed her ear.

She also rested her head by his lap as he caressed her hair during the sunny boat ride. In additional photos, Bezos leaned over the mom of three to snuggle as they packed on the PDA.

The Blue Origin founder donned a chic pair of aviator sunglasses and swim trunks with a simple short sleeved blue T-shirt.

The couple sat down for a casual meal on the yacht with pals, as well.

Bezos is said to have obtained the massive vessel Koru in 2021 — it reportedly boasts a 417-foot length, several decks, and three masts.

A wooden figurehead at the helm of the yacht appears to have been created in the image of Sánchez, complete with flowing long hair and flawless physique.

In February, buzz emerged that the couple would tie the knot aboard the yacht in June off the coast of Italy, with CNN reporting that more than 200 distinguished guests will be attendance.

More recent reports revealed that the bride and groom, as well as their guests, will be staying in Aman Venice and the Gritti Palace. Both hotels command $500,000 per night.

Sánchez has already kicked off the festivities with a multi-day star-studded bachelorette celebration over the weekend.

After a dinner at the historic Lafayette’s Paris restaurant on Thursday, the bride-to-be and several famous gal pals were spotted having a luncheon on Friday afternoon.

On Friday evening, Katy Perry, Eva Longoria, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and more joined the journalist for a lavish boat party on the Seine.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/20/celebrity-news/photos-of-jeff-bezos-spanking-lauren-sanchez-while-lounging-on-superyacht/

Wendy Ortiz was surprised to find out she was being fined by U.S. immigration authorities for being in the country illegally – but it was the amount that truly shocked her: $1.8 million.
Ortiz, 32, who earns $13 an hour in her job at a meatpacking plant in Pennsylvania, has lived in the United States for a decade, after fleeing El Salvador to escape a violent ex-partner and gang threats, she said in an interview and in immigration paperwork. Her salary barely covers rent and expenses for her autistic 6-year-old U.S.-citizen son.

“It’s not fair,” she said. “Where is someone going to find that much money?”
In the last few weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump has started to operationalize a plan to fine migrants who fail to leave the U.S. after a final deportation order, issuing notices to 4,500 migrants with penalties totaling more than $500 million, a senior Trump official said, requesting anonymity to share internal figures.
Reuters spoke with eight immigration lawyers around the country who said their clients had been fined from several thousand dollars to just over $1.8 million.
The recipients of the notices were informed that they had 30 days to contest, in writing, under oath, and with evidence as to why the penalty should not be imposed.

The steep fines are part of Trump’s aggressive push to get immigrants in the U.S. illegally to leave the country voluntarily, or “self deport.”
The Trump administration plan, details of which were first reported by Reuters in April, include levying fines of $998 per day for migrants who failed to leave the U.S. after a deportation order.
The administration planned to issue fines retroactively for up to five years, Reuters reported. Under that framework, the maximum would be $1.8 million. The government would then consider seizing the property of immigrants who could not pay.
It remains unclear exactly how the Trump administration would collect the fines and seize property.

IMMIGRATION LAWYERS BAFFLED

The fines reviewed by Reuters were issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but a separate agency – Customs and Border Protection – has been asked to process them and handle potential forfeitures, Reuters reported in April.

CBP is still working out the complicated logistics to conduct seizures, a CBP official said, requesting anonymity.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in April that immigrants in the U.S. illegally should “self deport and leave the country now.”
The fines stem from a 1996 law that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during Trump’s first term in office, and target the roughly 1.4 million migrants who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge.
The Trump administration withdrew fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants who sought sanctuary in churches in his first term after a legal challenge, but proceeded with smaller penalties. Joe Biden’s administration dropped the fines in 2021.

Robert Scott, a New York City-based immigration lawyer, said he was baffled when one of his clients – a low-income Mexican woman who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years – also received a $1.8 million fine.
“At first you look at something like this and think it’s fake,” he said. “I’ve never seen a client receive anything like this.”
Scott said the woman received a final deportation order in 2013 but was not aware of it at the time. The woman filed a motion last year to reopen the removal order, which is still pending, Scott said.
“She hasn’t been hiding,” he said. “I find it curious that they would pick on someone like that. I don’t know if it’s random, I don’t know if she’s low-hanging fruit. I don’t know.”

SEEKING RELIEF, THEN TARGETED

After crossing the border in 2015, Ortiz was released to pursue her asylum claim when an officer found she had a credible fear of persecution, documents show. But she said she never received an immigration court hearing notice and was ordered deported after failing to show up to court in 2018.
Ortiz’s immigration lawyer requested humanitarian relief from the U.S. government on Jan. 8, saying she faced danger in El Salvador and that her son would not have access to services for autistic children. The petition asked for “prosecutorial discretion” and for the government to reopen and dismiss her case.
Twelve days later, Trump took office and launched his wide-ranging immigration crackdown.
Rosina Stambaugh, Ortiz’s attorney, said she had requested a 30-day extension and was considering ways to fight the fine in court.
“She is a mother of an autistic child, she has no criminal history, and they have all of her background information,” Stambaugh said. “I just think it’s absolutely insane.”
Lawyers said clients who received the notices also included spouses of U.S. citizens, who were actively trying to legalize their immigration status.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/low-income-migrants-fined-up-18-million-by-trump-administration-2025-05-20/

In 1959, Field Marshal Ayub Khan exiled Pakistan’s top civilian leaders and seized total control. With Munir now wearing the same rank, is history about to echo?

In 1959, then-Pakistan President Iskander Mirza became disillusioned with democracy and invited then-Pakistan Army Chief Ayub Khan to impose martial law, wrongly assuming he could keep him in check.

Pakistan was facing absolute political chaos after its creation due to the Partition of India in 1947. Constant no-confidence motions, collapsing coalitions and a crumbling parliamentary system crippled Pakistan and the government was losing grip on Islamabad as well as on eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

After its creation, Pakistan witnessed a rapid churn in leadership. Seven prime ministers came and went between 1947 and 1958, none completing a full term. Civilian institutions remained weak, with the parliament unstable, the bureaucracy dominant and the military growing in influence.

The Muslim League, once the face of the freedom struggle, had splintered and lost ground. Following the deaths of MA Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, unelected officials and bureaucrats held sway.

A new constitution in 1956 turned Pakistan into a republic but failed to bring political stability.

Due to this Mirza abolished the 1956 Constitution, declared martial law and appointed General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator on October 7, 1958.

Mirza thought Ayub would remain a loyal subordinate while he continued to pull the strings from the presidency. Instead, Ayub moved fast.

He assumed the presidency himself, becoming Pakistan’s first military ruler.

What is noteworthy is the fact that when Ayub took power in 1959, he first promoted himself to Field Marshal to cement his hold on power.

The move was both symbolic and political as he positioned himself above the military and civilian leadership.

He ruled until 1969 under a military-backed setup that brought press censorship and a tightly controlled presidential system. His regime laid the groundwork for decades of military dominance in Pakistan.

Fast forward to 2025, Pakistan has a new Field Marshal — General Asim Munir. He is the first army chief to get this title since Ayub Khan. The decision was approved by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet on May 20, just days after the Pakistan Army took heavy losses in the latest conflict with India.

The violence began after a terror attack in Pahalgam killed Indian tourists. In response, India launched Operation Sindoor, hitting terror camps in Pakistan and PoK. When the Pakistan Army tried to protect these camps, Indian forces also struck their air bases and military posts, causing major damage.

Munir’s promotion comes in the middle of rising tensions. He has backed groups involved in cross-border attacks and has used sharp language about India, even invoking the two-nation theory that led to the Partition in 1947.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/asim-munir-gets-field-marshal-title-last-time-it-happened-pakistan-slid-into-dictatorship-ws-kl-9345376.html

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to not let a group of migrants being flown to South Sudan leave the custody of U.S. immigration authorities after saying they appeared to have been deported in violation of a court order.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston during a hastily arranged virtual hearing said that while he was not going to order the airplane to turn around, that was an option the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could employ to comply with his order.

Murphy warned that officials could be held in criminal contempt if he found they violated his previous order barring the swift deportation of migrants to countries other than their own before they could raise any concerns that they might face torture or persecution there.
“I have a strong indication that my preliminary injunction order has been violated,” Murphy told Elianis Perez, a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Murphy, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, said any migrants covered by the injunction en route to the African nation must remain in the government’s custody pending a further hearing on Wednesday.

He said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could comply with that order in a myriad of ways, including keeping the migrants on the plane on the tarmac once it lands.
“I’m not going to limit DHS on where they hold them,” Murphy said. “If they want to turn the plane around, they can.”
The agency did not respond to requests for comment.
The development marked a new clash between the federal judiciary and Republican President Donald Trump’s administration in its efforts to implement Trump’s calls for mass deportations as part of his hardline immigration agenda.
Another jurist, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, last month found “probable cause” to hold officials in criminal contempt for violating his order halting deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang who had no chance to challenge their removals.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday maintained a block on Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a 1798 law historically used only in wartime, faulting his administration for seeking to remove them without adequate due process.

‘PLEASE HELP!’

The class action lawsuit before Murphy was filed after the Department of Homeland Security in February instructed immigration officers to review cases of people granted protections against being removed to their home countries to see if they could be re-detained and sent to a third country.
Murphy issued a preliminary injunction on April 18 designed to ensure any migrants being sent a third country were provided due process under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment and a “meaningful opportunity” to raise any fears for their safety.
In a motion filed earlier Tuesday, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said they learned that nearly a dozen migrants held at a detention facility in Texas were being flown to South Sudan, whose conditions have long been dangerous even for locals.

The United Nations has warned that the country’s spiraling political crisis could reignite the brutal civil war that ended in 2018.
Among the migrants on the plane was a Vietnamese man who was being held at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas. Perez during Tuesday’s hearing said the man had been convicted of murder, and a top lawyer with the Department of Homeland Security said the plane had at least one rapist on it, too.
The Vietnamese man’s spouse had emailed his lawyer saying that he and 10 other individuals were believed to have been deported to South Sudan. The group also included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico, the spouse said.
“Please help!” the spouse wrote. “They cannot be allowed to do this.”
Lawyers for the migrants said an attorney for another individual from Myanmar likewise had been notified he was being sent to South Sudan.
Yet Perez later Tuesday said the man was instead flown to Myanmar. She could not explain the change in destination, which a lawyer for the migrants, Trina Realmuto of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said “defies logic.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/immigrant-rights-advocates-claim-us-violated-court-order-by-deporting-migrants-2025-05-20/

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday the number of visas he has revoked was probably in the thousands, adding that he believed there was still more to do.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as part of its wide-ranging efforts to fulfill his hardline immigration agenda.

“I don’t know the latest count, but we probably have more to do,” Rubio told a Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign affairs.

Asked to give an estimate, he said it was probably in the thousands at this point, an increase from March, when he said the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas.
Rubio said the 300 revoked visas were a combination of student and visitor visas. He said he signed each action.
“A visa is not a right. It’s a privilege,” Rubio said on Tuesday.
Trump administration officials have said student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accusing them of being pro-Hamas.

Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“I know this will be adjudicated in court, but the idea that one individual could on their opinion of someone’s future activity or expected activity … toss somebody’s visa, seems to me an extraordinary violation of due process,” Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley told Rubio at the hearing.
Earlier this month, a Tufts University student from Turkey was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rubio-may-have-revoked-thousands-visas-crackdown-continues-2025-05-20/

This was revealed during a meeting of the National Accounts Committee, chaired by Pakistan’s Secretary of Planning.

The Pakistani federal government has reportedly fallen short of its economic growth target for the fiscal year 2024-25, achieving a growth rate of just 2.68 per cent against a projected 3.6 per cent, as reported by ARY News on Tuesday, citing sources from Pakistan’s National Accounts Committee.

According to ARY News, the report was revealed during a meeting of the National Accounts Committee, chaired by Pakistan’s Secretary of Planning. The meeting revealed that the country’s economic output reached USD 411 billion, with per capita income increasing to USD 1,824. Sector-wise performance varied, with agriculture growing by 1.8 per cent during the first three quarters, while the industrial sector declined by 1.14 per cent. Notably, the services sector posted a strong growth of 39 per cent between July and March, as per ARY News.

In parallel, Pakistan is preparing to raise USD 4.9 billion in external commercial financing for the next fiscal year (FY2025- 26), according to sources familiar with the matter. As part of its financing plan, the government intends to secure USD 2.64 billion in short-term loans from commercial banks at expected interest rates of 7-8 per cent, without strict conditions or performance benchmarks, as per ARY News.

An additional USD 2.27 billion is also expected to come through long-term borrowing arrangements from commercial banks.

Efforts to tap four international banks

This includes a proposal to obtain USD 1.1 billion from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), along with USD 500 million each from Standard Chartered Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank. A commercial guarantee is also being sought for a USD 500 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ARY News reported.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pakistan-misses-fy-2024-25-growth-target-eyes-usd-4-9-billion-in-external-loans-101747788255865.html

For Ukraine and its allies, who spent months trying to win Donald Trump over to their cause in the war started by Russia, it is back to square one.
In a two-hour conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin late on Monday, the U.S. president dropped his earlier insistence on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire that he hoped would kickstart what promise to be long and tortuous peace talks.

Ukraine backed that proposal while Russia did not.

Trump also signalled that the war he once promised to end in 24 hours was no longer his to fix – a message that leaves Ukraine vulnerable and its allies worried.
It is another blow to Kyiv, coming less than three months after Trump’s public falling out with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Since then, Europe’s leaders have scrambled to repair the relationship and regain the initiative.
In the weeks before the phone call, Trump had threatened to slap tougher sanctions on Russia if it did not show progress towards peace, a move Ukraine hoped would convince Putin to step back from his maximalist demands in any negotiations.

That “stick” approach is gone for now, replaced by the “carrot” of economic partnership with the United States if and when the war ends.
“In the phone call on Sunday with European leaders, Trump had agreed on the proposed approach – ask for (an) unconditional ceasefire and apply sanctions if nothing is moving,” said a European diplomat, speaking anonymously to be frank about Europe’s disappointment.
“But he obviously dropped this idea when he talked to Putin … It is impossible to trust him for more than one day. He does not seem to be interested in Ukraine at all.”
Trump said Russia and Ukraine would immediately start negotiations toward ending the war, adding later that he thought “some progress is being made.”
When Trump spoke with European leaders including Zelenskiy after the Putin call, a person familiar with the discussion described the reaction to Trump’s position as one of “shock.”

‘PLAYING FOR TIME’

Ukraine and its European allies have presented a united front since Monday’s call, announcing new sanctions on Russia and vowing to continue to engage with the United States.
They do not discount the possibility that Trump may change his mind again.
But mistrust of Putin runs high. His army is bigger than Ukraine’s, it has been eking out gains along a 1,000-km (620-mile) front line for more than a year and Russia insists that any deal should reflect realities on the battlefield.
“Putin is clearly playing for time. Unfortunately, we have to say Putin is not really interested in peace,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at the London-based Chatham House think tank, agreed Putin was in no rush to negotiate a settlement.
“For Russians, the battlefield and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin,” she said.

“Putin gets the upper hand on the battlefield through procrastination in diplomacy and by denying Europe an opportunity to … organize itself.”
After speaking to Trump, Putin said Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord and that efforts to end the war that Russia began with its full-scale invasion in February 2022 were on the right track.
U.S. support has been key to Ukraine’s ability to stave off defeat, and Trump’s lurch away from his predecessor Joe Biden’s support for Kyiv has left it scrambling to keep him engaged.
The United States has been the biggest single contributor to Ukraine’s war effort through tens of billions of dollars in military aid, and Kyiv relies on U.S. military intelligence to identify enemy targets and movements in real time.
What happens to that support once the aid agreed under Biden runs out over the summer is a crucial question that Ukraine is seeking to answer. The United States has not made its position clear.
Europe has promised to maintain direct aid and arms purchases, but the United States would have to agree to sell its weapons and there are some U.S. munitions that cannot be replaced, namely air defences and short-range guided missiles.
There is also the economic pressure the U.S. could bring against Russia, whose economy has weathered Western sanctions on the energy and banking sectors, but which is showing signs of strain from the enormous costs of the war.

DASHED HOPES

As they have done since Trump returned to the White House, Ukraine’s allies rallied around Zelenskiy after this latest diplomatic setback.
But the outcome of Trump’s phone call with Putin will be particularly hard to swallow because they saw signs they were starting to win him over to putting pressure on Moscow.
Several times in March and April, Trump expressed frustration at Putin’s apparent foot-dragging, questioned whether he was being played by the Russian leader and threatened tougher sanctions against Moscow.
The stated positions between the U.S. and Europe remained far apart on key points including territory, but Kyiv viewed Trump’s pronouncements as positive after the disastrous White House meeting in February when Zelenskiy and Trump publicly fell out.
A minerals deal signed by Ukraine and the United States last month was viewed as a further sign of progress, as were recent negotiations in Istanbul where officials from Ukraine and Russia met directly for the first time in nearly three years.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-putin-call-war-ukraine-is-another-blow-kyiv-its-allies-2025-05-20/

Federal Reserve officials said on Tuesday that higher prices are coming on the back of rising U.S. import tariffs and counseled patience before making any interest rate decisions before it is clear whether the inflation shock will be fleeting or more persistent.
“One thing that we’ve heard is that a lot of the tariff impact to date has actually not shown up in the numbers yet. There’s been a lot of front-running, building inventories and all those sorts of things. And we are hearing from an increasing number of businesses that those strategies … are starting to run their course,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on the sidelines of a conference in Florida.

“If these pre-tariff strategies have run their course, we’re about to see some changes in prices, and then we’re going to learn how consumers are going to respond to that,” said Bostic, who now expects the U.S. central bank will have to wait longer for clarity about the economy’s direction and make any changes to interest rates.
“We should wait and see where the economy is going before we do anything definitive,” said Bostic, who anticipates only a single quarter-percentage-point cut in the Fed’s policy rate this year and several months on the sidelines waiting for the effect of Trump administration policies to become clear.

“I think the best action we can take is to sit on our hands and really carefully go through the data, engage with our communities, hear what they’re thinking about, hear about the choices that they’re making, and see how that all comes together,” Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said at an Atlanta Fed event. Her comments were echoed by San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly in a joint appearance.
So far the main impact appears to be in sentiment surveys showing households and businesses are less confident about the economic horizon and expect higher inflation.
In an interview on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, Stephen Miran, who chairs the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, pushed back on the idea that the tariffs imposed by the administration so far and potentially added in coming weeks would result in meaningful inflation.

“We have been introducing tariffs since day one of this administration,” Miran said, yet there has “been no real meaningful effect on inflation,” with recent consumer price index reports coming in weaker than expected.
But Fed officials and analysts say they expect the impact has just not filtered through yet to the economy.
Walmart , the world’s largest retailer and a major importer of goods from China, said last week that price increases were on the way, comments that drew a rebuff from President Donald Trump.
“We can control what we can control,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. Even trimming the tariffs on Chinese goods to 30%, as the administration recently did in backing off a more exorbitant 145% levy, “will result in higher prices,” he said.

INFLATION EXPECTATIONS

The waiting game for Fed officials may prove a long one. The central bank has kept its policy rate in the current 4.25%-4.50% range since December, but says it will remain difficult to anticipate where the economy is heading until the tariff issue and other policies are settled for good – and enough time lapses after that to gauge the impact.
In comments to the Economic Club of Minnesota on Tuesday, St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said the central bank needed to guard first and foremost against a rise in inflation expectations, and key to that effort will be assessing if coming price hikes seem like one-time increases or risk turning into something more persistent.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/us-economy-may-be-brink-price-hike-wave-feds-bostic-says-2025-05-20/

Jennifer Lopez is being sued for posting photos of herself at a Hollywood party, with the photographer and a paparazzi agency saying she failed to get permission to use them.

The singer and actress shared pictures on social media of herself arriving at the Amazon MGM Studios and Vanity Fair Party in Los Angeles the night before this year’s Golden Globes in January.

Photographer Edwin Blanco and Backgrid, the agency he was working for, have each filed lawsuits saying they own the copyright to two photos.

The pictures were used “to promote Ms Lopez’s public appearances, boost user engagement, increase shareability, and lend credibility to her branded content”, they argue.

Backgrid and Mr Blanco are seeking up to $150,000 (£112,000) damages each per photo.

The pictures showed the star in a white dress and a white faux fur coat outside the party at Chateau Marmont.

She posted them on Instagram and X with the caption “GG Weekend Glamour”, and they were then shared by numerous fan and fashion pages.

“Ms Lopez’s unauthorised use of the Images is commercial in nature, intended for the purpose of self-promotion,” the lawsuits said.

“For example, Ms Lopez used the Images to spotlight the designer of her clothing and jewellery, leveraging the publicity from the event to promote her fashion affiliations and brand partnerships.”

Any person who is in a photo doesn’t own the copyright to the picture – that usually belongs to the photographer or the company they work for, and they can decide who can use it and how much they must pay.

The legal documents say Backgrid and Mr Blanco contacted Lopez’s representatives after she posted them and agreed a deal and payment, but that she has not yet signed the agreement.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2qqew643go

President Donald Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin on Monday (May 19) and said Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire.

The Kremlin said that reaching an agreement would take time and Trump indicated he was not ready to join Europe with fresh sanctions to pressure Moscow.

In a social media post, Trump said he relayed the plan to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as the leaders of the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Finland in a group call following his session with the Russian leader.

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said, adding later at the White House that he thought “some progress is being made”.

European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on his call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an X post late on Monday.

Trump did not appear ready to follow that move. Asked why he had not imposed fresh sanctions to push Moscow into a peace deal as he has threatened, Trump told reporters:

“Well because I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you can also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen.”

Trump said there were “some big egos involved”. Without progress, “I’m just going to back away,” he said, repeating a warning that he could abandon the process. “This is not my war.”

After speaking to Trump, Putin said efforts to end the war were “generally on the right track” and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal.

“We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord,” he told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

European leaders and Ukraine have demanded Russia agree to a ceasefire immediately, and Trump has focused on getting Putin to commit to a 30-day truce. Putin has resisted this, insisting that conditions be met first.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Trump and Putin did not discuss a timeline for a ceasefire but did discuss trading nine Russians for nine Americans in a prisoner swap. He said the US leader called prospects for ties between Moscow and Washington “impressive”.

Russian state news agencies cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Moscow and Kyiv faced “complex contacts” to develop a unified text of a peace and ceasefire memorandum.

“There are no deadlines and there cannot be any. It is clear that everyone wants to do this as quickly as possible, but, of course, the devil is in the details,” the RIA agency quoted him as saying.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said on X the call with Trump was “undoubtedly a win for Putin”.

The Russian leader “deflected the call for an … immediate ceasefire and instead can continue military operations at the same time as he puts pressure on at the negotiating table”.

HIGH-LEVEL MEETING

After speaking with Trump, Zelenskyy said Kyiv and its partners might seek a high-level meeting among Ukraine, Russia, the United States, European Union countries and Britain as part of a push to end the war.

He said he hoped this could happen soon and be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland. It was not immediately clear if this would be part of the negotiations Trump said would start immediately.

Trump said the Pope Leo had expressed interest in hosting the negotiations at the Vatican. The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One person familiar with Trump’s call with the Ukrainian and European leaders said participants were “shocked” that Trump did not want to push Putin with sanctions.

In a post on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said only that the conversation with Trump was “good” and it was “important that the US stays engaged”.

Ukraine and its supporters have accused Russia of failing to negotiate in good faith, doing the minimum needed to keep Trump from applying new pressure on its economy.

If Trump were to impose new sanctions, it would be a milestone moment given that he has appeared sympathetic towards Russia and torn up the pro-Ukraine policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Prodded by Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since 2022, in the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but those talks failed to produce a truce.

Prospects for progress dimmed after Putin spurned Zelenskiy’s proposal they meet face to face in Istanbul, and Trump said there would be no movement unless he and Putin met.

Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm on his conditions for ending the war.

He said the memorandum Russia and Ukraine would work on about a future peace accord would define “a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement”.

“The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”

Olena Lennon from the University of New Haven said the chances of a successful peace talk in any global conflict have historically been higher when the US is taking part in the process.

She added that there is still room for Washington to apply more economic leverage on Moscow.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-putin-call-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire-zelenskyy-5140231

DISTURBING new pictures show the bottles of baby oil and piles of drugs that cops found in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ hotel room when he was arrested.

Federal investigators found baby oil, lubricant, ecstasy, pink cocaine, and candy when they raided Combs’ room in New York City in September.

The pictures of the sordid hotel room, which the jury on Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial were shown on Friday, were released to the public on Monday as week two of his trial gets underway.

Jurors also saw graphic images of Cassie Ventura’s gruesome injuries she suffered at the hands of Combs, her ex-boyfriend of 10 years, who is standing trial for five criminal counts.

Combs’ attorneys have insisted that while Combs might be guilty of domestic violence, he’s not guilty of any of the charges against him, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Multiple previously unreleased photos of Cassie’s wounds allegedly inflicted by Combs were also released for the first time on Monday.

Two pictures show an eyebrow gash Cassie suffered after Combs allegedly threw her into a bed frame in 2013, while multiple other photos show Cassie’s bruises from an instance in 2011.

Three pictures Cassie took of herself in an Uber ride leaving the InterContinental Hotel in March 2016 were also released, showing her with a busted lip and wearing sunglasses to hide her black eye.

Cassie’s ex-best friend Kerry Morgan testified on Monday that after Cassie took those selfies following the caught-on-video attack, the singer returned home, where her former best friend was staying.

