Category: World

A bitcoin company tied to President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons more than doubled in value in its stock market debut on Wednesday, valuing the sons’ stake at well over $1.5 billion as the first family grows their crypto business interests.
Shares in American Bitcoin Corp , a bitcoin miner, soared as high as $14.52 in its first day of trade on the Nasdaq, before pulling back to be up 16.5% at $8.04 by the end of the day.

The company is around 20% owned by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, American Bitcoin Executive Chairman Asher Genoot said in a previous interview.
This values their stake in American Bitcoin at $1.5 billion at the close of trade, based on 908.6 million outstanding shares that American Bitcoin said it had in a September 2 stock exchange filing. The highest price struck by the stock on Wednesday valued their stake at $2.6 billion.
Crypto ventures have become an important driver of growth and potential windfall profits for the president’s family, where the family business – The Trump Organization – had in the past focused on building and running real estate projects and golf courses.

“Crypto is exploding,” Eric Trump said in an interview on Wednesday. “I would be saying right now, the crypto space is at least 50% of what I’m doing.”
The Trump family’s forays into crypto have drawn criticisms from Democratic lawmakers and government ethics watchdogs about conflicts of interests. Critics say the Trump family is profiting from crypto at the same time when the president is easing regulations and enforcement on the industry.
Eric Trump, the second son of Trump, dismissed such criticisms on Wednesday as “insane.”
“My father has absolutely nothing to do with this venture,” Eric Trump said. “He’s is running a nation. He’s not involved in our businesses in any way, shape or form.”
Eric Trump, who holds the titles of co-founder and chief strategy officer at American Bitcoin, described his role at the company as akin to a spokesperson.

“Crypto had a very bad voice for a long time. They really had a hard time communicating a message,” Eric Trump said. “I think I’ve become one of the great spokespeople for crypto over the last, call it, you know, 12 to 18 months,” he said.
“I think I’ve been able to put a great voice on that, not just here in the U.S., but worldwide.”
President Donald Trump has promised to be the “crypto president,” saying he backs the asset class because it can improve the banking system and increase the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
In line with his family’s growing crypto interests, Eric Trump has travelled internationally this year to cities including Dubai, Hong Kong and Tokyo to rally foreign support for the crypto industry.
The Trump family has launched a string of crypto ventures in the past year, from American Bitcoin to World Liberty Financial, and meme coins launched by Trump and his wife before the president’s inauguration in January.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/trumps-oldest-sons-american-bitcoin-stake-worth-15-billion-stock-debut-2025-09-03/

The arrest of a 45-year-old Malaysian man in Thailand found with two assault rifles and hundreds of bullets during a roadblock inspection last Saturday (Aug 30) has prompted Malaysia to tighten its border security.

Thai authorities suspect the case is linked to arms trafficking and also possibly associated with narcotics, but not connected to insurgent groups in Thailand’s southern provinces, according to an official arrest report prepared by Sadao police seen by CNA.

The arrest came on the back of numerous high-profile shooting incidents in Malaysia in recent months.

The man was travelling towards the Sadao border – leading to Kedah state – in a Malaysia-registered car at about 5.35pm when he was stopped at a checkpoint in front of the Dannok police post, Thai police said.

They added that the driver behaved suspiciously and was directed for further checks, upon which officers found weapons and ammunition hidden in bags placed behind the driver’s seat.

These include two disassembled AR-15 style assault rifles and more than 400 rounds of ammunition, police said. The driver also tested positive for methamphetamine, the arrest report said.

The Sadao and Bukit Kayu Hitam checkpoints are a major border crossing between the two countries that links the Thai province of Songkhla to Kedah, with Dannok town just a few hundred metres away from the border.

The man is currently being held at Sadao police station for further investigation and questioning with the help of a translator, according to the arrest report.

The man told police he had received a WhatsApp call from a Malaysian friend on Saturday morning asking him to pick up a package at a temple in Songkhla province.

At the temple, an unidentified Thai man placed the bags with the weapons in his car, the man said in the police statement detailed in the arrest report.

Kedah police chief Adzli Abu Shah confirmed the arrest to Harian Metro – which first reported on the incident on Monday – saying that the Royal Malaysia Police had been informed of the case.

“Let the Thai authorities investigate first because we still do not know the purpose, whether it was meant to be used there or brought into this country,” he was quoted as saying.

Adzli also said that tighter controls have been enforced at the Bukit Kayu Hitam and Durian Burung border checkpoints in Kedah to prevent smuggling activities or the entry of prohibited items into the country, Berita Harian reported on Tuesday.

The Durian Burung checkpoint is about 60km east of Bukit Kayu Hitam.

On Tuesday, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Ismail said Malaysia will dispatch officers to Thailand to conduct a detailed investigation into the case.

“Investigations are ongoing, including allegations that the weapons were intended to be smuggled into Malaysia,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

“So far, only one individual has been arrested, but the probe will be expanded to determine the modus operandi and the organisation behind this activity.”

In February, Israeli national Shalom Avitan was sentenced to seven years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to possessing 200 rounds of ammunition and six guns in Malaysia in 2024.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-thailand-smuggling-rifles-bullets-sadao-5330501

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce could tie the knot in Rhode Island, a source tells Page Six.

While some publications have said the pair are in no rush to wed, our insider tells us “They are getting married next summer in Rhode Island. She is in a hurry to have children.”

While a wedding this high-profile can draw gripes from locals (see Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s Venice nuptials), Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee is rooting for the pair choose his state for their nuptials.

“Rhode Island has some of the best wedding venues in the world, just saying,” McKee said on a repost of the couple’s wedding announcement on social media last week.

Swift’s mansion in the town of Westerly’s Watch Hill area is currently undergoing a $1.7 million renovation according to a building permit obtained by the Providence Journal.

Updates will include a new wing with a 16-by-24 feet bedroom and more bathrooms, and an update to the kitchen.

Swift purchased the home in 2013 for $17.5 million, and it already includes 8 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 5.23 acres with gardens and a swimming pool.

The manse became famous for Swift’s star-studded Fourth of July parties. And last August, Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes were spotted at one of her pool bashes.

Swift even immortalized the estate in her hit, “The Last Great American Dynasty,” off the 2020 album “Folklore.”

The lyrics tell the tale of the mansion’s former owner, Rebekah Harkness, the scandalous socialite who wed Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness in 1947 and used to fill the pool with champagne.

It is unclear whether the wedding would take place at her home or a venue in the area.

(In June, a so-called “Taylor Swift Tax” was passed in the state, charging non-primary residents $2.50 for every $500 of assessed property value above $1 million.)

Page Six previously reported the couple plan to have a “private” ceremony with family and close friends.

“It will be more casual than people think,” a source told us.

The Grammy-winning singer and the Super Bowl champ announced their engagement on Aug. 26 with a series of photos taken in his garden with the caption, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/09/03/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-amp-travis-kelce-to-tie-the-knot-in-rhode-island/

The unusual spectacle unfolded on Wednesday, shortly after the North Korean and Russian leaders held talks following a grand military parade in Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping showcased his nation’s growing diplomatic clout.

In a scene that looked more like a crime drama than diplomatic protocol, a video has surfaced online showing North Korean staff frantically scrubbing and sanitising every object Kim Jong Un touched during his meeting with Vladimir Putin in China.

The unusual spectacle unfolded on Wednesday, shortly after the North Korean and Russian leaders held talks following a grand military parade in Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping showcased his nation’s growing diplomatic clout.

Footage posted on Telegram shows two of Kim’s aides moving swiftly into action once the meeting concluded. One staffer carefully polished the backrest of the chair Kim had occupied, while another carried away his drinking glass on a tray with the precision of a forensic investigator.

No surface was left untouched – the wooden arms of the chair, the upholstery, and even the side table were vigorously wiped down until there was no trace of the North Korean leader’s presence.

“After the negotiations, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,” Russian journalist Alexander Yunashev reported on his channel Yunashev Live.

“They took away the glass from which he drank, wiped the upholstery of the chair and those parts of the furniture that the Korean leader touched.”

According to Yunashev, the official meeting ended on a positive note, with both Kim and Putin leaving “very satisfied” before heading off to enjoy tea together in a more relaxed setting.

The exact reason for the North Korean leader’s forensic-level decontamination remains unclear. Some speculate it may have been a precaution against Russia’s powerful security services, while others suggest unease about China’s surveillance reach. But Kim is far from the only head of state fiercely protective of his biological footprint.

Putin himself is said to go to extraordinary lengths to guard against DNA theft. Reports claim his bodyguards collect his urine and faecal matter in sealed bags whenever he travels abroad, which are then spirited back to Moscow in special suitcases. The practice, apparently in place since 2017, is believed to be designed to prevent hostile powers from gathering intelligence about the Russian president’s health.

A similar measure was reportedly in play during Putin’s high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska. Russian security staff were said to have carried the President’s excrement back to Moscow in suitcases, underlining the Kremlin’s obsession with shielding even the most intimate details of the leader’s wellbeing.

At the Beijing talks, Kim went beyond cautious hygiene, pledging his full support to Putin. “If there is anything I can or must do for you and the Russian people, I consider it my duty as a fraternal obligation,” Kim told the Russian president, who addressed him warmly as “Dear Chairman of State Affairs”.

Putin thanked Pyongyang for sending troops to Ukraine, though reports suggest some 2,000 of the 13,000 North Korean soldiers dispatched to support Russia’s war effort have already been killed.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/north-koreas-great-clean-up-kim-jong-uns-aides-erase-dna-after-talks-with-putin-2781377-2025-09-03

A federal judge overturned Trump administration cuts to $2.6 billion in Harvard research funding, calling them illegal retaliation. The ruling revives stalled projects and intensifies stalled negotiations over a potential settlement.

A federal judge in Boston has struck down Trump administration cuts to more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University, calling them unlawful retaliation over governance disputes.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled on Wednesday that the administration’s actions violated the law after Harvard resisted White House demands for changes to its governance and campus policies.

The decision marks a major win for Harvard, which has battled the administration over funding freezes, foreign student restrictions and threats to revoke its tax-exempt status.

If upheld, the ruling would restore hundreds of federally funded research projects stalled by the loss of money. The court’s decision also increases pressure on ongoing settlement talks between Harvard and the administration.

Trump has insisted Harvard must pay at least $500 million as part of any deal. While agreements have been reached with Columbia and Brown, negotiations with Harvard remain deadlocked.

Harvard’s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force.

Harvard alleging retaliation after it rejected demands from a federal antisemitism task force. The April 11 letter sought sweeping changes on protests, academics and admissions, citing government accusations that the university tolerated antisemitism and leaned too liberal.

Harvard President Alan Garber has pledged to confront antisemitism but rejected political interference. “No government should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he said.

White House blasts Harvard ruling and vows to appeal

White House spokesperson Liz Huston took aim at US District Judge Allison Burroughs in a sharply worded statement for the order that calls for the reversal of cuts of more than $2.6 billion in federal funding for Harvard University. She said the administration would appeal the decision.

“Just as President Trump correctly predicted on the day of the hearing, this activist Obama-appointed judge was always going to rule in Harvard’s favor, regardless of the facts,” Huston said.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/judge-reverses-trump-administrations-cuts-of-billions-in-research-funding-to-harvard-glbs-2781649-2025-09-04

With 20 world leaders in attendance, including Russia’s Putin, Xi Jinping paraded an impressive array of drones and advanced hypersonic missiles as China hosted its Victory Day parade.

China flexed its military might in a staggering show of its advanced weapon systems, missiles and stealth fighter jets on Wednesday as it marked 80 years since the end of World War II.

With 20 world leaders in attendance, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping paraded advanced hypersonic missiles designed to take out ships, underwater drones, anti-ship missiles and armoured vehicles as the world got to witness some of the most high-tech military hardware for the first time at the iconic Tian’anmen Square.

A new intercontinental ballistic missile, of the Dongfeng series, that could carry nuclear warheads to distant targets also made its debut.

An impressive array of drones was also on display, as was the much-talked about LY-1 laser weapon. China also showed its aerial strength as fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, including the J-20s and J-35s, zoomed past.

Even though analysts have expressed scepticism over the efficacy of Chinese weapons, especially after Operation Sindoor exposed vulnerabilities in Chinese air defence systems with Pakistan, it is a fact that most of the military hardware on display on Wednesday are not available with India or are under development.

A LOOK AT CHINA’S NEW WEAPONS

Hypersonic ‘Yingji’ missiles

China displayed several new YJ-series hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. These are designed to strike warships out at sea at six to seven times the speed of sound with last-stage manoeuvres that make it impossible for air defences to thwart incoming attacks.

YJ-21 anti-ship missile

The YJ-21, already deployed on Chinese warships, differs from traditional hypersonic cruise missiles by incorporating a ballistic flight path. The missile can fly outside the atmosphere before re-entering at six to seven times the speed of sound, furthering its reach and increasing its terminal speed.

With the Yingji series and YJ-21, China demonstrated its dominance of a missile technology that is still under development in most countries, including India.

DF-5C intercontinental missile

The DF-5C ICBM, a new addition to China’s long-range nuclear missile family, was paraded with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). The missile, which launches from underground silos, has the ability to cross continents and target multiple locations in a single launch.

DF-17 with hypersonic glide vehicle

The DF-17 combines a traditional ballistic missile that launches a hypersonic glide vehicle into space before the latter re-enters and hones in on a target at speeds of Mach 6 to 7. This makes the glide vehicle harder to intercept and allows precision strikes at longer ranges.

JL-1 air-launched nuclear missile

An air-launched version of the JL-1 nuclear-capable missile was seen making its public debut as part of China’s ‘nuclear triad’. Launched by a heavy bomber such as the H-6, the JL-1 gives China the ability to fire an aerial nuclear missile from hundreds of kilometres away – a distinct advantage over conventional methods such as flying over a target and dropping a gravity bomb.

AJX002 under-sea drone

A giant under-sea drone, the AJX002 is reported to be over 18 metres long with a torpedo-like shape and pump-jet propulsion. Such drones can conduct stealthy surveillance, mine warfare or act as decoys.

Large unmanned surface vessel

A large unmanned surface vessel with stealth shaping was shown for the first time at the parade. Like the drone submarine, not much is known about this vessel.

J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters

The parade featured China’s fifth-generation J-20 and J-35 fighters. The J-20 is an advanced long-range stealth jet, while the carrier-borne J-35 will bring low-observable strike capability to Chinese aircraft carriers. Not really new, the jets represent the pinnacle of fighter jet technology that is in service right now. India is yet to start developing its own fifth-generation jet.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/china-victory-day-military-parade-weapons-hypersonic-missiles-fighter-jets-drones-all-details-2781446-2025-09-03

There were 43 people on board when the car derailed, reports say

FIFTEEN people are dead and at least 23 injured after a tourist-packed cable car in Lisbon derailed and smashed into a building.

Local media said one of the cars “fell from a great height” and sped down the street “at full speed” and “out of control” before hitting a bend and slamming into a building.

The funicular was destroyed killing passengers on board with a witness saying it also crushed a pedestrian as it tipped over.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause, but initial reports from Publico suggest that a cable snapped – with witnesses pointing to an apparent failure of emergency brakes once the carriage ran loose.

Identities of the dead have not yet been released, but one has been confirmed as the guard on board.

Emergency services raced to the scene, with police, firefighters and paramedics battling to free victims amid twisted metal and smoking wreckage.

Shocking footage and photos showed the bright yellow car crumpled against a building, flipped on its side and torn apart into splintered metal.

Clouds of dust and smoke filled the narrow lane as panicked passengers and bystanders fled on foot.

Fire crews and paramedics swarmed the wreckage, clambering over twisted debris to reach survivors.

Images showed dozens of firefighters working shoulder to shoulder, hauling stretchers up the incline and using cutting equipment to get inside the mangled carriage.

A fire engine and multiple ambulances blocked off the road below, while stunned crowds gathered at the foot of the hill to watch the desperate rescue effort.

Civil protection officials said 62 rescue workers and 22 vehicles were deployed to the site.

João Oliveira, director of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Police, later confirmed that the accident left 23 people hurt – more than the 18 initially reported.

He said the number of serious cases was “slightly higher” than first thought, with “some in critical condition.”

Admitting the toll could still climb, he warned: “Unfortunately, it is possible that the number of deaths will increase.”

A three-year-old child is among those with more minor injuries, according to Publico.

The first victim has now been formally identified as André Marques, the brake guard in charge of the Glória funicular when it derailed, Observador reported.

His union, Sitra, confirmed his death in a note of condolence, praising his service and sending sympathy to his family and the loved ones of all those caught up in the disaster.

Portugal’s National Institute of Medical Emergencies confirmed that some of the victims were foreign nationals.

Emergency service sources said the fatalities include “non-Portuguese” passengers.

Police have not indicated when details of the victims’ nationalities will be released.

A pregnant German woman is in a critical condition, reports Observador.

Meanwhile, a UK FCDO Spokesperson said: “We are aware of this incident in Lisbon and are in touch with the local authorities.

“We stand by to provide consular assistance if there are any affected British nationals.”

The funicular is operated by Lisbon’s tramway company, Carris, which tonight announced it had opened its own investigation.

Witness Teresa d’Avo told TV channel SIC: “It crashed into a building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box. It crashed with tremendous force. It didn’t have any kind of brakes.”

She also told Observador she had been standing near the Glória elevator with a colleague when “the elevator that was further down, almost parking, suffered a small jolt.”

Another witness told SIC news channel: “Sadly, I saw there was a man on the pavement at the precise point where the tram smashed into the building.”

Mrs d’Avo recalled: “The people inside were obviously scared, and we rushed to help.

“Soon after, we saw the elevator upstairs running wild, without brakes, and we all started running away because we thought it was going to hit the one below. But it fell around the bend and crashed into the building.”

She added that emergency crews arrived within minutes.

“The police were here within five minutes, and within ten minutes, we had a fire engine here.”

The Mayor of Lisbon announced three days of mourning for the city, and Portugal’s government said there would also be one day of national mourning.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said: “The President of the Republic deeply regrets the accident that occurred this afternoon with the Gloria funicular railway in Lisbon, particularly the fatalities and serious injuries, as well as the various minor injuries.

“The President of the Republic offers his condolences and solidarity to the families affected by this tragedy and hopes that the incident will be quickly clarified by the competent authorities.”

Pedro Bogas, head of Lisbon’s tramways company, Carris, said it is a “very a sad day, not just for the victims but also for their families”.

He said: “We are very sorry about what happened. Today is a day of consternation.”

The transport boss said that there are daily inspections of the funicular – and general renovations are conducted once every four years.

The last time the funicular underwent general upkeep work was in 2022, he said.

He said: “We have strict protocols, excellent professionals for many years, and we need to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also sent condolences, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the Lisbon tragedy and offering solidarity with the Portuguese people “in this time of grief.”

Meanwhile, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X: “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous ‘Elevador da Glória’.

“My condolences to the families of the victims.”

Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas is at the scene overseeing the rescue operation.

The crash happened during the evening rush hour, when both tourists and locals pack the service.

The funicular, known as Gloria, can carry more than 40 passengers at a time, both seated and standing, and is also frequently used by Lisbon residents for their daily commute.

The furnicular is made up of two cars permanently attached at either end of the same haulage cable so that as one rises the other descends.

According to the BBC, 43 people were on board when the car derailed.

The Glória funicular links Praça dos Restauradores to the trendy Bairro Alto district and has ferried tourists up the steep hillside since 1885.

It is one of three of its kind in Lisbon.

Originally, its two-tiered cars were powered by water tanks that filled and emptied to create weight differences, consuming some 400 cubic meters daily from the Amoreiras reservoir.

Frequent shortages soon forced a switch to steam power, before the line was eventually electrified.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15109607/cable-car-crash-kills-three-lisbon/

Cardi B has emerged triumphant in Los Angeles after being found not liable for assault and battery in a civil case against her.

On Tuesday, a unanimous jury decided against requiring the “WAP” rapper to pay any damages in the $24 million case brought by a former security guard.

According to TMZ, the mom of three — who was accused of spitting on and using racial slurs against Emani Ellis in a 2018 alleged incident — plans to countersue following the verdict.