Combs showed up at the apartment 30 minutes later with a hammer and tried to bust down the door, Morgan testified.

“He was hitting the door with a hammer to try to open it,” Morgan recalled, saying she was “terrified” and tried to call Combs’ security for help as she was “freaking out.”

However, Cassie appeared “numb” in the panic, Morgan told the court.

“I don’t think she cared if he came in and killed her.”

Two years after the 2016 incident, Cassie and Morgan’s friendship ended after Combs allegedly attacked Morgan with a wooden hanger.

Morgan, 39, testified she was at Cassie’s home when Combs snuck up on her while Cassie was in the bathroom.

“He came up behind me and choked me and left finger marks on my neck and hit me in the head with a wooden hanger,” Morgan said on the stand, adding that Combs asked her about Cassie’s infidelities.

“When I got up, he boomeranged a hanger at my head,” she recalled, saying the attack left her with a concussion that made her “vomit a few times” on the way to urgent care.

Morgan said she got a lawyer after the incident and planned to sue, but didn’t end up bringing a lawsuit against Combs following a meeting with Cassie a month later.

At a pizza restaurant, Cassie told Morgan she was “over-exaggerating” about the attack and told her Combs would give her $30,000 after she signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14267864/diddy-combs-trial-court-sex-trafficking/

JOE Biden likely had cancer at the start of his presidency in 2021, a leading oncologist has claimed.

Dr Zeke Emanuel made the bombshell claim to Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough on Monday.

“He had it while he was President,” he said. “He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021.”

He questioned how such an advanced form of prostate cancer had flown under the radar until now.

Dr Emanuel was previously appointed to a 16-person COVID advisory board by President Biden.

The 82-year-old former president was seen by his doctors last week where a prostate nodule was found after urinary symptoms.

The cancer has reportedly spread to Biden’s bones.

“He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,” Dr Emanuel alleged.

“That’s right. It’s a little surprising,” he added, to the visible scepticism of his host.

He went on: “I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence that when he got his health status and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate specific antigen.

“Now, it is true that a lot of people recommend not doing a prostate-specific antigen after 70.

“But President Biden’s been in public life a very long time. He was vice president and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it.”

Israel said on Monday (May 19) it would “take control” of the whole of Gaza as it intensified attacks across the territory, where aid entered for the first time in more than two months after the easing of a total blockade.

With supply shipments blocked by Israel since Mar 2, the World Health Organization warned Gaza’s “two million people are starving”.

Israel, facing mounting criticism over the humanitarian crisis, has announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered Monday, carrying supplies “including food for babies”.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that nine trucks had been “cleared to enter … but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who was unable to confirm the exact number of trucks inside Gaza, said that “none of the aid has been picked up” at a designated zone as it was “already dark” and due to “security concerns, we cannot operate in those conditions”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited “practical and diplomatic reasons” for the resumption of aid, saying that “images of mass starvation” could harm the legitimacy of Israel’s war effort.

The leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a harsh condemnation of Israel’s conduct of the war, slamming its “egregious actions” in Gaza, particularly the expanded offensive and the “wholly inadequate” resumption of aid.

They warned of “concrete actions” if Israel did not ease its stepped-up offensive. Netanyahu called their joint statement a “huge prize” for Hamas.

A group of 22 countries, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia said in a joint statement that Gaza’s population “faces starvation” and “must receive the aid they desperately need”.

“METHODICAL DESTRUCTION”

In southern Gaza, the Israeli military issued an evacuation call to Palestinians around Khan Yunis city ahead of what it described as an unprecedented attack.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 91 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory on Monday.

Netanyahu, in a video posted on Telegram, said that “the fighting is intense and we are making progress”.

“We will take control of all the territory of the strip,” he added.

Israel’s military said on Monday it had struck “160 terror targets” in Gaza over the past day.

The UN’s OHCHR rights office said Israel’s actions were in defiance of international law and tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

Netanyahu said that Israel “will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped”, justifying to his hardline supporters the decision to resume aid.

FAMINE RISK

Israel has said its blockade aimed to force concessions from Hamas – whose October 2023 attack triggered the war – but UN agencies say there are critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

“Tonnes of food are blocked at the border, just minutes away,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”

Last week, US President Donald Trump, a key ally of Netanyahu, acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving”.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir argued against any resumption of aid, saying on X that “our hostages receive no humanitarian aid”.

But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also of the far right, defended the decision, saying it would “allow civilians to eat and our friends in the world to keep giving us diplomatic protection”.

“LIKE APOCALYPSE”

Khan Yunis resident Mohammed Sarhan told AFP that Gaza’s main southern city “felt like the apocalypse”.

“There was gunfire coming from every apartment, fire belts, F-16 warplanes and helicopters firing,” he said.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee called on Gazans in the city and nearby areas to “immediately” leave the “dangerous combat zone”.

AFPTV footage from Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital showed a young boy in a tracksuit being treated as two other boys, both barefoot and bleeding, sat on the floor.

Further north in Deir el-Balah, Ayman Badwan mourned the loss of his brother in an attack.

“We are exhausted and drained – we can’t take it anymore,” he told AFP.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-take-control-all-gaza-pm-netanyahu-5140396

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang announced plans for Taiwan’s “first AI supercomputer”, as he showcased on Monday (May 19) the company’s latest advances in artificial intelligence.

Global semiconductor chip giants have gathered in Taiwan for the island’s top tech expo, Computex, as the sector grapples with the impact of US tariffs and disrupted supply chains.

Huang said Nvidia would work with Taiwanese tech giants Foxconn and TSMC as well as the government to build Taiwan’s “first AI supercomputer here for the AI infrastructure and AI ecosystem”.

“Taiwan doesn’t just build supercomputers for the world … we’re also building AI for Taiwan,” Huang said in a keynote address, describing the island as the “centre” of the industry.

“Having a world-class AI infrastructure in Taiwan is really important.”

Taiwan-born Huang also spotlighted a further upgrade to Nvidia’s Blackwell processing platform, as well as new hardware and software for robotics and “AI agents” that can perform company tasks.

And he announced a new version of Nvidia’s NVLink technology, enabling customers to build semi-custom AI infrastructure.

“In 10 years time, you will look back and you will realise that AI has now integrated into everything and in fact we need AI everywhere,” Huang said, wearing his trademark black leather jacket.

Computex will draw computer and chip companies from around the world to Taiwan, whose semiconductor industry is critical to the production of everything from iPhones to the servers that run ChatGPT.

Taiwan produces the bulk of the world’s most advanced chips, including those needed for the most powerful AI applications and research.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon announced the company planned to expand into data centres, but he did not elaborate.

Top executives from MediaTek and Foxconn will also speak at Computex, where advances in moving AI from data centres into laptops, robots and cars are in the spotlight.

Tech expert Paul Yu told AFP the industry was at a “critical juncture” for AI hardware development.

“Over the past two and a half years, significant investment has driven rapid advances in AI technology,” said Yu, of Witology Markettrend Research Institute.

He added that “2025 to 2026 will be the crucial period for transitioning AI model training into profitable applications”.

“TAIWAN TO CONTINUE TO THRIVE”

While US tariffs were the biggest issue facing the sector, most companies at Computex “will shy away from addressing tariffs directly as the situation is too uncertain”, said Eric Smith of specialist platform TechInsights.

Last month, Washington announced a national security probe into imports of semiconductor technology, which could put the industry in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s trade bazooka and inflict potentially devastating levies.

Since taking office in January, Trump has threatened hefty tariffs against many of America’s biggest trade partners with the aim of forcing companies to move production to US soil.

Export-dependent Taiwan has pledged to increase investment in the United States as it seeks to avoid a 32 per cent US tariff on its shipments.

But there are concerns the island could lose its dominance of the chip sector – the so-called “silicon shield” protecting it from an invasion or blockade by China and an incentive for the United States to defend it.

TSMC, the Taiwanese contract chipmaking giant, has unveiled plans to inject an additional US$100 billion into the United States, on top of the US$65 billion already pledged.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/nvidia-jensen-huang-taiwan-first-ai-supercomputer-5138516

Torrential rains forced a halt on Monday (May 19) to Indonesia’s search for 14 missing in its easternmost region of Papua after a landslide killed six workers at a gold mine and injured four, officials said.

The rains had triggered Friday’s landslide, which hit a small mine run by residents of the Arfak mountains of West Papua province, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency.

Authorities will resume on Tuesday their search for those missing after the disaster, which engulfed temporary shelters used by miners.

The search effort was hampered by “damaged roads and mountainous tracks as well as bad weather”, Yefri Sabaruddin, the head of a team of 40 rescuers, including police and military officials, who retrieved five bodies, told Reuters.

Travelling to the site required 12 hours from the nearest town, he said.

Monday’s tally was updated from an earlier figure of one dead and 19 missing.

Small-scale and illegal mining has often led to accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are located in remote areas, in conditions difficult for authorities to regulate.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-papua-landslide-gold-mine-kills-6-missing-14-5138971

Rihanna was a vision in blue on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival 2025.

The “Umbrella” singer wore a bright blue halter dress — giving major Smurfette vibes after voicing the iconic animated character in the upcoming “Smurfs” movie.

The pop star gave a glimpse at her baby bump with the revealing custom Alaïa gown in turquoise silk georgette, designed by Pieter Mulier.

She styled her hair in an updo and carried a sky blue clutch, accessorizing with diamond cuff earrings, several jeweled rings and chic blue stilettos.

Her longtime partner, A$AP Rocky, joined her at the event in a classic black Saint Laurent suit.

The rapper helped Rihanna down the stairs and shielded her from the rain with an umbrella.

The expectant couple also snuggled up for some PDA while posing for photographers. At one point, the Fenty Beauty founder stopped to sign autographs for fans.

The “Diamonds” songstress, 37, confirmed her third pregnancy during her appearance on the Met Gala 2025 red carpet May 5.

At that event, Rihanna showed off her growing belly in a cropped Marc Jacobs suit jacket paired with a wool bustier top and a pinstripe skirt.

The mom of two finished the look with black-and-white shoes, a wide brim hat and a stylish detached collar with a polka-dot scarf.

The Savage X Fenty founder — who already shares sons RZA, 3, and Riot, 1, with Rocky — has become known for her fierce fashions during her pregnancies.

She once confessed she had no intention of wearing typical “maternity” clothes.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I’m going to go shopping in no maternity aisle,” she told Vogue in a 2022 interview.

“I’m sorry — it’s too much fun to get dressed up,” she continued. “I’m not going to let that part disappear because my body is changing.”

Of her bold pregnancy fashion choices, Rihanna also told Bustle in 2022 that she would describe her maternity style as “rebellious.”

“It’s been me personally saying, I’m not going to buy maternity clothes,” she told the outlet. “I’m not gonna buy maternity pants, jeans, dresses, or [do] whatever society told me to do before.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/19/style/rihanna-is-smurfette-at-the-cannes-film-festival-2025/

Denzel Washington got into a heated confrontation with a handsy photographer at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

The actor, 70, was walking the red carpet Monday for the premiere of his movie “Highest 2 Lowest” when he began exchanging words with one of the many photogs lined up to capture the stars of the event.

Washington walked up to the shutterbug, put his pointer finger in the man’s face and appeared to chastise him.

The photographer smiled, laughed and seemingly tried to keep the moment lighthearted by grabbing the Oscar winner’s arm, but that only escalated the situation.

“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” Washington repeated as he flung the man’s hand off his arm and walked away.

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

Prior to the exchange, Washington was chatting with co-star A$AP Rocky. As director Spike Lee walked over to speak to the rapper, Washington turned his attention to the photog in question.

Despite the tense situation, the actor was all smiles once inside the theater, where he, Lee and Rocky earned a standing ovation for their work in the film.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/19/celebrity-news/denzel-washington-gets-into-heated-confrontation-with-handsy-photographer-at-cannes-film-festival/

Former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton bristled at the prospect of a female Republican winning the White House, fretting that it would condemn women to be subordinates of the patriarchy.

Clinton, 77, argued that, with few exceptions, female Republicans tend to undermine feminist ideals while reflecting on the advice she’d give to women seeking the presidency.

“Well, first of all, don’t be a handmaiden to the patriarchy, which kind of eliminates every woman on the other side of the aisle, except for very few,” Clinton sniped with a sigh during a forum at The 92nd Street Y in New York City earlier this month.

Clinton’s remarks were made on May 1, but footage of the exchange didn’t surface until last week and was unearthed by the Daily Caller.

Examples of Republican women who aren’t “handmaidens to the patriarchy” include Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), according to Clinton.

“There’s a few,” she admitted.

Moderator Margaret Hoover, a Republican pundit and host of PBS’ “Firing Line,” refrained from pushing back against Clinton on that point. Hoover’s husband, John Avlon, unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) last year.

The former secretary of state and first lady also lamented how women haven’t yet been able to punch through the glass ceiling and win the presidency, referencing both her and former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeats.

“Look, first we have to get there, and it is, you know, obviously so much harder than it should be,” Clinton continued. “So, you know, if a woman runs who I think would be a good president — as I thought Kamala Harris would be, and as I knew I would be — I will support that woman.”

Unlike Clinton, Harris largely refrained from harping too much on gender politics during her 107-day sprint for the presidency in the 2024 election cycle.

Harris also significantly outperformed President Trump with female voters, according to exit poll data.

Beyond Harris and Clinton, former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley had made inroads on the Republican presidential primary in 2024 but fell far short of beating Trump for the party nod.

Clinton has previously dissed GOP women.

In 2019, she published a book titled “The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience,” which listed over 100 women. Clinton later defended her decision not to include former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the tome.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/19/us-news/hillary-clinton-frets-that-a-female-republican-president-would-be-handmaiden-to-the-patriarchy/

Just as India showed flickers of progress toward its long-held dream of becoming the world’s factory, Washington and Beijing announced a trade “reset” that could derail Delhi’s ambitions to replace China as the global manufacturing hub.

Last week, Trump’s tariffs on China dropped overnight – from 145% to 30%, vs 27% for India – as the two sides thrashed out an agreement in Switzerland.

As a result, there’s a chance manufacturing investment that was moving from China to India could either “stall” or “head back”, feels Ajay Srivastava of the Delhi-based think tank, Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI).

“India’s low-cost assembly lines may survive, but value-added growth is in danger.”

The change in sentiment stands in sharp relief to the exuberance in Delhi last month when Apple indicated that it was shifting most of its production of iPhones headed to the US from China to India.

That may well still happen, even though US President Donald Trump revealed that he had told Apple CEO Tim Cook not to build in India because it was “one of the highest tariff nations in the world”.

“India is well positioned to be an alternative to China as a supplier of goods to the US in the immediate term,” Shilan Shah, an economist with Capital Economics, wrote in an investor note before the deal was announced. He pointed out that 40% of India’s exports to the US were “similar to those exported by China”.

There were early signs that Indian exporters were already stepping in to fill the gap left by Chinese producers. New export orders surged to a 14-year high, according to a recent survey of Indian manufacturers.

Nomura, a Japanese broking house, also pointed to growing “anecdotal evidence” of India emerging as a winner from “trade diversion and supply-chain shift in low and mid-tech manufacturing” particularly in sectors like electronics, textiles and toys.

Some analysts do believe that despite the so-called trade “reset” between Beijing and Washington, a larger strategic decoupling between China and the US will continue to benefit India in the long run.

For one, there’s greater willingness by Narendra Modi’s government to open its doors to foreign companies after years of protectionist policies, which could provide tailwind.

India and the US are also negotiating a trade deal that could put Asia’s third-largest economy in a sweet spot to benefit from the so-called “China exodus” – as global firms shift operations to diversify supply chains.

India has just signed a trade pact with the UK, sharply cutting duties in protected sectors like whiskey and automobiles. It offers a glimpse of the concessions Delhi might offer Trump in the ongoing India-US trade talks.

But all of this optimism needs to be tempered for more reasons than one.

Apart from the fact that China is now back in the running, companies are also “not entirely writing off other Asian competitors, with countries like Vietnam still on their radars”, economists Sonal Verma and Aurodeep Nandi from Nomura said in a note earlier this month.

“Hence, for India to capitalise on this opportunity, it needs to complement any tariff arbitrage with serious ease-of-doing-business reforms.”

A tough business climate has long frustrated foreign investors and stalled India’s manufacturing growth, with its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stuck at around 15% for two decades.

The Modi government’s efforts, such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, have delivered only limited success in boosting this figure.

The government’s think tank, Niti Aayog, has acknowledged India’s “limited success” in attracting investment shifting from China. It noted that factors like cheaper labour, simpler tax laws, lower tariffs, and proactive Free Trade Agreements helped countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia expand exports – while India lagged behind.

Another major concern, says Nomura, is India’s ongoing reliance on China for raw materials and components used in electronics like iPhones, limiting Delhi’s ability to fully capitalise on supply chain shifts.

“India’s earnings from making iPhones will only rise if more of the phone is made locally,” Mr Srivastava told the BBC.

According to him, right now Apple earns over $450 per iPhone sold in the US while India keeps less than $25 – even though the full $1,000 is counted as an Indian export.

“Just assembling more iPhones in India won’t help much unless Apple and its suppliers also start making components and doing high-value work here. Without that, India’s share stays small, and the export numbers go up only on paper -possibly triggering more scrutiny from the US without real economic gain for India,” Mr Srivastava said.

The jobs created by such assembly lines aren’t very high quality either, says GTRI.

Quite unlike companies like Nokia which set up a factory in the southern city of Chennai in 2007 where suppliers moved in together, “today’s smartphone makers mostly import parts and push for lower tariffs instead of building supply chains in India”, explained Mr Srivastava. He noted that, in certain instances, the investment made could be lower than the subsidies received under India’s PLI scheme.

Finally there are concerns that Chinese exporters could try to use India to reroute products to the US.

India doesn’t seem averse to this idea despite the pitfalls. The country’s top economic adviser said last year that the country should attract more Chinese businesses to set-up export oriented factories and boost its manufacturing industry – a tacit admission that its own industrial policy hadn’t delivered.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly34p1jwvgo

The US Supreme Court has said it will allow the Trump administration to terminate deportation protections for some 350,000 Venezuelans in the US.

The ruling lifts a hold that was placed by a California judge that kept Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in place for Venezuelans whose status’ would have expired last month.

Temporary Protected Status allows people to live and work in the US legally if their home countries are deemed unsafe due to things like countries experiencing wars, natural disasters or other “extraordinary and temporary” conditions.

The ruling marks a win for US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly tried to use the Supreme Court to enact immigration policy decisions.

The Trump administration wanted to end protections and work permits for migrants with TPS in April 2025, more than a year before they were originally supposed to end in October 2026.

Lawyers representing the US government argued the California federal court, the US District Court for the Northern District of California, had undermined “the Executive Branch’s inherent powers as to immigration and foreign affairs,” when it stopped the administration from ending protections and work permits in April.

Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents TPS holders in the case, told the BBC he believes this to be “the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern US history”.

“That the Supreme Court authorized this action in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking,” Mr Arulanantham said. “The humanitarian and economic impact of the Court’s decision will be felt immediately, and will reverberate for generations.”

Because it was an emergency appeal, justices on the Supreme Court did not provide a reasoning for the ruling.

The court’s order only noted one judge’s dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In August, the Trump administration is also expected to revoke TPS protections for tens of thousands of Haitians.

The ruling on Monday by the Supreme Court marks the latest in a series of decisions on immigration policies from the high court that the Trump administration has left them to rule on.

Last week, the administration asked the Supreme Court to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuela immigrants.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg78471n85o

Russia launched on Sunday its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, destroying homes and killing at least one woman a day before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to discuss a proposed ceasefire with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s intelligence service said it also believed Moscow intended to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile later on Sunday as an attempt to intimidate the West. There was no immediate response from Moscow to the accusation.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, straining to restore ties with Washington after a disastrous February White House visit, met Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome on Sunday on the sidelines of Pope Leo’s inauguration.
Zelenskiy said the meeting was “good” and released pictures of Ukrainian and U.S. officials sitting outside at a round table and smiling. Ukrainian media said the meeting lasted 40 minutes.
“I reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible,” said Zelenskiy, who also met the new pope.

Ukraine and Russia held their first face-to-face talks in more than three years on Friday, under pressure from Trump to agree to a ceasefire in a war he has pledged to bring to a quick end. The foes agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners each but failed to agree a truce, after Moscow presented conditions that a member of Ukraine’s delegation called “non-starters”.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland planned to speak to Trump before the U.S. and Russian presidents speak on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. The four European leaders jointly visited Kyiv last week and have been calling for Trump to back new sanctions on Russia.
Asked if it was time to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that was up to Trump.
“I think we will see what happens when both sides get to the table,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” programme.

“President Trump has made it very clear, that if President Putin does not negotiate in good faith, that the United States will not hesitate to up the Russia sanctions along with our European partners.”
After a night of air alerts, Ukraine’s air force said that as of 8 a.m. on Sunday Russia had launched 273 drones at Ukrainian cities, more than the previous record Moscow had set in February on the war’s third anniversary.

‘I COULD HEAR THE DRONE’

Pope Leo XIV formally began his reign on Sunday by reaching out to conservatives who felt orphaned under his predecessor, calling for unity, vowing to preserve the Catholic Church’s heritage and not rule like “an autocrat”.
After a first ride in the popemobile through an estimated crowd of up to 200,000 in St. Peter’s Square and surrounding streets, Leo was officially installed as the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church at an outdoor Mass.

Well-wishers waved U.S. and Peruvian flags, with people from both countries claiming him as the first pope from their nations. Born in Chicago, the 69-year-old pontiff spent many years as a missionary in Peru and also has Peruvian citizenship.
Robert Prevost, a relative unknown on the world stage who only became a cardinal two years ago, was elected pope on May 8 after a short conclave of cardinals that lasted barely 24 hours.
He succeeded Francis, an Argentine, who died on April 21 after leading the Church for 12 often turbulent years during which he battled with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalised.

In his sermon, read in fluent Italian, Leo said that as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, he would continue Francis’ legacy on social issues such as combating poverty and protecting the environment.
He vowed to face up to “the questions, concerns and challenges of today’s world” and, in a nod to conservatives, he promised to preserve “the rich heritage of the Christian faith”, repeatedly calling for unity.
Crowds chanted “Viva il Papa” (Long Live the Pope) and “Papa Leone”, his name in Italian, as he waved from the open-topped popemobile ahead of his inaugural Mass, which was attended by dozens of world leaders.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert who clashed with Francis over the White House’s hardline immigration policies, led a U.S. delegation alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Catholic.

Vance briefly shook hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the start of the ceremony. The two men last met in February in the White House, when they clashed fiercely in front of the world’s media.
Zelenskiy and Leo were to have a private meeting later on Sunday, while Vance was expected to see the pope on Monday.
In a brief appeal at the end of the Mass, Leo addressed several global conflicts. He said Ukraine was being “martyred”, a phrase often used by Francis, and called for a “just and lasting peace” there.
He also mentioned the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying people in the Palestinian enclave were being “reduced to starvation”.
Among those in the crowds on Sunday were many pilgrims from the U.S. and Peru.

Dominic Venditti, from Seattle, said he was “extremely excited” by the new pope. “I like how emotional and kind he is,” he said. “I love his background.”

APPEAL FOR UNITY

Since becoming pope, Leo has already signalled some key priorities for his papacy, including a warning about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence and the importance of bringing peace to the world and to the Church itself.
Francis’ papacy left a divided Church, with conservatives accusing him of sowing confusion, particularly with his extemporaneous remarks on issues of sexual morality such as same-sex unions.
Saying he was taking up his mission “with fear and trembling”, Leo used the words “unity” or “united” seven times on Sunday and the word “harmony” four times.
“It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving, as Jesus did,” he said, in apparent reference to a war of words between Catholics who define themselves as conservative or progressive.
Conservatives also accused Francis of ruling in a heavy-handed way and lamented that he belittled their concerns and did not consult widely before making decisions.
Referring to St. Peter, the 1st century Christian apostle from whom popes derive their authority, Leo said: “Peter must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him. On the contrary, he is called to serve the faith of his brothers and sisters, and to walk alongside them.”
Many world leaders attended the ceremony, including the presidents of Israel, Peru and Nigeria, the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Australia, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
European royals also took their place in the VIP seats near the main altar, including Spanish King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
Leo shook many of their hands at the end of the ceremony, and hugged his brother Louis, who had travelled from Florida.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pope-leo-take-charge-catholic-church-grandiose-inaugural-mass-2025-05-18/

Meghan Markle “berated” one of her wedding caterers so badly that Queen Elizabeth II had to intervene, royals biographer Katie Nicholl claimed.

“On one occasion in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan went to Windsor Castle for a menu-tasting and ended up having a tense exchange with a member of staff,” Nicholl claimed in her book “The New Royals,” per the Daily Mail.

“Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes, and told one of the caterers she could taste egg,” a source claimed.

“She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic.”

According to Nicholl’s source, the incident got back to the queen who allegedly decided to address the issue.

“Suddenly the Queen walked in and said: ‘Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that,’” the insider claimed.

A rep for the Duchess of Sussex did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

This wouldn’t be the first time Markle, 43, has been accused of being “difficult” with palace staff.

In February, British journalist Tom Quinn claimed she earned the nickname “Duchess of Difficult” before she and husband Prince Harry stepped down from their royal duties and moved to the US in 2020.

“She could be difficult because she was finding life difficult — trying to feel her way and work out the intricacies of a positively medieval, labyrinthine system,” an anonymous palace staff member reportedly told him.