Cardi B, 32, denied a physical altercation during testimony last week, citing her pregnant condition and Ellis’ size.

She counterclaimed that she and Ellis verbally sparred after the security guard violated her privacy by recording her during a doctor’s visit while she was pregnant with her first child, Kulture.

In a dramatic claim, Ellis alleged that the rapper had injured her cheek after striking her with her fingernail — though a doctor at the rapper’s Beverly Hill’s OB-GYN office testified they did not witness her striking the guard.

Ellis first brought the lawsuit against Cardi B in 2020.

A rep for the “Bodak Yellow” hitmaker did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.

Earlier in the day, Cardi B lashed out by throwing a marker at a paparazzo who questioned her about pregnancy rumors allegedly circulated by estranged husband Offset, as she exited the Los Angeles courtroom.

After hurling the marker — which she snatched from a fan with an outstretched arm — the rapper reprimanded the photographer for showing “disrespect.”

“Do you see women asking those type of questions to me?” she asked in part, while wagging her finger at the paparazzo. “Why do you feel as a man, you get to ask me those type of questions?”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/09/02/celebrity-news/cardi-b-jury-reaches-verdict-in-civil-assault-trial/

Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai party is still seeking to form the next government but is prepared to dissolve parliament, a senior party official said on Tuesday (Sep 2), a move that could trigger a general election.

In a sign of deepening political turmoil as two rival camps vied to form the next government, Pheu Thai Secretary General Sorawong Thienthong said the party was weighing its options between nominating its own candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri for the premiership, or calling a new election.

Sorawong’s remarks came as People’s Party, the biggest force in parliament, met for a second day to discuss who it might back to form the next government, either Pheu Thai, or Bhumjaithai, a renegade party that quit the governing coalition in June and is mounting its own challenge.

“If the People’s Party have the decision to vote for Anutin, we will proceed with the process,” Sorawong told reporters, referring to Bhumjaithai’s leader Anutin Charnvirakul.

“If there is a vote set for prime minister selection, we will submit Chaikasem Nitisiri.”

A court decision last week dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra – daughter of billionaire Pheu Thai patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra – due to an ethics violation, touching off a scramble for power between the populist ruling party and Anutin’s Bhumjaithai.

POLITICAL TURMOIL

Her removal was the latest twist in a tumultuous, two-decade battle for power among Thailand’s rival elites, with Paetongtarn the sixth premier from or backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family to be ousted by the military or judiciary and the second in the space of a year.

Chaikasem, 77, a former attorney-general and justice minister with limited cabinet experience, has kept a low profile in politics. He is the sole remaining eligible prime ministerial candidate for Pheu Thai, a once dominant party that has been haemorrhaging support of late.

There are conflicting opinions among law experts in Thailand as to whether a caretaker government has the authority to seek house dissolution.

Sorawong, the government spokesperson and a top aide to the acting prime minister each did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailands-ruling-pheu-thai-party-prepared-dissolve-parliament-official-says-5328891

THE city chosen to host the White House’s Space Command headquarters is a rural Alabama town with a deep-rooted history with NASA.

Huntsville earned the nickname Rocket City after producing the ship that put the Apollo 11 crew on the Moon in 1969.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the federal government’s Space Command center would be moved from Colorado Springs to the southern town.

This came after he signed an order to bring back the center in 2018 after it had been absorbed in 2002 into the US Strategic Command.

Since his first term, Trump has expressed his intentions to reestablish America as a leader in space exploration and believed that investing in Huntsville was the way forward.

However, in 2023, when Joe Biden was president, his administration decided to keep Space Command in Colorado, where its temporary headquarters had been located.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that hundreds of billions of dollars would be poured into Huntsville and the town would forever be known as “Rocket City.”

For decades, Huntsville has attracted tourists who travel from across the country to see the US Space and Rocket Center (USSRC), which was established by rocketeer Wernher von Braun.

Von Braun worked with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the 1960s and was the lead architect for the world-changing Apollo mission.

He and his team of German-born aerospace engineers helped to produce the Saturn V super-heavy-lift launch vehicle that helped propel spacecraft to the Moon

After making history, von Braun started advocating for space travel in the US, at one point partnering with Walt Disney to produce a series of space-themed movies.

His goal for the USSRC was to get the next generation of Americans excited about exploration and even more outlandish projects like a trip to Mars.

Though he didn’t live long enough to see his plans play out, the center went on to actualize his grand vision.

In 1982, the first Space Camp opened, offering children the opportunity to peek behind the curtain at how hero astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took steps on the Moon.

Now, well over 800,000 children and adults have visited Huntsville to attend the wildly popular day, weekend, and week-long camps, the Associated Press reported.

HIDDEN GEM

Huntsville lies about an hour and a half north of Birmingham and is the most populous city in Alabama.

According to the 2020 Census, over 200,000 people reported living there.

Tourists who didn’t sign up for camps can still visit the USSRC to tour the largest space museum in the world.

Travelers can witness America’s space program in real time by getting a look at the facilities where top talents are researching the final frontier.

“A space enthusiast, history buff, appreciator of the arts, or anyone with a general curiosity for how the world works would enjoy Alabama’s top tourism jewel,” the City of Huntsville’s website states.

“Where else can one stand beneath the world’s only full-stack Space Shuttle, complete with two solid rocket boosters and external tank?”

Pieces in the museum’s permanent collection include the first American satellite, the Explorer I, and design modules for the International Space Station.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/travel/15101817/rocket-city-alabama-space-command-white-house/

KIM Jong-un has made the 20-hour trip to China on board his heavily armoured train as he prepares for the first ever “Axis of Evil” summit.

The North Korean dictator is making a rare trip outside of his hermit kingdom to meet up with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Beijing.

Kim arrived in style onboard his bulletproof “pleasure train” which is often packed with vintage booze and strippers.

The signature green train – nicknamed the “moving fortress” – crossed the border into China on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

All 21 carriages feature tinted windows to obscure the identities of those on board – including what the Supreme Leader gets up to on his travels.

Each carriage is completely bulletproof which protects the rarely travelled despot but also results in the train being thousands of pounds heavier than normal.

This means it goes a measly 37mph – leaving Kim and his team onboard for around 20 hours as they make the 807-mile trip.

Kim may chose to spend his time on board is any one of his dozens of private bedrooms.

Some of the rooms are reportedly said to be packed with beautiful “lady conductors” – taken from the ranks of Kim’s hand-picked “Pleasure Brigade”.

The woman are said to be examined by a doctor to check if they are still virgins before being allowed to join the the troupe known as “Gippeumjo”.

Conference rooms, an audience chamber and flat screen televisions are also on board.

A luxury restaurant fitted out with top national chefs reportedly serves fine French wines and dishes like fresh lobster.

In true tyrannical style, Kim is even expected to have bought his portable toilet with him for the trip.

He rarely leaves his grand palace without the portaloo out of fear of using public toilets due to what he may leave behind.

As part of a mammoth security operation, Kim’s team don’t allow him to use foreign bathrooms so his excretions can’t be obtained and studied by international officials.

Putin has a similar method to avoid any updates on his health leaking as he reportedly has a personal “toilet searcher” who is responsible for collecting his “bodily waste”.

State media photos showed Kim just before he departed for Beijing.

He was stood with senior officials taking a cigarette break next to the railway beast.

A second image saw Kim sat in a wood-panelled office in front of a large gold crest with the North Korean flag sat behind him

On his desk sat a gold-embossed laptop, several telephones, a box of cigarettes and what appears to be hand sanitiser in bottles.

Kim travelled alongside senior party and government officials, including Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

He has arrived ahead of a major military parade being put on by Xi to commemorate the end of World War Two.

The North Korean tyrant will be among 26 world leaders attending the event – including his Russian pal Putin.

It will mark the first time Vlad, Xi and Kim have all met together in person since all three rose to power in their respective nations.

It is still unclear if they will hold formal talks in Beijing but are expected to greet each other.

Putin has already been in China for a few days now as Xi’s special guest for the event with the pair holding several meetings.

Train travel has always been the prefered transport for North Korea’s dictators.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15095495/kim-jong-un-putin-xi-summit-train/

DONALD Trump has laughed off wild online rumours about his death, dismissing them as “fake news” during a primetime address after days of frenzied speculation over his health.

The president, 79, appeared on Tuesday to announce that U.S. Space Command headquarters will move from Colorado to Alabama.

He was then asked if he had seen the viral claims that he was no longer living.

“Really? I didn’t see that. That’s pretty serious!” Trump said, before insisting he had been busy behind the scenes.

“I did numerous interviews and had some pretty poignant posts on my social media site. I was very active over the weekend,” he added, noting that he also visited “some people” at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.

The press conference had been called to announce that U.S. Space Command headquarters will move from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama — a reversal of Joe Biden’s 2023 decision to keep the base in Colorado.

Trump originally reestablished Space Command in 2018, saying its mission was to defend U.S. interests in space.

His light-hearted dismissal of the death hoax came after a week-long frenzy about his whereabouts.

He hadn’t held a public event since a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, fuelling speculation online and sending “Where is Donald Trump” trending on X.

Google searches for “Trump health” spiked on Saturday, while Vice President JD Vance was pressed in a USA Today interview on whether he was prepared to assume the presidency in the event of a “terrible tragedy.”

Vance stressed Trump is in “incredibly good health.”

On Sunday night, Trump himself hit back on Truth Social, blasting: “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE,” in a post mocking Joe Biden’s health.

He also re-emerged at his Virginia golf course on Saturday.

Over the weekend, the president fired off dozens of Truth Social posts — declaring Washington, D.C. a “crime free zone” after deploying the National Guard, demanding an end to mail-in voting, and even raging at a Rose Garden worker accused of damaging stonework.

Health speculation has followed Trump for months, with photos of swollen ankles and bruised hands going viral earlier this year.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later revealed Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency — a common condition in older people that affects blood flow in the legs.

Tests ruled out more serious complications, she said.

The fight over Space Command’s future has been simmering for years.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15100411/donald-trump-announcement-health-rumours/

Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser but must share information with competitors, a US federal judge has ordered.

The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta have emerged after a years-long court battle over Google’s dominance in online search.

The case centred around Google’s position as the default search engine on a range of its own products such as Android and Chrome as well as others made by the likes of Apple.

The US Department of Justice had demanded that Google sell Chrome – Tuesday’s decision means the tech giant can keep it but it will be barred from having exclusive contracts and must share search data with rivals.

Google had proposed less drastic solutions, such as limiting its revenue-sharing agreements with firms like Apple to make its search engine the default on their devices and browsers.

On Tuesday, the company indicated that it viewed the ruling as a victory, and said the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) probably contributed to the outcome.

“Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed through the advent of AI, which is giving people so many more ways to find information,” Google said in a statement after the ruling.

“This underlines what we’ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want,” the statement continued.

The tech giant had denied wrongdoing since charges were first filed against it in 2020, saying its market dominance is because its search engine is a superior product to others and consumers simply prefer it to others.

Last year, Judge Mehta ruled that Google had used unfair methods to establish a monopoly over the online search market, actively working to maintain a level of dominance to the extent it broke US law.

But in his decision, Judge Mehta said a complete sell-off of Chrome was “a poor fit for this case”.

Google will also not have to sell off its Android operating system, which powers most of the world’s smartphones.

The company had argued that off-loading parts of its operations, such as Android, would mean they would effectively stop working properly.

“Today’s remedy order agreed with the need to restore competition to the long-monopolized search market, and we are now weighing our options and thinking through whether the ordered relief goes far enough in serving that goal,” Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater wrote on X after the ruling.

Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, jumped by more than 8% after the ruling.

Smartphone-makers such as Apple, Samsung and Motorola will also benefit.

Before the ruling, Google paid such firms billions of dollars to exclusively pre-load or promote the tech company’s products.

It was revealed at trial that Google paid more than $26bn for such deals with Apple, Mozilla and others in 2021.

Now, Google will not be allowed to enter into any exclusive contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant or the Gemini app.

It means phone manufacturers will be free to pre-load or promote other search engines, browsers or AI assistants alongside Google’s.

Google will, however, be able to continue paying distributors for default placement.

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said the ruling was “good news for big tech”.

“Apple also gets a nice win because the ruling forces Google to renegotiate the search deal annually,” he said on X.

Judge Mehta’s ruling “doesn’t seem to be as draconian as the market was expecting,” said Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global Visible Alpha.

With Google’s search operation expected to generate close to $200bn this year, and tens of billions of that expected to go to distribution partners it is a win-win for the major corporate players involved in the case, Ms Otto said.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zdrenm1zo

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on Tuesday laid out in greater detail her opposition to President Donald Trump’s bid to remove her from office, saying it was too late to fire her for mortgage information she disclosed during her confirmation process.
In a filing in U.S. District Court, Cook said she listed mortgages on three properties on forms submitted to the White House and U.S. Senate in the vetting process for her appointment to the Fed in 2022. Any inconsistencies were known when she was confirmed and cannot give Trump grounds to fire her now, she said.

Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, whom Trump appointed, have accused her of committing fraud by listing all three properties as primary residences when she applied for mortgages, potentially to secure lower interest rates.
Trump has said that gives him cause to fire Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor.
She has filed a lawsuit seeking to block her unprecedented removal, setting up a legal battle that could upend long-established norms for the Fed’s independence. Tuesday’s filing reiterated in greater detail arguments she made in court last week as part of the lawsuit.

In the filing, Cook said that on a background check form, she listed a property in Michigan as a primary residence and one in Georgia as a “2nd home.” On a separate questionnaire she listed both homes as her “present residence,” the Michigan property as her “current permanent residence,” and a third property in Massachusetts as both a present residence and a second home and rental property, she said.
“If those are facial contradictions, as the Government and President claim … Senators or White House advisors could have inquired of her about any alleged ‘facial inconsistencies,'” Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote in the filing.
The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cook has asked U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., to temporarily block Trump from removing her from her post pending further litigation. She says that Trump does not have the legal authority to remove her and that the fraud allegations were a pretext to do so.

Cobb held a hearing on Friday where a Trump administration lawyer argued that removing a Fed governor for cause is within the president’s broad powers and Cobb had no power to review it.
Trump, a Republican, attacked the Fed for not cutting interest rates during his first term in the White House and resumed that campaign when his second term began in January. He has berated Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though he has stopped threatening to remove Powell before his term as central bank chief ends in May.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/fed-governor-cook-says-mortgage-contradictions-do-not-justify-removal-by-trump-2025-09-02/

One of the most famous polar shipwrecks has been filmed in detail on the sea floor for the first time.

The Terra Nova carried Captain Scott and his men on their doomed expedition to reach the South Pole more than a century ago.

The British party lost the race to the pole, and died on their return journey in 1912.

The footage shows the Terra Nova colonised with sea life, but key features of the wooden ship are still visible including its wheel, winch and mast.

The wreck lies 170m down off the coast of Greenland. After the polar expedition with Scott, the ship continued in service and eventually sank in 1943 while carrying supplies to US bases during World War Two.

The Terra Nova was discovered in 2012, but the new expedition has been the first opportunity to record extensive footage of the wreck.

“To be able to see these significant parts of the wreck, it was truly awe inspiring,” said Leighton Rolley, Science Systems Manager at REV Ocean.

“The wheel was sat there perfectly intact amongst the debris of the aft section of the wreck.

“When you think of the people who have stood there, manoeuvred the Terra Nova through ice, like Captain Scott… It was like, wow, if that ship’s wheel could talk, it could tell an amazing history.”

The Terra Nova was one of the finest polar vessels of its time and sailed for 60 years.

The ship was 57m (187ft) long with a wooden hull that was a metre thick in places to help it break through the sea ice.

Captain Scott’s men embarked to Antarctica in 1910. A comprehensive scientific programme was planned for the Terra Nova expedition – along with the goal of being the first to reach the South Pole.

Scott, along with Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans, were attempting to make history.

After trekking hundreds of miles, the British party reached the pole in January 1912, but they found they had been beaten by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen.

A black flag, planted by Amundsen, is now on display at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge along with other items from the Terra Nova.

“Their hearts must have sunk seeing this black flag against the whiteness of Antarctica,” said David Waterhouse, curator of the polar museum at SPRI.

The deflated British party began their arduous return journey to their base. But they encountered unusually bad weather, and Edgar Evans died after falling while descending a glacier.

Several weeks later Captain Oates left the men’s tent. His last words were recorded in Scott’s journal: “I’m just going outside and may be some time.” He was never seen again.

Scott, Bowers and Wilson continued on and made a final camp, but trapped by a freezing blizzard with dwindling supplies, all three perished.

A search expedition discovered their last camp just 11 miles from a resupply depot that would have provided them with food and fuel.

The Terra Nova played a crucial role in breaking the news of their death.

“In January 1913, the Terra Nova arrived at Cape Evans in the Antarctic to pick up the shore party, and they were expecting to pick up Captain Scott and his pole party at the same time,” explained Naomi Boneham, an archivist at SPRI.

“But when they arrived they found out the sad news.”

The ship’s log records that the men had died from “exposure and want”.

The vessel sailed on to New Zealand, where the tragic end of the Terra Nova expedition was announced to the world.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwyvyqkx9yo

Swiss coffee machine maker Thermoplan was a small family firm until it rode the wave of late 1990s globalisation to become a key supplier for Starbucks (SBUX.O), and created more than 500 jobs in a lakeside village by the Alps.
The future of those jobs has been thrown into jeopardy since U.S. President Donald Trump on August 7 imposed 39% tariffs on Switzerland due to its trade surplus with the U.S.

Thermoplan CEO Adrian Steiner calculates the 39% levy and separate U.S. tariffs on industrial metals are costing the company in Weggis, on the picturesque shores of Lake Lucerne, around 200,000 Swiss francs ($250,000) every week.
“We’re bleeding,” he said. “It’s obviously a losing business for us. We don’t have the kind of margins to compensate for that.”
Thermoplan is already taking steps to enable production in Germany so it can export under lower European Union tariffs, and is considering moving jobs to the U.S. to shore up business there.
Starbucks said it has had a long history of successfully navigating global changes, and is working closely with suppliers to help minimize any impacts on its business. After Trump first set out his global tariff plans on April 2, Thermoplan said it and Starbucks agreed to split the added costs.

The Swiss company, whose other clients include McDonald’s and Nestle, is one of about 2,000 Swiss machinery makers that have carved out niches as specialist exporters despite high labour costs and the steady appreciation of the Swiss franc.
About one in every seven dollars made from exports by Swiss machine makers is U.S.-dependent, official data show.
But if Switzerland’s tariffs stay at 39% and those on the EU at 15%, about four-fifths of U.S. exports from the Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering sector – worth some 10 billion francs last year – will disappear, said Jean-Philippe Kohl, deputy head of industry association Swissmem.
Tariff pressure could shift business to the EU, provided firms meet U.S. requirements to qualify as EU-based, Kohl said. A Swissmem survey showed nearly a third are considering it.

Jobs are already trickling away.
Around 3,000 in the sector went between the first and second quarters, Kohl said. At worst, that could become 30,000 by the end of 2026, he added.

‘MADE IN SWITZERLAND’

In Weggis, there is disbelief that Thermoplan is now under threat from the United States.
“The USA is a really exciting country, be it for business or geographically,” said Marcel Waldis, the municipal council’s finance chief. “But right now, I’m deeply disappointed. How can it be that a big country is dependent on a single voice?”
With Switzerland attempting to negotiate lower duties, more tariffs possible, and U.S. legal challenges still pending, the outlook for Swiss firms is uncertain.
After Trump’s April move, Steiner immediately instructed Thermoplan to look into producing in Germany.
Calling the tariffs “insanely unfair”, Steiner said the idea of relocating jobs flew in the face of Thermoplan’s “Made in Switzerland” seal of quality.

All Thermoplan’s manufacturing is currently in Weggis, and 82% of components come from Switzerland. Fully 98% of its products are sold to export, and Starbucks accounts for 32% of its sales, about two-fifths of which are in the U.S.
Steiner wants Thermoplan to be able to begin manufacturing as soon as January in Germany.
But before it can, the firm has requested clarification from U.S. customs that the goods would qualify as EU-made. It hopes for word within a month, but Steiner worries the workaround will not satisfy U.S. officials.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/key-starbucks-supplier-switzerland-tastes-bitter-harvest-trump-tariffs-2025-09-02/

Kim Jong Un’s arrival in China for his first ever multilateral meeting was always going to make headlines.

But it was the smartly-dressed girl standing just behind him as he exited his armoured train which caught Korea watchers’ attention: Kim Ju Ae, the North Korean leader’s daughter.

According to South Korea’s spy agency, Miss Kim is her father’s most likely successor.

But details – including her exact age – are thin on the ground. So what exactly do we know?

Miss Kim has, for a number of years, been believed to be the second of Kim Jong Un’s and his wife, Ri Sol-Ju’s, three children. The exact number, and their order, is by no means certain, however Kim is very secretive about his family, only introducing his wife to the public after they had been married for some time.

Kim Ju Ae is their only child whose existence has been confirmed by the country’s leadership. No other child has been seen in public.

News of her existence first emerged through an unlikely source: the basketball player Dennis Rodman, who revealed to The Guardian newspaper back in 2013 that he “held their baby Ju Ae” during a trip to the secretive state.

Little was then heard about her until November 2022, when she appeared alongside her father at the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

By February the next year, she was appearing on postage stamps and attending banquets for top officials – described as Kim Jong Un’s “respected” daughter.

The adjective “respected” is reserved for North Korea’s most revered. In her father’s case, he was referred to as “respected comrade” only after his status as future leader was cemented.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) provided lawmakers with a few extra details on the little girl at around the same time, according to news agency AP.

They said she enjoyed horse riding, skiing and swimming, and was home-schooled in the capital Pyongyang. They suggested she was around 10 years old.

By January 2024, the NIS had come to another conclusion: that the little girl was the “most likely” successor to Kim Jong Un – although they noted there were “many variables” still in play, not least because of her father’s young age.

Since then, she has appeared by her father’s side on numerous occasions. Standing next to him at ICBM launches and military parades, she has taken centre stage and received military salutes from senior military commanders.

But Tuesday marked the first time she has been seen outside North Korea, and the trip is likely to further fuel speculation she may succeed her father.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgvgj7ejqdo

President Trump shared dramatic footage of the US military obliterating a boat carrying drugs and Tren de Aragua gangbangers off the coast of Venezuela on Tuesday.

The video showed the small boat being blown out of international waters and exploding into flames after it was struck by a single missile, killing all aboard.

Trump said the boat was occupied by 11 “Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists” and was en route to the US when it was blown to smithereens.

“TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”

This is the first known attack on a cartel since Trump authorized the military to carry out such operations earlier this year.

The region is a major exporter of cocaine, but initial statements did not reveal the type of drug or drugs that the boat was smuggling.

Trump in late August deployed three guided-missile destroyers and about 4,000 Marines to the Venezuelan coast — prompting the country’s authoritarian left-wing leader Nicolas Maduro to mobilize millions of militia members and claim an invasion was imminent

The Trump administration has branded the Cuba-aligned strongman, in power since 2013, as a drug cartel leader and fugitive from justice.

The US government in early August offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

On Monday, Maduro accused the US of seeking a regime change in his country amid a naval buildup in the Caribbean.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/world-news/footage-shows-us-strike-that-obliterated-drug-carrying-boat-off-venezuela-killing-11-tda-narcoterrorists/

Shirkers of the world, unite!

A strong collective of Zohran Mamdani’s core brain trust are 30-somethings or even younger Gen Zers with little-to-no experience in government — but long histories of radical left-wing politics, a review by The Post found.

Mamdani’s frontrunner status in the Big Apple mayoral race puts these untested youths – who variously have ties to billionaire George Soros, grew up in swanky homes and went to posh private schools – a stone’s throw from the levers of power.

“We’re getting ready for another administration of shocking naïveté,” one Democratic operative said.

The 33-year-old socialist Queens lawmaker harnessed the youth vote to pull off an astounding win in the Democratic primary, all while batting off attacks from opponents that he was too wet behind the ears to effectively govern the nation’s largest city.

But Mamdani has done little after clinching the Dem nomination in June to build up strong stable of seasoned hands or those bearing the calluses of the working class voters that he champions.

Out of roughly 20 operatives in Mamdani’s inner circle, eight are under 36 years old.

Three of those politicos have ties to Soros, the progressive activist and investor – and about half a dozen grew up in million-dollar pads, according to Zillow estimates, with access to celebrities and private schools.

The median salary in the Big Apple is about $58,000 a year – but many of Mamdani’s top confidantes rake in an average of $10,000 to $12,000 a month, a review of campaign finance records found.

“His City Hall inner circle would also be in their 20s and 30s,” said Ken Frydman, a former press secretary for Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall and a longtime Democratic operative.

“Notwithstanding (former Mayor Bill) de Blasio retreads, the Mamdani administration will be even less experienced at government than Mayor Mamdani himself. For a city government the size of New York, that’s an operational nightmare. Good luck with the budget and unions.”

One of Mamdani’s closest operatives – Morris Katz – is apparently keenly aware that his youth could be a detriment to his job. He lied to the New York Times and a slew of other outlets about being 28, when he’s actually 26 years old.

Insiders have also told The Post about a growing rift between Mamdani’s inner circle and operatives allied with one-time Democratic mayoral contender and City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive who cross-endorsed the upstart socialist during the primary.

Tension has been rising between the two camps, with some feeling aggrieved that Lander’s more-experienced political hands are being shut out since joining Mamdani’s team, sources said.

But Lander’s former campaign director, Alison Hirsh, who now serves as his chief strategy officer in the comptroller’s office, shot down the notion of any bad blood.

“Brad and Zohran talk all the time,” she said. “They are as united as ever in working together to make sure Zohran is the next mayor of New York City. Brad is proud to support that campaign himself and through past members of his team.”

Mamdani, for his part, has answered questions about his youth and inexperience by pushing the notion that it means he doesn’t carry unseemly personal and political baggage. He again made that point last week, shortly after Mayor Eric Adams’ longtime friend and adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin was hit with four bribery indictments.

“Zohran is proud to be surrounded by a team from a range of backgrounds,” said campaign spokeswoman Dora Pekec. “What unites this team is not where they come from, but a shared commitment to fighting for working New Yorkers and delivering a more affordable city for everyone.”

Elliana (Elle) Bisgaard-Church

Mamdani’s most trusted chief advisor is arguably Elliana (Elle) Bisgaard-Church, a 34-year-old from California with an Ivy League degree from Columbia University.

The DSA darling’s only experience with elected officials has been with Mamdani on his assembly team as his chief of staff.

Despite the under five years of experience working in New York politics, other members of Mamdani’s camp have credited her with conjuring up the policies central to his campaign – and she makes about $11,000 a month doing it.

Morris Katz

Morris Katz, 26, is a Tribeca-born-and-raised ad-maker for Mamdani who was one of the first hires on the mayoral campaign.

“I’m drawn to people who treat it (politics) as more of an art form than a sport,” the self-proclaimed populist said on the podcast Pro Politics.

Katz, the son of screenwriter David Bar Katz, also said on the podcast that he often rubbed shoulders with the likes of actors Sam Rockwell and Philip Seymour Hoffman when growing up in his parents $5 million Manhattan apartment.

Julian Gerson

Julian Gerson, 29, a speechwriter often seen at Mamdani’s public appearances, is another key operative with ties to New York’s elite.

The young politico attended the ritzy Dalton School and grew up in a multimillion dollar house in Woodstock. He also boasts actual political experience, having worked previously for Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Donald Borenstein

One of the highest-paid members on Mamdani’s team is Donald Borenstein.

The 34-year-old is the vision and brains behind many of Mamdani’s viral videos and he has been paid over $60,000 since late 2024 by the campaign for his work. Borenstein is also a Fordham grad who grew up in $1.8 million home in the DC suburbs.

Andrew Epstein

Yale-educated Andrew Epstein, 38, is one of the oldest members of Mamdani’s original campaign crew.

A former campaign worker and chief of staff to lefty Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, Epstein joined Mamdani’s once-longshot mayoral bid as communications director in 2024 and transitioned to creative director after the primary.

Zara Rahimc

Zara Rahim, 33, a former Barack Obama staffer who also worked for Hillary Clinton acts as a senior adviser to Mamdani.

The south Florida native also worked with brands such as Uber and Vogue, as well as serving as an adviser to Mariah Carey on the singer’s acclaimed 2020 memoir and book tour, according to BK Mag.

“I’ve worked with some of the most prolific people and brands, and I’ve been in incredible rooms and I belonged in those rooms, period,” she told Coveteur magazine in 2022.

Rahim isn’t the only one with close ties to Soros in Mamdani’s camp.

Diplomat and Obama-era Democrat Patrick Gaspard considers the political power player a “friend,” according to social media, and served as president of Soros’ Open Society Foundation between 2017 and 2020.

Dora Pekec

Dora Pekec, 25, is the youngest person in Mamdani’s inner circle.

She graduated from Duke University and worked on Lander’s failed run for mayor as communications director. Before that, she worked on the House Majority PAC.

Maya Handa

Maya Handa, 30, recently took over for Bisgaard-Church as campaign manager.

Handa ran the mayoral primary campaign of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who couldn’t break out from the crowded Democratic field. She also has ties to the Working Families Party and worked on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s failed campaign for president starting in 2019, according to her LinkedIn.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-brain-trust-is-full-of-young-privileged-lefty-radicals-with-little-government-experience-who-could-one-day-lead-nyc/

In September 2018, at 11 o’clock at night, as I strolled with my wife and daughter along the edge of the lagoon in Venice, Italy, I witnessed what is formally known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).

A dozen bright lights flew in tight formation high in the starry night, then started twirling around each other in an impossibly playful way, and finally disappeared in a flash over the horizon. Not a sound was heard. Nothing I know could have moved like that. These weren’t drones or planes.

So what did I see?

I grew up reading Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke and watching the original “Star Trek” series on television. I therefore took it for granted that the universe teemed with other sentient species.

Back then, these came in two kinds: Bug-Eyed Monsters, or BEMs, who looked like giant versions of Kermit the Frog and made modern-music sounds; and Highly Evolved Minds, or HEMs, who had traded their physical bodies for the enviable capacity to play tricks on Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Both varieties conformed to old archetypes. There were once monsters in the dark. There were spirits in the woods and the clouds.

We may have driven these mythical entities from our planet, but why couldn’t they endure in outer space?

In the war-torn 20th century, Martians were the stuff of horror and adventure. Flash Gordon kept stopping Ming the Merciless – a dead ringer for Genghis Khan – from destroying Earth. Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” taught us that the best planetary defense was the common cold.

Even “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” supposedly a benevolent vision, left the future of humanity in the hands of robots that pretended to be pacifists but seemed happy to pulverize anything they disapproved of.

With the success, later in the century, of “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” a third archetype achieved dominance over popular culture: space aliens, it turned out, were Just Like Us, only cuter – and somehow able to make bicycles fly through the air.

They still looked like Kermit the Frog, but in a good way.

In “E.T.,” the eponymous alien was a plot device, used to separate good humans from bad humans. Good humans embraced the Other. Bad humans tried to dissect the Other, just to see what was inside.

This moralistic touch sometimes made for a good story – see, for example, “Starman” – but more often, as in “E.T.” itself, it was a dreary bore that left us longing for the return of Ming the Merciless.

A case can be made that “E.T.” was the illegitimate offspring of TV scientist Carl Sagan, begat on Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood. Given his unblinking stare and weird mannerisms, Sagan had something of the extraterrestrial in him – he seemed uncomfortable impersonating a human.

In 1980, two years before “E.T.” was released, he made the following pronouncement: “In the vastness of space, there must be other civilizations.”

Who knows? Maybe he had inside knowledge.

But with that, acceptance of hyper-civilized aliens, once the sole possession of sci-fi nuts like me, began its long march to respectability. By 2024, 87 percent of scientists and 86.6 percent of astrobiologists, by one measure, believed in the likelihood of life in other planets.

For some, the existence of aliens is an act of faith, almost of desperation – what William James labelled the “will to believe,” translated from religion to science.

The thought of being alone in the “vastness of space” induces a kind of cosmic vertigo.

The universe must be filled with creatures Just Like Us, or preferably Slightly Better Than Us, and they must be here, close by, watching, judging, endowing every human action with a certain weight of importance.

We crave recognition, and in a performative age that can only come from the existence of a secret audience.

At the extremes of obsession, we get the Richard Dreyfuss character in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” who forsakes family and society to seek the aliens, imitating St. Francis in the latter’s search for God.

At some point, there will be contact.

Not unreasonably, we used to worry about being discovered by slimy galactic psychopaths, as in “Alien” and “Independence Day.”

With a modesty typical of the 21st century, we now prefer to believe that a race of space therapists will be happy to cross millions of light-years of the trackless void just so they can talk to us about ourselves.

We know from “Arrival” that the session goes well.

Human self-esteem, shaken since the inexplicable rise of Taylor Swift, is restored. Our place in the scheme of things, we will be told, is moderately significant, which is better than nothing.

To the sound of chords in a minor key, the nations will remain eternally at peace – just like in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” only without the terrifying nanny-bots.

Since a lot of this is shameless wish-fulfillment, we should take a deep breath and ask a few pertinent questions.

What is the hard evidence for life outside this lonely planet? There is none.

How likely is a super-civilization to emerge in another world? Well, Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, while our civilization first touched outer space 68 years ago. That makes for a probability of 1 over 0.00000001.

Why would massively intelligent beings embark on an epic interstellar journey, only to play hide-and-seek like human five-year-olds once they get to their destination? I can think of no reason.

Wait, though, what about those scientists who endorsed E.T.? Scientists, just like nonscientists, will say whatever they think will make them sound cool.

We do have the UAPs. I can attest to them personally.

After years of increasingly preposterous explanations, the federal government has given up on blaming swamp gas.

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, has confessed her belief in aliens.

Dr. Eric Davis, physicist, has briefed Congress on the existence of four alien species: “Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians.”

That would explain why Scandinavians tend to be so nice to us Earthlings.

Yet the government could be wrong again. It’s possible.

Trapped in the new conventional wisdom, DNI Gabbard and Dr. Davis could have toggled to the opposite error from that of the perpetrators of the Swamp Gas Hypothesis.

What, after all, did I see above the lagoon in Venice?

I saw fantastic twirling lights. To posit a superior civilization of people-watchers from that data point seems a bit extreme.

Centuries ago, the lights might have become the Virgin Mary. A magnificent basilica would be erected on the site.

Ignore Hollywood – it’s always the smart thing to do. So far as we know, we are alone.

Ours may be the only minds in the enormity of Einsteinian spacetime – our thoughts may be the only thoughts to be had anywhere.

The notion feels slightly shocking, and not just because of the claustrophobic loneliness it evokes.

If the universe attains self-awareness solely in the human race, what kind of burden does that place on our shoulders?

Shouldn’t we dream on an infinite scale? Shouldn’t our intellects span deep and wide?

That won’t happen, of course. Human thoughts tend to be homely and small. The mental content of those who get paid to think big can be summarized in three words:

“Trump! Trump!! TRUMP!!!”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/opinion/what-our-continued-fascination-with-ufos-says-about-us/

Elon Musk’s estranged transgender daughter Vivian Wilson has insisted she’s broke after publicly cutting ties with the world’s richest dad — opting to live with three roommates because it’s “cheaper.”

“People assume I have a lot of money. I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars at my disposal,” the 21-year-old aspiring model told The Cut in a wide-ranging interview published Tuesday.

“My mom is rich, right? But obviously the other one [Musk]… is unimaginable degrees of wealthy.”

“I don’t have a desire to be superrich,” she continued.

Musk is worth an estimated $413 billion.

“I can afford food. I have friends, a shelter, and some expendable income, which is nice and much more fortunate than most people my age in Los Angeles.”

Wilson — the eldest of Musk’s 14 children — infamously cut ties with her Tesla founder dad back in 2022 when she filed a petition to change her gender and name.

Since then, Wilson has repeatedly bashed the tech mogul on social media — calling him a “pathetic man-child” who hasn’t been accepting of her gender.

Musk, for his part, has claimed in past interviews that Wilson was “killed by the woke mind virus” and that he was “tricked” into letting her transition at age 16.

Still, Wilson seized on the very public fallout with her father, telling the magazine that the most stereotypical thing about her was “Daddy issues.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Wilson addressed her lavish upbringing — noting she went to a “private high school filled with nepo babies” including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter Apple.

She said she was taught multiple languages, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish.

She acknowledged going to college in Canada and Japan before eventually dropping out — blaming AI for ruining her “motivation.”

Addressing her newfound fame, Wilson — who already has an agent and recently landed a Teen Vogue cover — insisted that she was “not very good at being famous.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/us-news/elon-musks-trans-daughter-vivian-wilson-claims-she-not-rich-lives-with-3-roommates/

Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser opened the door for federal agents to continue policing the district indefinitely as President Trump’s emergency order tackling crime in the nation’s capital is set to expire.

Bowser issued an order on Tuesday requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with their federal counterparts “to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District,” the Washington Post reported. The order has no expiration date.

She signed the directive three weeks after Trump called in troops to clean up the capital’s streets and before the president’s federal takeover of DC’s local police force is set to expire next week after 30 days is up.

The new order will “provide the pathway forward beyond the Presidential emergency,” the mayor wrote on X.

Bowser touted the accomplishments of the federal intervention and crime crackdown in the district, including its impact on the homeless population.

“Outreach teams identified 764 total individuals living outside, with 81 people living in tents,” the release stated. “Since the start of the surge, approximately 80 additional individuals have entered the District’s shelter system.”

The president also lauded the program’s success.

“We don’t have a crime problem in Washington anymore,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “And the mayor has been very helpful.”

He previously noted that there have been only two homicides since the federal takeover on Aug 11.

“It’s like a different city. It’s the capital and it’s going to be the best in the world,” Trump said during a visit to a Park Police operations center last month.

The commander in chief heaped praise on Bowser on social media, claiming that her popularity has risen “25%” in a post to Truth Social.

“Wow! Mayor Muriel Bowser of DC has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING in DC,” Trump wrote Monday.

At a press conference last week, Bowser boasted that since the federal intervention, DC has seen an 87% drop in carjackings and a 45% decrease in all violent crime during the period.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/us-news/dc-mayor-bowser-opens-door-for-indefinite-federal-policing-in-district-as-trumps-emergency-order-nears-expiration/

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that its inspectors found traces of uranium at a site in Syria believed to be part of a clandestine nuclear program by the former government.

Syria under former President Bashar Assad was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, previously told The Associated Press that some of Syria’s activities “were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons.”

Last year, IAEA inspectors visited and took environmental samples at “three locations that were allegedly functionally related” to the Deir el-Zour site, and “analysis revealed a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations,” IAEA spokesman Fredrik Dahl said in a statement.

“Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium ore concentrate to uranium oxide,” he said. This would be typical of a nuclear power reactor.

Grossi reported these findings to the agency’s board of directors Monday in a report on developments in Syria.

The Deir el-Zour site only became public knowledge after Israel — which is believed to be the Middle East’s only state with nuclear weapons, although it has not declared its own program — launched airstrikes in 2007 destroying the facility. Syria later leveled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions.

An IAEA team in visited some sites of interest last year while Assad was still in power. After Assad’s fall, the new government led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa agreed to cooperate with the agency and again provided inspectors access to the site where the uranium particles had been found.

They took more samples there and “will evaluate the results of all of the environmental samples taken at this location and the information acquired from the planned visit to the (Deir el-Zour) site, and may conduct follow-up activities, as necessary,” Dahl said.

In an interview with the AP in June during a visit to Damascus, Grossi said al-Sharaa had expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/syria-nuclear-iaea-uranium-3d1194b3b76d90a00f1b9f3215b4595d

India warned Pakistan about possible cross-border flooding for the second time in as many weeks as monsoon deluges cause death and widespread destruction in both countries.

The disaster management authority in eastern Pakistan announced the warning Tuesday.

New Delhi shared the warning with Pakistan on “humanitarian grounds” through New Delhi’s high commission in Islamabad rather than the water-sharing Indus Waters Treaty, which remains suspended, an Indian government official said.