The insider claimed the “Suits” alum was also called “Mystic Meg” because of her “new agey” views, which were deemed “so woke.”

The source further claimed, “Through absolutely no fault of her own, Meghan wasn’t always great with her staff — she just wasn’t used to it as Harry was.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/18/royal-family/meghan-markle-berated-wedding-caterer-royal-author-claims/

Wall Street share futures slipped with the dollar on Monday, while Treasury yields rose as concerns about erratic U.S. economic policies were underlined by Moody’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating.
Asian shares also fell as a mixed bag of Chinese economic data showed the domestic economy was struggling even as U.S. tariffs began to bite into exports, while the White House kept up its rhetorical pressure on trade partners.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used television interviews on Sunday to dismiss the Moody’s downgrade, while warning trade partners they would be hit with maximum tariffs if they did not offer deals in “good faith”.
Unease over the United States’ $36 trillion of debt has also mounted as Republicans got closer to passing a sprawling package of tax cuts, which some estimate could add $3 trillion to $5 trillion in new debt over the next decade.
Bessent is off to a G7 meeting this week for more talks, while U.S. Vice President JD Vance and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met on Sunday to discuss trade.

“It remains to be seen whether the 10% reciprocal rate – excluding Canada and Mexico – will broadly remain, or will go up or down for some countries,” said JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli, who estimates the current effective tariff of around 13% was equal to a tax rise worth 1.2% of GDP.
“Beyond disruptions from higher tariffs themselves, policy uncertainty should additionally weigh on growth.”

The tariff war has sapped consumer sentiment and analysts will be scouring earnings from Home Depot (HD.N), and Target (TGT.N), this week for an update on spending trends.
In markets, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), shed 0.8%, with Japan’s Nikkei (.N225), down 0.7%.
Chinese blue chips (.CSI300),  eased 0.4% as retail sales missed forecasts for April, while industrial output slowed but not by as much as feared.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures were flat, while FTSE futures fell 0.3% and DAX futures lost 0.2%.

DOLLAR DOUBTS

S&P 500 futures slid 1% and Nasdaq futures 1.3%, though that followed major rallies last week in the wake of President Donald’s Trump decision to lower levies on China.
Yields on 10-year Treasuries rose another 7 basis points to 4.51%, extending Friday’s reversal on the Moody’s news, while 30-year yields grazed 5.0%.
Markets are still pricing in only 52 basis points of Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, compared to more than 100 basis points a month ago. Futures imply just a 33% chance of a move by July, rising to 72% by September.
A host of Fed speakers are on the diary this week, including influential New York Fed President John Williams and Vice Chair Philip Jefferson later on Monday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is also due to speak on Sunday.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected to cut its rates at a meeting on Tuesday, while likely signalling it is still cautious about easing too far.
Higher yields offered little comfort to the dollar, which was drifting lower amid investor unease with the volatility of U.S. trade policy. The euro edged up 0.1% to $1.1184 , while the dollar slipped 0.3% to 145.19 yen .
In an interview published over the weekend, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the dollar’s recent decline reflected a loss of confidence in U.S. policies and this could benefit the euro currency.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2025-05-19/

Vice President JD Vance shook hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in their first public encounter since their infamous Oval Office blow-up and later had a “good meeting” at the residence of the US ambassador to Italy.

Vance and Zelensky briefly crossed paths Sunday while attending the first formal mass by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Basilica, smiling as they greeted each other. Second lady Usha Vance joined her husband in greeting Zelensky as well.

Zelensky was seated nearby European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, not far from Vance. Vance led the US delegation along with fellow Catholic, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Following that encounter, Vance and Zelensky met privately in the Villa Taverna, the residence of the US ambassador to Italy, according to a spokesperson for the vice president. They were joined by Rubio and Andriy Yermak, who leads the Office of the President of Ukraine.

The pair talked about ongoing efforts to end the bloody war in Ukraine and Zelensky’s desire for the US to ramp up sanctions on Russia.

“We discussed negotiations in Istanbul to where the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers,” Zelensky later revealed on X. “I reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.”

He added: “We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange.”

On Sunday, Ukraine was hit with one of the largest known drone attacks from Russia, including over 273 that pummeled the central Kyiv region as well as the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Ukraine’s air force.

That brutal attack came days after the first direct negotiations between the Russians and Ukrainians since 2022, which led to a deal to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war.

Those talks, in Turkey, failed to yield a broader ceasefire deal that had initially been sought.

The last time Vance and Zelensky crossed paths, it ended in bedlam.

On Feb. 28, during Zelensky’s visit to the White House to discuss a mineral rights deal and more, the two got into a war of words in front of the TV cameras after the Ukrainian leader tried to impress upon the VP how untrustworthy Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is.

Vance underscored the importance of negotiations, which prompted Zelensky to lecture the veep about Putin’s long history of breaking international agreements. He also asked how Ukraine could trust the outcome of any diplomacy with the Kremlin.

The vice president shot back that it was “disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media” and added, “You should be thanking the president for wanting to bring an end to the conflict.”

President Trump chimed in and backed up Vance.

During the 2024 campaign, Zelensky once called Vance “too radical” for championing a plan to end the war that would have seen Ukraine cede vast swaths of territory.

Since then, Ukraine has supported the Trump administration’s push for a ceasefire — something Russia has rejected, and worked towards achieving an end to the bloody war. Vance has publicly acknowledged that Moscow’s demands are too much.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/18/us-news/jd-vance-and-volodymyr-zelensky-shake-hands-during-first-encounter-since-oval-office-blow-up/

DONALD Trump has issued a statement on Joe Biden after the former US president revealed he has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.

The current US President took to Truth Social to wish his predecessor and his family well following the difficult news.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Biden, 82, who served as president from 2021 to 2025, confirmed he had the advanced form of the disease in a statement from his personal office.

Biden was seen last week by doctors after suffering urinary symptoms, with a prostate nodule then being found.

He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.

Tributes have poured in for the former president since the announcement, with Republicans and Democrats alike wishing Biden well.

Former President Barack Obama said he and Michelle were thinking of the entire Biden family.

He said: “Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.”

Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris said: “Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership.

“We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”

Biden’s former spokesperson, TJ Ducklo, said: “No one in America is stronger than Joe Biden.

“Mine [cancer] metastasized to the bones too.

“Cancer has no f****** idea who it’s dealing with.

“Betting against Biden has never been and still remains a bad f****** bet.”

The daughter of late Republican Senator John McCain – who died of brain cancer – also sent her best to Biden, saying: “Cancer is the absolute worst. It is hell.

“It is incredibly difficult for any family, anywhere that has to deal with it.

“Wishing nothing but healing, prayers, light and strength to President Biden and his family.

“I don’t believe times like these are appropriate for politics.”

And the Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, added: “Our hearts are with President Biden and his entire family right now.

“A man of dignity, strength, and compassion like his deserves to live a long and beautiful life.

“Sending strength, healing and prayers his way.”

The former president was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday after discovering that the cancer cells having spread to the bone.

While it is a more “aggressive” form of the disease, which looks “very abnormal”, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, meaning there would be the prospect of “effective management” of his illness.

The president and his family are currently reviewing treatment options with his doctors.

The statement from Biden’s personal office read: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.

“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14267030/trump-biden-cancer-statement/

Endangered water voles in Wales are being fed edible glitter in a bid to save them from extinction.

Once commonly found across south Wales, water voles are now effectively extinct in all but a few locations, according to the Wildlife Trust.

With their future hanging in the balance, conservationists have been looking for new ways to track the naturally shy individuals in the wild – which is where the glitter comes in.

Nature Conservation Cymru hopes that by offering the animals something sparkly to eat, the sparkle should come out the other end – providing some much-needed answers.

Rob Parry, chief executive of Nature Conservation Cymru, said his team had consulted with vets to ensure the edible and biodegradable glitter – the type used to decorate cakes – would not be harmful to the semi-aquatic creatures.

“It’s something that we’ve done in nature conservation before for other species, for badgers in particular where we use pellets to put in with peanuts, which badgers love,” said Mr Parry.

“So we’ve taken that idea and scaled it down to water vole size, which means using glitter.”

The hope is that if the water voles are willing to consume the glitter then it will come out in their poo, allowing the small mammals – which are often mistaken for brown rats – to be tracked by conservationists.

Different colours of glitter could be used to allow conservationists to track different families of water voles and how far they range.

It might sound like a fun idea, but Mr Parry and his team could not be more serious.

If they can track where water voles are located in the wild, they can make adjustments to the environment – like removing invasive conifers from wetland habitats or fencing off certain riverbanks to stop sheep grazing.

Measures like this could help the species to disperse through the landscape undisturbed and potentially be a life-saving intervention.

“We’ll be able to see the types of territory, the size and where they go in,” said Mr Parry.

“Are they just using the linear features, the ditches, or are they spreading out into the bog and the molinia grassland habitat?

“That will be really crucial for when it comes to planning for our upland habitats.”

The team is first testing out their theory on some captive-bred water voles which are part of a wider Natural Resources Wales (NRW) project to reintroduce colonies into the wild.

The glitter is spread onto chunks of apple, not part of their normal diet in the wild, but a food the animals love and do well on in captivity, according to Richard Davies from NRW.

“They get everything they need from apples, carrots, and some dried rabbit food as well,” he said.

He has successfully bred hundreds of water voles which have been reintroduced into the wild, though he said their release was no guarantee of survival.

“Most predators in the UK would quite happily take a water vole. They need to be able to cope with this heavy predation and replace themselves a lot,” he said.

With a BBC News camera present, the glittery purple apple was placed on top of the straw bedding which covered the water voles’ pen.

After 20 minutes, the food remained untouched, but an hour later most of it had disappeared.

The success of the project, however, does not just depend on the appetite of the water voles, but how well the glitter can retain its shine from end to end.

Mr Parry said without interventions like this, the future for water voles was uncertain.

“It’s been a perfect storm of bad things that’s happened to water voles in the last few decades,” he said.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx08exwp97o

In July last year, Jesús Cometa was shot at as he was driving through the Cauca Valley in southwest Colombia.

Gunmen on motorbikes pulled up alongside his car and sprayed it with bullets. Mr Cometa escaped uninjured but his bodyguard was hit.

“He still has a bullet lodged in his chest,” he says.

Mr Cometa is one of thousands of trade unionists who have been attacked in recent years in Colombia which, by some measurements, is the most dangerous place in the world for organised labour.

The Cauca Valley is home to the country’s sugar industry, and he is a local representative of Sintrainagro, Colombia’s largest agricultural trade union.

“When you take on these roles in the union, you lose your social life,” Mr Cometa says. “You can’t just go and hang out in a crowded bar, or on a street corner, because you never know when you might be targeted.

“Your family suffers too because they know that they’re also targets.”

This is a problem with a long history.

In his ground-breaking novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Colombia’s Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez famously highlighted the massacre of workers on banana plantations in the country in the 1920s.

The Labour Ministry says that since the early 1970s, well over 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia.

And even though the nation is more peaceful than it once was, the attacks continue.

“For many years now already, unfortunately, Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists and for trade union work,” says Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a global umbrella organization based in Brussels.

Every year the ITUC publishes a survey of the atrocities carried out against trade unionists around the world. Its most recent edition covers the year to the end of March 2024.

It found that in those 12 months, 22 trade unionists were killed for their activism around the world. Eleven of them were murdered in Colombia.

“Generally, these are targeted murders,” Mr Triangle says. “They know what they are doing. They know who they want to murder.

“It’s not targeting the big bosses of the trade unions or the leaders. They are targeting in small villages people that are doing active trade union work.

“Between 2020 and 2023, we recorded 45 murders in Colombia. In 2022, 29 murders. It’s less violent than it once was, but it’s still very violent, certainly if you compare it with other countries.”

Why is this happening?

Fabio Arias, the head of Colombia’s largest trade union federation, the CUT, says it is all part of Colombia’s long and complex civil conflict, which pitted left-wing rebel groups against right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the Colombian state, and which still rumbles on in some parts of the country.

“The trade union movement has always been linked to the parties of the left and unfortunately the many right-wing governments we’ve had in Colombia have always claimed that anyone who is a leftist is a guerrilla, a terrorist,” Mr Arias says.

“And once you’ve established that, then people feel justified in attacking them.”

He says the attacks on workers are also linked to Colombia’s illegal economies, notably the cocaine trade and illegal mining.

“If you look at where these attacks are happening, it’s in the departments of Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, Arauca, Norte de Santander and Caquetá, because that’s where the biggest coca plantations are, and where the illegal mining is.”

It is not clear who is carrying out these killings and who is ordering them. Some trade unionists blame the private sector, saying businesses, desperate to stifle any attempt by workers to organize, are paying armed groups to carry out these atrocities.

They point to the fact that threats and attacks tend to spike at times when businesses and unions are in wage negotiations.

But as many of the attacks go unpunished, it is difficult to know who exactly is to blame.

“In the Cauca Valley there are so many different armed groups you never really know who’s behind the attacks, who’s carrying them out, who’s ordering them,” says Zenón Escobar, another sugar cane worker and local representative of Sintrainagro.

The threats in the Cauca Valley are not limited to the sugar industry.

“In 2007, I was in a van, and guys drew up next to us on a motorbike and asked for me, and then opened fire,” recalls Jimmy Núñez, the leader of a union that represents street traders in the regional capital Cali.

“My colleague who was sitting next to me was killed, and my wife was injured. In 2010 they attacked me again, on the road between Cauca and Cali.

“They opened fire on my car. In 2012 we were attacked in a shopping centre in Cali and one of us was killed. And in 2013 my family had to leave Cauca due to threats.

“In this country social leaders and trade union leaders are killed every day.”

The government says it is doing what it can to protect trade unionists. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, heads a left-wing administration that is broadly sympathetic to the country’s workers.

In 2023, it took a step towards redressing the past by formally recognizing the trade union movement – collectively, and for the first time – as a victim of Colombia’s conflict. That gives victims a greater chance of having their cases investigated.

“We consider this as an important step to recognize the violence against trade unionists in Colombia, which was not the case before,” says Luc Triangle of the ITUC.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j715l2d6no

Amid many other global crises, the human rights situation in Afghanistan has been overshadowed in the international media. Millions of people continue to suffer from systemic rights violations under the Taliban-run government, a UN report has found.

Tasked with assisting the people of Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) monitors the human rights situation in the country, issuing regular reports. In its latest update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, UNAMA not only documented cases of gender-based violence and public floggings, but also the growing persecution of the Ismaili community.

Ismailism is a branch of Shia Islam, while Sunni Islam is the dominant religion in Afghanistan. Most members of the Ismaili community live in the country’s northern provinces, such as Badakhshan or Baghlan. In the former, there have been at least 50 cases of members of the Ismaili community being forced to convert to the Sunni faith. Those who refused to do so were subjected to physical assaults, coercion and death threats.

“They are only accepted as Muslims if they profess the Sunni faith by force,” Yaqub Yasna, a professor and member of the Afghan Ismaili community, told DW. Yasna himself was accused of blasphemy after the Taliban takeover of 2021 because he advocated enlightenment and tolerance in society. He was forced to step down from his position at his university and went into exile for fear of reprisals.

‘Breeding ground for violence’

Yasna said that even before the Taliban’s return to power, tolerance toward the Ismaili minority in Afghanistan was limited but that the political system had at least protected their civil rights.

He said that under the Taliban, tolerance had continued to decline steadily. “When their rights are violated today, they don’t know who they can turn to. Their children are forced to profess the Sunni faith,” he explained. “Under Taliban rule, only one faith is considered legitimate. Anything that deviates from their interpretation of Islam is rejected and thus creates a breeding ground for violence against religious minorities.”

Afghan human rights activist Abdullah Ahmadi confirmed there was increasing pressure on one of the last remaining religious minorities in Afghanistan. “We have received several reports showing that children from the Ismaili community are being forced to attend Sunni-run religious schools. If they refuse to do so, or do not attend classes regularly, their families have to pay heavy fines,” he said.

Ahmadi complained that the international community had responded only hesitantly to the human rights violations in his country. He called for targeted sanctions against Taliban officials, saying they “must be held accountable.”

Nowruz holiday declared ‘un-Islamic’

Historically, the country was a significant center of religious diversity, but there are very few members of non-Muslim communities left in Afghanistan today.

The last members of the Jewish community left the country in September 2021. Those Christians who still live there tend to practice their faith in secret. And the Hazaras, another ethnic minority in Afghanistan who are predominantly Shiite, continue to be persecuted.

The Taliban only accept one interpretation of religion and have banned certain rituals and festivals, including Nowruz, which marks the beginning of spring and a new year. They declared the holiday “un-Islamic” and said that nobody in Afghanistan should observe the celebration.

Women’s rights in decline

The situation of all women is also getting worse, which means that half of society is subject to systematic oppression. According to the UNAMA report, girls continue to be “barred from participating in education beyond grade six” and there has been “no announcement made by the de facto authorities regarding the reopening of high schools and universities to girls and women.”

In the western city of Herat, the Taliban has confiscated several rickshaws and warned drivers not to transport women who were unaccompanied by a “mahram,” a close male relative.

Afghans deported from Pakistan, Iran

Despite this disastrous situation, Afghans who fled to neighboring countries are being expelled en masse. According to the United Nations, around 110,000 people, including women and children, were forced to return from Pakistan in April. Large numbers of people are also being deported from Iran.

“We live in fear of being deported to Afghanistan every day,” Afghan journalist Marzia Rahimi told DW. “What am I supposed to do with my children there?”

Rahimi said that only misery and terror awaited her in Afghanistan if she returned, explaining that she had left because she was unable to continue working as a journalist under Taliban rule and would not have been able to provide her daughter with an education.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/rights-under-constant-attack-in-taliban-ruled-afghanistan/a-72559435

In a single week in the fall of 2024, ravaging fires burnt down more than 100,000 hectares of land in Portugal — an area roughly the size of Hong Kong. Plumes of smoke were visible from space. It was one of the largest wildfires in Europe that year, killing at least seven people.

Fires on that scale are likely to happen more often, scientists say.

“Many parts of Europe are facing a large increase in multi-year droughts, leading to an increased probability of extreme fires,” said Thomas Elmqvist, Environment Director of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). “Some areas are likely to experience severe events every two years.”

About 60,000 forest fires rage through the EU every year, causing €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in economic losses, the scientists laid out in a report published today. On average, they scorch an area nearly twice the size of Luxemburg — year by year.

Climate change, land use and urbanization fuel fires

Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent. Over the past 30 years, temperatures have risen twice as much as the global average. Elmqvist points to the established link between climate change and elevated fire danger. Increasing droughts and less rain are expected to double the fire risk by 2100.

Increasing urbanization is another culprit for the flames. Abandoned farmland and unmanaged vegetation growth have created vast landscapes of flammable biomass, the scientists analyzed. Extensive monocultures, particularly of conifers, pines, and eucalyptus trees also ignite fast.

The highest risk in Germany, for example, is in the northeastern part of the country with its large pine plantations, said Elmqvist.

Fewer but more devastating fires in the future

Having monitored wildfires over the course of two years, he concluded that the number of fires and total area burned have actually decreased in Europe, “because we have more capacity to fight them.”

But the fires will become larger and more severe.

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are most affected, the scientists found.

Mediterranean countries are better prepared for fires compared to other European countries, says Claudia Berchtold from the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. She is looking at research like the new EASAC study to formulate a strategy for Europe on how to deal with wildfires.

“In Germany or in the Netherlands for example, a comparatively small fire would meet a system that is not as well prepared,” she added.

More than twice as many urban areas are deemed at risk of fire in Europe than in North America and Asia, the study found.

“Urbanizations have been built into pine plantations without thinking about what happens when big fires come,” said ecologist Pierre Ibisch, who co-authored the study. “This is of course very risky.”

This happened in the small town of Borkwalde in the German state of Brandenburg. Since 2000, people edged closer and closer into the forest, even after large fires led to evacuations in a nearby town, Ibisch said.

Solutions: Controlled burning, restoring ecosystems and education

Problems like these could be avoided when landscape planners, foresters and farmers join forces, EASAC scientists say. They also call for more awareness and a public debate about the changing nature of fires.

“People living next to forests or moving into forests are not aware of the fact how much the fire is here and it’s here to stay, and that we have the chance to reduce the risk by land management,” Ibisch said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/can-we-learn-to-live-with-wildfires/a-72567102

VLADIMIR Putin is planning to test the launch of a ballistic missile capable of striking the UK in a chilling threat to the West.

Ukraine’s military intelligence said that Russia plans to launch an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The GUR agency said it is a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate Ukraine and the West.

It added that the test launch was designed to “demonstratively pressure and intimidate Ukraine, and also EU and Nato member states”.

The RS-24 Yars is a three-stage, solid-fuel ICBM that has a flight range of more than 6,200 miles – more than double the distance between Russia and the UK.

It is understood to be fired with a non-nuclear warhead from Russia’s central Sverdlovsk region.

Meanwhile, the US presented Russia with a 22-point peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal.

However, Vladimir Putin is understood to have refused to discuss the US-proposed peace plan.

A call between Putin and President Donald Trump is now being prepared, and both leaders are expected to talk on Monday.

It comes after Russia unleashed the “war’s biggest drone attack” after Putin defied Trump’s call to stop the “bloodbath”.

A harrowing 273 exploding drones were fired across the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions overnight.

Meanwhile, Putin bluntly told Trump to stop trying to dictate terms to him for a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed in the conflict.

Zelensky congratulates Dan on ‘historic victory’ in Romania’s presidential vote

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Nicusor Dan on his “historic victory” in Romania’s presidential election.

Dan appeared early on Monday, on course to win the Romanian presidency.

“For Ukraine as a neighbour and friend it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X.

“And we are confident we will. By working together, we can strengthen both our countries and our Europe.”

Putin expands nuclear missile base after test at frozen site killed five

Putin has expanded one of his nuclear weapons bases at a frozen site in Russia.

It is the same military site where five people were killed after a nuclear-powered missile exploded while testing in 2019.

New satellite images reveal construction work inside the strictly controlled military site of Nenoksa.

Three new facilities – each the size of a football field – can be seen at the centre of the naval testing site.

They have been constructed near a railway line that is thought to bring missiles and testing gear into Nenoksa.

The area, which before 2023 was forest, is now surrounded by double-barbed wire fences.

The entire compound, located some 40 miles west of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia, is thought to be more than 61,000 square meters wide – and is heavily fortified.

Construction at the Russian military site is thought to have begun in 2023, according to the Barents Observer, which has been tracking all its activities.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14240538/putin-russia-ukraine-talks-peace/

NEW aerial pictures show disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Los Angeles mansion lying silent while he stands trial on sex trafficking charges.

Shamed Combs’ home is among the larger houses in the luxurious neighborhood of Holmby Hills – a playground for the rich and famous.

Combs forked out almost $40 million on the 17,000 square-foot, 10-bedroom home back in September 2014. He put it on the market a decade later for $61.5 million.

The property boasts outdoor features such as a swimming pool, and its lawns are neat.

Inside, there is a 35-seat theater room, a wine cellar, a gym, as well as a state-of-the-art gourmet kitchen.

Its other features include a basketball court, spa room, and an outdoor loggia-style facility where barbecues can be hosted, per the Zillow listing.

There’s also an underground swimming tunnel that is linked to a grotto.

Yet the sprawling complex was the target of two raids executed by the feds in March 2024.

Cops seized 1,000 bottles of lubricant linked to Combs’ sordid marathon sex sessions, known as freak-offs, according to the indictment seen by the Fox affiliate WTTG-TV.

Agents ransacked rooms and emptied out safes inside the home as they hunted for potential evidence, The Los Angeles Times reported.

A hard drive was also seized, and the property’s security system was turned off.

Homeland Security investigators also searched Combs’ Star Island paradise in Miami Beach, Florida.

Combs’ team criticized the feds for how the raids were carried out.

Aaron Dyer, who was part of the rapper’s legal team, labeled the raids as an “unprecedented ambush.”

He claimed agents used military-level force in the operations, describing them as a “witch hunt,” per Billboard.

Rooms were left untidy, and objects were strewn across the floor, according to pictures from TMZ.

DONALD Trump has blasted staunch Democrat Taylor Swift as “no longer hot” in a fiery rant against some of his most notorious A-list haters.

The president took aim at the Cruel Summer singer after longtime critic Bruce Springsteen accused his administration of being “treasonous” in a bitter speech.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump came for Kamala Harris-loving Swift, and said, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I hate Taylor Swift,’ she’s no longer ‘hot?'”

He appeared to be referencing his reaction to Swift’s gushing post about Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election, where she described the failed candidate as a “warrior” and “gifted leader.”

“I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” she said at the time.

Trump and Swift first had bad blood boiling when she broke her political silence to start endorsing Democratic candidates in 2018 during the president’s first term.

In 2020, the singer fired up her oven to bake off a batch of Biden and Harris-decorated cookies as she encouraged her massive audience to go out and vote.

She’s gotten quieter on the political front since Harris’ embarrassing loss in November, but Trump hasn’t stayed silent on his thoughts about the pop star.

After her boyfriend Travis Kelce, a star player for the Kansas City Chiefs, lost the Super Bowl to the Philadelphia Eagles, Trump invited the winning team to the White House for a celebration.

In a brief speech to the players, Trump relived the match, saying, “I watched in person. I was there along with Taylor Swift.

“How did that work out?” he said as the champion athletes behind him laughed.

“How did that one work out?”