Pakistan conducted mass evacuations late last month after India released water from overflowing dams and swollen rivers into low-lying border regions.

The countries came close to war in May and tensions frequently escalate between the two nuclear-armed rivals, making diplomatic contact uncommon.

The latest warning concerns a surge in the Sutlej River, with floodwaters expected to enter Pakistan on Wednesday. Raging torrents already have devastated border communities in Kasur, Okara, Vehari and Bahawalnagar.

Punjab’s Disaster Management Authority said the Indian High Commission conveyed the warning to Pakistan through the Ministry of Water Resources.

Downpours lashed several parts of northern India and killed at least 10 people over the past 24 hours. Authorities were forced to close some schools and offices on Tuesday.

Landslides, flooding and gushing rivers in India’s Punjab state, home to more than 30 million people, killed at least 29 people last month. Rescue teams, backed by the army and disaster response services, have evacuated thousands from homes impacted by floods.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-india-warning-flood-monsoon-cf6cd61e864182e69b71f30cfda29e38

Israel launched strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 31 people as it presses ahead with a major offensive in the territory’s largest city, according to health officials. Leading genocide scholars, meanwhile, accused Israel of genocide, allegations the government vehemently rejects.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling have echoed through Gaza City since Israel declared it a combat zone last week. On the city’s outskirts and in the Jabaliya refugee camp, residents have observed explosive-laden robots demolishing buildings.

“Another merciless night in Gaza City,” said Saeed Abu Elaish, a Jabaliya-born medic sheltering in the northwestern side of the city.

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed by Israeli fire Monday, more than half of them women and children. At least 13 people were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has carried out several previous large-scale raids since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel to ignite the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group — now largely reduced to a guerrilla organization — operates in densely-populated areas.

Double threat of war and starvation

Gaza City residents, many displaced by war multiple times, now face the twin threats of combat and hunger. The world’s leading authority on food crises said last month that it was in the throes of famine — a crisis driven by ongoing fighting and Israel’s blockade, magnified by repeated mass displacement and the collapse of food production.

A total of 63,557 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but hasn’t provided its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Scholars accuse Israel of genocide

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel, which was established in the wake of the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews and others were killed, vehemently rejects the allegation. It says it takes every measure to avoid harming civilians and is fighting a war of self-defense after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which Israel says was itself a genocidal act.

A resolution from the International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — said that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The resolution was supported by 86% of those who voted. The organization didn’t release the specifics of the voting.

“People who are experts in the study of genocide can see this situation for what it is,” Melanie O’Brien, the organization’s president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Associated Press.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard.” It said the determination was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies.”

In July, two prominent Israeli rights groups — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel — said that their country is committing genocide in Gaza. The organizations don’t reflect mainstream thinking in Israel, but it marked the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations.

International human rights groups have also leveled the allegation.

Mourners vent anger at hostage

funeral

Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funeral of Idan Shtivi, one of two hostages whose remains were recovered in a military operation last week. A private funeral was held for Ilan Weiss, the other captive.

Some mourners expressed anger at the government for not reaching a deal with Hamas to end the fighting and return the remaining captives.

“It is very, very infuriating that no one, no one from this government stands up and says enough,” said Ami Dagan, a mourner from Rishon Letzion.

“It’s a horror, it’s profound sadness and grief beyond words to describe the anger, the insult to the hostages, the insult to the fallen, the insult to the soldiers sent once again to Gaza,” said Ruti Taro, another mourner. “No one knows why, except for the power-hungry ruler.”

Many Israelis accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes, and mass protests calling for a ceasefire and hostage release have swelled in recent weeks.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-09-01-2025-0c5b9244186e42ac4673d9bfcd807052

Over the weekend, the Houthi rebel group detained another group of people working for the United Nations in Yemen. As one expert noted, every time there’s a security problem, more aid workers are abducted.

On Sunday, the Houthi rebel group, which controls large parts of Yemen, entered United Nations’ offices in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, detaining at least 11 people working for the organization and also taking property, including data storage devices.

The Houthi security forces raided the offices of the World Food Program, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency. Sources say those detained include seven World Food Program staffers and three UNICEF workers.

“I strongly condemn the new wave of arbitrary detentions of UN personnel today in Sanaa and [port city] Hodeidah,” Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, said in a statement issued Monday. He said the UN was doing everything it could to free its staffers and that they should be released “immediately and unconditionally.”

The Houthi raid on UN premises came after Israel bombed a cabinet meeting of the Houthi’s de facto government in Sanaa last Thursday. The Houthis have previously fired missiles at Israeli territory. Since October, 2023 there has been a back and forth of exchange between the two, with the Houthis firing drones and rockets and Israel launching air strikes on Houthi positions.

In the Israeli strike on August 28, the Houthi government’s prime minister, Ahmed Ghalib al-Rahawi, and 11 other officials, including ministers for sports, culture, foreign affairs, social affairs, electricity and agriculture, were killed

Although al-Rahawi was considered a technocrat and his absence won’t have any major impact on the Houthis’ military structure, his death can be considered a “serious setback,” Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst with Brussels-based think tank, Crisis Group International, told UK newspaper,
The Guardian, this week.

Why are Houthis detaining civilians?

The conservative, Islamist Houthis have been involved in fighting in Yemen for decades, first as part of an insurgency against Yemen’s dictatorship in the early 2000s, then from 2014 in a civil war that broke out when they took control of the capital. Most recently, they have fought an international Saudi-led coalition that supported their opponents, the internationally recognized government, in the civil war.

The civil war is currently stalemated, with the Houthis controlling northern parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa and most of the country’s population, and their opponents, who are based in Aden on the southern coast, controlling southern parts. The civil war has also caused a humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the UN reports that around 21 million people regularly require aid.

Over the past few days, Houthi military leaders have promised to take revenge for the Israeli strike and tightened security. In a televised speech given after the deaths were confirmed, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi also warned locals that anybody suspected of being a spy for Israel would be punished.

Yemen expert: UN workers a ‘default target’

“The Houthis will launch a major internal security crackdown,” Yemen expert Mohammed al-Basha, who runs the US-based risk consultancy, Basha Report, predicted in a newsletter to clients on Sunday. “The crackdown will also extend to staff of INGOs [international non-governmental organizations], NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and foreign embassies in Sanaa, as well as banks, money transfer companies and currency exchange shops.”

Anybody linked to international organizations risks being targeted, al-Basha confirmed to The New York Times.

The UN staff abductions also come after several months of internal crackdowns by the Houthis, Yemeni journalist Adnan al-Jabarni wrote on social media platform, X (formerly Twitter). Recently “the group became consumed by its obsession with those it calls traitors, agents, hypocrites, and mercenaries,” he said. Since the start of this year, many civilians have been detained in the crackdown, al-Jabarni said.

Targeting UN staff almost seems to have become a default Houthi response to security events, al-Basha noted.

Ongoing Houthi crimes against civilians

The Houthis have been detaining people associated with aid or civil society groups, as well as individuals associated with the former US embassy in Sanaa for several years now.

After a crackdown on aid and civil society workers in mid-2024, Thomas Juneau, a Middle East expert with the University of Ottawa in Canada,told DW, that the detention of aid workers could be explained by the fact that “the Houthis feel they need to further consolidate their power,”

The Houthis themselves claimed that the arrests they made included members of “an American-Israeli spy ring” operating undercover in a humanitarian agency.

“They’ve jailed a lot more people in Sanaa, including people from their own ranks, because they became so paranoid that their ranks have been infiltrated,” Hisham al-Omeisy, senior Yemen advisor with the European Institute of Peace, added at the same time. The Houthis were in “full panic mode,” he explained.

In January this year, another eight UN staff were kidnapped. This came just after the Houthis had released 25 crew members of a ship, the Galaxy Leader, that they had been holding captive since November 2023.

Experts speculated that workers from the UN made for better bargaining chips — the eight abductions came just as the US was deciding whether to designate the Houthis a terrorist organization.

“The Houthis picked up the UN staff because they are more valuable for negotiating a deal,” Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, told DW at the time.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/why-are-yemens-houthi-group-targeting-aid-workers/a-73837421

Iran must reach a deal with Western parties by late September or face renewed UN sanctions over its nuclear program.

The E3 grouping of Germany, France and the United Kingdom have moved to trigger the powerful “snapback” mechanism of UN sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

The snapback is a diplomatic tool that is part of a faltering October 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), under which signatories agreed to lift crippling international sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for Tehran agreeing to curbs on its nuclear activities.

If Iran and the E3 nations fail to reach an agreement within 30 days, all previously lifted sanctions on Iran under the 2015 deal would be reinstated.

Iran said that it will not alter its position in the nuclear dispute.

“We are not fans of sanctions, but this time too, the Iranian people will neither back down nor bow to pressure,” Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref told the ISNA news agency on Sunday.

A question of ‘national pride’

Aref questioned whether Germany, France and the UK have the legal authority to trigger the snapback mechanism.

“Of course, if the snapback is implemented, the necessary decisions will be taken accordingly,” Aref added, without providing details.

“Iran has built up this nuclear program … over decades, and has done so despite sanctions,” Cornelius Adebahr from the German Council on Foreign Relations told DW. He noted that national pride makes it difficult for Iran to abandon its enrichment capabilities.

Adebahr, a political scientist who has published several books on Iran, pointed out that some political forces in Iran are now demanding withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), in response to the activation of the snapback mechanism.

A corresponding draft law has already been submitted to Iran’s parliament.

“The draft law is on the agenda and will undergo the legal review and approval process next week,” lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani told the semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency on Friday.

Iran suspended its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.

Europe is now demanding a full resumption of IAEA inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities and information on the whereabouts of Tehran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium.

In addition, Western states are accusing Tehran of violating UN Resolution 2231 by developing ballistic missiles.

The resolution, adopted in July 2015 as part of the nuclear agreement, explicitly calls on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

Officially, however, the Iranian government emphasizes that it does not seek nuclear weapons and has said its nuclear program serves exclusively civilian purposes.

The Islamic Republic is currently in a state of “strategic paralysis” and does not know which path to take, explained Iran expert Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin.

The expert on security and geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Central Eurasia suggested that the Iranian leadership “is leaning toward a diplomatic settlement.”

“After the 12-day war with Israel, its attitude has changed: The Islamic Republic has become aware of its own vulnerability and, at the same time, recognizes the economic risks that a return to UN sanctions would entail,” Azizi told DW.

Azizi said that the sanctions could put Iran in a position similar to that of Iraq in the years between the two Gulf Wars: a weakened, isolated government, plagued by internal crises.

“A withdrawal from the NPT in response could legitimize military attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities,” Azizi added.

“Important voices in Iran, such as Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Atomic Energy Agency, are now emphasizing that parliament has no authority to decide on a withdrawal from the NPT. He points out that the Supreme Leader must make this decision.”

‘It’s not about a nuclear agreement’

Washington is now demanding that Iran abandon its nuclear program, end its support for regional proxies, and limit its military capabilities.

“The US shows no interest in a new nuclear agreement,” said Aziz.

“In Washington, they seem convinced that they have already militarily contained the dangerous aspects of Iran’s nuclear program,” Aziz added.

“Washington’s conditions are conditions that are difficult for the Islamic Republic to accept. While the Europeans have activated the snapback mechanism, they have little with which to persuade Tehran to compromise.”

Aziz told DW that Iran is therefore trying to play for time and manage its crisis strategically — hoping to secure the support of Russia and China. The goal, he suggested, is for these two countries to block or at least delay the implementation of the sanctions.

However, Azizi emphasized that, based on the text of the resolution, Moscow and Beijing cannot prevent the activation of the snapback mechanism.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/snapback-sanctions-expose-irans-diplomatic-dilemma/a-73837667

Since his return to the White House this year, Trump has wielded tariffs as a wide-ranging policy tool, with the levies upending global trade.

US President Donald Trump claimed Monday that India has offered to reduce its tariffs on US goods to zero, underlining that New Delhi should have done it years ago.

The Trump administration has imposed 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India and an additional 25 per cent levies for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, bringing the total duties imposed on India to 50 per cent, among the highest in the world.

Trump has accused India of fueling Moscow’s deadly attacks on Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil. However, he has refrained from tougher US sanctions on Russia itself. Defending India’s oil purchase, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar argued that the same yardstick has not been applied to China and the European Union, the largest importer of Russian crude oil and Russian LNG, respectively.

“They have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that the relationship between the two countries has been a “one-sided disaster”.

New Delhi said that, like any major economy, it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.

Trump’s comments come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

Since his return to the White House this year, Trump has wielded tariffs as a wide-ranging policy tool, with the levies upending global trade.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday ruled that many of Trump’s tariffs, which have upended global trade, were illegal because he did not have authority to impose them.

But the court allowed the levies to remain in place for now, giving Trump time to take the fight to the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

India will not “bow down” and instead focus on capturing new markets, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in his first public remarks since Washington imposed steep tariffs on Indian goods.

The latest tariffs salvo from Trump has strained US-India ties, with New Delhi earlier criticising the levies as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

Trade talks between the two countries have stumbled over agriculture and dairy markets. Trump wants greater US access, while PM Modi is determined to shield India’s farmers.

The US was India’s top export destination in 2024, with shipments worth $87.3 billion.

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us,” Trump said today.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trump-claims-india-offered-to-cut-tariffs-to-nothing-its-getting-late-9198031?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

ECB President Lagarde’s comments come after Trump threatened to dismiss Federal Reserve officials Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook. She also voiced concern ahead of a no-confidence vote faced by the French government.

President Trump has threatened to dismiss Fed Chairman Jerome Powell after repeatedly attacking him for not cutting short-term interest rates, and is also attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

What else did Lagarde say about Trump and the Fed?

The ECB chief stressed the importance of independence in US monetary policy.

“If US monetary policy were no longer independent and instead dependent on the dictates of this or that person, then I believe that the effect on the balance of the American economy could, given the effects this would have around the world, be very worrying, because it is the largest economy in the world,” Lagarde told French radio station Radio Classique.

Nevertheless, she also assessed that it would ultimately be “very difficult” for Trump to take full control of Fed policy.

“The US Supreme Court, which is largely respected in the country and therefore I hope will be respected by [Trump] as well, has clearly indicated that a Fed governor can only be dismissed in the case of gross misconduct,” Lagarde explained.

“And you’d have go quite far to be fired for gross misconduct,” she added.

Lagarde also told said that a ruling on Friday by a US appeals court that most of Trump’s tariffs were illegal had added a “further layer of uncertainty” to the global economic outlook.

Potential collapse of French government ‘concerning’

Meanwhile in Europe, economists’ eyes will be on France in the coming weeks where the government of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is facing a likely defeat in a confidence vote tabled for next Monday in the National Assembly.

“What I’ve observed in the last six years [as ECB President] is that political developments and moments of political risk have an obvious impact on the economy,” said Lagarde.

“Any risk of a collapse of government in any country in the Eurozone is concerning,” she warned.

On the other hand, Lagarde said she was much less worried about the prospect of France having to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic assistance.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/serious-danger-if-trump-interferes-in-fed-says-ecb-chief/a-73831028

Earlier, Trump had called trade with India a “one-sided disaster” and alleged that the high Indian tariffs keep US goods out of the Indian market.

The Donald Trump administration in the United States hopes to resolve trade friction with India soon, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claiming the “two great countries will get this solved”. Bessent, however, criticised New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil despite US tariffs, and warned that the crude trade was fuelling Moscow’s offensives in Ukraine.

Speaking to Fox Business, he also downplayed the significance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China, calling the gathering “largely performative.”

“This is a longstanding meeting, it’s called the Shanhai Cooperation Organisation, and I think it’s largely performative,” Bessent said.

“I think at the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Their values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s.”

The Team Trump official further admitted that India’s purchase of Russian crude was not the only factor behind US President Donald Trump’s punitive 50 per cent tariffs on India– the highest among Asian nations– and claimed slow-moving India-US trade talks were an additional factor behind the White House’s move to raise duties.

“I think at the end of the day, two great countries will get this solved. But the Indians have not been great actors in terms of buying Russian oil and then reselling it, financing the Russian war effort in Ukraine,” he said.

Earlier, Trump had called trade with India a “one-sided disaster” and alleged that the high Indian tariffs keep US goods out of the Indian market.

Warning To Russia

The US official warned Moscow of additional American sanctions if the Kremlin does not end its war in Ukraine. He claimed that “all options are on the table” as the Trump administration weighs punitive measures against Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to bombard Ukraine despite recent talks about peace in Alaska.

“I think everything’s on the table. President Putin, since the historic meeting in Anchorage, since the phone call, when the European leaders and President Zelensky were at the White House the following Monday, has done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted to do. As a matter of fact, he has, in a despicable, despicable manner, increased the bombing campaign, ” Bessent said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-aide-scott-bessent-on-india-tariffs-two-great-nations-will-get-this-solved-9200054?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The shallow earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has destroyed several villages, causing widespread damage.

Hundreds of people have been killed in eastern Afghanistan after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck late Sunday night near the Pakistan border.

At least 800 people have died and 2,500 others were injured by the tremor, the Taliban government said Monday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani confirmed that the vast majority of the deaths reported so far were in Kunar province.

In the neighboring province of Nangarhar, at least 12 people were killed and 255 others were injured, Qani said.

What do we know about the earthquake in Afghanistan?

The earthquake’s epicenter was near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Jalalabad is about 119 kilometers (74 miles) away from the capital city, Kabul.

The quake occurred at a shallow depth of 8 kilometers (6 miles) and struck the region at 11:47 p.m. local time (9:17 p.m. CET), according to USGS.

Shallower earthquakes usually cause more damage.

A second earthquake with magnitude 4.5 followed roughly 20 minutes later in the same province. This was later followed by a magnitude-5.2 quake.

Taliban spokesman says rescue efforts ongoing

“Local officials and residents are currently engaged in rescue efforts,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted to X, adding there were deaths and structural and financial damage in some of the eastern provinces.

He said support teams from Kabul and nearby provinces were on their way to sites damaged in the powerful quake.

In October 2023, more than 2,000 people were killed after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.

The 2023 earthquake is considered the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country in recent memory.

Afghanistan aid budget cuts impact earthquake response — Danish Refugee Council

Sweeping cuts to international aid budgets and the forced return of refugees from Pakistan are hampering rescue efforts following a series of deadly earthquakes in remote areas of eastern Afghanistan which are already hard to access, according to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Kabul.

“The most impacted areas are in Kunar and Nangarhar,” DRC spokeswoman Dania Al-Sharif told DW as the death toll from the 6.1 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershocks passed 800, with another 2,500 people injured.

“As a humanitarian organization, our work is to provide humanitarian assistance to the most impacted areas and families,” she said.
But she stressed that the organization has “been impacted by budget cuts,” pointing to recent US cuts to intnernational aid as well as an “overall” reduction in funding.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/earthquake-in-afghanistan-kills-hundreds/a-73828434

Tensions rise as Donald Trump plans to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago amid ongoing crime and immigration crackdowns.

California governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday took a veiled dig at US President Donald Trump by sharing a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping interacting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit 2025.

Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump are at loggerheads over the US President’s decision to deploy federal officers in Chicago to crack down on crime and illegal immigration, even as a top administration official vowed to send more personnel.

“But have no fear, Trump is sending the Guard to Chicago,” Newsom, a Democrat, posted on X, along with the video showing Modi and Putin holding hands as they walked towards Xi before the summit opened in China’s Tianjin.

The video also showed the three leaders standing shoulder to shoulder, sharing a laugh.

Xi is attempting to expand the scope of the SCO. He announced initial plans for a development bank run by the organisation, introduced a cooperation platform for green and energy industries and pledged $1.4 billion in loans over the next three years to the organisation’s members.

The Department of homeland security said last week that it has made 5,000 immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area since launching a sustained crackdown in the nation’s second-largest metropolitan area on June 6.

Authorities are undeterred by a temporary court order prohibiting racial profiling in Los Angeles, which the administration has challenged before the Supreme Court.

Newsom’s post on X comes after homeland security secretary Kristi Noem told CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation’ that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Chicago and other parts of the country would be bolstered, but declined to provide details. Noem said Trump would make a decision to deploy National Guard troops.

On the same programme, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said Trump wanted to deploy troops so that he could halt or manipulate US midterm elections in 2026.

“He would like to stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections,” Pritzker said.

“He will just claim that there is some problem with an election, and then he is got troops on the ground that can take control,” he added.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson criticised Pritzker for not doing more to deal with crime.

“Chicago’s residents would be much safer if Pritzker actually did his job and addressed his crime problem instead of trying to be a Resistance Lib hero,” Jackson said in a statement.

Trump and top officials have said in the past week that Chicago would soon be a target for the Republican president’s efforts to tackle crime and illegal immigration. Trump, for years, has criticised crime in Chicago, a Democratic stronghold, although city figures show most categories of violent crime have dropped this year.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/california-governors-no-fear-dig-at-donald-trump-shares-pm-modi-vladimir-putin-xi-jinpings-sco-summit-video-101756781043232.html

The Dances With Wolves star passed away at a Toronto Hospital yesterday, according to Deadline.

His agent, Michael Greene, confirmed The Green Mile star died with his wife, Hilary Blackmore, by his side.

In a statement, he said: “He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed. You are finally free.”

And referencing his late former agent, he added: “Susan Smith is meeting you at the gates of heaven.”

He did not reveal the legendary actor’s cause of death, but he is understood to have died after a long illness.

One of Greene’s standout roles saw him play Kicking Bird in Dances With Wolves in 1990.

Cricketers at the Women’s World Cup in India and Sri Lanka will play for $13.8 million in prize money from this month, two years after the men played for $10 million.

The 2022 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand had an overall purse of $3.5 million.

“This four-fold increase in prize money is a landmark moment for women’s cricket and reflects our clear commitment to its long-term growth,” International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah said in a statement on Monday.

“Our message is simple: Women cricketers must know they will be treated on par with men if they choose this sport professionally. Women’s cricket is on a remarkable upward trajectory, and with this step we are confident the momentum will accelerate.”

The Women’s World Cup starts on Sept. 30 when co-hosts India and Sri Lanka meet in Guwahati. Australia is the defending champion.

The winner of the 13th ODI World Cup will receive $4.48 million, and the runner-up $2.24 million. The losing semifinalists will be awarded $1.12 million each. Group stage competitors earn a guaranteed $250,000.

Each game winner in the group stage will receive another $34,314.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/womens-world-cup-prizemoney-22399747ee4e7bd015cf746ced59ca63

Vietnam marked its National Day on Tuesday with its largest military parade in decades, as thousands packed the streets of the capital, Hanoi, after many camped overnight to witness the grand display marking 80 years of independence.

The parade unfolded at Ba Dinh Square, the site where revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from French colonial rule on Sept. 2, 1945.

Fighting resumed soon after as Vietnamese forces battled the French in the First Indochina War, which ended in 1954 when the country was divided into Communist North and U.S.-backed South. The Vietnam War followed, during which the Communist North fought the South and its American allies. That conflict ended when Communist forces captured Saigon on April 30, 1975 and the country was unified.

Vietnam’s top leader, Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, paid tribute to those who died in the fight for independence and reiterated the ruling party’s goal that by 2045 Vietnam will be a “powerful, prosperous and happy nation,” calling it “the aspiration of the entire nation, an oath of honor before history.”

“We want to be a friend, be a trusted partner with all countries in the world,” he said, adding that Hanoi would never compromise on independence or sovereignty.

Columns of troops marched past as tanks, armored vehicles, and missile systems rumbled by. Helicopters flew overhead trailing giant Vietnamese flags followed by jets while a military band played martial tunes below.

Officials said nearly 16,000 soldiers joined the event, including upgraded tanks, large artillery guns on vehicles, amphibious vehicles and missile systems made by a state-owned Vietnamese company.

For the first time, it also organized a televised naval parade off the coast of the port city of Cam Ranh in southern Vietnam, featuring warships, submarines, helicopters and sea planes.

Honor guards from China, Russia, Laos and Cambodia also joined the display, which Vietnamese state media said reflected the country’s “international friendships.” China is planning to hold a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark the end of World War II.

Crowds began arriving in Hanoi days in advance, and thousands camped on sidewalks Monday night to secure viewing spots.

Videos of the parade went viral on social media and many gathered were in their twenties, wearing red shirts with yellow stars and cheering wildly as soldiers marched past while sipping iced boba tea. People waved the country’s flag or painted it on their faces. Giant screens at intersections broadcast the parade while balconies across the city were draped with more flags.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-national-day-independence-military-parade-45d5d141b8697388a82e12be2dd9eb32

A man who is being hailed as a hero after he rescued a missing child dangerously walking on the monorail tracks at Hersheypark said his “dad instincts kicked in” and compelled him to jump into action.

John Sampson, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, fearlessly climbed onto the roof of a snack stand and pulled himself up onto the tracks after he saw the child walking alone almost 100 feet above the ground on Saturday evening while spectators held their breath.

“Dad instincts kicked in, and then [I was] just trying to figure things out and how to get up there as fast as possible,” Sampson told Fox 43.

He picked up the boy and safely brought him down.

“[I felt] relief, absolute relief, and even I could feel it in him — the relief as soon as he got into my arms,” Sampson said. “Thank goodness he came straight into my arms, and it went nice and simple in that sense.”

The boy was reported missing by his parents around 5 p.m. after he entered a secure area for the monorail ride, Hersheypark officials said.

He was at the station for about 20 minutes before he began walking along the track — frightening park-goers below.

“Go to him now!” one terrified park guest yells in one video before Sampson helped him down.

The monorail was closed at the time and had been fenced off by a chained closure at its entrance and a barricaded turnstile at the platform, according to park officials.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/09/01/us-news/hero-dad-describes-moment-he-rescued-boy-who-wandered-onto-hersheypark-ride-100-feet-in-the-air/

Meal delivery is a luxury city dwellers take for granted – but more options are opening up for non-urban residents.

Boasting nearly 700,000 islands collectively, Sweden, Norway and Finland are home to the most islands in the world, their coastlines dotted by archipelagos that have shaped their history and culture.

While a number of the islands are accessible by ferry and bridge to residents of the region’s cities, there’s one thing locals are often missing: hot food delivery to their door, a service their city cousins probably take for granted.

But Norwegian start-up Aviant wants to change that, by establishing the region’s first food delivery service by drone – starting on the Swedish island of Värmdö.

Värmdö is just eight miles (13km) from Stockholm as the crow flies, and accessible by car, bus and ferry. But its population of around 46,000 – rising to up to 100,000 in the summer – has few hot food delivery options.

During a video call, Aviant co-founder and CEO, Lars Erik Fagernæs, shows me a map of the islands closest to Stockholm.

“All of the white and blue squares are where (delivery services) Foodora and Wolt have a service, and all of the black squares are where they don’t,” says Mr Fagernæs, who is based in the Norwegian city of Trondheim.

“As you can see on the map, there are 87,000 people who don’t have access to a home delivery service. These people live in what you would call suburbs, and would want to order takeaway food, but they just don’t have an option.”

Since February, though, residents of Gustavsberg, the main town on Värmdö, and surrounding areas, have been able to order freshly made burgers from Scandinavian chain Bastard Burgers directly to their door via drone, using Aviant’s technology.

The cost of delivery is comparable to that of a car or bike service, as drones take out the cost of the driver.

At the moment Aviant is in a “beta phase” – only delivering 10 items a week, while they check everything works.

But the plan is to scale up as the year goes on.

Aviant is also set to launch a similar service on the Norwegian peninsula of Nesodden – just four miles in distance from Oslo, but a 29-mile road journey. Mr Fagernæs demonstrates once again on a map.

“All the white is where you don’t currently have a food delivery service. So it’s about 100,000 people that’s going to now have access to home delivery that didn’t have it before,” he says.

It hasn’t been a straightforward process to perfect, Mr Fagernæs admits, as several trials were needed to ensure the food stayed hot and fresh during the maximum flight time of up to 10 minutes, over a radius of up to six miles.

“We have been testing this for three years, and in the beginning, there were a lot of soggy fries,” he recalls. “But we have improved the isolated container the burger goes in, and now we know it arrives warm, even in the winter months.

“People go crazy for it. They call their neighbors and their grandma. They think it’s like a UFO delivering their food.”

Mr Fagernæs hopes the two pilot services will provide the “recipe”, as he describes it, to embark on a full-scale rollout across Scandinavia, where many communities like those on Värmdö and Nessoden are beholden to their geography. He points back to the map.

“We don’t have huge cities, but these areas are viable for drone delivery, where they are on the border of urban with rural, which is very hard to serve by car, and that is a lot of the population in Scandinavia,” says Mr Fagernæs.

Aviant has identified around 40 bases across Scandinavia to expand to over the next two years, and sees similar geography in Canada, which has over 52,000 islands, and the north eastern region of the US, characterised by lakes, mountains and islands.

And what about the weather. Mr Fagernæs admits high winds will ground the drones occasionally, but expects the service to have 90% uptime.

As for flying drones to deliver food into really remote areas, Aviant is one of a number of drone firms to have tested the waters, but found the numbers did not add up.

Starting in 2022, Aviant delivered Thai, Italian and sushi to residents outside of Trondheim. But that service was ended in August 2023.

Meanwhile, in 2022, UK firm Skyports delivered school meals to children in the Orkney islands, funded by Argyll and Bute Council, and temporarily ran a “fish and chip Fridays” delivery service to the wider community.

Similarly, German firm Wingcopter delivered everyday goods to rural residents in 2023 as part of a government partnership. In China’s eastern Zhejiang province, a local council is funding drone delivery of hot meals to elderly villagers isolated in the mountains.

But continuing these services without a government or corporate sponsor is not commercially viable.

Given the distances, the cost of delivery would be prohibitive for the person ordering, and too much for the outlet providing the food to waive. And, being rural areas, there aren’t enough locals to generate sufficient orders to begin with.

Skyports has, however, been running a drone delivery service with Royal Mail across the Orkneys since 2023, and is looking at how the drones used in that can be repurposed to resurrect the hot meal delivery service, this time for all residents.

“We haven’t yet opened it up to other non-Royal Mail users as it’s currently strictly a Royal Mail service. But absolutely, we can be looking at when those drones aren’t in use, how we could be taking cargo from outlets on the mainland to the islands.

We would have to look at what the premium charged would be, as it will be important to lower the cost. Today we’ve just been focusing on getting the service right before we look at that expansion,” explains Alex Brown, Skyports director.

“You could absolutely make something like that work. The more you could utilise the drone, the better.

“So there are models where you have an anchor customer who’s underwriting that core cost, then you can incrementally bolt on new commercial opportunities to bring in additional revenue, and then a new service for people using it.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlze41zygdo

Kelley Wolf has been banned from having any direct or indirect contact with her estranged husband, Scott Wolf, and their kids.

On Aug. 28, a judge issued a new protective order against the “Real World: New Orleans” alum after she shared Scott’s phone number on social media, People reported on Monday.

Per documents obtained by the outlet, Kelley is not allowed to have any contact with the “Party of Five” star or their three kids: Jackson, 16, Miller, 12, and Lucy, 11.

Kelley, 48, cannot “commit, try to commit or threaten to commit any form of violence” against Scott or the kids, including “stalking, harassing, threatening, physically hurting, or causing any other form of abuse that could cause bodily injury.”

She must also stay at least 300 feet away from the actor and is only allowed to have contact with him during meditation sessions scheduled with a “Court Qualified Mediator” regarding their divorce or custody over their children.

Kelley is also banned from using drugs or drinking alcohol until their next hearing on Sept. 10. She is only allowed to visit the family home with a police officer to pick up her belongings.

Scott, 57, will also continue to have temporary sole custody of their three kids.

This latest development in the couple’s messy split comes after Kelley was arrested for electronic communication harassment and electronic disclosure of personal identifying information on Aug. 26.

Earlier in the day, she had shared a series of bizarre Instagram uploads where she called Scott the “most hated man on earth.”

Kelley demanded, “Send the kids now!!! No more games. This is war. Last chance before I go to the press.”

She subsequently posted the actor’s phone number, writing, “Let’s let dimples field his own press.”

Kelley was then booked at the Summit County Jail in Park City, Utah, TMZ reported, before being released two days later.

At the time, her ex claimed that, after she shared his phone number on social media, he received “a barrage of phone calls and text messages from unknown people.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/09/01/celebrity-news/kelley-wolf-banned-from-contacting-estranged-husband-scott-and-kids-following-harassment-arrest/

Meghan Markle called out her husband, Prince Harry, for not liking a particular food on the new season of her Netflix show, “With Love, Meghan.”

In the Season 2 episode with Chef José Andrés, the Duchess of Sussex revealed Harry doesn’t like a certain type of seafood.

“You know who doesn’t like lobster? My husband,” the 44-year-old told her guest.

“And you married him anyway?” Andrés jokingly replied.

While Markle didn’t reveal why the Duke of Sussex, 40, doesn’t like lobster, the royal family traditionally avoids eating shellfish.

“When dining, the royal family has to be careful with shellfish due to shellfish poisoning, due to their work schedules. It is a very sensible move to abandon having seafood when out and about on public duties,” King Charles’ former butler, Grant Harrold, once said, according to the Mirror.

Queen Camilla also previously revealed garlic “is a no-no” amongst the royal family.

“I hate to say this, but garlic. Garlic is a no-no,” she admitted during a 2018 appearance on “MasterChef Australia.”

Judge Gary Mehigan asked her, “Because you’re talking, chatting?” to which the royal confirmed, “Yes, exactly. So you always have to lay off the garlic.”

Elsewhere in the new season of Markle’s Netflix series, she was left humiliated after mixologist Payman Bahmani-Bailey bluntly confessed he wasn’t a fan of “Suits” — USA Network’s legal drama, in which she played Rachel Zane from 2011 to 2018.

“I don’t watch basic cable,” Bahmani-Bailey said after Markle asked him if he ever watched the show.

“I like shows with curse words and stuff.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/09/01/entertainment/meghan-markle-makes-surprising-prince-harry-confession-that-stuns-netflix-show-guest/

Social media photos and footage from several recent rehearsals have shown anti-ship missiles, cutting-edge underwater drones, and anti-missile systems.

China will showcase a range of new weapons during a vast military parade on Wednesday (Sep 3), in a show of strength that is being seen as a challenge to US military dominance.

Military experts have been analysing social media photos and footage from several recent rehearsals, which have shown anti-ship missiles, cutting-edge underwater drones, anti-missile systems, and more tech that could pass by Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Sep 3.

While officials have kept secret the list of hardware to be displayed in front of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, many military enthusiasts have already spotted significant new systems, including what is rumoured to be a gigantic laser weapon.

The military has said all the equipment presented is domestically produced and “in active duty”.

“EAGLES” TO COUNTER US SHIPS

Four new anti-ship missiles several metres long have been seen: The YJ-15, YJ-17, YJ-19, and YJ-20. “YJ” is short for “Ying Ji”, which means “eagle attack” in Chinese.

These missiles can be launched from ships or aircraft and are designed to inflict critical damage on large vessels. The YJ-17, YJ-19, and YJ-20 models could be hypersonic, meaning they can fly at least five times the speed of sound.

“China must develop powerful anti-ship and anti-aircraft carrier capabilities to prevent the United States from posing a serious threat to China’s national security,” Song Zhongping, a military commentator and former Chinese army instructor, told AFP, referring to tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

UNDERWATER DRONES

Two new, extra-large torpedo-shaped unmanned underwater vehicles have been spotted during the rehearsals.

The first, labelled “AJX002”, is 18 to 20 m long, according to the website Naval News. The second was hidden under a tarpaulin.

While China still lags behind the United States in surface naval power, according to Naval News, it has the world’s largest programme of “extra large uncrewed underwater vehicles” (XLUUVs) – with at least five types already in the water.

ANTI-MISSILE SHIELD

Still shrouded in mystery, the HQ-29 is described by some Chinese analysts as a “satellite hunter” capable of intercepting missiles at an altitude of 500 km, outside the Earth’s atmosphere, as well as satellites in low orbit.

Mounted on a wheeled vehicle, the system features two missile containers, each approximately 1.5m in diameter.

Its capabilities could make it China’s most advanced interception system to date and one of the most powerful in the world.

WORLD’S “MOST POWERFUL” LASER?

A huge rectangular vehicle in camouflage colours covered with a tarpaulin could be a defence system capable of shooting down missiles and drones using a powerful laser, according to the South China Morning Post.

The X account “Zhao DaShuai”, which is linked to the Chinese military, claims it is the “most powerful laser air defence system in the world”.

NEW NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

Intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the ultimate symbols of power, are expected to feature prominently in the parade.

“China will showcase a new generation of nuclear weapons,” analyst Song Zhongping told AFP.

Nuclear weapons, like the other hardware which will be displayed during the parade, “will help equalise the military power balance between China and the US”, he said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-world-war-ii-military-parade-hardware-missiles-drones-lasers-5326271

When EU foreign ministers meet, their agenda often reads like a world atlas. There are dizzying lists of statements and actions to sign off on, and points to tackle about every corner of the globe — and much time is usually eaten up in negotiations to cajole 27 states into a unanimous position.

But a couple of times a year, ministers put their heads together at “informal” talks — so-called not because they ditch the suits and show up in jeans, but because no official decisions can be taken.

The idea? Leave space for reflections and discussions that fall through the cracks of daily business.

EU diplomats described the weekend talks in the Danish capital as a “brainstorming” session on what comes next in the bloc’s support for Ukraine. Despite weeks of frenetic diplomacy, Ukrainians remain under attack, and Europe remains deeply skeptical of Russia’s desire for peace.

Here are some of the ideas that were floated this weekend in Copenhagen.

First hint of secondary sanctions

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters that ministers mulled so-called secondary sanctions — restrictions targeting Russia’s trading partners.

The European Union has already sanctioned some entities, including Chinese banks, it accuses of helping Russia finance its war, but broader secondary sanctions could be a more impactful — and more risky — move for Europe as it seeks more friends on the global stage and new trade deals with the likes of India.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene also warned that only secondary sanctions imposed by the United States would “really produce enough pain for the Russian war machine.”

European measures “would be nice too,” she told DW, but added: “It’s a difference of having a really nuclear effect. Nobody in the world wants to feel secondary sanctions of the United States. That would be a game-changer.”

‘Safe haven:’ Ukrainian arms made on EU soil

In a first-of-its-kind operation, Denmark announced it will, “some weeks from now,” invite a Ukrainian arms company to start production on Danish soil.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the site could be up and running this year, though did not share details on which weapons would be made there.

“I also expect that more Ukrainian defense companies will follow later this year,” he added.

Kaja Kallas said other countries were also interested in bringing the Ukrainian defense industry to their soil through similar schemes.

Part of the idea, according to diplomats speaking on the sidelines of the Copenhagen talks, is to show Russia that even as it targets Ukrainian arms factories inside the country, more sites will keep popping up elsewhere in the “safe haven” of the EU.

Thawing debate on frozen Russian assets

There was also a heated debate on what to do with roughly €200 billion ($233 billion) in Russian central bank assets frozen in the EU in 2022. Until now, EU states have opted to skim off the interest accrued on the assets and use it to support Ukraine.

A number of EU countries, including the Baltic states and Poland, have long pushed for the assets themselves to be seized and handed over to Ukraine.

Political scientist Christine Nissen said that would mark a “turning point.”

But fellow EU member Belgium is staunchly against seizure, warning it could be both illegal and could scare future investors away from Europe.

“The argument is that it would simply be also us actually going against some of the principles of that liberal order that we believe in,” Nissen, an analyst with Think Tank Europa, told DW.

Kallas seemed to push back on those concerns on Saturday. “Financial markets did not react when we froze the assets. Financial markets are calm now as we discuss this,” she said. “There are risks, but I’m confident that we are able to mitigate those risks.”

“One thing is absolutely clear,” Kallas added. “Given the devastation Russia is causing in Ukraine and has caused in Ukraine so far, it is unthinkable that Russia will ever see this money again unless it fully compensates Ukraine.”

For now, the EU may consider moving the assets into more risky investments to beef up the amount available if the war ends.

EU military trainers inside Ukraine?