Trump’s hit at Swift came after Springsteen opened the floodgates when he blasted the president’s office as “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous” at a show in Manchester, England, on Thursday.

In the speech, Springsteen said the administration is “taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers.”

“They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society,” he said.

A SUSPECT has been named in the explosion at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs that left one dead and four injured after FBI confirmed terror link.

Guy Edward Bartkus, 25 is believed to have targeted The American Reproductive Services clinic in California with a bomb just before 11am on Saturday, officials have said in a press conference.

“We are fairly confident that Mr. Bartkus is our primary suspect,” said Akil Davis, assistant director at the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, told reporters, adding that the agency is working to confirm that he is the person who died in the blast.

“We believe he was the subject found by the vehicle,” he continued.

“The subject had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility.

“Make no mistake. We are treating this… as an intentional act of terrorism.”

Davis added that the resident of Twentynine Palms – roughly an hour’s drive from Palm Springs where a property was searched on Saturday afternoon had not been known to the FBI.

The clinic confirmed that none of its patients or staff were harmed in the blast that was caused by the bomb inside his 2010 Ford Fusion sedan where a AK-47 and an AR-Style rifle was also found, the LA Times reported.

While the fertility center was left in ruin, the IVF lab and embryos were undamaged.

On Saturday evening, officials revealed the motive behind the attack is believed to be anti-natalist ideology,

Those who identify as anti-natalist are against anyone having children as it is against the child’s will.

The FBI is investigating Bartkus’ “pro-mortalist” writings and recordings that reflected such views.

He allegedly had pro-death manifestos and was against bringing people into the world without their consent and being unable to spare them from future suffering, according to CBS affiliate KCAL.

Bartkus allegedly explained that wanting to bring on your own death was “to prevent your future suffering, and, more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all the other sentient beings.”

There was also allegedly a 30-minute recording about why he “decided to bomb an IVF building, or clinic.”

“I figured I would just make a recording explaining why I’ve decided to bomb an IVF building, or clinic,” he said, per the Daily Mail.

THE two Mexican Navy cadets who tragically died in the Brooklyn Bridge crash have now been pictured.

Doomed mariners America Yamilet Sanchez and Adal Jair Marcos were up on the masts of Cuauhtemoc when the ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sanchez was a 20-year-old talented swimmer who came from the port city of Veracruz.

The award-winning athlete is thought to have arrived in New York on May 13 as part of Cuauhtémoc’s international tour.

Meanwhile Marcos, who came from the Mexican city of Oaxaca, was onboard the ship for the past nine months, according to the New York Post.

He has been described as a beloved world traveler by his friends.

Sánchez and Marcos were among the 277 crew members on board the vessel when it struck the historic Brooklyn Bridge.

Federal authorities in New York have now launched an investigation into the fatal crash that killed two people and wounded 19.

Dramatic footage shows the vessel named the Cuauhtemoc, reversing before smashing into the New York City landmark.

Suddenly, its three masts struck the bridge and snapped one by one as the ship continued to move.

Onlookers are seen slowly backing away from the walking path by the river, before screaming and running to safety the moment the boat hit the bridge.

Officials have blamed “mechanical issues” amid speculation the ship’s engines may have been stuck in reverse.

At around 8:20pm local time, the captain was attempting to depart from New York’s Pier 17.

But disaster ensued as the ship’s masts smashed into the bridge, with them all breaking on impact and sending debris flying onto the vessel’s deck.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said the ship “lost power” and hit the bridge.

The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the investigation.

Adams said in an update on X a few hours later: “Earlier tonight, the Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtémoc lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.

“At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries.”

More footage shows heavy traffic on the bridge at the time of the collision.

Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, unbelievably, no one fell into the water, officials said.

One witness, Elijah West, recalled seeing sailors falling from height off the boat sails.

He told the New York Post: “The boat was coming under the bridge, and there were sailors on top of the boat, the sails hit the bridge and then people were falling off of the boat sails.

“It was crazy. We were standing under the bridge and we all started running. Then I saw people hanging from the sails.

“Police boats came around fast – about five minutes later. And then police guided the boat to the [Manhattan] bridge and started the rescue. It was a shock.”

And 43-year-old Ismari Romero also described hearing bloodcurdling screams and cries as onlookers watched sailors – many of whom were cadets – dangling from the vessel.

He told the paper: “We were scared – a lot of people were screaming, a lot of people were crying.”

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on X: “Our solidarity and support go out to their families.”

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 490-meter main span supported by two masonry towers.

More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department.

Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.

The Cuauhtemoc is about 90.5 meters long and 12 meters wide, and according to the Mexican navy sailed for the first time in 1982.

The vessel’s main mast has a height of 48.9 meters, according to the Mexican government.

As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier.

Onlookers continued to gather on the waterfront to watch the spectacle.

Each year the Cuauhtemoc sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.

This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6, the navy said.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14264745/mexican-navy-ship-crashes-brooklyn-bridge/

The talks in Turkey on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour.
A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire.
Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would speak with Putin to discuss stopping the war at 10 a.m. Eastern (1400 GMT) on Monday.
“THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” he wrote.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 24 Palestinians in a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, local health authorities said on Sunday, as mediators hosted a new round of talks between Israel and Hamas.
Israel expanded its military offensive in the enclave and ramped up bombing that has killed hundreds of people over the past 72 hours

The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes in the past few days had killed hundreds of Palestinians despite a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the region.
Hamas described the strike as a “new brutal crime” in a statement on Sunday and blamed the U.S. administration for the escalation.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the latest strikes but it said in an earlier statement that it was conducting extensive strikes in areas of Gaza as part of its plan to reach its war objectives.
Egypt and Qatar mediators, backed by the United States, began a new round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas on Saturday, officials from both sides said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-airstrike-kills-least-24-gaza-mediators-host-ceasefire-talks-2025-05-17/

Oscar winner Angelina Jolie made a special appearance at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday night to present the Trophée Chopard to rising stars Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett. During the glamorous dinner ceremony, Jolie reflected on the power of international cinema to make an impact in times of global turmoil.

“I love international cinema,” Jolie told the star-studded assembly of guests, which included Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche and her fellow jurors, including Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Leïla Slimani and Alba Rohrwacher, as well as Quentin Tarantino and Carla Bruni. “We are brought to other lands, into private moments, even on the battlefield, we connect and we empathize. I think of films like ‘My Father Shadow’ [set during the during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis], which is premiering here at Cannes. Anything that is possible to make international cinema more accessible is necessary and welcome.”

“And none of us are naive,” Jolie, whose contributions as a humanitarian are as vaunted as her acting career, continued. “We know that many artists around the world lack the freedom and security to tell their stories, and many have lost their lives like Fatima Hassouna, killed in Gaza, Shaden Gardood killed in Sudan, and Victoria Amelina killed in Ukraine, and so many other extraordinary artists who should be with us now. We owe all of those risking their lives and sharing their stories and experiences a debt of gratitude, because they have helped us to learn and to evolve.”

The presentation of the 25th edition of the Trophée Chopard took place during a dinner on Carlton Beach co-hosted by Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch, general delegate Thierry Frémaux and Chopard co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele.

Created in 2001, the Trophée Chopard celebrates emerging international cinema talent, each year honoring one actress and one actor with promising careers. Colomb and Bennett follow last year’s honorees Sophie Wilde and Mike Faist. Other recipients for the award, which often heralds more laurels to come, include Marion Cotillard, Diane Kruger, Léa Seydoux, Florence Pugh, Jessie Buckley, Niels Schneider, Jeremy Irvine and Joe Alwyn.

So, what is it like to have Jolie as your fairy godmother?

“She really cares about fostering young actors. I feel really honored, really lucky to be here,” Bennett told Variety at the dinner about meeting Jolie. “I just wanted to ask how she does it all. Like, as you can see, this is crazy. And she deals with it so well, completely calmly. And I think that’s amazing.”

Colomb, too, was struck by Jolie’s down-to-earth nature as they ascended the famed red steps at the Grand Lumiere before the Chopard event.

“She’s gorgeous, she’s super beautiful. I was looking at her and I was like, ‘Wow! It’s incredible, it’s unreal.’ And at the same time it’s funny because when I met her, I met a normal, nice human being,” Colomb said. “Then when you see the photos or videos afterwards, all my friends write to me like, ‘What is that?’ So, it’s pretty crazy but cool at the same time.”

Jolie shared similar praise for the young talents. “I think they’re very brave in their work. They make very brave choices, and they’re very committed and emotional and open, so they are very promising creatives, and I think they’re gonna give a lot,” Jolie told Variety. “They seem like very gracious, grateful young people, who are very professional.”

Jolie also shared the best advice her godmother, Jacqueline Bissett, gave her about navigating the business: “Learn French and do French films.”

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV will formally take up his role as leader of the global Catholic Church on Sunday (May 18), with a Mass in St Peter’s Square that will draw tens of thousands of well-wishers, including dozens of world leaders and European royalty.

Crowds are expected to cram the Square and surrounding streets in Rome for the formal celebration, which starts at 10am and includes the first ride in the white popemobile by Pope Leo, the first pope from the United States.

Born in Chicago, the 69-year-old pontiff spent many years as a missionary in Peru and also has Peruvian citizenship, meaning he is also the first pope from that South American nation.

Robert Prevost, a relative unknown on the world stage who only became a cardinal two years ago, was elected pope on May 8 after a short conclave of cardinals that lasted barely 24 hours.

He replaces Pope Francis, from Argentina, who died on Apr 21 after leading the Church for 12 often turbulent years during which he battled with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalised.

US Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert who clashed with Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, will lead a US delegation alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Catholic.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend and would be happy to meet other leaders, a top aide has said, as he did at Pope Francis’ funeral when he had face-to-face talks with US President Donald Trump in St Peter’s Basilica.

Zelenskyy last met Vance in February in the White House, when the two men clashed fiercely in front of the world’s media.

Also expected at the Vatican ceremony are the presidents of Peru, Israel and Nigeria, the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Australia, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Many European royals will also be in the VIP seats near the main altar, including Spanish King Felipe and Queen Letizia.

FOCUS ON PEACE
In various sermons and comments since his election as pope, Pope Leo praised his predecessor repeatedly but has not offered many hints about whether he will continue with the late pontiff’s vision of opening the Church up to the modern world.

His homily on Sunday is likely to indicate some of the priorities for his papacy, having already made clear over the past 10 days that he will push for peace whenever possible.

His first words in an appearance to crowds in St Peter’s Square on the night of his election were “peace be with you all”, echoing words Catholics use in their celebrations.

In a May 14 address to officials of the eastern Catholic Churches, many of whom are based in global hot spots such as Ukraine and the Middle East, the new pope pledged he would make “every effort” for peace.

He also offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war was “never inevitable”.

Sunday’s Mass will feature prayers in several languages, in a nod to the global reach of the 1.4 billion-member Church, including Latin, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Polish, and Chinese.

As part of the ceremony, Leo will also formally receive two items as he takes up the papacy: a liturgical vestment known as a pallium, a strip of lambswool which represents his role as a shepherd, and a special band known as the fisherman’s ring.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/pope-leo-formally-take-charge-catholic-church-inaugural-mass-5137321

A new genetic study has traced prehistoric human migration from Asia to North and South America. The findings are helping underrepresented Indigenous groups understand their ancestral origins.

The first people to inhabit the Americas migrated from modern-day Russia about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, a new study has found.

Published on May 15 in the journal Science, the study suggests that the languages ​​and traditions of Indigenous groups living in the Americas today can be traced back to these early settlers. Traces of their cultures exist in the genes of modern Indigenous groups.

The study also found that the early settlers split into groups that became isolated in different environmental settings. The findings provide a new genetic and cultural understanding of present-day South American communities, said the researchers.

“[It fills] key gaps in our understanding of how the diverse populations of present-day South America came to be,” said Elena Gusareva, the study’s lead author, who is based at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Gusareva said the participants in the study had been “deeply motivated” to uncover their people’s history, showing the importance of ancestral knowledge for people’s identities.

The researcher cited an “urgent case” involving the Kawesqar people of Patagonia, whose population and 6,000-year-old cultural heritage is in danger of disappearing. “This genetic record is one of the last chances to preserve their legacy.”

Eurasian roots of Indigenous Americans
Gusareva and other researchers sequenced the genomes of 1,537 individuals from 139 ethnic groups in northern Eurasia and the Americas.

They compared the millions of tiny variations in the genes of modern-day Indigenous people to ancient DNA from the first peoples to arrive in the Americas, creating a genomic dataset from people previously underrepresented in ancestral science.

Tracing how these genetic codes changed in people from different geographical regions and various Indigenous groups allowed them to study patterns of population history, migration and adaptation over thousands of years.

“Our genetic analysis of Indigenous groups is crucial because their genomes carry unique insights into the earliest human history in the region,” said Gusareva’s colleague, Hie Lim Kim, a geneticist at Nanyang Technological University.

Their analysis appears to corroborate existing archaeological evidence, showing the first peoples in the Americas diverged from North Eurasians between 19,300 and 26,800 years ago.

The dates are “consistent with a large body of archaeological evidence,” said Francisco Javier Aceituno, an archaeologist at the University of Antioquia, Colombia, who was not involved in the new study.

By comparing genetic datasets, the researchers said they had been able to find the closest living relatives of Indigenous North Americans are west Beringian groups, such as the Inuit, Koryaks and Luoravetlans. Beringia was an ice bridge between modern-day Russia and North America during the last ice age.

Foundation of South America’s Indigenous groups
Gusareva and Kim’s study found that after the early settlers had arrived in South America and then split into four distinct groups — Amazonian, Andean, Chaco Amerindian and Patagonian — they each became isolated in different environments.

Aceituno told DW these groups of hunter-gatherers probably divided “to occupy new territories, generate new family groups and avoid isolation.”

Gusareva believes the new genetic data shows natural barriers, such as the Amazon rainforest and the Andes mountain range, led to the isolation of these Indigenous groups.

“This made their genetic makeup more uniform, similar to what is seen in island populations,” Gusareva said.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/dna-study-fills-gaps-in-indigenous-americans-ancestry/a-72558361

VLADIMIR Putin has expanded one of his nuclear weapons bases at a frozen site in Russia.

It is the same military site where five people were killed after a nuclear-powered missile exploded while testing in 2019.

New satellite images reveal construction work inside the strictly controlled military site of Nenoksa.

Three new facilities – each the size of a football field – can be seen at the centre of the naval testing site.

They have been constructed near a railway line that is thought to bring missiles and testing gear into Nenoksa.

The area, which before 2023 was forest, is now surrounded by double-barbed wire fences.

Both launchers are directed towards the White Sea, the latest Google Earth images show.

Similar blue launcher containers can also be seen in other test facilities for missiles in Russia.

This includes the Kapustin Yar in the Astrakhan region and, in recent years, Pankovo at Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic.

Rosatom has used the latter for testing the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile under development.

Another launch area is located by the shore in the northwest outskirts of the Nenoksa test range seems to still be active.

There is no public information available revealing what kind of missile tests will take place at the new constructions that can be seen on the latest satellite images.

In 2019, five Rosatom experts were killed after they were exposed to radiation at the Nenoksa site.

American nuke experts said the testing of a Russian nuclear cruise missile was to blame for a huge explosion at a military site.

Russia’s state nuclear agency confirmed the deaths were caused by a blast, which left a further three people injured and sparked radiation fears.

The accident happened while testing “isotopic power sources in a liquid propulsion system”, state nuclear agency Rosatom said in a statement.

But US experts claim Rosatom may have been testing an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, which Vladimir Putin claimed to be “invincible” against all existing and prospective defence systems.

Russian officials initially tried to play down the radiation leak, saying the levels were normal.

But a spokeswoman for Severodvinsk, a city close to the test site, said in a statement that a “short-term” spike in background radiation was recorded at noon Thursday.

In separate interviews, two experts said that a liquid rocket propellant explosion would not release radiation.

They said the explosion and radiation release could have resulted from a mishap during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile at a facility outside the village of Nyonoksa.

Neither the Defence Ministry nor Rosatom have identified the type of weapon that exploded during the test.

But Rosatom’s statement said the explosion occurred during tests of a “nuclear isotope power source,” which led observers to conclude it was the “Burevestnik” or “Storm Petrel,” a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

Nato has code-named the missile “Skyfall.”

The missile was first revealed by Russian President Putin in his 2018 state-of-the-nation address, along with other doomsday weapons.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14261151/vladimir-putin-nuclear-missile-base-nenoksa/

COPS have charged a second man with assault over the alleged Chris Brown bottle attack at a London nightclub.

The American R&B singer was charged with grievous bodily harm with intent after being arrested at a 5-star hotel earlier this week.

It comes after Brown allegedly assaulted a man at a London nightclub in February 2023.

He was detained by Met Police Detectives just after 2am at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester after flying into the city on a private jet on Wednesday afternoon.

He was held on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm to music producer Abe Diaw at Tape nightclub in Mayfair, Central London, in February 2023.

Brown was charged on Thursday evening and remains in police custody.

A second man has now been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent.

US national Omololu Akinlolu, 38, is due to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court today.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson added: “The charge relates to an assault, which reportedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London, on Sunday, 19 February 2023.

“A man has already appeared in court in connection with the same matter.

“Chris Brown, 36 (05.05.89), also a US national, was charged on Thursday, 15 May with grievous bodily harm with intent.

“He appeared in custody at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 16 May.

“He was remanded in custody to appear at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, 13 June.

“The charge relates to an assault, which reportedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London, on Sunday, 19 February 2023.”

The Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London North, Adele Kelly, said: “We have authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Chris Brown with one count of grievous bodily harm, contrary to section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

“The alleged incident occurred in London on 19 February 2023.

“He will have his first court appearance on Friday 16 May at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.

“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.

“It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

The two-time Grammy winner was set to kick off his 20-year anniversary tour next month.

This includes two nights at the Co-Op Live stadium in Manchester before performances in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Glasgow in June.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14258458/chris-brown-arrest-charge-gbh-second-man-charged/

AT least 30 people have been killed and many injured as devastating storms spawning tornadoes tear through the mid-west.

Officials from Laurel County, Kentucky, confirmed that a tornado “pummeled” the region late on Friday night “causing mass casualties”.

At least 23 people were killed and dozens injured in the twister that hit Ohio Valley with rescue crews continuing to search through the flattened homes and businesses for survivors.

“Multiple fatalities have been confirmed as a result of a tornado that pummeled Laurel County late Friday evening,” Laurel County Fiscal Court said in a Facebook post.

“Destroyed homes and buildings are still being searched by emergency responders.”

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear confirmed on Saturday morning that the original death toll for the state that stood at nine had risen to 14 and was expected to grow.

“Kentucky, we’re starting today with the tough news that we lost at least 14 of our people to last night’s storms, but sadly, this number is expected to grow as we receive more information,” he wrote on X.

“Please pray for all of our affected families.”

By Saturday afternoon, the Laurel County death toll had increased to at least 23, the London Mayor Randall Weddle told the Courier Journal.

Beshear had declared a state of emergency ahead of the storms warning of a “dangerous weather system” with emergency crews and the Kentucky Guard on standby as they braced for devastation.

The National Weather Service had warned that residents in the Mid West should prepare to be hit with severe storms that could cause baseball-sized hail with winds of over 75mph.

The regions of Somerset and London reported the most significant damage as the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the tornado touched down just before midnight on Friday.

The twister ripped through two neighborhoods and the London Corbin Airport leaving “mass casualties in its path” with at least nine people dead and “numerous [with] severe injuries”, it reported.

London resident Leslie told local emergency officials in a video how she and her family survived the terrifying storm that tore down most of their home.

“(My daughter) got scared so we went to the hallway,” she explained.

“And we were in there about two minutes and then my husband came running in and pretty much jumped on top of her because you could feel the air sucking in, and it sounded like a train.

“And then we saw stuff falling and next thing you knew, most of the house was gone.”

It’s all hands on deck to rescue as many people as we can and save lives.

Mitch McCoySt. Louis police spokesperson
“My family’s OK, I don’t know about everybody else,” she added, noting how she saw injured neighbors as they left to find safety.

“I have never personally witnessed what I‘ve witnessed here tonight. There’s a lot of devastation,” Weddle told CNN affiliate WKYT in the aftermath of the storms.

‘TRULY DEVASTATING’
Just hours earlier in the St. Louis area of Missouri, officials reported that a tornado hit Clayton around 2:30pm local time on Friday leaving at least seven people dead and many injured.

“This is truly, truly devastating,” St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said, confirming that there had been five fatalities in her city and over 5,000 homes damaged.

Part of the Centennial Christian Church in St Louis collapsed, trapping three people as the storm ravaged the region.

City of St. Louis Fire Department Battalion Chief William Pollihan confirmed that they were rescued but one died as a result of her injuries.

Patricia Penelton died inside the church, her son-in-law Stacy Clark confirmed to NPR, saying she was a church volunteer and took part in the choir.

Jeffrey Simmons Sr. who lives opposite the church told the news outlet how he saw a weather alert on his phone moments before the lights cut out.

“Next thing you know, a lot of noise, heavy wind,” he said, recalling how he and his brother fled to the basement for safety.

“Everything was tore up,” he said after the storm had passed.

“Our priority is life and saving lives and keeping people safe tonight,” Spencer added, with the St. Louis’ Children’s Hospital confirming the treatment of 10 patients, one of whom is in “critical condition”.

The two other confirmed Missouri deaths were reported in Scott County, about 130 miles south of St Louis, by Sheriff Derick Wheetley on social media.

“Our first responders acted swiftly, even while the tornado was still active, putting themselves in harm’s way to provide immediate assistance and care to those injured,” he said.

“The tornado moved from the eastern part of the county, leaving behind a trail of destruction, with multiple homes completely lost and areas left unrecognizable.”

The National Weather Service has confirmed it is working to confirm reports that the St Louis region was hit by two tornadoes on Friday.

Photos of the aftermath show shells of homes with windows blown out and roofs torn off as residents desperately search for their belongings.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14259396/kentucky-tornado-somerset-st-louis-missouri-dead-storm/

Mark revealed why hen dos are the most fun to take fishing – and how he donates shark meat to homeless shelters

MARK “The Shark” Quartiano boasts that he can catch anything that swims – and judging by his monster trophies, he could be right.

The master fisherman has seen bloody maulings and faced down fierce animal rights activists – but says nothing could stop him taking out thrill-seeking tourists.

Mark has been reeling in big-beast sharks from the Miami Bay for 50 years – and claims to have caught more sharks than anyone else alive.

He reckons he’s hauled 100,000 aboard his yacht, Striker-1, over the decades.

People pay to be taken on extreme fishing trips where Mark helps them catch the “fish of their dreams”.

Mark told The Sun that it’s not just midlife-crisis dads who come brave the waves.

He often hosts stag dos and hen parties – and says it’s the girls who have the most fun reeling in whoppers.

Mark says: “The girls go crazy for it – they love the big sharks. They’re allowed to drink onboard Striker-1 – we’re in the party capital of the world after all. As long as no one gets hurt.

“I’m basically on baby-sitting duty the whole time. I always joke around that next year we’ll be doing the divorce party.”

He’s also welcomed the rich and famous aboard his boat – counting the likes of Robert De Niro and Will Smith among his happy customers.

People head to sea with Mark for all sorts of different reasons.

Some want to take home a huge trophy, while others just want to watch the experts tussle a giant hammerhead.

But Mark is the man who makes it all happen. He has decades of experience, top of the range gear and a custom-built boat specialised for shark hunting.

Mark has sparred with a ridiculous number of sharks, but each one presents a different challenge.

He says: “Some sharks bite a lot harder than others. We had a big bull shark just the other day, maybe 500lb, and she was on the line for a couple of hours. She really didn’t wanna come into the boat at all.

“But you have to expect a challenge – these are big sharks battling for their lives, and they have deep water on their side. But we always get ’em in the end.”

One of his most intense showdowns came a few months ago when he spent more than six hours battling a great white.

And the biggest fish he’s ever reeled was 2300lb – which is more than a tonne.

With sharks that big, it’s vital to know what you’re doing.

And even with so many years of experience in the locker, accidents can still happen.

Mark said: “We’ve had a few guests get bitten, usually because they stand too close to the sharks while they’re trying to get a picture.”

The sharks are normally still alive when they join the crew onboard – so are still capable of chomping down.

“We also had one member of the crew get bit pretty bad on the foot,” he said.

To give him the edge over the beasts, Mark has kitted out Striker-1 with cutting-edge shark-wrangling gear.

He says: “My boat is the only one on the seas with the world-famous fighting chair over the water. It’s been my trademark for over 40 years.

“We can hoist any size shark into the boat using all our winches and block and tackles.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14242220/shark-hunter-reeled-beasts-crew-mauled-mark/

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (May 17) that Walmart should “eat the tariffs” instead of blaming duties imposed by his administration on imported goods for the retailer’s increased prices.

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected,” Trump said in a social media post.

“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.”

Walmart said it has always worked to keep its prices as low as possible, adding that this practice will not stop.

“We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can, given the reality of small retail margins,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on Thursday the retailer could not absorb all the tariff costs because of narrow retail margins.

Even so, he said, the company was committed to ensuring that tariff-related costs on general merchandise, which primarily comes from China, would not drive food prices higher.

Many US companies have either slashed or pulled their full-year expectations amid friction between the US and its trading partners, particularly China, as consumers curtail spending.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-tells-walmart-eat-tariffs-not-raise-prices-5136986

Sean “Diddy” Combs and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s private — and sexually explicit — text messages have been publicly released after many of them were read aloud during the Bad Boy Records founder’s sex-trafficking trial earlier in the week.