Kallas also said there was “broad support” for a plan to shift the EU’s current training mission for Ukrainian troops — hosted mainly in Poland and Germany — onto Ukrainian soil in the event of a ceasefire.

But with no actual truce in sight, Kallas acknowledged that this was a “chicken and egg issue.”

“Some are saying that we should do it after, but we can also do it conditionally,” she explained, suggesting member states pursue an agreement now on a change that could kick in at a later date.

But the plan may also get snagged on EU unanimity rules — with Hungary regularly delaying decisions on support for Ukraine. Still, Sakaliene told DW that the proposal is “much closer to conclusion than other difficult decisions.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/what-now-eu-brainstorms-new-ways-to-back-ukraine/a-73826945

Katy Perry is getting the last laugh following the intense criticism she’s received over her “Lifetimes” tour.

The pop star has already sold 1.1 million tickets and grossed more than $80 million in sales, according to her management.

The $80 million earned comes from ticket sales to her shows in the US, Canada and Australia, according to figures provided to Billboard. Perry played a total of 45 shows in the three countries.

The impressive amount doesn’t even include the “Teenage Dream” singer’s upcoming overseas stops in Latin America, Europe and China.

Perry’s rep didn’t immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Perry, 40, has faced a lot of criticism online for her “Lifetimes” tour, as well as her latest album, “143.” Critics roasted her space outfits and choreography during her performances, with one X user asking, “People are paying to see this?”

Another X user commented, “This looks more like somebody who’s come out of retirement after 30 years and trying to pull the same moves off they did when they were young and popular.”

She was also roasted in April for being a part of the all-female Blue Origin space flight alongside Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn.

Critics lauded the trip as an out-of-touch waste of money, and celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Munn, Olivia Wilde and Jessica Chastain publicly slammed the excursion.

Perry responded to the hate she was receiving for both her tour and the Blue Origin space flight later that month, calling her haters “unhinged and unhealed.”

“Please know I am ok, I have done a lot work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me,” she wrote in an Instagram comment on a fan page.

“My therapist said something years ago that has been a game changer, ‘no one can make you believe something about yourself that you don’t already believe about yourself’ and if I ever do have any feelings about it then it’s an opportunity to investigate the feeling underneath it,” she continued.

Perry noted that when the “‘online’ world tries to make [her] a human piñata,” she chooses to accept it with grace and sends her love.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/08/31/entertainment/katy-perry-reveals-lifetimes-tour-has-earned-8-figures-after-brutal-criticism/

Pitt and his legal team have been trying to fend off having the actor face a deposition in relation to a class action lawsuit filed by victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The powerful and deadly storm slammed into Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29, 2005, leaving over 1,390 people dead in and around the New Orleans area.

To help displaced families who lost their homes due to the catastrophic storm, Pitt launched the Make It Right Foundation in 2007 with a goal to provide housing for people in need.

However, the foundation allegedly made a mess of its ambitious building project and is currently at the center of a class action lawsuit for over 106 homes, which were “deficiently constructed” with “defective products,” according to a lawsuit viewed by The U.S. Sun.

This month, the spotlight is more than ever on Pitt and his foundation following the release of Netflix’s three-part documentary Katrina: Come Hell and High Water.

‘HELL AND HIGH WATER’

Produced by Spike Lee, the documentary features details of suffering created by Pitt’s non-profit with first-hand accounts from broken-hearted homeowners.

Make It Right constructed 106 homes in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, which was decimated by Katrina in 2005, but the houses were not fit for purpose, despite Pitt’s best intentions when he launched the foundation.

In 2018, residents filed a suit against Pitt, the Make It Right Foundation, the non-profit’s directors, and all those connected to the construction of their substandard houses, which were falling apart and cost a combined $20 million to repair.

Ron Austin Law, attorneys representing the homeowners, are building up a colossal arsenal of evidence against Pitt and his co-defendants after painstaking forensic work

A letter sent to homeowners, which was viewed by The U.S. Sun, stated that the law firm was now armed with 150,000 pages of documents, including 30,000 critical financial records.

The acquisition of the records came after a three-year fight with Make It Right’s legal team, who contested and attempted to suppress handing over the trove of documents.

The letter added that “our architectural expert has submitted a comprehensive 6,000-page report, and our contractor experts have provided reports of similar magnitude.”

Moreover, it adds that an engineering expert has also “submitted a separate report,” which means 18,000 pages of reports filed with the New Orleans Parish district court.

NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED

The team of attorneys promised its clients that no stone would be left unturned and that “defendants and key witnesses” will be deposed after September.

The court recently ruled that all depositions related to the case have to be conducted by December 3 – that means the 61-year-old Hollywood A-lister could be quizzed at some time in October or November.

The U.S. Sun previously reported that Pitt fought tooth and nail to wriggle out of testifying, claiming it would clash with his hectic work schedule.

However, it now seems like Pitt is running out of options.

In an amended petition filed with the courts, the homeowners broadly allege a “breach of contract, warranty, negligence and fraud.”

The filing claims that the fraud accusations relate to “alleged statements, promises, and representations made by Make It Right and its employees/directors/officers, and fraud relating to financial activities that allegedly affected funds available to repair the homes.

There’s to be a trial next year to determine whether it can go forward as a class action lawsuit with the defendants’ legal team filing a motion for the fraud allegations to be discounted from the trial.

‘UNKEPT PROMISES’

It names Pitt in particular in the motion, claiming the actor was central to the alleged defrauding of the homeowners.

The court filing read, “The petition alleges ‘promises’ made by Brad Pitt at a 2007 community meeting, Plaintiffs allege these promises were ‘false.’

“Plaintiffs allege this reliance continued as late as 2016-2018.

“Plaintiffs further allege that Pitt made promises in ‘media interviews’ that induced justifiable reliance’.”

Among the list of complaints filed against Pitt’s foundation include defective designs, materials and construction, lack of repairs and water intrusion.

COMMUNITY IN DESPAIR

Kamaria Allen, a resident of a property built by Make It Right, had her home demolished in October 2020 after it sat empty for nine years due to what she claimed were “advanced mold rot caused by a chronic moisture condition.”

Allen told The U.S. Sun at the time that her parents lived in a property constructed by the non-profit that had “toxic mold and high CO2 levels.”

The horrid conditions allegedly caused her father Keith to stop working, while her mother Sharon became severely asthmatic, and her younger brother Khalid suffered memory loss and speech problems.

Allen, whose family pulled out of the class action suit as it has been dragging on for years, told The U.S. Sun in 2021, “Our blood is on their hands,” referring to Pitt and his foundation.

“They really just sat back and watched while multiple people lost their quality of life without attempting to make it right when they had all of the resources.

“They came in and destroyed a community that was already trying to come back from the dead.

“I don’t understand how Brad Pitt or anyone else affiliated with this organization can sleep at night. They are killing people.

“A lot of these people are very sick and are living a very poor quality of life for the rest of their lives.”

Some homeowners have taken out mortgages on properties in excess of $100,000, but the wrecked houses are now virtually worthless.

It’s not just the residents who are fed up, but the local authorities.

The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority filed a lawsuit against Make It Right Housing LLC in July to reclaim a plot of Make It Right land on Reynes St, which was never built upon.

The nonprofit had dumped shipping containers on the plot, which were filled with cabinets of sensitive homeowners’ information, and then left it abandoned for years.

Make It Right never repurposed the plot of land and 15 years after purchasing the territory, authorities are now seeking to reclaim it.

Another Make It Right plot, located on Jourdan Street, was seized by the City of New Orleans and foreclosed in 2024, selling for just $17,500.

NON-EXISTENT

Pitt’s non-profit was meant to be the savior for those who lost everything in the city’s most deprived and predominantly black area 20 years ago.

But the foundation made a mess of its ambitious project, which were “deficiently constructed” with “defective products,” according to the suit.

In the years after Katrina, Make It Right has been virtually non-existent in the area.

The foundation’s Lower Ninth offices closed its doors years ago, cut off its communication lines, and became invisible to residents.

It seemed the lawsuit had reached a conclusion in 2022 when the celeb-backed eco-charity Global Green agreed to pay a $20.5 million settlement on behalf of Make It Right and Pitt.

However, the pledge fell apart after it was discovered that Global Green never had the $20.5 million funds, and were banking on Pitt to be the figurehead of a major fundraising campaign for the settlement.

Pitt soon came forward and denied ever agreeing to Global Green’s claims.

A spokesperson for Pitt told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement in 2023, “Brad had supported Global Green many years ago, so when they approached his team stating ‘$20.5M in funding’ had been secured by their ‘generous donors,’ there was interest in considering their proposal.

“Global Green represented themselves as having already obtained these funds and planned to use them toward resolving all claims in the ongoing lawsuit for the benefit of the homeowners.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15076985/brad-pitt-deposition-new-orleans-hurricane-katrina/

The man’s wife detailed her harrowing experience realising her husband had fallen unconscious

A TOURIST has died at Disneyland after passing out on its iconic Frozen ride next to his wife.

The 53-year-old man from the Philippines lost consciousness on the beloved Frozen Ever After ride at the theme park in Hong Kong on Friday.

His horrified wife noticed that he had fallen into a coma while on the ride and immediately notified staff.

First-aid responders rushed to the scene as the ride returned to its starting point and performed CPR.

The holidaymaker was taken to North Lantau Hospital but tragically was pronounced dead shortly after at 11:30am local time.

Cops received a report of the man passing out at 10:18am.

The tourist’s wife told them he had pre-existing health conditions, including a history of heart disease and high blood pressure which needed regular treatment.

A spokesperson for Disneyland Hong Kong said: “The resort deeply regrets the passing of the guest and will do its utmost to provide necessary assistance to his family.

“The initial investigation has shown the incident is not related to ride safety.”

The Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong confirmed the death on Saturday.

They added that they were coordinating with authorities to help the family.

The Frozen Ever After ride is part of the theme park’s World of Frozen section, which opened in late 2023.

It is a slow-paced boat ride that transports guests through an immersive experience into the world of Frozen.

And it features advanced animatronics of characters such as Anna, Elsa and Olaf.

The ride is open to guests of all ages and heights – but its official app advises against pregnant women going on it.

In 2024, a two-year-old boy died after half his face collapsed on a surprise family holiday to Disneyland.

Doctors assured little Dax Peek’s family that his symptoms were likely as a result of Bell’s palsy – a temporary and treatable weakness or lack of movement.

It also comes as a 334-pound Disney World guest is suing the company – after he was allegedly left “permanently disfigured” in a water slide accident at Blizzard Beach.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15080360/tourist-dies-disneyland-ride/

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared her candid outrage and disgust over a pornography site that featured fake photos of herself and other prolific women, including her own sister, adorned with sexist and offensive captions.

The porn website Phica featured galleries of doctored images before being overloaded with ones featuring Meloni and other high-profile women.

Images of Meloni and her sister Arianna, a prominent politician within the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, quickly became popular on the site and were viewed by scores of users.

The backlash was almost immediate and the entire platform was swiftly shut down by its own managers, who blamed its hundreds of thousands of users for violating its rules.

Meloni, who ran on a family-first platform and is notoriously vocal about bolstering women’s issues, was abhorred by the disgusting images and said she felt violated by the invasion.

“I am disgusted by what happened, and I want to extend my solidarity and support to all the women who have been offended, insulted, and violated in their intimacy by the managers of this forum and its users,” Meloni told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“It is disheartening to note that in 2025, there are still those who consider it normal and legitimate to trample on a woman’s dignity and target her with sexist and vulgar insults, hiding behind anonymity or a keyboard.”

Arianna added that the root cause of the debauchery was a “bad habit of a click-through society” where privacy is a myth and “we belittle the real, important things that women achieve and conquer with their work day after day.”

Italy has a revenge porn law, but Meloni noted that the violating distribution “no longer happens just out of ‘revenge,’ and that protecting our data and our privacy is increasingly crucial in our times.”

The current version of the law, passed in 2019, makes the spread of sexually explicit images punishable by up to six years in prison. It’s unclear if Meloni may aim to update it or seek to introduce newer privacy-oriented legislation.

The porn site images aren’t Meloni’s first bout with such explicit transgressions.

In 2024, she sued a father and son duo who allegedly created a sexually explicit deepfake video of her that was distributed in the United States and viewed “millions of times.” She’s seeking roughly $108,200 in damages, but promised to donate any earnings to a state fund dedicated to women who are victims of violence.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/world-news/italian-pm-giorgia-meloni-disgusted-over-porn-site-allegedly-featuring-graphic-doctored-images-of-herself-her-sister/

A man was found dead in a “pool of blood” at the Burning Man festival Saturday night – just as a massive human-shaped wooden effigy was being torched in the Nevada desert, according to authorities.

The body was discovered around 9 p.m. when a festival goer flagged down a sheriff’s deputy and reported seeing “a male subject lying in a pool of blood,” the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Sunday.

Authorities are now investigating the death as a homicide.

The grisly scene was uncovered while the “Man,” a towering human-shaped wooden sculpture at the center of the festival grounds in Black Rock City was set on fire, the sheriff’s office said.

The man was pronounced dead on the scene, and his body has been taken to the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office, authorities added.

Local deputies, the Bureau of Land Management rangers, and Burning Man’s own Black Rock Rangers created a perimeter around the area and interviewed several festival goers at the scene.

The crime scene will be gated off as authorities continue to investigate, officials said Sunday.

“Although this act appears to be a singular crime, all participants should always be vigilant of their surroundings and acquaintances,” the sheriff’s office said.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/us-news/burning-man-attendee-found-in-pool-of-blood-as-cops-launch-murder-probe/

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard blindsided CIA leaders last week when she disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer on a list of people she stripped of security clearances, multiple current and former intelligence sources said.

The move alarmed the agency’s workforce, the sources said, and is the latest example of simmering tensions and crossed signals between Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The two have clashed previously over her decisions, including earlier this month when Gabbard declassified a lightly redacted document related to Russian election interference.

Two former government officials said their read of the situation is that Gabbard is under pressure to regain President Donald Trump’s confidence. Gabbard fell out of favor with Trump and his aides earlier this year after she posted a video and delivered testimony about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

But the tensions between Gabbard and Trump seem to have subsided for now. When Gabbard announced the security clearance removals last week, she said some of the 37 current and former officials were engaged in “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” and that she was acting on the president’s orders.

And on Tuesday, as he presided over a Cabinet meeting before television cameras, Trump praised Gabbard. “You found some interesting things, Tulsi,” Trump said. “She’s becoming a bigger and bigger star every day.”

One of the former government officials said Gabbard appeared to be trying to show the president she was exposing Democrats and political enemies, including some purportedly inside the CIA. The security clearance removals reflected “a battle between Gabbard and Ratcliffe,” the former official said.

The director of national intelligence position was created after the Sept. 11 attacks in an effort to ensure close coordination among the country’s spy agencies.

There have been turf wars and personality clashes in the past between some DNIs and CIA directors. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Dennis Blair was often at loggerheads with the CIA chief, Leon Panetta, and he ultimately resigned after 16 months on the job.

But in this case, the current director of national intelligence appears to be seeking the president’s support, former officials said, by doubling down on accusations against former Democratic administrations and punishing members of a perceived “deep state” of anti-Trump government bureaucrats.

Apart from highlighting the divide between Gabbard and Ratcliffe, the episode also illustrates the effect of a widening and unpredictable purge of career government officials deemed insufficiently loyal.

The fired analyst

The CIA officer whom Gabbard publicly identified and stripped of her security clearance was a veteran analyst. NBC News is not naming the employee for her protection. A former colleague said she is declining interviews.

Days earlier, she had worked intensely to help prepare the White House team for a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, former intelligence agency colleagues said. She was due to take up a new assignment for the CIA in Europe, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

After the summit, the CIA informed the analyst that she had lost her security clearance, effectively ending her career. “She did most of the prep for the Putin summit and to this day has no idea why her clearance was removed,” said a former colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation from the Trump administration.

Gabbard and her office failed to properly coordinate the move with the CIA before revoking the security clearances of the 37 current and former officials, said a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of the matter. It appeared that Gabbard and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were unaware of the CIA employee’s covert mission, the official added.

“ODNI didn’t meaningfully consult with the agency,” the official told NBC News.

ODNI spokesperson Olivia Coleman defended Gabbard’s decision, saying in an email it was designed to ensure “individuals who have violated the trust placed in them by weaponizing, politicizing, manipulating, or leaking classified intelligence are no longer allowed to do so.”

In a social media post, Coleman added: “No one was ‘blindsided.’ We coordinated with all agencies before sending the letter.” Coleman said the memo from Gabbard revoking security clearances “listed names and not agency affiliations, meaning @DNIGabbard did not out any ‘undercover’ officer.”

Asked about relations between the two spy chiefs, CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons said: “Director Ratcliffe and the president’s entire elite national security team are committed to eradicating the politicization of intelligence and are focused on executing President Trump’s national security priorities, and keeping the American people safe.”

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal first reported the incident.

The fired CIA analyst had previously worked as a national intelligence officer specializing in Russia and Eurasia and had been ordered to help organize the assessment of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the administration has taken action against officials who took part in the Russia investigation, those who prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters and those who pursued criminal cases against Trump.

A former senior intelligence official, Larry Pfeiffer, said it would be reckless not to confer with the employee’s spy agency before rescinding their security clearance and revealing their identity. He said that could put an officer at risk and jeopardize relations with a foreign government.

“Look, it’s just common sense to consult with the agency that would be most impacted by a decision to pull the clearance of one of their employees,” Pfeiffer said, “especially in such a public manner.”

Ongoing friction

The episode underscored continuing friction between Gabbard and Ratcliffe. The rift has been apparent across Washington, known to lawmakers, intelligence community employees and Pentagon officials.

In July, Gabbard declassified a 2020 report from the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. She did this over the objections of some CIA officials, who argued the details should remain secret to protect sensitive spying sources and methods, NBC News previously reported.

Gabbard also raised eyebrows at the CIA when she unveiled plans to move preparation of the president’s daily intelligence briefing from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to the national intelligence director’s office a few miles away, in McLean.

Presidents regularly receive a classified intelligence briefing, a digital document presented by senior officials that can shape a commander in chief’s decision-making. While Gabbard oversees and approves the presidential daily brief, a large staff of analysts and other employees at the CIA compiles the briefing, creating detailed text, graphics and videos based on the latest intelligence.

Dozens of intelligence officials fired

Former intelligence officials say the CIA analyst is one of dozens of career employees at the country’s spy agencies who have been abruptly fired or forced out in recent months for purported disloyalty. They have been ousted without being told of the evidence for the decision or having a chance to defend themselves.

Legal experts say Trump has wielded his authority over security clearances unlike any previous president, using it as a tool to punish former officials who have criticized him and to silence dissent in the government.

The administration has defended its actions, saying those who were stripped of their security clearance had allegedly politicized intelligence for partisan purposes, had failed to safeguard classified material, had failed to adhere to professional intelligence “analytic tradecraft standards” or engaged in unspecified “detrimental” conduct. Gabbard, in announcing the move, did not provide evidence for these claims.

The 37 people targeted by Gabbard last week were mostly former officials who worked in national security roles during the Obama and Biden administrations. Of the 37 listed, 25 had signed a letter in 2019, when they were private citizens, backing efforts by Democratic lawmakers to launch an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump abused his power when he asked Ukraine’s government to look for derogatory information about his political rival, Joe Biden.

Right-wing activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer, who portrays herself as exposing “disloyal” government officials and civil servants, had flagged the 2019 letter in a recent social media post.

Revoking former intelligence officials’ security clearances could damage their reputation and limit their long-term ability to find jobs, former officials said. Security clearances are a standard requirement for many senior posts at defense and technology companies with federal contracts.

Apart from the CIA analyst, there were at least two other current intelligence officers on Gabbard’s list. One was Vinh Nguyen at the National Security Agency, who colleagues say was recognized as the intelligence community’s top mind on cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence. The government recruited Nguyen at the age of 17 and he was the youngest NSA employee ever promoted to a senior position, former colleagues said.

Former intelligence officers described him as a generational genius who could not be replaced. “The U.S. government is the big loser here,” said a former senior intelligence official, referring to Nguyen’s ouster.

In 2016, when Nguyen was a national intelligence officer overseeing cybersecurity, he was asked to help direct the intelligence assessment of Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections. The assessment by U.S. spy agencies concluded that Russia had waged information warfare to try to undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and help Trump.

But Trump and Gabbard have dismissed the assessment as false and part of a conspiracy they claim Obama and his aides orchestrated. A bipartisan Senate investigation overseen by then-Sen. Marco Rubio later endorsed the findings of the intelligence assessment that Putin sought to help Trump win. The Russian leader also later said himself that he wanted to see Trump prevail.

The officials who lost their security clearances also included two former career intelligence officers who delivered the daily intelligence briefing to Trump during his first term. Several others on the list said they no longer have active security clearances and learned that they were on the roster from social media.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna223285

In a shopping plaza an hour outside Toronto, flanked by a day spa and a shawarma joint, sits a two-storey building with blue tinted windows reflecting the summer sun.

It is the modest headquarters of Canadensys Aerospace, where Canada is charting its first trip to the Moon.

Canadensys is developing the first-ever Canadian-built rover for exploring the Earth’s only natural satellite, in what will be the first Canadian-led planetary exploration endeavour.

Models, maps and posters of outer space line the office walls, while engineers wearing anti-static coats work on unfamiliar-looking machines.

Sending this rover to the Moon is part of the company’s “broader strategy of really moving humanity off the Earth”, Dr Christian Sallaberger, Canadensys’ president and CEO, told the BBC.

Learning about the Moon – which is seen to have the potential to become a base for further space exploration – is the “logical first step”, he said.

“People get all excited about science fiction films when they come out. You know, Star Wars or Star Trek. This is the real thing.”

The Canadian vehicle is part of Nasa’s Artemis programme, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

As part of that overarching goal, this rover aims to find water and measure radiation levels on the lunar surface in preparation for future manned missions, and survive multiple lunar nights (equivalent to about 14 days on Earth).

The rover will also demonstrate Canadian technology, building on Canada’s history in space.

Canada was the third country to launch a satellite, designed the Canadarm robotic arms for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, and is known for astronauts such as Chris Hadfield and Jeremy Hansen – the latter of whom will orbit the Moon on the Artemis II mission next year.

The 35kg rover is scheduled to be launched as part of a Nasa initiative in 2029 at the earliest. It will land on the Moon’s south polar region – one of the most inhospitable places on the lunar surface.

The vehicle does not have a name yet. The Canadian Space Agency held an online competition to select one, and is expected to announce the winner in the future.

Canadensys is currently working on several prototypes of the rover. The final vehicle, Mr Sallaberger said, would be assembled shortly before launch.

Each component is tested to ensure it can survive the Moon’s harsh conditions.

Temperature is one of the main obstacles. Lunar nights can plummet to -200C (-328F) and rise to a scorching daytime of 100C (212F).

“It’s one of the biggest engineering challenges we have because it’s not so much even surviving the cold temperature, but swinging between very cold and very hot,” he said.

Designing the wheels is another challenge, as the Moon’s surface is covered with a sticky layer of fragmented rock and dust called regolith.

“Earth dirt, if you look at it microscopically, has been weathered off. It’s more or less in a round shape; but on the Moon the lunar dirt soil is all jagged,” Mr Sallaberger said.

“It’s like Velcro dirt,” he said, noting it “just gums up mechanisms”.

The search for water on the lunar surface is especially exciting, considering the Moon was generally thought to be bone dry following the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s, the US human spaceflight programme led by Nasa.

That perception changed in 2008, Dr Gordon Osinski, the mission’s chief scientist, told the BBC, when researchers re-analysed some Apollo mission samples and found particles of water.

Around the same time, space crafts observing the Moon detected its presence from orbit.

It has yet to be verified on the ground and many questions remain, the professor at Western University in London, Ontario, said.

“Is it like a patch of ice the size of this table? The size of a hockey rink? Most people think, like in the Arctic, it’s probably more like grains of ice mixed in with the soil,” he said.

Water on the Moon could have huge implications for more sustainable exploration. He noted one of the heaviest things they need to transport is often water, so having a potential supply there would open doors.

Water molecules can also be broken down to obtain hydrogen, which is used in rocket fuel. Mr Osinski described a future where the Moon could become a sort of petrol station for spacecrafts.

“It gets more in the realms of sci- fi,” he said.

Canada has wanted to build a lunar surface vehicle for decades, with talk of a Canadian-made spacecraft even in the early 2000s – but it was not until 2019 that concrete plans were announced.

Canadensys was awarded the C$4.7m ($3.4m; £2.5m) contract three years later.

Founded in 2013, Canadensys has worked on a variety of aerospace projects for organisations like Nasa and the Canadian Space Agency, as well as commercial clients.

More than 20 instruments built by the company have been used in a host of missions on the Moon.

But there are challenges ahead – as even landing on the Moon is no easy feat.

In March, a spacecraft by commercial US firm Intuitive Machines toppled over onto its side during landing, ending the mission prematurely.

Three months later, Japanese company iSpace’s Resilience lost touch with Earth during its landing, and eventually failed.

“That’s the nature of the business we’re in,” Mr Sallaberger said. “Things do go wrong, and we try to do the best we can to mitigate that.”

Space exploration has been a collaborative field over the years, with countries – even rivals, such as the United States and Russia – working together on the International Space Station.

But that might be changing, Mr Osinski said. As the prospect of a permanent presence on the Moon becomes more realistic, wider geopolitical questions have begun to swirl around the ownership of the satellite.

“There’s more talk around who owns the Moon and space resources,” Mr Osinski said.

In 2021, the US passed a law to protect the Apollo Moon landing site “because they had a concern that China could just go and grab the US flag, or take a piece of an Apollo lander”, he said.

But he had some encouraging words about the Artemis missions, which are “even way more international than the space station”.

The Artemis Accords, which is a set of ideals to promote sustainable and peaceful exploration of outer space, has been signed by more than 50 countries – including ones like Uruguay, Estonia and Rwanda, which are not traditionally seen as key space race nations.

Space is also becoming more accessible. Private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have taken an increasingly important role and are able to take anyone with the money and barely any training – like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and pop star Katy Perry – into space for a few minutes.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jn4ryxdp3o

US President Donald Trump has claimed that removing his tariffs would lead to America’s destruction, following a federal appeals court ruling that deemed many of these tariffs illegal. He criticized the majority of judges involved, labeling them as a “Radical Left group,” while praising a dissenting judge for his courage.

US President Donald Trump has warned that America would be “completely destroyed” if his tariffs were removed, just days after a federal appeals court declared most of them illegal.
Trump, in a post on his platform Truth Social, said, “Without Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated.” He also criticised the court’s 7–4 ruling, calling the majority of judges a “Radical Left group.”

Trump praised one dissenting judge, describing him as “a Democrat, Obama appointed,” thanking him for showing “courage” and claiming that the judge “loves and respects the USA.”

Court Ruling Against Trump’s tariffs

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday ruled that several tariffs imposed under Trump were illegal. The court said Trump did not have the authority to enforce such open-ended tariffs on almost all imports.
Although the court struck them down, it allowed the duties to stay in place until October 14, giving Trump a chance to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Social media has long been a search engine for thrill seekers planning out their next adventure off the beaten track.

But mountain rescue teams say some quests for picture perfect views are in fact putting lives at risk.

Call-outs for those under-25 have risen by 90% over the last five years, driven by TikTok and Instagram videos depicting “secret” beauty spots that are often remote and dangerous.

In one case, highlighted by BBC Wales’ SOS Extreme Rescues, a young couple used TikTok videos to research a trip to part of a north Wales world heritage site.

But it ended with Nathaniel and Charlie from Leeds “hanging on for dear life” – stranded high in a quarry on a crumbling cliff, with a storm blowing in.

“We use social media to see all these amazing places, and then we figure out how we are going to get to them,” said delivery driver Nathaniel, who met trainee nurse Charlie at the hospital where they both work.

“We wake up and say ‘Oh, we’re going here’. It’s just spontaneous all the time,” added Charlie.

They had headed out to Eryri National Park for a fresh adventure with two other friends, but Charlie was still unaware of the final destination.

“Nathaniel said they had something planned for us. They wouldn’t show us the TikTok, so it was a complete surprise,” said Charlie.

The surprise was hidden deep in the historic Dinorwig Quarry, in Gwynedd – which was the world’s second largest slate quarry when it was opened more than 200 years ago.

It is a maze of paths, tunnels and mines, all set on staggered gigantic terraces cut into the mountainside overlooking Llanberis on the edge of the national park.

It closed in 1969, and was named as part of a new Unesco World Heritage Site in 2021.

Most of the quarry is privately owned and officially off limits, with no public access.

It is dotted with warning signs, fences and locked gates.

But that has not stopped it becoming a magnet for adventurers, especially rock climbers.

Those well equipped and experienced sports enthusiasts have been generally tolerated in the quarry.

However, since the explosion in social media, the location has also been attracting thousands of less experienced visitors, often unaware of the dangers hiding in the old workings and mountains of slate debris.

Only recently, a massive rock slide in the quarry was captured on camera, as thousands of tonnes of slate rock peeled away from one of the faces on a terrace near to where Nathaniel and Charlie were headed.

“When we got there, there was like a lagoon, blue, crystal clear water. We saw loads of caves, and then we actually found the surprise, a hidden waterfall,” explained Charlie.

“It was so pretty.”

Nathaniel said they had climbed quite high into the quarry and were enjoying the day.

“Then, as we were getting down, that’s when everything went really bad,” he said.

“Everything that we were standing on was just crumbling away.

“I was like ‘Charlie, I can’t think of a way down, without one of us getting seriously injured’.”

While their two friends in the group did find a way out, Nathaniel and Charlie found themselves completely stranded.

They were left with only one option – to dial 999 and ask for help.

It led to the UK’s busiest mountain rescue team being called out to save them.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team tops the league for all call outs across Wales and England, with well over 300 rescue “shouts” in 2024.

“There was definitely the potential for them to injure themselves if they’d tried to move from where they were,” said team member Dave Murray.

Add to that a named storm was now making itself felt, the couple’s predicament was getting worse by the minute.

“We had 70mph winds. Bits of slate flicking up. We got little cuts on us from the wind blowing it at our faces,” said Nathaniel.

“We were in such an open area, it was freezing. Obviously scared – and we were holding on for dear life,” added Charlie.

But there was relief when the rescue team finally reached them, and used a series of rope relays to safely get them off the quarry cliff face.

“I’ve constantly got it on my head that I nearly killed my best friend,” said Nathaniel.

“I couldn’t find the words to apologise.”

According to Mountain Rescue England and Wales, the body overseeing rescue teams across the two nations, there has been an alarming leap in the number of call-outs for younger people.

In 2019, 166 calls involved those between the ages of 18 and 24.

Fast forward five years, and that figure stands at 314 – a 90% increase.

It has led mountain rescue teams to make repeated warnings about following social media posts, as they face the pressure to deal with mounting calls for help.

“I’ve seen videos of people who make it look easy. But somebody seeing that video – for them – it might be well beyond their limits,” said Llanberis Mountain Rescue’s Dave Murray, as in Nathaniel and Charlie’s case.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3jwzj2j74o

High-resolution imaging of tattoos found on a 2,500 year old Siberian “ice mummy” have revealed decorations that a modern tattooist would find challenging to produce, according to researchers.

The intricate tattoos of leopards, a stag, a rooster, and a mythical half-lion and half-eagle creature on the woman’s body shed light on an ancient warrior culture.

Archaeologists worked with a tattooist, who reproduces ancient skin decorations on his own body, to understand how exactly they were made.

The tattooed woman, aged about 50, was from the nomadic horse-riding Pazyryk people who lived on the vast steppe between China and Europe.

The scans revealed “intricate crisp and uniform” tattooing that could not be seen with the naked eye.

“The insights really drive home to me the point of how sophisticated these people were,” lead author Dr Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern, told BBC News.

It is difficult to uncover detailed information about ancient social and cultural practices because most evidence is destroyed over time. It is even harder to get up close to the details of one person’s life.

The Pazyryk “ice mummies” were found inside ice tombs in the Altai mountains in Siberia in the 19th century, but it has been difficult to see the tattoos.

Now using near-infrared digital photography in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia experts have created high resolution scans of the decorations for the first time.

“This made me feel like we were much closer to seeing the people behind the art, how they worked and learned. The images came alive,” Dr Caspari said.

On her right forearm, the Pazyryk woman had an image of leopards around the head of a deer.

On the left arm, the mythical griffin creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle appears to be fighting with a stag.

“Twisted hind bodies and really intense battle scenes of wild animals are typical of the culture,” Dr Caspari said.

But the woman also had a rooster on her thumb, showing “an intriguing style with a certain uniqueness,” says Dr Caspari.

The team worked with researcher Daniel Riday who reproduces ancient tattoo designs on his body using historical methods.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously to the announcement, saying the decision rewarded “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.

What would it mean if recognition does go ahead, and what difference would it make?

Palestine is a state that does and does not exist.

It has a large degree of international recognition, diplomatic missions abroad and teams that compete in sporting competitions, including the Olympics.

But due to the Palestinians’ long-running dispute with Israel, it has no internationally agreed boundaries, no capital and no army. Due to Israel’s military occupation, in the West Bank, the Palestinian authority, set up in the wake of peace agreements in the 1990s, is not in full control of its land or people. Gaza, where Israel is also the occupying power, is in the midst of a devastating war.

Given its status as a kind of quasi-state, recognition is inevitably somewhat symbolic. It will represent a strong moral and political statement but change little on the ground.

But the symbolism is strong. As Foreign Secretary David Lammy pointed out during his speech at the UN on Tuesday, “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution”.

He went on to cite the 1917 Balfour Declaration – signed by his predecessor as foreign secretary Arthur Balfour – which first expressed Britain’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

But that declaration, Lammy said, came with a solemn promise “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

Supporters of Israel have often pointed out that Lord Balfour did not refer explicitly to the Palestinians or say anything about their national rights.

But the territory previously known as Palestine, which Britain ruled through a League of Nations mandate from 1922 to 1948, has long been regarded as unfinished international business.

Israel came into being in 1948, but efforts to create a parallel state of Palestine have foundered, for a multitude of reasons.

As Lammy said, politicians “have become accustomed to uttering the words ‘a two-state solution'”.

The phrase refers to the creation of a Palestinian state, alongside Israel, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, broadly along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But international efforts to bring about a two-state solution have come to nothing and Israel’s colonisation of large parts of the West Bank, illegal under international law, has turned the concept into a largely empty slogan.

Who recognises Palestine as a state?

The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.

At the UN, it has the status of a “permanent observer state”, allowing participation but no voting rights.

With France also promising recognition in the coming weeks and assuming the UK does go ahead with recognition, Palestine will soon enjoy the support of four of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members (the other two being China and Russia).

This will leave the United States, Israel’s strongest ally by far, in a minority of one.

Washington has recognised the Palestinian Authority, currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas, since the mid-1990s but has stopped short of recognising an actual state.

Several US presidents have expressed their support for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state. But Donald Trump is not one of them. Under his two administrations, US policy has leaned heavily in favour of Israel.

Without the backing of Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, it is impossible to see a peace process leading to an eventual two-state solution.

Why is the UK doing it now?

Successive British governments have talked about recognising a Palestinian state, but only as part of a peace process, ideally in conjunction with other Western allies and “at the moment of maximum impact”.

To do it simply as a gesture, the governments believed, would be a mistake. It might make people feel virtuous, but it would not actually change anything on the ground.

But events have clearly forced the current government’s hand.

The scenes of creeping starvation in Gaza, mounting anger over Israel’s military campaign and a major shift in British public opinion – all of these have influenced government thinking.

The clamour, among MPs and even the cabinet front bench, has become deafening.

At a Commons debate last week, Lammy was bombarded from all sides by questions asking why the UK was still not recognising a Palestinian state.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting summed up the views of many MPs when he urged the government to recognise Palestine “while there is still a state of Palestine left to recognise”.

But the UK has not simply followed the lead set by France’s Emmanuel Macron last week or the governments of Ireland, Spain and Norway last year.

Sir Keir has chosen to make his pledge conditional: Britain will act unless the government of Israel takes decisive steps to end the suffering in Gaza, reach a ceasefire, refrain from annexing territory in the West Bank – a move symbolically threatened by Israel’s parliament the Knesset last week – and commit to a peace process that results in a two-state solution.

Downing Street knows there is virtually no chance of Netanyahu committing himself in the next six weeks to that kind of peace process. He has repeatedly ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgp5z1vvj5o

Chile’s central and southern coastlines are facing erosion that could cause at least 10 beaches to disappear within a decade, according to a team of scientists in the South American country, which stretches for several thousand km (miles) along the Pacific Ocean.
“It will be very difficult for these beaches to survive the next 10 years,” said Carolina Martinez, director of the Coastal Observatory at Universidad Catolica, in an interview this month on the Renaca beach near the popular coastal city of Vina del Mar.

Her team has tracked erosion on 67 beaches, finding that 86% are steadily shrinking — even during spring and summer, when they typically recover.
Ten in particular, which already had high erosion in 2023, have continued to rapidly lose ground, with rates now about twice as high.
The causes are both natural and human-made, Martinez said.
She pointed to intense and increasingly frequent swells driven by climate change, along with rising sea levels, sudden downpours, and heat waves, as key factors. Unchecked urbanization and the degradation of river basins that supply sand to the coast have also contributed.

In Puerto Saavedra, in the southern region of Araucania, storm surges have carved sinkholes into roads and cliffs, cutting off access to some communities. The saltwater is damaging forests, too.
“We’re seeing cliffs and sandy shores retreating rapidly,” Martínez said.
Some local businesses in popular tourist towns are already feeling the impact. “Last year was brutal … the beach disappeared,” said Maria Harris, who owns a beachfront restaurant in Valparaiso. “There was no space between us and the sea.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/chiles-coastal-erosion-could-erase-10-beaches-within-decade-scientists-say-2025-07-30/

A very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka coast on Wednesday triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula.
The shallow quake damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard – devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii.

By the evening, Japan, Hawaii and Russia had downgraded most tsunami warnings. But authorities in French Polynesia warned residents of several of the remote Marquesas Islands to move to higher ground and expect waves as high as 2.5 metres (8 feet).
Tsunami waves began hitting the Marquesas on Wednesday but were forecast to be smaller than initially feared, local authorities said.
Some initial wave surges were reported on Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas, about 1,400 km northeast of Tahiti, and between five to 10 additional waves were expected in the coming hours, the high commission said.

Russian scientists said the quake in Kamchatka was the most powerful to hit the region since 1952. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was shallow, at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and centred 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000.
“It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes,” said Yaroslav, 25, in the city.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no casualties in Russia, crediting solid building construction and the smooth operation of alert systems.
In Severo-Kurilsk in the northern Kuril Islands, tsunami waves exceeded 3 metres, with the largest up to 5 metres, Russia’s RIA news agency reported. A quake of magnitude 6.07 later struck the Kuril Islands that lie between Kamchatka and northern Japan, the German Research Center for Geosciences said.

Tsunami waves partially flooded the port and a fish processing plant in the town, sweeping vessels from moorings, regional officials and Russia’s emergency ministry said. Verified drone footage showed the town’s entire shoreline submerged, with taller buildings and some storage facilities surrounded by water.
The Klyuchevskoy volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula began erupting later, a geological monitoring service said. Located around 450 km (280 miles) north of the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Klyuchevskoy is one of the highest volcanoes in the world.
“A descent of burning hot lava is observed on the western slope. Powerful glow above the volcano, explosions,” the Russian Academy of Sciences’ United Geophysical Service said on Telegram.

WAVES IN HAWAII, JAPAN

Hawaii recorded waves of up to 1.7 metres while in Japan the largest recorded came to 1.3 metres, officials said.

Flights out of Honolulu airport resumed in the evening, the transportation department said.
Waves of nearly half a metre were observed as far away as California, with smaller ones reaching Canada’s province of British Columbia. But a tsunami advisory was cancelled for coastal British Columbia as well as coastal areas of south Alaska.
In French Polynesia, waves hit some islands in the early morning hours. In other parts, wave heights were expected to remain below 30 cm, not requiring evacuation or sheltering.
While the Marquesas are high-rising volcanic islands, much of French Polynesia consists of low-lying atolls.