And while a lot of the exchanges shared in the 162 pages of legal documents appear harmless, there are others that are more sordid.

In one of the text messages obtained by Page Six via Combs’ legal team, Ventura, 38, admitted there were “a lot of d–ks, a lot of partying” at an unidentified gathering.

In another particular text, The “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper, 55, wrote that he was going to “eat that p—y.”

In less shocking messages, Ventura could be seen accusing Combs of treating her like a “sidepiece” and Combs telling Venture to reach out after she got “[herself] together.”

Of course, a lot of these text messages were revealed during proceedings over the last several days when lawyers for Combs tried refuting allegations of abuse and depict Ventura as a consenting participant in his alleged “freak-offs.”

One message in particular, which was sent in 2017, showed Ventura telling Combs she was “too excited” about one of their upcoming “freak-offs.”

She also messaged Combs about forgetting an iPad — which she testified they used to record the sex marathons.

Combs even texted Ventura to “have fun, impress me” when she was on her way to a sex shop to get supplies for a “freak-off,” jurors learned.

During the pregnant singer’s four grueling days on the stand, Combs’ attorney Anna Estevao asked the “Me & U” singer to read some of the texts she sent the rapper during their relationship, which took place from 2007 to 2018.

“I can’t wait to stare at some big black d–k,” a text Ventura wrote to Combs on Aug. 7, 2009, read.

Another — in which Ventura graphically described what she couldn’t “wait” for her then-boyfriend to do to her — was so disturbing that the singer asked the judge for a break.

After Ventura finally completed her testimony — during which she said that she participated in the “freak-offs” to please Combs and avoid his anger — her husband, Alex Fine, released a powerful statement.

“Over the past five days, the world has gotten to witness the strength and bravery of my wife freeing herself of her past,” Fine, who was in court supporting his wife all week, said in his statement read by attorney Douglas Wigdor on Friday.

“I have felt so many things sitting there. I have felt tremendous pride and overwhelming love for Cass. I have felt profound anger that she has been subjected to sitting in front of a person who tried to break her.”

Fine then called out Combs and “all of those who helped him along the way.”

He added, “Please know this: You did not. You did not break her spirit, nor her smile, that lights up every room. You did not break the soul of a mother who gives the best hugs and plays the silliest games with our little girls. You did not break the woman who has made me a better man.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/05/17/celebrity-news/sean-diddy-combs-cassie-venturas-explicit-text-messages-released-publicly-after-being-dissected-in-court/

Tucked away in a lane in the southern end of India’s financial capital, Mumbai, is a museum dedicated to the followers of one of the world’s oldest religions, Zoroastrianism.

The Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum documents the history and legacy of the ancient Parsi community – a small ethnic group that’s fast dwindling and resides largely in India.

Now estimated at just 50,000 to 60,000, the Parsis are believed to be descendants of Persians who fled religious persecution by Islamic rulers centuries ago.

Despite their significant contributions to India’s economic and cultural fabric, much about the Parsi community remains little known to the mainstream population and the wider world.

“The newly-renovated museum hopes to shake off some of this obscurity by inviting people to explore the history, culture and traditions of the Parsi community through the rare historical artefacts on display,” says Kerman Fatakia, curator of the museum.

Some of these include cuneiform bricks, terracotta pots, coins and other objects sourced from places like Babylon, Mesopotamia, Susa and Iran and are dated to 4000-5000 BCE.

These are places where Zoroastrian Iranian kings once ruled, like the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian dynasties.

There are also artefacts from Yazd, a city in central Iran which was once a barren desert and the place where many Zoroastrians settled after fleeing other regions of Iran after the Arab invasion in 7th Century BCE.

One of the notable artefacts on display is a replica of a clay cylinder of Cyrus the Great, a Persian king who was the founder of the Achaemenid empire.

Fatakia says the clay cylinder – also known as the “Edict of Cyrus” or the “Cyrus Cylinder” – is one of the most important discoveries of the ancient world. Inscribed in cuneiform script, it outlines the rights granted by Cyrus to his subjects in Babylon. Widely seen as the first human rights charter, a replica is also displayed at the United Nations.

Then there are maps that trace the migration routes of thousands of Iranian Zoroastrians who fled their home country fearing persecution and travelled to India in the 8th to10th centuries, and again in the 19th century.

The collection also features furniture, manuscripts, paintings, and portraits of prominent Parsis – among them Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the iconic Tata Group, which owns brands like Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley tea.

Another striking section showcases artefacts collected by Parsis who grew wealthy in the early 19th century trading tea, silk, cotton – and notably, opium – with China. The exhibits include traditional Parsi sarees influenced by designs from China, France, and other regions shaped by these global trade ties.

Two of the museum’s most compelling exhibits are replicas of a Tower of Silence and a Parsi fire temple.

The Tower of Silence, or dakhma, is where Parsis leave their dead to be returned to nature – neither buried nor cremated. “The replica shows exactly what happens to the body once it’s placed there,” says Fatakia, noting that entry to actual towers is restricted to a select few.

The life-size replica of the fire temple is equally fascinating, offering a rare glimpse into a sacred space typically off-limits to non-Parsis. Modelled on a prominent Mumbai temple, it features sacred motifs inspired by ancient Persian architecture in Iran.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgv445jqr1o

Other states with active outbreaks – which the CDC defines as three or more related cases – include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

New York: Texas’ measles outbreak shows signs of slowing, with fewer than 10 newly reported cases in the last week, but experts say it’s not fully over. “This outbreak does appear to be leveling off, but the affected states remain hypervigilant, and that’s because it’s travel season,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention incident manager Dr. Manisha Patel said Thursday of the southwestern outbreak, which also affects New Mexico and Oklahoma. “There is a lot of global measles activity right now.”

Across the U.S., there are 1,024 confirmed measles cases as of Friday – an increase of 23 in a week. Texas still accounts for the vast majority of cases.

There are three other major outbreaks in North America. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,622 cases from mid-October through May 13, which rose by 182 cases in a week. Another in Alberta, Canada, has sickened 409 as of Thursday.

And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 1,306 measles cases and one death as of Friday, according to data from the state health ministry.

Since the outbreak in the Southwest U.S. began, two elementary school-aged children in the epicenter in West Texas and an adult in New Mexico have died of measles. All were unvaccinated.

Other states with active outbreaks – which the CDC defines as three or more related cases – include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000. Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.

How many measles cases are there in Texas? There are a total of 718 cases across 32 counties, most of them in West Texas, state health officials said Friday. The state confirmed only one more case since its update Tuesday.

Hospitalizations were steady at 93 throughout the outbreak.

State health officials estimated about 1 per cent of cases – fewer than 10 – are actively infectious. Fifty-seven percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 406 cases since late January – just over 1.7 per cent of the county’s residents.

Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/texas-measles-outbreak-is-starting-to-slow-the-us-case-count-climbs-slightly-to-1024-cases/121236490

In San Francisco today, booking a car ride does not necessarily mean having a driver pick you up at your location. Instead, you might open the Waymo One mobile application, enter your destination, and within minutes, a silent and driverless car will pull up, and there is no one behind the wheel.

What was once a scene from the Netflix sci-fi series Black Mirror has now become a way of life there.

Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and it operates one of the world’s largest commercial robotaxi services.

The company’s robotaxis now clock more than 250,000 rides each week across cities in the United States such as Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. In April, Waymo began hitting the streets of Tokyo in Japan, one of its first international locations.

In Guangzhou, China, a similar experience unfolds with self-driving giant WeRide, where a few effortless taps on your mobile phone will summon a car that arrives quietly, without a driver. All you need is a passcode and you are on your way.

WeRide’s autonomous technology also powers larger vehicles such as its fully autonomous eight-seater robobus.

Ms Tan Shi Hui, 33, who took the robobus during a business trip to the southern Chinese city last year, found the ride surprisingly ordinary.

“I felt quite calm throughout. The acceleration and deceleration were smooth, there were no sudden jerks, and even the turns felt gentle,” the independent consultant said, adding that she did not even feel “a hint of anxiety” when on the bus.

The large window panels on all sides allowed her to see clearly what was happening outside on the road, which made the journey feel reassuring, Ms Tan recalled.

Similarly, Mr Wu Linhan and his wife, Ms Amandine Honvault, both 28, tried Baidu Apollo’s self-driving taxis when they were in Guangzhou back in 2023.

Baidu Apollo is the autonomous driving platform developed by Baidu, a leading Chinese technology company.

“It felt like stepping into the future, especially when you see the car turning without anyone’s help,” Mr Wu, a freelance video and photo editor, said.

Ms Honvault, a software engineer, said that they both felt safe because the taxi was not going fast or weaving through heavy traffic.

“We knew someone was checking our itinerary and double-checking that we don’t have issues,” she added.

Hearing of such developments, where integrated autonomous vehicles (AVs) have become a part of everyday transport, it would seem that Singapore is lagging behind, even though it is often viewed as a global leader in smart technology.

Since 2015, Singapore has been facilitating on-road AV trials, but these have been primarily at controlled sites such as closed campuses or shuttle loops at Ngee Ann Polytechnic or Resorts World Sentosa.

Under current regulations, AVs can only be operated as part of authorised trials. Private ownership or public use of driverless cars remains prohibited.

Even so, experts told CNA TODAY that Singapore’s more deliberate and cautious approach towards AV testing, though more “demanding”, prioritises safety and builds up confidence for users with the technology.

Mr Daniel Chow, principal at consulting firm Arthur D Little Southeast Asia, said: “Singapore is not the first to deploy autonomous vehicles, but it may be one of the first to get it right.”

Mr Chow, who advises his firm’s clients on business growth among other areas, added that Singapore’s “slowness” in deploying AVs stems from various factors, including the need to build confidence in operating them on bus routes, ensuring public transport operators can train workers effectively and assuring commuters that the technology has been thoroughly tested before going mainstream.

Indeed, in response to queries from CNA TODAY, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that while countries such as the US and China have deployed fleets of AVs as robotaxis, safety remains the key focus in Singapore.

“Safety is paramount and our priority is to ensure the local operating environment is suitable to facilitate their deployment in a safe manner, while also addressing issues related to public acceptance of such technology,” the authority added.

It also said that its first phase of AV deployment will focus on fixed-route shuttles such as road-sweeping and logistics AVs.

“LTA will ensure all safety and public acceptability issues are adequately addressed first, before moving on to other more complex use cases like robotaxis,” it added.

Mr Soh Ming, founder and managing director of Volt Auto, the authorised distributor of Dongfeng automobiles in Singapore, said: “The cautious approach makes sense, because in a dense city like Singapore, you don’t just roll out autonomous technology without being absolutely sure it’s safe.

“There’s no room for error.”

Dongfeng, one of the largest car manufacturers in China, has been actively developing autonomous driving technology with trials involving robotaxis, autonomous trucks and smart mobility solutions as part of its push into next-generation transport.

“We are moving slowly, but we are moving with intent. When Singapore does scale AVs, it will be with a system that is tested, integrated and trusted,” Mr Soh added.

HOW FAR AV HAS COME AROUND THE WORLD

Self-driving technology has made significant progress in recent years around the world, reaching a baseline maturity that enables it to operate on many urban roads without human drivers.

These autonomous vehicles can follow traffic rules, change lanes, react to traffic lights and avoid obstacles or pedestrians. However, AVs still need human oversight in complex scenarios such as extreme weather, unpredictable human behaviour or unusual road conditions.

Currently, most AVs that exist are classified at Level 3 or Level 4 autonomy, based on the six levels of driving automation established by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), recognised as the global standard.

Level 0 refers to full human control of the vehicle. Level 5, the highest, represents full autonomy, where the vehicle can operate on any road and under all conditions without any human intervention.

With AV technology advancing rapidly, some countries such as China, Japan and the US have embraced autonomous vehicles extensively and are scaling up their commercial operations.

Besides Waymo in San Francisco, Amazon subsidiary Zoox is preparing to expand production of its purpose-built autonomous vehicles, which feature bidirectional driving and no steering wheel.

Similarly, in China, car manufacturer Xpeng has launched the P7+, an electric vehicle featuring the company’s XNGP autonomous driving system.

Unlike rival systems, Xpeng’s does not rely on LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a technology that uses laser pulses to create precise 3D maps of the environment, but which can be costly and bulky.

Instead, Xpeng’s system relies on a combination of cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radar to navigate complex urban conditions.

WeRide has expanded rapidly beyond China, launching robotaxi services in Abu Dhabi in partnership with ride-hailing firm Uber. It plans to extend operations to Dubai and 15 other cities globally over the next five years.

The company has also received approval in China to operate fully unmanned paid ride-hailing services in Beijing, and it holds permits for passenger rides, highway driving and remote driverless operations in Guangzhou.

Competitor Pony.ai is not far behind; at the Auto Shanghai 2025 exhibition recently, the company unveiled its seventh-generation autonomous driving system, which allows for 100 per cent mass production of robotaxis to automotive standards.

In China, Pony.ai has reduced production costs of its AV systems by 70 per cent, bringing the company closer to profitability and making mass robotaxi deployment more commercially viable.

SINGAPORE’S DRIVE TO THE FUTURE 

In Singapore, various testbeds have been rolled out across the island over the years. These include autonomous shuttle trials on Sentosa Island, campus-based deployments at the National University of Singapore and One-north, and small-scale commercial pilots such as NTUC FairPrice Group’s collaboration with logistics partner Zelos.

To address the decreasing number of truck drivers, FairPrice Group Supply Chain Business began deploying the Zelos Z10, the first fully driverless autonomous vehicle designed for the logistics sector, to transfer pallets of goods between its warehouses in Joo Koon in October 2024.

Since April 2024, WeRide Robobus has been deployed at selected hours as a pilot service to ferry passengers around Resorts World Sentosa.

Over at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, MooVita, a software provider of autonomous driving technology, has been providing autonomous shuttle services within the campus since January 2023.

To boost productivity and improve the working conditions of its employees, cleaning service Chye Thiam Maintenance has deployed the WeRide S1 Robosweeper to sweep the outdoor areas of The Esplanade and the WeRide S6 Robosweeper for road sweeping in the Marina Coastal Drive area since October 2024.

Singapore’s approach to AV integration is supported by the Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous Vehicles-NTU (CETRAN), established in August 2016.

CETRAN serves as a dedicated facility for testing and certifying AVs, ensuring that safety assessments are conducted before deployment on public roads.

Last November, during the Singapore International Transport Congress & Exhibition 2024, Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat talked about Singapore’s progress in the AV space, reiterating that safety is the nation’s top priority when assessing the deployment of the technology for commercial use cases.

Even though Singapore would like to “move more quickly”, the current “calibrated and data-driven approach” is best given its dense urban environment and to ensure that the different elements of the ecosystem are ready, he said.

As for robotaxis, Mr Chee said the authorities remained open to exploring them, but he added that the ones offering point-to-point services are more complex to deploy safely compared with AVs that operate with fixed routes.

For now, trials will focus on AVs operating on defined routes, such as logistics vehicles and minibuses. However, if fixed-route robotaxis prove commercially viable, LTA would be open to exploring those as well, Mr Chee added.

“As technology continues to mature and public confidence grows, we will be able to scale up deployment across more routes and more use cases, including the possibility of full-fledged robotaxis in future,” he said.

In January this year, LTA issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to pilot autonomous public bus services. The initiative aims to assess the technical feasibility of AV technology for public bus services and gain insights into operational aspects at both service and fleet levels.

The pilot will start with smaller buses of at least 16 seats on bus service 400, which runs around the Shenton Way bus terminal, and bus service 191, which loops from Buona Vista Bus terminal to Media Circle in One-north.

These areas were chosen for their shorter and simpler routes.

The RFP states that the buses will initially operate with bus drivers onboard as safety operators, with the possibility of moving to remote supervision after demonstrating reliability for at least six months.

LTA plans to procure six autonomous buses for a start, with operations set to begin in mid-2026 for an initial period of three years. Depending on their performance, up to 14 more buses may be acquired to expand the pilot to two more services.

Other AV initiatives involving Singapore companies include ComfortDelGro’s first robotaxi pilot programme in Guangzhou, which was launched in partnership with Pony.ai.

The two-year pilot, initiated in March this year, aims to develop and refine capabilities for autonomous vehicle technology operations and fleet management, with the goal of large-scale deployment in China and other international markets.

ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s largest taxi operator, said in response to queries from CNA TODAY that the robotaxis have been “well-received” by the public in Guangzhou, with consistent daily numbers.

So far, the pilot has experienced zero at-fault traffic incidents and zero passenger incidents, it added.

“The technology has demonstrated that it can adapt and manoeuvre well in mixed traffic and weather conditions with minimal virtual assistance, ensuring a smooth and safe ride for passengers,” ComfortDelGro said.

“The lessons learnt would be useful for application in Singapore and other parts of the world when regulations permit in the future.”

On whether ComfortDelGro will introduce its robotaxis to Singapore as well, the company said that for the robotaxis to be commercially viable on a larger scale, the technology will have to be mature enough for safe mixed-environment driving, supported by strong regulation and public trust.

“We have seen successful case studies of robotaxis on the road in China, San Francisco and other parts of the world. However, for it to take off on a more significant scale globally, it would require wider public acceptance and a stronger push at the policy level.”

“A CAUTIOUS APPROACH” BETTER FOR SINGAPORE

While other cities might be racing ahead to integrate autonomous vehicles into their public transport systems, Singapore’s “slow” approach reflects the city’s dense and highly complex environment, experts said.

Mr Alex Tang, head of Xpeng’s international division of sales and service in Singapore, said: “Bringing AV technology to a densely populated and highly regulated environment like Singapore requires a deliberate, step-by-step approach.”

It is crucial to consider the unique characteristics of Singapore’s urban landscape, including its high traffic density, diverse mix of road users who include those on personal mobility devices and the weather conditions here, he added.

Dr Dan Chia, senior lecturer at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), said Singapore’s many pilot programmes and “step-wise” approach are also due to its lack of “greenfield spaces” as compared with other cities such as Guangzhou and San Francisco.

Greenfield spaces are undeveloped lands ideal for unrestricted design and testing.

Dr Chia, who researches AVs and intelligent transport systems, added: “China and the US have greenfield spaces to play in, where areas and surroundings can be clearly marked without too much public interaction. But in Singapore, it’s difficult, since we lack a true greenfield to test AV tech.

“A step-wise approach may seem a little bit slower compared to overseas cities, but this reduces the danger and unwanted accidents, given the more complex scenarios in Singapore.”

Although the island’s density might seem like a roadblock to adopting autonomous vehicles, Mr Chow from Arthur D Little Southeast Asia said that it is “our proving ground” and works to the country’s advantage in its foray into AV technology.

“Autonomous vehicles in Singapore have to navigate tight, highly dense and complex environments … if you can make autonomous technology work here, you can make it work in most urban environments.”

Agreeing, Mr Tang from Xpeng said the city’s well-regulated roads and high compliance with traffic rules offer a “conducive environment” for deploying and refining autonomous systems.

Dr Chia said that deploying public buses is a more challenging endeavour than robotaxis, due to real-life scenarios and “occlusions” that are difficult to test for, as well as the high expectations people have for public transport.

Occlusions are situations where a vehicle’s sensors are blocked or cannot clearly detect objects, people or other vehicles.

“When you talk about public roads, the speed of operation is different and the environment is more complex because you will have more occlusions,” Dr Chia said, citing situations such as when cyclists appear unexpectedly.

He noted that Singapore’s cautious approach is also because AV buses face more challenging demands than robotaxis, which carry just a few passengers. Buses must handle larger passenger volumes and, if standing passengers are allowed, smooth acceleration and braking become critical to avoid injuries.

Furthermore, even if the technology and testing proceed as planned, large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles requires an “ecosystem” to ensure long-term business viability.

ECOSYSTEM WITH MANY STAKEHOLDERS 

Developing an AV transport system does not rely on technology alone – it requires “many moving parts that need to move together in concert”, Mr Chow said.

Agreeing, Mr Tang said Singapore presents unique challenges that would require significant and sustained investments, “not just in physical infrastructure, but also in digital systems and urban design that support safe and efficient AV operations”.

“It’s a confluence of different factors. The government can certainly try to orchestrate (the developments), like it currently does with electric vehicles and electrification,” Mr Chow added, noting that the upcoming RFP from LTA is a “step in the right direction”.

“Going forward, you’ll need an ecosystem approach where all of the various actors and players within the transport and mobility ecosystem invest capital, invest time and invest resources to make it happen.”

Even with successful trials, Dr Chia cautioned that deploying AV buses is “not so straightforward”. It can be costly and complex, requiring specialised expertise, extensive training and high overheads, making it a business that needs “deep pockets”.

“This business model is very different from typical bus services provided by operators like Tower Transit or under the SBS model,” he said.

“Existing bus drivers do not have the technical expertise to operate AV buses, and the technological requirements are far beyond the current baseline.”

Dr Chia noted that AV buses are far more expensive to purchase than conventional models and may not turn a profit for years, even if they run 24 hours a day, assuming that maintenance costs are manageable.

Professor Zhao Jinhua, the co-lead principal investigator of Mens, Manus and Machina, an interdisciplinary research group at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, said that scaling autonomous vehicles safely remains “a formidable challenge”.

“As AV fleets grow, the ability to maintain them efficiently becomes crucial.”

Prof Zhao said this extends beyond software and includes the physical upkeep of vehicles and robotic systems, which are needed to perform tasks such as cleaning, charging, diagnostics and repairs of the fleet for minimal downtime.

“Automating these operational tasks is a foundational step toward making AV deployment not just technologically feasible, but economically sustainable.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/today/big-read/big-read-self-driving-vehicles-5116971

Elon Musk’s xAI responded to widespread reports that its Grok chatbot made claims about a genocide against white citizens in South Africa, saying there had been an unauthorized change to the artificial intelligence bot. In a post on X on Thursday, xAI said it would update the system to address the problem.

Issues of political biases, hate speech and accuracy of AI chatbots have been a concern since at least the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.

XAI said that early on Wednesday the unauthorized change was made to Grok’s response software, circumventing the normal review process.

“This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” xAI said.

Some X users on Wednesday noticed that Grok brought up the topic of “white genocide” in South Africa in unrelated discussions about other matters, sharing screenshots of their exchanges.

Critics of a land expropriation policy in South Africa, including white South African-born Musk, have called it racist against whites. The South Africa government says that there is no evidence of persecution and that claims by U.S. President Donald Trump and others of “genocide” are unfounded.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/musks-xai-updates-grok-chatbot-after-white-genocide-comments-5136211

Cassie Ventura has tearfully told a court she would give back a $20m (£15m) legal settlement from Sean “Diddy” Combs if it meant she would never have taken part in his “humiliating” drug-fuelled sex parties.

She rejected defence suggestions that her accusations were financially motivated as she wrapped up four days of testimony in the New York criminal trial of her ex-boyfriend.

Ms Ventura, the government’s star witness, faced questioning from both legal teams about her decade-long relationship with Mr Combs, and their “freak-off” sex sessions.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He could face life in prison.

Ms Ventura’s testimony revealed graphic details about her sex life with the rapper and the physical violence she allegedly endured from him.

The rap mogul’s lawyers have been trying to depict Ms Ventura, 38, as an eager participant in the sexual lifestyle.

She testified this week that she was coerced into the sessions, which involved male escorts, because Mr Combs had threatened her with violence.

On Friday she addressed a $20m pay-out he gave her after she filed a lawsuit against him in November 2023.

The settlement, which came just one day after the filing of the legal action, was public knowledge, but the number was previously unknown.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Anna Estevao, seemed to imply that Ms Ventura was strapped for cash before filing her lawsuit. The singer had just moved to her parents’ house with her husband and children.

Ms Ventura rejected this suggestion, later sharing that she would exchange the money for a life free of the “freak offs”, which she said caused her physical injuries, would sometimes go on for days, and stifled her career as a singer.

“I would have agency and autonomy,” she said.

Mr Combs’ legal team also showed the jury dozens of messages between the couple from each stage of their relationship, arguing their dynamic was toxic at times, but not criminal.

Minutes before Ms Ventura was set to leave the stand on Friday, the defence questioned her about another legal settlement she won.

Ms Ventura told the court she was expecting to receive about $10m from InterContinental Hotels, connected to her claims against Mr Combs.

The settlement relates to an incident at the InterContinental in Los Angeles in 2016, in which security footage showed Mr Combs hitting, kicking and dragging her in a hallway.

That clip was played at length in court this week, and is one of the most important pieces of evidence in the trial.

On Friday in court, Ms Ventura went through her texts after that beating. In one message she told Mr Combs: “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child.”

She and Mr Combs were expressing love for each other days later in other texts.

The defence cross-examination continued on all day Thursday and Friday.

The prosecution squeezed in two more witnesses before court adjourned for the weekend.

One was Dawn Richard, a singer in the group Danity Kane – formed on Diddy’s MTV show Making the Band. Last year she filed a lawsuit accusing him of physical abuse and withholding her earnings.

Ms Richard testified that she saw Mr Combs assault Ms Ventura at his Los Angeles mansion in 2009.

“She fell down,” Ms Richard told the court. “She was in the foetal position.”

After the incident, she said Mr Combs took her aside and told her what she saw was “passion” and that where he is from, “people go missing” if they talk.

US Homeland Security special agent Yasin Binda took the stand as well, telling the court about the cash, drugs and baby oil that were seized from the rapper’s hotel room when he was arrested in New York.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj42nvrkgzno

Car maker Nissan says it is open to sharing factories around the world with its Chinese state-owned partner Dongfeng as it shakes up its business.

The Japanese firm, which employs thousands of people in the UK, told the BBC it could bring Dongfeng “into the Nissan production eco-system globally.”

This week, the struggling company said it would lay off 11,000 workers and shut seven factories but did not say where the cuts would be made.

Speaking about Nissan’s UK plant on Thursday at a conference organised by the Financial Times, its boss Ivan Espinosa said: “We have announced that we are launching new cars in Sunderland… In the very short term, there’s no intention to go around Sunderland.”

Nissan’s revelation it is willing to strengthen ties with the Chinese firm comes as the UK’s trade relationship with China is in the spotlight.

On Wednesday, the UK government moved to rebutt suggestions the tariff agreement it reached with the US last week could be damaging to China.

It said there was “no such thing as a veto on Chinese investment” in the deal.

The UK-US agreement rowed back on big hikes in tariffs on metals and cars imposed by US President Donald Trump, but it also included conditions requiring the UK to “promptly meet” US demands on the “security of the supply chains” of steel and aluminium products exported to America.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said China had “made representations to the UK, asking for clarification”.

“China is firmly opposed to any party seeking a deal at the expense of China’s interests. Should that situation arise, China will respond as necessary.”

Nissan’s latest job cuts came on top of 9,000 layoffs announced in November as it faces weak sales in key markets such as the US and China.

The total cuts will hit 15% of its workforce as part of a cost saving effort that it said would reduce its global production by a fifth.

Nissan’s own brands have struggled to make in-roads in China, which is the world’s biggest car market, as stiff competition has led to falling prices.

It has partnered with Beijing-controlled Dongfeng for more than 20 years and they currently work together to build cars in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Nissan employs around 133,500 people globally, with about 6,000 workers in Sunderland.

The firm has also faced a number of leadership changes and failed merger talks with its larger rival Honda.

Negotiations between the two collapsed in February after the firms were unable to agree on a multi-billion-dollar tie-up.

After the failure of the talks, then-chief executive Makoto Uchida was replaced by Mr Espinosa, who was the company’s chief planning officer and head of its motorsports division.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8dpy27pv0o

He was in a “Sorry” state of affairs.

Justin Bieber sold his music catalog for $200 million in December 2022 because he was on the verge of “financial collapse,” according to a new documentary.

“TMZ Investigates: What Happened to Justin Bieber,” which is now available on Hulu, digs into the 31-year-old singer’s money troubles, alleging that he was in debt from pulling out of his “Justice” World Tour in 2022.

This, despite the fact that the “Peaches” crooner has reportedly made somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion in his career.

TMZ executive producer Harry Levin claims that Bieber “had to sell his music catalog because he was broke.”

“I was on a call with multiple people — Justin’s side acknowledges that in 2022, he was on the verge of … the words were ‘financial collapse.’ And that’s why he had to sell his catalog,” Levin alleges in the documentary.

Levin also claimed that when Bieber’s then-manager, Scooter Braun, got wind of the sale, he encouraged the singer to wait until January 2023 to make the sale in order to get a tax break.

“Justin said, ‘I gotta sell it now.’ And he sold it in December. That’s how broke he was,” Levin claims.

Also in the doc, TMZ executive producer Don Nash claims that Bieber would have made $90 million had he finished his Justice World Tour, which he canceled in September 2022 because he wanted to prioritize his health.

The TMZ doc comes one month after the Hollywood Reporter published a story also alleging that Bieber had been saddled with millions of dollars in debt after canceling the tour.

Merck Mercuriadis — founder of Hipgnosis, which bought Bieber’s catalog — told the Hollywood Reporter, “With the money up front, you’re free to plan in a way where you don’t have to be beholden to anyone else. You don’t necessarily have to go on tour or make another record, if that’s not how you want to spend the next few years. You can then afford to take some risks on yourself.

“For Justin, I think that was the motivation: He had ill health and was at a time in his life where he was married and very in love and contemplating family,” he continued. “Making the deal gave him the freedom to focus on that and not have to be on the treadmill he’d been on for almost 15 years.”

Meanwhile, Bieber has also sought to dispel rumors about him and Sean “Diddy” Combs during the music mogul’s sex trafficking trial as one of his former protégés.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/16/entertainment/why-justin-bieber-sold-music-catalog-for-200-million-new-doc/

US President Donald Trump arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday, after visiting Qatar, in the final leg of his Middle East trip. He was received by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and welcomed in Abu Dhabi with a unique cultural performance, a video of which has caught the attention of social media users. Upon arriving at Qasr Al Watan – the UAE Presidential Palace – Trump was greeted with a traditional Al-Ayyala performance, a cultural art form from the Sultanate of Oman and the UAE, which involves women tossing their hair from side to side.

A video shared on X by White House aide Margo Martin showed Trump being led through a formation of women dramatically hair-flipping in sync with drums and chants. The US President is seen blankly watching the dancers as they flip their long hair left to right. Several men could also be seen waving sword-like objects during the performance.

“The welcome ceremony in UAE continues!” Ms Martin wrote on X while sharing the clip.

Since being shared, the video has garnered more than 5.3 million views. In the comments section, users expressed curiosity about the cultural performance. “Can someone explain the hair tossing by the females?” asked one user. “Someone pls explain what the hair/head swing is all about,” commented another.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the cultural performance, called Al-Ayyala, involves chanting poetry, drum music and dance, and simulates a battle scene. Girls wearing traditional dresses stand at the front in a row, tossing their long hair from side to side. Two rows of about twenty men face each other, carrying thin bamboo sticks to signify spears or swords.

The dance is typically performed at weddings and festive occasions in Oman and the UAE. Performers come from diverse backgrounds and age groups. The lead performer is usually an inherited role and is responsible for training other performers. Al-Ayyala is inclusive of all ages, genders and social classes.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-hair-flipping-dancers-welcome-trump-to-uae-all-about-the-cultural-performance-8427034

The fortresses and cobbled streets of the ancient Croatian town of Dubrovnik are often crowded with tourists eager to visit the locations from the Game of Thrones television series or the Star Wars: The Last Jedi film.
But comments by President Donald Trump this month that he will impose a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the United States have alarmed the entertainment industry and some locals in Dubrovnik who fear directors may no longer film there.

“There have been huge disruptions because of the tariffs that Trump plans to introduce,” said Croatian film producer Igor Aleksandar Nola, adding that budgets had already been hit by global economic upheaval.
“Part of the financing coming from banks and investment funds for audio-visual arts has been on standby because of the uncertainty,” Nola told Reuters.
Central European countries and the Balkans have been used by Hollywood for years for their dramatic scenery, mix of architectural styles and cheaper filming costs. If a movie or series is a hit those locations can become hugely popular with visitors.

“The film and Game of Thrones have changed Dubrovnik for sure,” said tourist guide Ivan Vukovic. About 1,000 tourists join a Game of Thrones tour every day, he said.

New souvenir shops were opened and jobs created for tourist guides and locals assisting in film productions out of season.
“All of this created a big economic boom,” Vukovic said.
Trump did not provide details about the timing of tariffs, leaving executives wondering how they could be applied to the film industry.
Participants at the Cannes Film Festival, which opened on Tuesday, continued a cautious business-as-usual approach after the initial shock by the tariff announcement.
Mate Frankovic, the mayor of Dubrovnik, which receives about 1.4 million tourists a year, said he did not expect the crisis to last long or seriously affect film productions and tourism in Dubrovnik.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/croatias-game-thrones-filming-sites-face-threat-trump-tariffs-2025-05-16/

FLYING taxis are set to take sports fans around Los Angeles at the next “car-free” 2028 Olympics – and they will cost the same price as an Uber.

Olympic committee LA28 have announced a partnership with Archer Aviation – and the collaboration is set to launch an incredible fleet of air cabs.

The aviation firm announced the groundbreaking plans on Thursday, which aim to cut through LA’s notoriously bad traffic.

Concepts for flying cabs have surfaced before but have failed to take off.

Aerial taxis were set to debut in the Paris Games in 2024 – but lacked certification from Europe’s safety agency.

Archer Aviation is also yet to be approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

But defiant founder and CEO Adam Goldstein says that his brand hopes to receive that critical certification by the end of 2025.

The mind-blowing cabs will take sports fans around the City of Angels in short 10-20 minute trips.

There will also be designated pick-up and drop-off spots for visitors and locals alike.

This network of “vertiports” includes stations at SoFi Stadium, LAX, and other hubs from Santa Monica to Orange County.

Goldstein said: “Imagine an Olympic event taking place in Dodger Stadium, and then having to get back to SoFi for the medal ceremony.

“How are you going to get there if you’re stuck in two hours [of] traffic?”

The cutting-edge passenger jets are part of a huge effort by LA28 to have a “car-free” Olympics that will allow the city to better digest the expected 15 million attendees of the Games.

And just like the popular taxi app Uber, punters will be able to request a ride using a new app on their phone.

Goldstein added that the goal for cost would be to keep prices on par with a high-end ride share like Uber Lux.

The firm plans to launch a fleet of their piloted Midnight aircraft – which is part of a family of vehicles dubbed eVTOLs.

This stands for electric vertical take-off landing aircraft.

Archer Aviation is backed by Boeing and United Airlines, and their Midnight model is built using 12 engines and propellers.

It also produces “less noise and emissions than a traditional helicopter”, according to LA28.

Goldstein explained: “There’s a reason wealthy and famous people use helicopters — they’re extremely convenient.”

His firm is projected to have a fleet of 50 air taxis by the time the 2028 Olympics take place – but demand may overtake supply.

On top of public transport, Archer Aviation’s air vehicles will also provide emergency services and security support at the Games, according to Goldstein.

He added: “We’re perfectly situated to do that kind of stuff.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/14250053/flying-taxi-fleet-olympics/

THIS is the horrifying moment an Uber driver threatens a passenger with a gun after being told she has “crazy eyes”.

The shocking scenes left two female passengers terrified for their lives as a masked driver forced them out of her vehicle at gunpoint.

The Uber driver can be seen becoming increasingly irate as she shouts at Miami rapper Krissy Celess, also known as Bomb Ass Krissy.

“You’re harassing me. Get out of my vehicle right now. Get out of my vehicle,” she tells the singer.

“You’re no longer in the ride, get out, get out right now.”

The artist replies: “She got them crazy eyes.”

In a split second, the fuming driver is filmed pulling out a gun and pointing it at her passengers’ faces.

She says again “get out, get out” as she waves her weapon while sitting behind the wheel.

The women exit the vehicle and tell the Uber employee: “You’re gonna go viral, you’re going viral”.

In the moments that follow the car speeds away from the terrified victims.

Krissy posted the alarming footage with the caption: “Help us get her off the streets before she potentially harms another passenger.”

In an update, the artist confirmed Uber are investigating the “extremely concerning” incident.

The driver also appears to have been removed from the service.

Florida Police have launched a probe into the disturbing footage after Krissy filed a report.

At present, no arrests have been made.

Other shocking scenes recently caught on camera include the moment a crazed man tried to stab a flight attendant and open the emergency door mid-flight.

Disturbing footage shows Francisco Severo Torres, 34, threatening fellow passengers.

The dramatic turn of events took place aboard a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14250643/uber-driver-threatens-passenger-gunpoint/

THIS is the horrifying moment a plane engine panel came off mid-air, sending passengers into a frenzy.

Terrifying footage taken from inside the plane shows the panel flapping dangerously – just inches away from the propeller.

The ATR 72-600 plane got into trouble shortly after taking off from Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan on Friday morning.

Dramatic footage shows the metal panel of the aircraft flapping violently in the wind – leaving the engine exposed.

And for one nail-biting moment sparks can be seen flying as the panel comes within inches of the rotating propeller.

Passengers reportedly raised the alarm when the plane began to shake out of control.

The pilots quickly declared an in-flight emergency and returned the aircraft to Kaohsiung

One panic-stricken passenger said: “Not long after take off, the plane started shaking.

“Everyone looked out the window and began shouting for the flight attendants.

“The scariest part was that the flight attendants didn’t say anything, but their eyes looked terrified.

“That scared me even more.”

An investigation has been launched to determine what caused the mechanical failure.

This comes after a police plane crashed into the sea in Thailand, leaving at least five people dead.

The aircraft was caught on camera nosediving into the water before reportedly being split in two upon impact.

Officials confirmed the plane was just over 300ft off shore at the time of the fatal plummet.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14256174/plane-engine-panel-falls-mid-flight/

DONALD Trump has lashed out at James Comey after the former FBI chief shared a beach snap that has been perceived as a threat to the president.

Comey shared a picture of seashells that spelled out the code 8647.

The number 86 refers to an item being taken off the menu or “killed,” and Trump is the 47th president.

It prompted critics to claim it signified a threat toward the president.

Trump blasted Comey in an interview with Fox News journalist Bret Baier, saying a child would’ve understood the sentiment behind the social media post.

“He knew exactly what that meant – a child knows what that meant,” he said.

“If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. It says it loud and clear.

“He wasn’t very competent but he was competent enough to know what that meant and he did it for a reason.”

Trump described Comey as a “dirty cop.”

Comey attracted a torrent of criticism from Trump’s family and federal government officials.

Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland Security, warned that Secret Service agents would launch a probe.

Meanwhile, Trump’s son, Don Jr, also echoed similar sentiments on social media.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, claimed Comey knew what he was doing.

“James Comey just issued a call to action to murder the President of the United States,” she wrote on X.

“As a former FBI Director and someone who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, he knew exactly what he was doing and must be held accountable under the full force of the law.

“We fully support the Secret Service investigation into Comey’s threat on President Trump’s life.”

The White House cabinet secretary, Taylor Budowich, said the case is being treated seriously.

“While President Trump is currently on an international trip to the Middle East, the former FBI Director puts out what can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States — a message etched in the sand,” he said.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously.”

Kash Patel, the current FBI director, said his team is in talks with the Secret Service.

Comey, who served as FBI director between 2013 and 2017, clarified the picture in a subsequent statement.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he said.

” I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.

“It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

But, Comey is expected to be interviewed by Secret Service agents, per Fox News.

Trump survived two assassination attempts in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

He was left with a gashed ear after Thomas Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.

Just weeks after the assassination attempt in Butler, shots were fired near to Trump’s Florida golf course.

Ryan Wesley Routh managed to get within 500 yards of Trump before opening fire.

Meanwhile, Comey rose to prominence when he probed Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email system when she was Secretary of State.

He reopened the case at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign – less than two weeks before election day.

Commentators speculated that Comey’s letter, which explained why the investigation into Clinton’s emails had been reopened, cost the former first lady the election.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14249464/james-comey-beach-photo-trump-probe/

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that India and Pakistan fought three wars and got nothing.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday night said Islamabad and New Delhi should sit down at the table like peaceful neighbours and settle their outstanding issues, including Kashmir, news agency PTI reported.

Addressing a special ‘Youm-e-Tashakur’ event in Islamabad, Shehbaz said that India and Pakistan fought three wars and got nothing.

“The lesson is to sit down as peaceful neighbours and settle all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. Without resolution of our issues, we cannot have peace in this part of the world,” Shehbaz said.

“If peace comes, we can also cooperate in counterterrorism,” the prime minister added.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end a four-day-long military confrontation marked by intense cross-border drone and missile exchanges.

Sharif’s statement comes hours after Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh asserted that Operation Sindoor is not over yet and issued a stern warning to Pakistan. “When the right time comes, we will show the full picture to the world. We have kept Pakistan on probation. If its behaviour improves, then okay, otherwise, it will be given the strictest punishment,” Rajnath Singh said.

India carried out precision strikes under ‘Operation Sindoor’ on terror infrastructure early on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

New Delhi has made it clear that it will only have a dialogue with Pakistan on the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the issue of terrorism.

During Friday’s address, Sharif said that while Pakistan is a peaceful nation, it reserves the right to deliver a “befitting response” in its defence.

“Pakistan is a peaceful country, but it reserves the right to give a befitting response in its defence,” he said, referring to the recent military confrontation with India.

He praised the armed forces for responding “befittingly and effectively” and said they had written a “golden chapter” in the country’s military history.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-pakistan-should-sit-down-to-settle-outstanding-issues-says-pm-shehbaz-sharif-101747431305124.html

JUSTIN Bieber finally spoke out on rumors he was a victim of Sean “Diddy” Combs to reclaim his power as he positions himself as a “symbol of survival and allyship,” an expert has claimed.

Bieber, 31, was mentored by Combs, 55, whose sex trafficking trial kicked off in New York this week.

Fans have speculated for months as to whether the pop star’s reported mental health problems were linked to the rapper’s trial, as he was previously close to the star when he was a teen icon.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to several federal charges, primarily related to sex trafficking and racketeering.

He is also the defendant in a handful of civil suits that have been filed by alleged sex assault victims who are both female and male.

Bieber released a statement through his rep this week, stating, “Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him.

“Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”

He waited months to comment on the rumors and PR expert Chad Teixeira, who has worked with the likes of the Kardashians, feels the move was calculated.

Teixeira told The U.S. Sun, “The allegations against Diddy have reached critical mass. Bieber knows that if he doesn’t speak now, the narrative will be written without him and probably not in his favor.

“This is a moment of calculated authenticity.

“This wasn’t a delay, it was a deliberate media strategy.”

Eager to avoid a looming 20% tariff on its trans-Atlantic exports, the European Union has agreed to “intensify” trade talks with the United States after being accused of moving too slowly. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic gave the update Thursday before a meeting of EU trade ministers in Brussels, adding that he and his US counterpart Howard Lutnick were due to meet “very soon.”

The EU summit was expected to solidify the bloc’s position in negotiations to avoid the additional levies that kick in from July, after US President Donald Trump sealed his first deals since announcing so-called reciprocal tariffs on most global imports last month.

Following a tense standoff, Washington and Beijing reached a temporary deal last week, slashing punitive tariffs from over 100% to more sustainable levels. As negotiations for a long-term deal intensify, for the next 90 days Chinese goods entering the US will incur a 30% tariff, while exports from the US to China will face a 10% levy.

Days earlier, Trump secured the first outline of a trade deal since proclaiming April 2 as “Liberation Day,” when he announced stiff worldwide tariffs. The broad pact with the United Kingdom reduces tariffs on British carmakers exporting to the US and grants American exporters, including farmers and ethanol producers, enhanced access to the UK market.

Trump under pressure to secure EU deal

While Trump continues to play hardball with Brussels, claiming earlier this week that the “European Union is in many ways nastier than China,” Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist for the London-based Capital Economics research house, thinks economic pressures will prevent him from pushing Brussels too far.

“The two new deals will make EU negotiators more confident that they can stick broadly to the policy already set out, which is to try to avoid escalation, threaten some retaliation but with a delay, while at the same time be willing to negotiate,” Kenningham told DW.

Even so, Capital Economics warned in a research note this week that an EU-US deal “appears harder to reach,” pointing to the bloc’s large goods trade surplus with the US and the challenge of reaching consensus among the 27 EU member states.

The EU has already threatened new tariffs on €95 billion ($107 billion) of US goods in response to Trump’s earlier tariffs on aluminum, steel and European automakers, but paused them to allow negotiations to proceed. Brussels is also considering curbs on scrap steel and chemical exports to the US.

Trump vague on demands from EU

Claudia Schmucker, head of the Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology at the German Council on Foreign Relations, doesn’t think the China and UK deals really “change anything.”

“Trump is still expecting that the EU will offer something he feels is valuable enough,” Schmucker told DW, adding that the president’s demands from Europe remain a “mystery,” but are likely to include more agriculture and energy imports.

The EU has so far offered to boost imports of US liqueified natural gas, advanced AI technology and soybeans, while proposing zero-for-zero tariffs on all industrial goods. Brussels has, however, ruled out lowering other US irritants — from sales tax (VAT) and regulations, which Trump perceives as giving the bloc an unfair advantage in trade.

Last year, the US had a $235.6 billion (€210 billion) trade deficit in goods with the EU, a 12.9% increase on the previous year, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. The latest 2023 data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, puts the EU goods surplus at €157 billion.

Schmucker thinks the president’s negative rhetoric, which included an unfounded claim that the EU was created to “rip off” the US, plays into Brussels’ hands as EU states try to reach consensus on how to proceed, even as Hungary, Italy and some others push for bilateral deals.

“Even though some EU states are not fully on board with Brussels’ negotiating position, Trump’s antagonism is enough to help boost EU unity,” she said.

Ahead of Thursday’s talks in Brussels, Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa was doubtful about a speedy US-EU deal, saying he didn’t think it was likely in the “coming weeks.” If Trump keeps the baseline 10% tariff imposed on all imports as announced last month, as it did for the UK, Dousa said: “The US can expect countermeasures from us.”

EU: A key market for US services exports

Miguel Otero, senior fellow for international political economy at Spain’s Elcano Royal Institute, believes the US “has a lot to lose” from any Trump misstep.

“The EU has a big deficit when it comes to services, especially financial and digital services and entertainment platforms,” Otero told DW. “The US cannot afford to lose the European market. If we act as a single entity, then the EU has as much leverage as China.”

Although the EU has a significant goods surplus with the US, with a fifth of EU goods crossing the Atlantic last year, the bloc also accounts for 25% of US services exports, worth $275 billion in 2024. Including Switzerland and the UK, 42% of US services exports are sent to the European market.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, vowed this week to launch a dispute at the World Trade Organization against Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and levies on cars and auto parts.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/can-eu-secure-swift-trade-pact-with-trump-like-china-uk/a-72543513

Putin ‘enjoys’ fooling the West, says former Russian foreign minster

After lower-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held brief talks in Istanbul, DW spoke with Andrei Kozyrev, Russia’s foreign minister from 1990 to 1996 under Boris Yeltsin, about the ongoing situation in Ukraine.

Kozyrev, who lives in the US, lamented the slowness of sanctions on Presdient Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

“Three years ago, at the beginning there was a possibility probably to stop Putin by sanction,” he said.

The former diplomat said the sanctions have been softened by the help from China, which is “supplying Putin with everything needed for the war of attrition.”

Kozyrev doesn’t take Putin nor the Istanbul talks seriously. “It’s theatrics, diplomatic theatrics,” he said. “And Putin enjoys it.”

“He enjoys bombing Ukraine and he enjoys fooling Western leaders because that’s what he wants. The West is too weak to stand against him,” the former minister said.

Australian sentenced to 13 years in prison for fighting for Ukraine

Oscar Jenkins, a 33-year-old Australian man from Melbourne, was convicted of being a “mercenary in an armed conflict” and sentenced to 13 years in a strict-regime penal colony by a Russian-installed court in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.

Russia considers foreigners who travel to Ukraine to fight as “mercenaries” and prosecutes them under its criminal code rather than treating them as prisoners of war, who are protected by the Geneva Convention.

The Australian government has repeatedly called on Russia to release Jenkins, a former biology teacher.

Russian forces captured Jenkins in December 2024. That same month, a video was shared by a Russian military blogger showing him being roughly interrogated and slapped in the face.

It was believed that he had been killed in captivity until Russia confirmed he was alive.

Several protesters and police officers sustained injuries during violent confrontations at a pro-Palestinian demonstration marking Nakba Day in Berlin on Thursday.

According to police, who made over 50 arrests, approximately 1,100 people took part in the demonstration in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg in remembrance of the Nakba and protesting against Israel’s continuing military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic and refers to the forced displacement or fleeing of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 after Israel’s founding. About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the years before and after the proclamation of the State of Israel.

Some 1,200 Israelis — around 800 civilians — were killed and another 250 abducted in the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel’s military response has seen over 53,000 Palestinians — mainly women and children — killed, according to health authorities in Hamas-led Gaza Strip, whose casualty counts do not differentiate between militants and civilians but are regarded as reliable by international organizations, and much of the territory laid to waste.

How did the Nakba Day protest unfold?

In Berlin on Thursday, demonstrators originally wanted to march from the Südstern square in the south of the capital to the neighboring district of Neukölln, but a local administrative court ruled that the protest must remain stationary.

“The Nakba is a continuing campaign of ethnic cleansing which has never stopped,” claimed one speaker at the demonstration. Other protesters reportedly shouted phrases accusing the Israeli government and military of being “child murderers, women murderers, baby murderers” as well as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The latter phrase is illegal in Germany as it is considered an approval of a crime under paragraph 140 of the German Criminal Code in that it can be interpreted as a demand for the region between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea to be free of the Jewish state of Israel — an interpretation disputed by some Palestinian groups.

Police officer ‘trampled on’

According to the TAZ daily newspaper, the use of this phrase prompted attempts by police to make arrests. Police said they were also responding to “significant acts of violence” against officers “from within the crowd,” out of which bottles and stones were reportedly thrown.

According to the police, one officer was dragged into the crowd, forced to the ground and trampled on. The 36-year-old reportedly suffered severe injuries to his upper body, including a broken arm, and remains in the hospital.

“The attack on a police officer at the demonstration in Kreuzberg is nothing but a cowardly, brutal act of violence,” said Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). “Attacks against officers are attacks on law and order and therefore against all of us.”

According to the police, 11 officers were injured in total as well as an unspecified number of protesters. The injured demonstrators were treated by the Berlin fire department, which said the scale of its deployment wasn’t particularly large.

Berlin politicians condemn ‘brutal violence’

Berlin’s senator for the interior, Iris Spranger of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), promised tough action against those arrested.

“Yesterday’s demonstration in Berlin escalated in a horrific manner,” she said.” This brutal violence against officers has nothing to do with political protest.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/germany-dozens-injured-at-berlin-pro-palestinian-protest/a-72568069

US President Donald Trump’s tour of the Gulf states this week — to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — was closely followed in Israel.

Trump did not visit Israel — a snub that Israeli officials played down, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already visited the White House twice — and there was a growing sense among Israeli commentators that something wasn’t quite right.

This comes at a time when Israel is facing increasing criticism and isolation from other nations over the war in Gaza.

“If you take the last month and certainly the last week, in a series of moves and a series of statements, Trump not only completely sidelined Netanyahu and kept him out of the loop, but marginalized Israel as if it was not an ally,” former senior Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, now a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told DW.

Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its airstrikes in Gaza, a possible indication that it is expanding its offensive in Gaza.

On Friday, heavy strikes and tank movements were reported in northern Gaza. According to local health authorities, at least 90 people were killed in strikes across Gaza, including many children. The Israeli military has issued more evacuation orders in several areas, forcing many people to flee to areas that are equally unsafe.

The unexpected recent release of the American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, reportedly a result of direct negotiations between the US and Hamas and mediators, was seen as a sign that Netanyahu seemed to have been sidelined or, at best, was no longer the center of Trump’s attention, according to Israeli analysts. Alexander is a soldier who was taken captive from his military post during the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

During the October 7 attack, over 200 people were taken as hostages into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Fifty-eight hostages are still in Gaza. At least 21 of them are believed to be alive.

In January, Hamas and Israel agreed on the first phase of a ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. However, a second phase was never negotiated and, in March, Israel broke the ceasefire, vowing to eradicate Hamas.

Have Trump and Netanyahu fallen out?

During his Gulf trip this week, Trump concluded a $142 billion (€127 billion) arms deal with Saudi Arabia as well as a $600 billion investment deal that increases the Gulf state’s technological potential, which could be seen as threat to Israel’s own technological and military prowess.

In April, Netanyahu was invited to an urgent meeting in Washington. Netanyahu said he thought he could convince Trump to remove US tariffs on Israeli imports but he wasn’t able to. Instead Trump seemed to take Netanyahu by surprise when he announced direct US-Iran talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

This contrasted sharply with two leaders’ first meeting in February in the US, when Trump spoke to Netanyahu about his vision of a “Gaza Riviera” and the forced displacement of its population.

Another decision that caused a stir in Israel was Trump’s announcement on May 6 that the US had reached a truce with the Houthi group in Yemen, just two days after the rebels launched a missile at Israel’s main international airport, Ben Gurion. The Houthis vowed to continue launching missiles at Israel as long as the Gaza war continues.

Israeli commentator Pinkas suggested that Trump doesn’t like Netanyahu’s “manipulations and constant deception on both Iran and Gaza.”

Trump practices a very transactional foreign policy, Pinkas explained. “Netanyahu can only give him two things that he’s refused to give until now: A ceasefire in Gaza, which Netanyahu violated himself in March — [perhaps] he misinterpreted Trump’s laziness or disinterest as some kind of green light to attack again.

And the second is Iran,” Pinkas continued. “While Trump keeps on saying he wants an agreement with Iran and that he will pursue an agreement, Netanyahu keeps on with his belligerent rhetoric.”

Others are more cautious and say that Trump appears to be laying the groundwork for regional changes.

“I hear voices in Israel saying that he completely sidelined Netanyahu, but I think it more complicated than that,” Yaki Dayan, a former Israeli consul general in the US, and now a frequent commentator on Israeli-American relations in local media, told DW. “I think he [Trump] is taking into account all these issues that are extremely important for Israel in terms of normalization, with the Syrians and with the Saudis.”

But Israel should have been more involved, Yaki said. “We could have been in the central position, in shaping the new Middle East, as Trump is doing now,” Dayan said. But, he adds, “I think that one of the things that Trump wanted from Israel is to finish the war in Gaza, which Netanyahu is not giving him.”

Netanyahu is unlikely to do either of those things though, Pinkas argued. “If he doesn’t have those two issues, then A, he doesn’t have a [governing] coalition, and B, he doesn’t have a reason to be prime minister.”

What does it mean for the region?

Much will now depend on the next developments in Gaza. A new round of negotiations in Qatar to finalize a new deal between Israel and Hamas appear to be faltering.

Meanwhile, Israel has escalated its military offensive and Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to end the war, which is a key Hamas demand. The Israeli cabinet recently approved a plan to occupy large swathes of Gaza and force the already-displaced Palestinian population to relocate south, something that could be considered a war crime under international law.

And while Israel has endorsed a new humanitarian, albeit controversial aid plan proposed by the US, it has not lifted the devastating blockade on Gaza. Since March, people in the small territory have been denied food, medicine, shelter and fuel, with devastating consequences. Earlier this week, international food security experts warned that Gaza was at high risk of famine in the coming weeks.

During his visit in Qatar, Trump said, “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone.”

The conflict in Gaza prevents Trump from his long-held ambition, a grand plan to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and to expand the Abraham Accords, a series of bilateral agreements between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel mediated by the first Trump administration.

Yet, despite the concerns over the Trump-Netanyahu relationship, there is currently no indication the US will pressure Israel to stop the military offensive there if these latest talks fail.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-hamas-war-gaza-saudi-arabia/a-72561885

A US citizen, Matar is also facing a federal trial on terrorism charges. The charges were evoked after prosecutors claimed that the stabbing was an attempt to carry out a decades-old fatwa issued in 1989 by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the publication of Rushdie’s controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

The man who stabbed acclaimed author Salman Rushidie during a 2022 lecture in New York has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted of attempted murder in February. Rushdie did not attend Friday’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. He had previously testified, recounting the harrowing moment he believed he was going to die.
Matar stabbed Rushidie over a dozen times in the head and torso as the author prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution. The brutal assault left Rushdie, 77, blind in one eye and seriously injured. He also injured one more person.
Ahead of sentencing, Matar made a brief statement criticizing Rushdie and invoking free speech. He received 25 years (maximum punishment) for the attack on Rushdie and seven years for injuring the other victim. The sentences will run concurrently, as both injuries occurred during the same incident, said Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt.

During arguments, Schmidt said that Matar had deliberately planned the attack to cause maximum harm — not just to Rushdie, but to the audience of over 1,400 people present. Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone countered that Matar had no prior criminal record.

The 2002 incident had left Rushdie blinded by one eye. He spent nearly five weeks in hospitals and rehabilitation centers following the attack. He later detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, Knife.
A US citizen, Matar is also facing a federal trial on terrorism charges. The charges were evoked after prosecutors claimed that the stabbing was an attempt to carry out a decades-old fatwa issued in 1989 by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the publication of Rushdie’s controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.
Matar has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of providing material support to terrorists.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/hadi-matar-who-stabbed-salman-rushdie-leaving-him-blind-in-one-eye-jailed-article-151656633

India and Pakistan have agreed to extend the pause on all cross-border military actions as decided by both countries on May 10. Amid ongoing tensions, the Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries have decided to continue “confidence-building measures”.

“Further to the understanding between the two DGMOs on 10th of May 2025, it has been decided to continue the confidence-building measures so as to reduce the alertness level,” officials said on Thursday.

As per a PTI report, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar claimed that the DGMO of Pakistan, Major General Kashif Abdullah, and the DGMO of India Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai talked over a hotline on Thursday to discuss the ceasefire, which has now been extended until May 18.

India launched Operation Sindoor on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after midnight on May 7, in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack.

Tensions between the countries intensified a day later, after Pakistan launched a drone and missile attack on military bases near the border, which India thwarted.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-pak-extend-ceasefire-understanding-as-two-nations-agree-to-continue-confidence-building-measures-2725432-2025-05-15

Pope Leo XIV met Thursday at the Vatican with the head of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, in one of his first audiences as pontiff that reaffirmed his appeal for a peaceful, negotiated end to Russia’s war.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk said he invited Leo to visit Ukraine and presented the pope with a list of prisoners held by Russia. The Vatican under Pope Francis had worked for prisoner exchanges, as well as for the return of Ukrainian children taken to live in Russian-occupied territories.

The Vatican didn’t release any statement after the audience, one of the first private audiences held by Leo since his election May 8.

In his first Sunday noon blessing as pope, and again during an audience with pilgrims from eastern rite churches this week, Leo has appealed for an end to the war and expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. Let everything possible be done to achieve genuine, just and lasting peace as soon as possible. May all the prisoners be freed, and may the children return to their families,” he said Sunday.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said it was “premature” to think of a possible papal visit to Kyiv, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had also suggested during a first phone call with Leo on Monday.

The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality. Leo has vowed “every effort” to try to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table. “The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” he said on Wednesday.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-ukraine-zelenskyy-a34aa5868040c479df9322de5f473298

One of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency firms, Coinbase, says a recent cyber attack will cost it up to $400m (£301m).

The firm said it was contacted by hackers who claimed to have gained access to customer information, obtained by making payments to Coinbase contractors and employees.

In a blog post, Coinbase said the criminals had gained access to “less than 1%” of its customer data, which they then used to impersonate the firm and trick people into handing over their crypto.

The group then demanded $20m from Coinbase to keep it quiet – but it refused to pay the bribe and instead promised to pay back every person who got scammed.

The disclosure prompted the firm’s share price to fall by 4.1%.

The cyber attack comes days before the US company is set to join the benchmark S&P 500 index – a landmark moment for the crypto industry.

It also reflects how, as it grows, the industry has increasingly become a target for cyber criminals.

A report from research firm Chainanalysis suggests funds stolen from crypto businesses totalled $2.2bn in 2024.

“Security remains a challenge for the crypto industry despite its growing mainstream acceptance,” said Nick Jones, founder of crypto firm Zumo.

“As our nascent industry grows rapidly, it draws the eye of bad actors, who are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the scope of their attacks.”

A court in Thailand has issued 17 arrest warrants for people connected to the building of a skyscraper that collapsed during an earthquake in March.

The 30-storey tower, being built to house the State Audit Office, was felled when Bangkok felt tremors of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck neighbouring Myanmar.

Authorities said they had recovered 89 bodies from the rubble of the tower, while seven remain unaccounted for.

Police investigating the cause of the collapse said the warrants were issued to people involved in the design, construction and building supervision of the tower, local media reported.

Police named only one of the individuals as businessman Premchai Karnasuta, a former president of Italian-Thai Development PLC., one of Thailand’s largest construction firms.

Thai media reported on Thursday that investigators had found structural flaws in a lift shaft in the building. Thai authorities are yet to release their findings into the cause of the building’s collapse.

Footage showed high-rise buildings in Bangkok swaying and water falling from rooftop pools onto the streets below resulting from the strong tremors.

Buildings in the Thai capital emerged from the quake largely unscathed except for the State Audit Office – a tower made of blue glass and steel that was situated opposite the Chatuchak market, a popular tourist attraction.

It had been under construction for three years at a cost of more than two billion Thai baht ($59m; £45m) before it was reduced to rubble.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89p7ew45e5o

To live along the Line of Control (LoC) – the volatile de facto border that separates India and Pakistan – is to exist perpetually on the razor’s edge between fragile peace and open conflict.

The recent escalation after the Pahalgam attack brought India and Pakistan to the brink once again. Shells rained down on both sides of the LoC, turning homes to rubble and lives into statistics. At least 16 people were reportedly killed on the Indian side, while Pakistan claims 40 civilian deaths, though it remains unclear how many were directly caused by the shelling.

“Families on the LoC are subjected to Indian and Pakistani whims and face the brunt of heated tensions,” Anam Zakaria, a Pakistani writer based in Canada, told the BBC.

“Each time firing resumes many are thrust into bunkers, livestock and livelihood is lost, infrastructure – homes, hospitals, schools – is damaged. The vulnerability and volatility experienced has grave repercussions for their everyday lived reality,” Ms Zakaria, author of a book on Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said.

India and Pakistan share a 3,323km (2,064-mile) border, including the 740km-long LoC; and the International Border (IB), spanning roughly 2,400km. The LoC began as the Ceasefire Line in 1949 after the first India-Pakistan war, and was renamed under the 1972 Simla Agreement.

The LoC cutting through Kashmir – claimed in full and administered in parts by both India and Pakistan – remains one of the most militarised borders in the world. Conflict is never far behind and ceasefires are only as durable as the next provocation.

Ceasefire violations here can range from “low-level firing to major land grabbing to surgical strikes”, says Happymon Jacob, a foreign policy expert at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). (A land grab could involve seizing key positions such as hilltops, outposts, or buffer zones by force.)

The LoC, many experts say, is a classic example of a “border drawn in blood, forged through conflict”. It is also a line, as Ms Zakaria says, “carved by India and Pakistan, and militarised and weaponised, without taking Kashmiris into account”.

Such wartime borders aren’t unique to South Asia. Sumantra Bose, a professor of international and comparative politics at the London School of Economics, says the most well-known is the ‘Green Line’ – the ceasefire line of 1949 – which is the generally recognised boundary between Israel and the West Bank.

Not surprisingly, the tentative calm along the LoC that had endured since the 2021 ceasefire agreement between the two nuclear-armed neighbours crumbled easily after the latest hostilities.

“The current escalation on the LoC and International Border (IB) is significant as it follows a four-year period of relative peace on the border,” Surya Valliappan Krishna of Carnegie India told the BBC.

Violence along the India-Pakistan border is not new – prior to the 2003 ceasefire, India reported 4,134 violations in 2001 and 5,767 in 2002.

The 2003 ceasefire initially held, with negligible violations from 2004 to 2007, but tensions resurfaced in 2008 and escalated sharply by 2013.

Between 2013 and early 2021, the LoC and the IB witnessed sustained high levels of conflict. A renewed ceasefire in February 2021 led to an immediate and sustained drop in violations through to March 2025.

“During periods of intense cross-border firing we’ve seen border populations in the many thousands be displaced for months on end,” says Mr Krishna. Between late September and early December 2016, more than 27,000 people were displaced from border areas due to ceasefire violations and cross-border firing.

It’s looking increasingly hairy and uncertain now.

Tensions flared after the Pahalgam attack, with India suspending the key water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan, known as the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Pakistan responded by threatening to exit the 1972 Simla Agreement, which formalised the LoC – though it hasn’t followed through yet.

“This is significant because the Simla Agreement is the basis of the current LoC, which both sides agreed to not alter unilaterally in spite of their political differences,” says Mr Krishna.

Mr Jacob says for some “curious reason”, ceasefire violations along the LoC have been absent from discussions and debates about escalation of conflict between the two countries.

“It is itself puzzling how the regular use of high-calibre weapons such as 105mm mortars, 130 and 155mm artillery guns and anti-tank guided missiles by two nuclear-capable countries, which has led to civilian and military casualties, has escaped scholarly scrutiny and policy attention,” Mr Jacob writes in his book, Line On Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics.

Mr Jacob identifies two main triggers for the violations: Pakistan often uses cover fire to facilitate militant infiltration into Indian-administered Kashmir, which has witnessed an armed insurgency against Indian rule for over three decades. Pakistan, in turn, accuses India of unprovoked firing on civilian areas.

He argues that ceasefire violations along the India-Pakistan border are less the product of high-level political strategy and more the result of local military dynamics.

The hostilities are often initiated by field commanders – sometimes with, but often without, central approval. He also challenges the notion that the Pakistan Army alone drives the violations, pointing instead to a complex mix of local military imperatives and autonomy granted to border forces on both sides.

Some experts believe It’s time to revisit an idea shelved nearly two decades ago: turning the LoC into a formal, internationally recognised border. Others insist that possibility was never realistic – and still isn’t.

“The idea is completely infeasible, a dead end. For decades, Indian maps have shown the entire territory of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir as part of India,” Sumantra Bose told the BBC.

“For Pakistan, making the LoC part of the International Border would mean settling the Kashmir dispute – which is Pakistan’s equivalent of the Holy Grail – on India’s preferred terms. Every Pakistani government and leader, civilian or military, over the past seven decades has rejected this.”

In his 2003 book, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Prof Bose writes: “A Kashmir settlement necessitates that the LoC be transformed – from an iron curtain of barbed wire, bunkers, trenches and hostile militaries to a linen curtain. Realpolitik dictates that the border will be permanent (albeit probably under a different name), but it must be transcended without being abolished.”

“I stressed, though, that such a transformation of the LoC must be embedded in a broader Kashmir settlement, as one pillar of a multi-pillared settlement,” he told the BBC.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmj7l0lne3o

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced deals totaling more than $200 billion between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including a $14.5 billion commitment between Boeing (BA.N), GE Aerospace (GE.N), and Etihad Airways, the White House said.
Etihad confirmed on Friday it was ordering 28 wide-body Boeing aircraft with GE engines, adding that the deal reflected the airline’s “ongoing approach to aligning its fleet with evolving network and operational needs.”

The Abu Dhabi-based airline said the planes were expected to join the fleet starting in 2028.
The White House said earlier that Boeing and GE had received a commitment from Etihad to invest $14.5 billion to buy 28 Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE engines. GE and Boeing did not comment.
“With the inclusion of the next-generation 777X in its fleet plan, the investment deepens the longstanding commercial aviation partnership between the UAE and the United States, fueling American manufacturing, driving exports,” the White House said.
Etihad has a fleet of around 100 aircraft.
Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves said last month that Etihad planned to add 20 to 22 new planes this year, as it aims to expand its fleet to more than 170 planes by 2030 and boost Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification strategy.

Etihad, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s $225 billion wealth fund ADQ, has been through a multi-year restructuring and management shake-up, but has expanded under Neves.
He said that 10 of the new aircraft this year would be Airbus A321LRs, which the carrier launched on Monday and will start operating in August. The remainder include six Airbus A350s and four Boeing 787s.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-announces-over-200-billion-deals-with-uae-white-house-says-2025-05-15/

Nirav Modi, who has been facing fraud and money laundering charges in India, has been in prison in London for nearly six years after losing his extradition battle.

In a major setback for fugitive Indian diamond merchant and businessman Nirav Deepak Modi, his latest bail petition was rejected by London High Court, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Thursday.

Modi, who has been facing fraud and money laundering charges in India, has been in prison in London for nearly six years after losing his extradition battle.

The probe agency said that the bail petition has been rejected by the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division, London. It said that the bail arguments were strongly opposed by the Crown Prosecution Service with the help of a CBI team which had travelled to London.

“Fresh bail petition filed by Nirav Deepak Modi was rejected Thursday by the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division, London. The bail arguments were strongly opposed by the Crown Prosecution Service advocate, who was ably assisted by a strong CBI team consisting of investigating and law officers who travelled to London for this purpose,” the probe agency said in a statement.

Nirav Modi — one of India’s most wanted in connection with the Rs. 6498.20 crore Punjab National Bank loan fraud case — has been in a jail in UK since March 2019. This was his 10th bail petition.

“This was his 10th bail petition since his detention in the UK, which was successfully defended by the CBI through the Crown Prosecution Service, London,” the probe agency said.

The UK High Court has already approved his extradition to India in the favour of the Indian government so he can face the law.

Nirav Modi’s uncle Mehul Choksi, a co-accused in the PNB fraud case, was last month arrested by the authorities in Belgium where he had gone for treatment.

Charges Against Nirav Modi

Nirav Modi had fled India in January 2018, weeks before the PNB scam surfaced and has been in a UK jail since March 2019.

The 55-year-old diamond merchant along with his uncle has been accused of siphoning off over Rs 13,000 crore from the PNB using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit.

Officials at PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai issued letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) to their firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the bank’s central system to evade any scrutiny in case of a default.

Based on the LoUs issued by the PNB, money was lent by the SBI, Mauritius; Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong; Axis Bank, Hong Kong; Bank of India, Antwerp; Canara Bank, Mamana; and SBI, Frankfurt.

Since the accused companies did not repay the amount availed against the said fraudulent LoUs and FLCs, PNB made the payments, including the overdue interest, to the overseas banks, which advanced buyer’s credit and discounted the bills against the fraudulent LoUs and FLCs issued by the PNB, the CBI alleged.

Nirav Modi was declared a fugitive economic offender by a Mumbai court in 2020 and the court had ordered confiscation of his assets.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/nirav-modis-fresh-bail-petition-rejected-by-uk-court-says-cbi-9338830.html

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms.
“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf, according to a shared pool report by AFP.

“We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this… there (are) two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way,” he said.

However, an Iranian source familiar with the negotiations said there were still gaps to bridge in the talks with the U.S. Oil prices fell by about $2 on Thursday on expectations of a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal that could result in sanctions easing.
Talks between Iranian and U.S. negotiators to resolve disputes over Tehran’s nuclear programme ended in Oman on Sunday with further negotiations expected, officials said, as Tehran publicly insisted on continuing its uranium enrichment.
The Trump administration gave Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal during the fourth round of negotiations on Sunday, a U.S. official and two other sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Axios.

But a senior Iranian official said Tehran had not received any fresh proposal from the United States to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, adding that Iran would never compromise on its right to enrich uranium on its soil.
Though Tehran and Washington have both said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the dispute, they remain divided on several red lines that negotiators will have to circumvent to reach a new deal and avert future military action.
In an interview with NBC News published on Wednesday, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran was willing to agree to a deal with the U.S. in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Ali Shamkhani, the adviser, said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons and getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, agree to enrich uranium only to the lower levels needed for civilian use and allow international inspectors to supervise the process, NBC reported.

However, the senior Iranian official told Reuters that “the idea of sending enriched uranium above 5% is not new and has always been part of negotiations with the U.S.”
“It is a complex and technical issue and depends on the other party’s readiness to effectively and verifiably lift sanctions on Iran,” the official said.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that among Tehran’s red lines was reducing the amount of highly enriched uranium stockpile to a level below what was agreed under Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers, which Trump ditched in 2018.

‘RED LINE’

U.S. officials have publicly stated that Iran should halt uranium enrichment, a stance Iranian officials have called a “red line” asserting they will not give up what they view as Iran’s right as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, they have indicated a willingness to reduce the level of enrichment.
Iran’s clerical establishment is ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment, Iranian authorities have said, but in return Tehran wants the lifting of crippling sanctions imposed since 2018 and also watertight guarantees that Trump would not again ditch a nuclear pact.
Iranian sources, close to the negotiation team, said that while Iran is prepared to offer what it considers concessions, “the issue is that America is not willing to lift major sanctions in exchange.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-us-is-getting-very-close-nuclear-deal-with-iran-2025-05-15/

President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his desire to take over the Gaza Strip, telling a business roundtable in Qatar that the U.S. would “make it a freedom zone” and arguing there was nothing left to save in the Palestinian territory.
Trump first pitched his Gaza idea in February, saying the U.S. would redevelop it and force Palestinians to go elsewhere. The plan drew global condemnation, with Palestinians, Arab nations and the U.N. saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is internally displaced as Israel presses a military assault that has killed nearly 53,000 Palestinians and ravaged much of the enclave. Israel began its assault after the October 2023 Hamas attack.
Speaking to a group of officials and business leaders in Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’ political office in Doha for years, Trump said he has “concepts for Gaza that I think are very good: Make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved”.
Trump said he had seen “aerial shots where, I mean, there’s practically no building standing. It’s not like you’re trying to save something. There’s no buildings. People are living under the rubble of buildings that collapsed, which is not acceptable.”

“I want to see that (Gaza) be a freedom zone. And if it’s necessary, I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone. Let some good things happen.”
Trump has previously said he wants to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Palestinians vehemently reject any plan involving them leaving Gaza, comparing such ideas to the 1948 “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war that led to the creation of Israel. Many say they would rather live in the ruins of their homes.
Commenting on Trump’s remarks in Qatar, Hamas official Basem Naim said the president “possesses the necessary influence” to end the Gaza war and help establish a Palestinian state.
But Naim added: “Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian land – it is not real estate for sale on the open market.”

Direct U.S. involvement in Gaza would draw Washington deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and potentially mark its biggest Middle East intervention since its 2003 Iraq invasion. Many Americans view foreign entanglements with skepticism.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-would-make-gaza-freedom-zone-trump-says-qatar-2025-05-15/

India and Pakistan engaged in a conflict earlier this month after Pakistan intervened on behalf of terrorists and tried to attack Indian civilian and military installations.

The Indian Army on Thursday said that following the understanding reached between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan on May 10, both sides have agreed to continue confidence-building measures aimed at reducing alertness levels along the border.

The decision was conveyed in a communication issued by the Indian Army on Thursday.

“As the situation develops further, we shall intimate you,” the note added.

Meanwhile, a report by news agency AFP which cited Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, said that the ceasefire has been agreed upon until Sunday. The Minister told the Pakistan National Assembly that both sides had “military to military communications” on Wednesday and Thursday and “today we had a conversation and it is a ceasefire until May 18″.

The Indian Army has contested Pakistan’s claim that another round of DGMO-level communication took place on Wednesday.

Source : https://www.news18.com/india/india-pakistan-ceasefire-dgmos-agree-to-continue-confidence-building-measures-9338705.html

James Comey posted a photo of a shell formation on Instagram that appeared to read “8647.” Some claimed it was a veiled threat to “eliminate” Donald Trump.

Former FBI Director James Comey sparked controversy on social media after posting a photo of a shell formation on Instagram that appeared to read “8647.” The image quickly drew accusations from some users, who claimed it was a veiled threat to “eliminate” President Donald Trump.

Amid the backlash, Comey deleted the post and issued a public statement to clarify his intent.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.

What does 8647 mean?

The number 86 is American slang that generally means to “get rid of,” “eject,” or “remove.” Meanwhile, 47 may be a reference to the 47th President of the United States. This interpretation fueled speculation that “8647” implied a threat to “eliminate” Trump.

Reactions

Donald Trump Jr slammed Comey, writing, “Just James Comey casually calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!”

Trump ally Laura Loomer also criticized him, saying, “Former FBI Director James Comey @Comey just posted this on his Instagram 2 hours ago, with the caption “cool shell formation on my beach walk”. It’s a pic of shells in the form of “86 47”. This is a call for the assassination of President Trump by the former FBI Director!”

An X user commented, “He expects us to believe that he a man that was I charge of the FBI is unaware of gang/ mafia code speak? I don’t buy it, I think it should warrant an investigation at bare minimum… James Comey is a vindictive person and dangerous!”

Another user wrote, “This code has been in use for over 3 months now. He knows what it means, and he knows other people have been arrested over it.”

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/what-does-8647-mean-james-comey-deletes-controversial-instagram-photo-says-i-oppose-violence-101747348264487.html

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected to take place on Friday in Istanbul, Turkey. This will be the first time the two countries have held such talks in three years amid the ongoing war. DW has more.

Lawyers for Combs sought to portray Cassie to the jury as a willing and eager participant in the music mogul’s sexual lifestyle.

R&B singer Cassie was pressed to read aloud her own explicit messages to ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs in federal court Thursday (May 15), including texts that showed her expressing desire for the drug-fuelled group sex she previously testified left her traumatised.

Lawyers for Combs sought to portray Cassie to the jury as a willing and eager participant in the music mogul’s sexual lifestyle. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His defence says that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise.

Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women into these marathon encounters with sex workers, called “freak-offs”, which sometimes lasted days. Combs insists all the sex was consensual. He’s also accused of using his entourage and employees to facilitate illegal activities, including prostitution-related transportation and coercion, which is a key element of the federal charges.

Messages between Combs and Cassie – both romantic and lurid – were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in a Manhattan courtroom. Defence attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs wrote, while Cassie recited her own messages about what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. Cassie’s testimony will resume Friday.

Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.

DEFENCE HIGHLIGHTS CASSIE’S MESSAGES TO COMBS

While Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has said she felt compelled to participate in freak-offs to keep Combs happy, Estevao pointed to message exchanges where Cassie appeared excited about the sexual encounters and raised the idea of having one on her own.

In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied: “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.”

Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.

Estevao also noted a July 2013 text message exchange where Cassie wrote to Combs, “Wish we could’ve FO’d before you left”, using the initials of freak-off.

In a 2017 text message, Cassie told Combs: “I love our FOs when we both want it.” On the stand Thursday, Cassie explained: “I would say loving FOs were just words at that point.”

Cassie complained at one point that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defence was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”

Combs’ attorney presented Cassie with sexual texts she sent before a 2016 encounter at a Los Angeles hotel, where Combs was caught on surveillance video kicking and dragging her in a hallway. Cassie said she wanted to get the encounter over with, in order to keep Combs happy and avoid a scene ahead of a movie premier she was attending days later.

Estevao raised instances of Cassie’s anger with Combs and her admitted jealousy over attention he gave other women. Cassie said Combs didn’t want her seeing anyone else, but the same rules didn’t apply to him.

Cassie testified that after a few years with Combs she longed to be a bigger part of his life but he wouldn’t let her in. Their relationship lasted from 2007 to 2018.

A PACKED COURTROOM WATCHES CASSIE’S TESTIMONY

The cross-examination didn’t have the combative tone of a stereotypical defence grilling. Estevao spoke gently, and she and Cassie seemed like two friends chatting at times.

The 38-year-old Cassie – who is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child – has held up well on the witness stand. She cried several times during the previous two days of questions by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained composed and matter-of-fact as she spoke about the most sensitive subjects.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

As the explicit messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defence table, sitting back with his hands folded and legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists, and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters including her husband.

During a break, Combs stood at the table, huddling with his lawyers, holding a pack of Post-It notes in one hand and a pen in the other. At one point, he turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters who were studying his demeanor. “How you doing?” he asked. Combs’ daughters were not in the courtroom Thursday.

Jurors leaned forward in their seats to follow along as the messages were displayed on monitors in front of them in the jury box. One woman shook her head as a particularly explicit message was shown. A man stared intently at the screen, pressing his thumb to his chin. Other jurors appeared curious and quizzical, some looking at Cassie or jotting notes.

DEFENCE DRAWS A COMPARISON TO THE ‘SWINGERS LIFESTYLE’, BUT CASSIE PUSHES BACK

While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle”.

Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to that lifestyle.

“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”

Cassie said Tuesday that Combs was obsessed with a form of voyeurism where “he was controlling the whole situation”. The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public parties that attracted A-list celebrities.

She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover from the encounters, and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterward.

Cassie’s testimony on cross-examination was in contrast to previous days, when she described the violence and shame that accompanied her “hundreds” of freak-offs during her relationship with Combs.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/cassie-diddy-sean-combs-trial-sex-trafficking-testify-explicit-text-messages-465081

S Jaishankar’s call to Mr Muttaqi comes days after the Taliban, which New Delhi is yet to officially recognise, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians, all tourists, were killed by Pakistan-linked terrorists in a religiously-motivated attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Scripting a new chapter in regional dynamics, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday spoke with the Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi over an official phone call. The call assumes significance as it is the first ministerial-level outreach by India to Afghanistan’s Taliban administration.

Dr Jaishankar’s call to Mr Muttaqi comes days after Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, which New Delhi is yet to officially recognise, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians, all tourists, were killed by Pakistan-linked terrorists in a religiously-motivated attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

‘MINISTERIAL-LEVEL TALKS – A FIRST WITH TALIBAN’

In a post on social media platform X shortly after the phone call, Dr Jaishankar wrote, “Good conversation with Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi this evening. Deeply appreciate his condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.” He added that during the discussion he “underlined our (India’s) traditional friendship with the Afghan people and continuing support for their development needs. Discussed ways and means of taking cooperation forward.”

‘A REBUTTAL TO PAKISTAN’

Countering Pakistan’s false narrative of linking the Taliban to the incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and India’s response to it, Dr Jaishankar wrote that he welcomed Mr Muttaqi’s “firm rejection of recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports” in the Pakistani media.

‘IMPORTANCE OF IRAN’S CHABAHAR PORT’

According to Taliban’s Director of Communication Hafiz Zia Ahmad, during the call, Mr Muttaqi asked Dr Jaishankar to provide more visas to Afghan nationals, especially to those seeking medical attention. He also mentioned that bilateral trade, release and return of Afghan prisoners in Indian jails, and development of the Chabahar Port in Iran were discussed.

The senior Taliban official shared a series of posts in the Pashto language, which broadly listed what was discussed between the two ministers.

Discussion on Chabahar Port assumes importance at a time when India and Pakistan have completely ended all trade ties and closed its border posts in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack. Being a land-locked country, Afghanistan feels the impact, as it depends on land routes via Pakistan to reach India.

India and Afghanistan share a land border too, but that has remained cut-off by Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK since 1947. The only other option for trade is via the Chabahar Port in Iran.

‘FOSTERING TIES WITH THE TALIBAN’

India and the Taliban administration have been taking steps to strengthen ties since August 2021, when the regime came to power after US’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. Over the years, a series of meetings between Indian diplomats and Taliban officials have worked towards broader cooperation between the two countries which have shared historic ties.

Though ties have not yet normalised, India’s policy towards Afghanistan under the Taliban regime has been focused on providing humanitarian aid and the well-being of Afghan citizens. Diplomatic initiatives have also been ongoing towards bringing normalcy to ties.

As recently as April 27 this year, days after the Pahalgam terror attack, senior Indian diplomat Anand Prakash visited Kabul as tensions peaked between New Delhi and Islamabad over “cross-border terror links”. Mr Prakash held a meeting with Mr Muttaqi during the visit.

‘DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENTS’

Other key visits by senior Indian diplomats include those by Mr JP Singh, who visited Afghanistan twice last year – in March to meet acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, and in November to meet the acting defence minister Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid. Both meetings happened in Kabul.

Besides the meetings in Afghanistan, a high-level meeting also took place in Dubai in January this year, when foreign secretary Vikram Misri, along with an Indian delegation met Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and an Afghan delegation. The two leaders held wide-ranging bilateral talks, including on Chabahar Port.

The meeting in Dubai was aimed at bolstering cooperation over humanitarian aid, developmental assistance, trade, commerce, sports, cultural ties, regional security, and projects of national interest.

‘CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEASURES’

In recent times, the Government of India has also permitted the Taliban to gradually take control of the Afghan missions in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad in order to provide consular services to its nationals in India and assist those coming from Afghanistan to India on business or to study, or get medical care.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/in-a-first-s-jaishankar-speaks-to-taliban-foreign-minister-scripts-history-8425246#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks: The Istanbul delegation will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and will include military and intelligence officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday announced that a Ukrainian delegation will participate in talks with Russia in Istanbul, with the primary goal of achieving a ceasefire.

The Istanbul delegation will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and will include military and intelligence officials.

Talks between Ukrainian and Russian diplomats are scheduled to take place in Istanbul today, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry source quoted by the German news agency dpa, as reported by DW News.

In a post on X, Zelenskyy wrote, “I want to sincerely thank President @RTErdogan, his team, and the people of Turkiye for their support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. President Erdogan reaffirmed during our meeting today that he supports Ukraine and recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine. We demonstrated the strength and seriousness of our delegation, which includes: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Head of the Office of the President, the Minister of Defence, the Chief of the General Staff, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and representatives of all our intelligence agencies.”

“I want to emphasise that Turkiye has welcomed us with a delegation of equal standing — at the highest level. Unfortunately, after learning the composition of the Russian delegation, it became clear that they are not approaching real talks seriously,” the post added.

Despite expressing doubts about Russia’s commitment to negotiations, Zelenskyy emphasised that Ukraine is proceeding with the talks out of respect for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.

Zelenskyy said, “Nevertheless, despite the extremely low level of the Russian delegation, out of respect — for President Trump, for the high-level delegations present in Turkiye, and for President Erdogan, and out of a sincere desire to take at least the first steps toward de-escalation and ending the war, beginning with a ceasefire. I have decided to send a Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul. Not all members of our delegation will go: the Head of the Security Service and the Chief of the General Staff will not attend. However, the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul will be led by the Minister of Defence, Rustem Umerov. He will be joined by military professionals and intelligence officers.”

Zelenskyy further said that Russia is not taking the talks seriously and “does not genuinely want to end the war.”

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/zelenskyy-names-delegation-for-russia-ukraine-talks-at-istanbul-says-ceasefire-top-priority-8425601#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Shehbaz Sharif added that the “conditions for peace” include the Kashmir issue.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday extended an offer of talks to India, saying Pakistan is ready to engage “for peace”.

Shehbaz made the comments during a visit to the Kamra air base in the country’s Punjab province where he interacted with officers and soldiers involved in the recent military confrontation with India.

“We are ready to talk with it (India) for peace,” he said.

The prime minister added that the “conditions for peace” include the Kashmir issue.

India has maintained that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh “are and always will be integral and inalienable parts of it”.

Shehbaz was accompanied to the airbase by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Army Chief General Asim Munir, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu.

This was the prime minister’s second visit to a defence facility following the understanding reached between India and Pakistan India on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7 to avenge the killings of 26 people in the Pahalgam terror attack.

Indian armed forces targeted nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, killing over 100 terrorists.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pakistan-prime-minister-shehbaz-sharif-offers-dialogue-with-india-for-peace-8424650#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

A CHEAP copy of the monumental Magna Carta bought by Harvard University for $27 is actually an original worth a whopping $21million (£16million).

The jaw-dropping revelation came after two researchers analysed the “print” – but realised it was in fact a rare version of the document issued by Edward I.

The original Magna Carta established in 1215 famously stated that the King is subject to law.

The landmark charter, intended to make peace between King John and rebel barons in the 13th century, has formed the basis of constitutions globally.

Until now, it was believed that there were only four copies of the 1215 original and just six copies of the 1300 version.

But the groundbreaking discovery has now changed that fact – bringing the total amount of 1300 copies to seven.

Professor of medieval history at King’s College London David Carpenter said his reaction was one of “amazement, and in a way, awe”.

He had been searching the Harvard Law School Library website in December 2023 when he found the digitised document.

The researcher said: “First, I’d found one of the most rare documents and most significant documents in world constitutional history.

“But secondly, of course, it was astonishment that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realizing what it was.”

Carpenter then teamed up with Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia to analyse and confirm the document’s origin.

Comparing it wit six other authentic copies from 1300, they made the shocking discovery that the dimensions matched up.

The pair then turned to images Harvard librarians created using ultraviolet light and spectral imaging.

This technology helps to highlight details on faded documents which are not perceivable to the naked eye.

With these images, they compared the text word-for-word and handwriting which included a large capital “E” at the start of “Edwardus”.

Although the first version 1250 was annulled, the charter was reissued in 1300 by Edward I.

It promised protection of church rights, limits on taxes and access to impartial justice.

Four of its clauses, including the guarantee of fair legal process, have survived and are still enshrined in law to this day.

Carpenter said the 1300 edition of Magna Carta was “different from the previous versions in a whole series of small ways and the changes are found in every single one”.

Harvard needed a copy that could prove authenticity, and Carpenter said they passed this test “with flying colours”.

The tattered and faded copy is now worth millions of dollars – a 1297 version of the Magna Carta sold at auction for $21.3million in 2007.

But Harvard have no plans to sell it now.

The mysterious journey it took to end up in the hands of the university was uncovered mainly by Vincent, who traced it back to the former parliamentary borough of Appleby in Westmorland, England.

The Harvard Law School library purchased the “copy” in 1946 from a London-based book dealer for a mere $27.50.

It was wrongly dated as a 1327 version when it was bought.

SEAN “Diddy” Combs overdosed after partying at the Playboy Mansion, his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura testified on day four of the disgraced rap mogul’s federal sex trafficking trial.

Cassie said she and Combs were addicted to painkillers throughout their 10-year relationship, but alleged that the drugs sparked even more physical abuse and manipulation from her ex.

Cassie, the government’s star witness, has testified for three days about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Combs, who she alleges raped her when she was dating her now-husband Alex Fine.

As the defense tried to prove she was a consenting adult in Combs’ drug-fueled sex marathons called “freak-offs” during cross-examination on Thursday, she spoke about his reported opiate use.

She said the two were “very much” dependent on opiates and that it led to a scary overdose in February 2012 after the couple went to a sex club in San Bernardino, California.

“And then he had a party at the Playboy Mansion that night, and I went home,” Cassie recalled on the stand.

“From what he told me, he took a really strong opioid that night. But we didn’t know what happened, so we took him to the hospital.”

Cassie said Combs would have “explosive” reactions to her taking drugs without him, and that they called themselves the “Get High Partners.”

She said she witnessed Combs go through withdrawals throughout their relationship, where he would become angry and volatile. Combs has yet to respond to the claims.

Cassie testified that opiates were a huge part of the twisted “freak-offs” that Combs allegedly forced her to take part in and that she would take them to cope with the disturbing ordeals.

CASSIE’S TESTIMONY

Over her first two days of questioning by prosecutors, Cassie recounted details of multiple “freak-offs” and violent episodes.

Cassie told the court Combs made incessant demands for orgies, which took place weekly and would last for up to four days as she took drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, and mushrooms to stay awake.

She said she was terrified to refuse Combs’ orders out of fear he would hurt her and share videos of the “freak-offs.”

Combs faces five criminal counts, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The rapper has pleaded not guilty to all charges as prosecutors continue to paint him as the ringleader of a criminal enterprise.

He has denied all allegations against him and insists he’s only engaged in consensual sex.

What to know about the jury

• A dozen New Yorkers and six alternates were chosen to serve on the jury in Sean Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial.

  The 12 selected jurors consist of eight men and four women, including:

  • Man, 31, investment analyst
  • Man, 39, social worker
  • Man, 41, communications clerk at a prison system facility
  • Man, 51, scientist
  • Man, 67, bank analyst
  • Man, 68, retired finance worker
  • Man, 68, retired telecommunications field technician
  • Man, 69, massage therapist and actor
  • Woman, 30, deli clerk
  • Woman, 42, nursing home dietary aide
  • Woman, 43, physician assistant
  • Woman, 74, former treatment coordinator at a charity for blind people

Picture of Combs from February 2012

Cassie Ventura testified on Thursday that Sean “Diddy” Combs once overdosed on opiates on a night he partied at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills in 2012.

Below are pictures from February 12, 2012, when Combs performed during a Grammy Party at the Playboy Mansion.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14219435/diddy-trial-live-updates-cassie-court-witness-video/

The Israeli army continued its operation in the Gaza Strip, carrying out multiple strikes for the second night in a row. Israel’s government has vowed a “full force” push into the Palestinian enclave to “destroy Hamas.”

Multiple Israeli airstrikes and shelling killed dozens across the Gaza Strip overnight into Thursday.

Gaza’s civil defense agency, Palestinian medics and the WAFA news agency reported different death tolls ranging from 40 to 60 people.

According to a Gaza civil agency spokesperson, at least 13 people were “recovered from the rubble” after a strike in Khan Younis, a city located in southern Gaza, where the latest strikes have been concentrated.

It was the second day of heavy bombing in the Gaza Strip, with the Associated Press reporting airstrikes throughout Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 60 people, including 22 children.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.

No ceasefire renewal in sight

The expanded strikes come as the Israeli government approved plans to expand its military operation in Gaza.

Despite polls showing the majority of the Israeli public would like its government to reach a hostage deal which would end the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push ahead with further escalating Israel’s war to destroy the Hamas militant group, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization.

In comments released Tuesday by Netanyahu’s office, the prime minister said Israeli forces were days away from entering Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission … It means destroying Hamas.”

Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza, which came in retaliation for the October 2023 terrorist attack orchestrated by Hamas, has killed nearly 53,000 people mostly civilians, according to figures by the Hamas-run health ministry in the strip, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Since Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas on March 18, almost 3,000 people have been killed.

Israel has also prevented any international aid from entering the Gaza Strip since mid-March. International aid agencies warn of mass starvation in Gaza if more food aid is not allowed.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/dozens-killed-as-israel-ramps-up-gaza-strikes/a-72551448

How General Asim Munir sparked and used the recent India-Pakistan conflict to solidify his leadership and his Army’s stature even as the country struggles with political and economic challenges.

The latest India-Pakistan conflagration ended in a ceasefire and Donald Trump ran away with the trophy, leaving the contestants confused. The curtains have fallen, the smoke has cleared, and the scorecards are in. India has delivered a knockout in a clear win, reasserting its dominance and resetting the deterrence.

But Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif declared “he won” before the marks were fully counted. The streets from Peshawar to Chichawatni erupted in celebrations, blissfully unaware that their airfields now resemble Swiss cheese and their military sites have been given a rather aggressive facelift by Indian strikes. Who needs facts when you have a PR machine that could make Lollywood blush?

On this side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Adampur Airbase to debunk Pakistan’s much-touted claim of reducing it to rubble. Modi’s photo-op was the diplomatic equivalent of a mic drop.

There are no winners or losers in 21st-Century wars, only parties left with more damage or less. This four-day war had a winner: Asim Munir.

While Pakistan’s military licked its wounds, Munir has spun this debacle into a personal coronation. The man who recently stood on a stage, invoking the two-nation theory and vowing to “crush the enemy, inshallah,” has delivered not victory, but something far more valuable: relevance.

THE ARMY’S REVENGE

Two years ago, on May 9, 2023, the unthinkable had happened. Supporters of the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan turned against the army. They rioted with such ferocity that they desecrated military symbols and stormed the homes of top officers. For the first time, the Army, once revered as the nation’s saviour, was the villain in the public’s eyes.

General Asim Munir is his predecessor General Bajwa’s revenge on Pakistan and Imran Khan. The Bajwa doctrine was a shift from Pakistan’s rigid “bleed India with thousand cuts” as he realised Pakistan was reduced in stature after every skirmish with India. He wanted a moratorium till Pakistan was economically strong enough to stand on its own feet. But Khan, the most popular, and Bajwa, the most powerful, fell out and, on his way out, Bajwa installed Asim Munir in his seat.

As the saying goes, the Pakistani Army has never won a war and never lost an election. True to form, Munir’s Army orchestrated a compromised election, banned Khan’s party, and installed Shahbaz Sharif as Prime Minister. The people grumbled, but the Army marched on.

Munir, addressing a meeting of overseas Pakistanis, suggested that he had a surprise for India and the Hindus. The Pahalgam terrorist attack in Kashmir followed. No direct link. Yet all intelligence suggests somebody in the ISI, Pakistan’s subversive spy agency, greenlit the operation.

The gruesome massacre of 26 tourists set the stage for this latest flare-up. India vowed retaliation and launched pinpointed strikes on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan, carefully avoiding civilian and military targets. Pakistan promised escalation and tried to attack India’s military installations and cities with drone swarms and missiles. Nearly all of them were thwarted. India followed up with a devastating pummelling of Pakistan’s military assets, so bad that the US stepped in and brokered a pause.

FROM VILLAN TO DARLING

A MAN has tragically fallen to his death after a hot air balloon caught fire during a festival, with the horrifying moment caught on camera.

The 40-year-old man, identified as Luicio N., heroically saved two other passengers before his fatal plunge.

Footage shared on social media shows him dangling from a rope as the burning balloon continued to ascend.

The accident occurred during the First Balloon Festival at the Enrique Estrada Fair, roughly 19 miles outside the city of Zacatecas, Mexico, on Sunday.

Luicio and two others were aboard the balloon when it suddenly caught fire on the ground.

In a split-second act of bravery, Luicio pulled the two passengers from the flaming basket, guiding them to safety.

However, in the chaos, he became entangled in the balloon’s lines, and the basket continued to rise.

Hanging from the rope, Luicio was carried higher into the air before finally letting go, falling many feet to the ground.

He was declared dead after the fall, according to Riviera Maya News.

Two other passengers suffered first-degree burns and were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The heart-wrenching incident unfolded in front of horrified festival-goers, who witnessed the man’s tragic final moment.

Authorities are now investigating the cause of the fire and the circumstances surrounding the accident.

“I regret to inform you that during the First Balloon Festival, part of the Enrique Estrada 2025 Fair organized by the city council of this municipality, a person lost their life after an unfortunate incident while aboard a hot air balloon,” said Secretary General Rodrigo Reyes Mugüerza.

Following the incident, local police recovered Luicio’s body, while paramedics attended to the injured passengers.

The balloon’s owners have reportedly abandoned the remaining balloons at the scene.

The State Attorney General’s Office has now launched an investigation, urging balloon operators to ensure strict safety measures are in place.

“I regret to inform you that during the First Balloon Festival, part of the Enrique Estrada 2025 Fair organized by the city council of this municipality, a person lost their life after an unfortunate incident while aboard a hot air balloon

“We have asked the State Attorney General’s Office to conduct the corresponding investigations to clarify the facts and determine responsibility,” Reyes Mugüerza added.

The horrifying footage quickly spread across social media, with viewers reacting in shock after witnessing the man’s fatal fall.

“You couldn’t pay me enough to go in a hot air balloon or helicopter,” said one user.

“Saddest part is at the moment he ran out of grip the balloon started to descend.”

“How sad are the images of the accident.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14236814/hot-air-balloon-fire-mexico-man-plunges-death/

HE was the most wanted terrorist in history.

But it took the American intelligence services almost 10 years to hunt down Osama Bin Laden after the 9/11 terror attacks shocked the world.

Now, a new Netflix documentary, American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden, charts the nerve-wracking, decade-long global missions to capture the world’s most notorious criminal.

It also examines the costly errors that meant the Al Qaeda leader could have been brought to justice far sooner, with a senior CIA boss candidly admitting they “could have ended it” just months after the atrocity.

From the moment the World Trade Centre fell, US intelligence officers were focused on working out who was responsible.

The CIA immediately got to work trawling the flight manifests – the documents that detailed everyone who was on the hijacked planes that hit the two towers – as the terrorists would be on there too.

Gina Bennett, a CIA counter-terrorism analyst, says: “There was a name on a manifest that was suspected of being a pretty major Al Qaeda operative.

“For years that was the terrorist group that we knew was determined to attack the United States. That name, that moment, there was just no way that was a coincidence. We knew immediately this was Osama bin Laden.”

Gina was part of a crack CIA team, mainly women, who had been focusing on Bin Laden since the Nineties.

Her colleague Cindy Storer says: “We knew that Bin Laden was operating training camps and safe houses against the Soviet Union.

“When the war was over, we discovered he turned those camps into training camps for Islamic militants to go out and attack other countries. We knew they had terrorist capabilities.

“So we didn’t know to what extent they were going to come directly after the US.”

Attacks started across the world, heralding a new wave of terrorism, and in the months before 9/11, there was intelligence that Al Qaeda posed a threat to American targets.

Gina says: “All the indicators were that something big was happening.”

Cindy adds: “We got reporting that people in Bin Laden’s network were calling their mothers and telling them goodbye and stuff like that. Something very serious was about to happen.”

Unimaginable atrocity

The US government was warned by the CIA that the likely targets would be famous landmarks or symbols of US capitalism – but they did not know when or how.

And none of them could have imagined the extent or horror of 9/11 when it did happen.

Cindy says: “You can’t not feel some responsibility for not stopping an attack that occurred on your watch. So you can’t help but question yourself.”

It soon became clear that the Taliban government in Afghanistan were providing a safe haven for Bin Laden, who became the world’s most wanted man after the events of 9/11 left 2,977 people dead.