WARNINGS ACROSS THE PACIFIC

Authorities in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, some 970 km (600 miles) off South America’s western coast, ordered precautionary evacuations to safe zones.
Tsunami alarms sounded in coastal towns across Japan’s Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of people.
Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said no injuries or damage had been reported, and there were no irregularities at any nuclear plants.

‘RING OF FIRE’

Kamchatka and Russia’s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The quake occurred on what is known as a “megathrust fault” where the denser Pacific Plate is sliding underneath the lighter North American Plate, according to scientists.
The Pacific Plate has been on the move, making the Kamchatka Peninsula off Russia’s Far East coast especially vulnerable, and bigger aftershocks could not be ruled out, they said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/huge-quake-russia-triggers-tsunami-warnings-around-pacific-2025-07-30/

More details have surfaced about Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s surprising dinner date.

The unlikely couple has reportedly been in contact for weeks after meeting at an event and bonding over their shared interests about making the world a better place, a source told the US Sun.

“Justin always enjoys nice company, and Katy is the kind of woman that really caught his attention,” an insider, who worked with Trudeau while he was in office, told the outlet.

“Justin has been single for a while and has enjoyed getting to know her,” the source added, referring to the politician separating from his wife, Sophie Trudeau, in 2023.

“He likes her personality, and they are two people who really enjoy chatting about different topics, and they click very well so far, as they are going to see each other again very soon.”

Perry, 40, and Justin, 53, reportedly have plans to meet up in the United States.

“Whatever happens, happens. He is a single man, so [he] is on the market and ready to start something new with a woman after a few rough moments after splitting from his wife,” the source continued.

“He is feeling that talking to her and getting to know her is very refreshing, like a breath of fresh air in his life. He was happy to connect with her so well, and that she appreciates him being a normal, respectful person who was very understanding of her recent separation from Orlando Bloom.

“He isn’t the kind of guy that would rush things, and she seems to enjoy that a lot. It’s a gentlemanly way to behave.”

A second source, who also worked closely with Justin, claimed the pair had been waiting to meet up “for a while” and that Perry agreed “very quickly.”

“Justin isn’t shy about his romantic life, and he took her on a date, and he was very, very excited to do so and kept talking about it in the last few days,” the insider said.

“He feels like a young adult again, he is very excited about the process so far, and he really enjoys [getting] to know her and to talk about many, many topics with her. Justin isn’t a guy who is easy to ‘catch’ and he has been having a lot of women trying to date him since he separated from his wife.”

Page Six has reached out to reps for both Perry and Justin for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Although Trudeau had hoped their date would be “quiet” and “private,” he and Perry were spotted dining together at Le Violon in Montreal, Canada, according to photos first obtained by TMZ.

An eyewitness told the outlet that the pair enjoyed cocktails and shared several dishes, including one with lobster, and even met with the chef and the kitchen staff.

Perry and the politician were also seen enjoying a romantic stroll in Montreal with the musician’s dog, Nugget.

According to TMZ, the two walked around together for about an hour. However, they did not show any signs of PDA.

Earlier this month, the “Hot N Cold” songstress and her then-fiancé, Orlando Bloom, confirmed their split in a joint statement after 10 years together.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/30/celebrity-news/inside-katy-perry-and-former-canadian-prime-minister-justin-trudeaus-surprising-dinner-date/

Belly’s simple and chić wedding dress from Season 3 of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was approved by Kim Kardashian, who once wore a version of it at Paris Fashion Week.

On July 30, fans watched as the college student, played by Lola Tung, picked out the silk gown on the sale rack of a prom dress store.

While the dress was labeled as “not fancy enough” and “plain” in the series, the Victoria Beckham-designed Floor-Length Cami Dress costs more than $1,000.

The dress was inspired by slip dresses from the 1990s, “one of Victoria’s favourite decades,” according to her website.

The Spice Girls singer, 51, designed the dress with acrepe back satin and a showstopping deep V in the back to provide a “light feeling.”

“In classic ivory, it’s an effortless piece for any occasion,” the description reads.

Beckham took to Facebook in 2023 to share a video of herself donning a pink version of the dress in her massive closet.

“I created this dress exclusively for Kim Kardashian to wear at my VB SS24 show in Paris,” she captioned the video.

“I immediately wanted it! The shape is simple, flattering and comes in a beautiful baby pink colour!! Kisses xx.”

Karashian, 44, arrived fashionably late to Beckham’s show at Paris Fashion Week in October 2023.

She turned heads as she walked into the venue in the pink slinky gown before sitting in the front row alongside Anna Wintour, Victoria’s husband David Beckham and their children, Harper, Cruz, and Brooklyn.

The Skims founder made a statement entrance in the dress, accessorizing with a diamond choker necklace and a cross on a longer chain.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/30/style/bellys-wedding-dress-from-the-summer-i-turned-pretty-is-kim-kardashian-approved/

Not everything in Hailey Bieber’s beauty regimen is Rhode.

In her new Vogue “Beauty Secrets” video, the star spilled her “very, very simple makeup routine,” which includes viral finds like Make Beauty Skin Mimetic Concealer.

“I’m not somebody who likes to use makeup a lot in the daytime” Bieber said, adding that she opts for the lightweight concealer instead of full-coverage foundation.

While she used the Beauty Pie Pro Angled Concealer Brush to blend out the formula “in just a couple areas for brightening,” she noted she typically applies it with her fingers for a “more effortless look.”

The beauty mogul’s not the only star saving time with the skin-mimicking makeup, as Courteney Cox used it in her own “efficient” makeup routine video earlier this summer.

“This one thing is my base and concealer,” she raved of the “one-stop-shop” product, designed to provide a smooth, your-skin-but-better finish.

You needn’t be famous to reap the beauty buy’s benefits, however; Page Six’s social media team is collectively obsessed.

“This is seriously the best concealer I’ve ever used,” says Social Media Manager Brooke Matalon. “It’s so skin-like and dewy, and the glow actually lasts all day without looking greasy or oily. I honestly don’t know how I did my makeup before this.”

@pagesix
Never have I ever tried a Hailey-approved product I didn’t like

♬ Flashed Junk Mind – 2025 – Milky Chance & ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Meanwhile, Senior Commerce Social Media Manager Michelle Moezam says her makeup routine is “forever changed” since testing it out.

“When I join Zoom calls, I get compliments about the beat — and in person, people will say my skin looks so smooth,” she adds. “The lightweight feeling is the best part.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/30/style/hailey-bieber-and-courteney-cox-love-make-beauty-skin-mimetic-concealer-and-so-do-our-editors/

Andy Cohen is giving Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson’s budding romance his stamp of approval.

The Bravo executive, notably, was “dear friend[s]” with the actor’s late wife, Natasha Richardson — and thinks Anderson is “just like” her.

While attending the “Naked Gun” premiere party Monday, Cohen told Neeson, “She is an independent woman just like Tash was. She loves to cook. She has her own thing going on. She has two boys.”

The “Radio Andy” host, 57, insisted to listeners Wednesday that Anderson, 58, and Neeson, 73, “just work.”

He explained, “She is a formidable human being, Pamela Anderson. She really is. What she’s been through and how she kind of reclaimed herself and redefined herself [is impressive].”

Co-host John Hill agreed that the duo are a “good match.”

Cohen added, “I and all of the friends in this circle are very much stanning whatever this is. Shipping.”

The “Watch What Happens Live” co-host noted that, “sweetie, it’s been 16 years” since Richardson died at age 45 in a tragic skiing accident.

The Broadway star and Neeson were married for more than a decade before Richardson’s March 2009 passing.

During their time together, the former couple welcomed sons Micheál, 30, and Daniel, 28.

Anderson, for her part, is the mother of sons Brandon, 29, and Dylan, 27, with her ex-husband Tommy Lee.

The “Baywatch” alum and Neeson both brought their boys to the New York City premiere of their cop comedy on Monday.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/30/celebrity-news/pamela-anderson-is-just-like-liam-neesons-late-wife-natasha-richardson-andy-cohen/

THE mysterious “missing minute” from the Jeffrey Epstein jail tape has been found after conspiracy theorists raged over how the vile billionaire died.

The FBI has a version of the surveillance footage filmed near the convicted paedo’s prison block on the night of his death – and it isn’t missing any seconds.

Around 11 hours of “full raw” CCTV footage released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) revealed Epstein’s final moments inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City on August 9 and 10 in 2019.

It intended to show the vile billionaire had died by suicide as conspiracy theories raged over his death.

But forensic analysis showed the video was edited numerous times over several hours – with a minute missing.

The time code on the screen had jumped forward just before it struck midnight.

When attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned about the video a few weeks ago, she claimed the Bureau of Prisons told her it was an antiquated process that occurred every night when the recordings automatically reset.

Now government sources say the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, and DoJ inspector general all have a copy of a video that contains the bombshell “missing minute,” CBS News reports.

It currently remains unclear what the minute shows or why it was missing from the video released by the DoJ, the broadcaster added.

The FBI and the DoJ declined to comment – meanwhile the Bureau of Prisons said it “had no additional information to provide”.

The missing minute sent conspiracy theorists into a spiral as they believe Epstein was murdered to protect his powerful elite clients and pals.

He was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died.

CCTV released a few weeks ago from inside the prison showed a grey-haired Epstein handcuffed in an orange jump suit being led to his cell by a guard at about 7.49pm.

The pair moved down a small flight of stairs on the left of the frame and walk to the right across the common area as they head to the cell.

Footage didn’t show Epstein’s cell door but it would capture anyone walking to it, the DoJ said.

Other than the guard leaving, no one walked across the common area towards Epstein’s cell or away from it.

At approximately 10.39pm, a guard appeared to walk in the direction of Epstein’s cell and then reappeared within view of the camera at 10.41pm.

This is believed to be the last time anyone entered the area of Epstein’s cell before the next morning.

Guards could then be seen walking around the common area at around 6.30am on the 10th as they deliver breakfast.

At approximately 6.33am, more guards enter the common area and walk towards the area of Epstein’s cell – presumably after he was found dead in his cell.

The disgraced financier was found hanged in jail on the 10th, but speculation has been rife that others were involved.

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino pledged to release the footage after it had been a Donald Trump campaign promise.

Bongino wants to end all debate by releasing proof that no one entered or left the cell before the suicide.

The FBI has now concluded Epstein died by suicide and that he had no “client list” used to blackmail powerful figures, Axios reports.

Investigators found “no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals” and no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”.

The video also supports a medical examiner’s findings that Epstein died by suicide.

Esptein pal Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and related offences.

She’ll now be the only Epstein associate to face prison as the FBI said no more people would be charged.

Prince Andrew, 64, paid millions to Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre in an out-of-court settlement three years ago, while denying sexual assault accusations.

He stayed at Epstein’s New York home, and was accused of taking part in an “underage orgy” on Epstein’s Caribbean island.

In 2020, the FBI asked the Home Office for help to quiz Andrew but that investigation was paused last year.

Attorney general Pam Bondi released hundreds of pages of information connected to Epstein in March, promising it would disclose “a lot of names” and flight logs that would “make you sick”.

But the much-awaited release of flight logs and more was overhyped by Bondi and fell flat.

Elon Musk has also accused Trump of being in the files after the pair’s relationship broke apart.

Musk provided no evidence and later deleted the post saying he went “too far”.

Depraved Epstein was found unresponsive by guards in his cell who quickly performed CPR before he was taken to hospital.

He was pronounced dead shortly after with it ruled as suicide by hanging – which was later challenged by his own lawyers.

The jail had been told Epstein should have a cellmate, and that a guard must check on him every 30 minutes.

But on the night he died, his cellmate was transferred and not replaced and he was not checked on as often as required.

Two guards fell asleep at their desks – and later falsified their records.

Meanwhile, two cameras in front of Epstein’s cell malfunctioned that night – while another’s footage was “unusable”.

Protocol was also broken by removing Epstein’s body from his cell and failing to photograph it as it was found.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14861585/epstein-jail-tape-missing-minute-found/

DEVASTATING details have come to light about the midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight that killed 67 people in January.

New evidence from the National Transportation Safety Board’s six-month probe into the deadly crash included surveillance footage that left audience members in tears at a hearing on Wednesday.

This week, NTSB began three days of hearings to help determine what caused the collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport on January 29.

The agency released thousands of pages of documents about the incidents suggesting the Army helicopter pilots never heard an air traffic controller’s command to pass behind the plane, the NTSB said.

NTSB also said there were major “discrepancies” in the altitude readouts on the Black Hawk helicopter, leading the crew to think they were flying lower than they actually were over the Potomac River.

At the beginning of the 10-hour hearing, officials showed an 11-minute animation showing the minutes leading up to the crash.

They also displayed new video from the end of the runway showing the crash, pausing to allow family members at the hearing the option to leave the room or look away from the haunting clip.

Families of the crash victims sitting in the audience broke down sobbing as officials played the newly released footage.

Some of the family members in attendance wore pictures of their loved ones on buttons or in lanyards around their necks.

The crash killed 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines plane and three soldiers on the helicopter.

Transcripts of audio from the cockpit and air traffic control tower revealed what was said inside the aircraft before the crash.

About 15 seconds before the collision, the air traffic controller asked the Black Hawk if it could see the passenger plane.

Three seconds later, the controller told the helicopter to pass behind the passenger plane.

However, the Black Hawk crew pressed its microphone at the same time as the controller’s instruction and they didn’t hear the message, according to the transcript.

In the helicopter, the instructor told the pilot to change course, but it was too late.

Less than a second later, sounds of the crash were captured in the recordings as the plane fell into the icy river.

The crew members in the Black Hawk had problems understanding air traffic control transmissions, according to cockpit recordings.

Investigators also said the crew pointed out the bright lights of the Washington DC area during their flight.

The hearing also revealed more information about Captain Rebecca Lobach, one of the Black Hawk pilots.

Investigators said in 2022, Lobach failed a night vision goggle exam.

However, she passed other night vision goggle examinations since failing once.

During the three days of hearings, the NTSB will likely question the Army, PSA Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration and more.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14870544/washington-dc-crash-american-airlines-black-hawk-video/

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, sending tsunami waves into Japan and Hawaii and across the Pacific. No substantial damage has been reported so far, but authorities warned people away from shorelines and said the risk could last more than a day.

Ports on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia near the 8.8 magnitude quake’s epicenter flooded as residents fled inland, and frothy, white waves washed up to the shore in northern Japan. Cars jammed streets and highways in Hawaii’s capital, with standstill traffic even in areas away from the shoreline.

People went to evacuation centers in affected areas of Japan, with memories fresh of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused reactor meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. No abnormalities in operations at Japan’s nuclear plants were reported Wednesday.

Russian authorities said several people were injured, without giving a figure. In Japan, at least one person was injured.

A tsunami height of 3-4 meters (10 to 13 feet) was recorded in Kamchatka, 60 centimeters (2 feet) on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, and up to 1.4 feet (under 30 centimeters) above tide levels were observed in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Hawaii and Oregon warn residents of potential damage

The impact of the tsunami could last for hours or perhaps more than a day, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska

“A tsunami is not just one wave,” he said. “It’s a series of powerful waves over a long period of time. Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour — as fast as a jet airplane — in deep water. But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up. And that’s where that inundation problem becomes a little bit more possible there.”

“In this case, because of the Earth basically sending out these huge ripples of water across the ocean, they’re going to be moving back and forth for quite a while,” which is why some communities may feel effects longer, he said.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said data from Midway Atoll, which is between Japan and Hawaii, measured waves from peak to trough of 6 feet (1.8 meters). He said waves hitting Hawaii could be bigger or smaller and it was too early to tell how large they would be. A tsunami of that size would be akin to a 3-foot (90-centimeter) wave riding on top of surf, he said.

“This is a longitudinal wave with great force driving through the shoreline and into land,” he said at a news conference.

Green said Black Hawk helicopters have been activated and high-water vehicles were ready to go in case authorities need to rescue people. “But please do not put yourself in harm’s way,” he said.

The Oregon Department of Emergency Management said on Facebook that small tsunami waves were expected along the coast starting around 11:40 p.m. local time, with wave heights between 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters). It urged people to stay away from beaches, harbors and marinas and to remain in a safe location away from the coast until the advisory is lifted.

“This is not a major tsunami, but dangerous currents and strong waves may pose a risk to those near the water,” the department said.

Much of the West Coast, spanning California, Washington state, and the Canadian province of British Columbia, was also under a tsunami advisory.

A tsunami of less than 30 centimeters (under 1 foot) was forecast to hit parts of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The province’s emergency preparedness agency said waves were expected to reach remote Langara Island around 10:05 p.m. Tuesday and Tofino around 11:30 p.m. The agency said “multiple waves over time” were expected.

Russian regions report limited damage

The quake at 8:25 a.m. Japan time had a preliminary magnitude of 8.0, Japanese and U.S. seismologists said. The U.S. Geological Survey later updated its strength to 8.8 magnitude and a depth of 20.7 kilometers (13 miles).

The quake was centered about 119 kilometers (74 miles) east-southeast from the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Multiple aftershocks as strong as 6.9 magnitude followed.

Severokurilsk Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov said the port in the city was flooded by tsunami waves, washing fishing boats into the sea. He said that no major damage was recorded.

Power supplies have been shut and the authorities were checking the power network after the flooding.

Among the world’s strongest recorded quakes

The earthquake appeared to be the strongest anywhere in the world since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake off northeastern Japan in March 2011 that caused a massive tsunami that set off meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured around the world.

The tsunami alert disrupted transportation in Japan, with ferries, trains and airports in the affected area suspending or delaying some operations.

A tsunami of 60 centimeters (2 feet) was recorded at Hamanaka town in Hokkaido and Kuji port in Iwate, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Several areas reported smaller waves including 20 centimeters (8 inches) in Tokyo Bay five hours after the quake.

In Japan’s northern coastal town of Matsushima, dozens of residents took refuge at an evacuation center, where water bottles were distributed and an air conditioner was running. One person told NHK she came to the facility without hesitation based on the lesson from the 2011 tsunami.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi warned evacuees that they may not be able to return home by the end of the day, as the tsunami waves could remain high.

Japanese nuclear power plants reported no abnormalities. The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant damaged by the 2011 tsunami said about 4,000 workers are taking shelter on higher ground at the plant complex while monitoring remotely to ensure safety.

Philippine authorities advised people to stay away from the beach and coastal areas. “It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger,” Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told The Associated Press.

Mexico’s navy warned that tsunami waves will start reaching the northern coast in Ensenada, near California, at around 02:22 a.m. Wednesday local time, and waves could progress along the Pacific coast to Chiapas state, around 07:15 a.m. local time.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-russia-kamchatka-earthquake-tsunami-warning-a88cbe8a1e985cff54dc0ad849ea5ddb

First granddaughter and golf sensation Kai Trump teased her grandfather over his preferred caffeinated beverage in a video promoting her NIL deal with Accelerator Active Energy.

In the ad, the 18-year-old rising high school senior and University of Miami golf commit slaps a wicked drive off a tee and then makes her way to the cart where a crispy looking can of Diet Coke — President Trump’s go-to drink — and a can of the energy drink sit.

“Sorry grandpa,” Kai Trump said while choosing to sip from the Accelerator Active Energy drink.

Kai Trump announced her NIL deal with Accelerator earlier this month.

The energy drink brand also has sponsorship deals with college gymnast and social media influencer Livvy Dune and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and Superbowl winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

“It’s pretty cool, especially being partners with such great athletes and being up there with them,” Kai Trump told Fox Business about the deal.

The daughter of first son Donald Trump Jr. became a breakout star of the Republican National Convention last summer where she delivered a well-prepared speech to throngs of adoring GOPers.

Commenting on his daughter’s popularity after the speech, Donald Trump Jr. said to Fox News last year, “Get away, you little b-stards, and stay away.”

Earlier this year, the teen opened up about life with a Secret Service detail.

“It’s tough because you’re in high school and you want to have your privacy,” the golf phenom said in a video posted to her YouTube page.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/sports/kai-trump-teases-the-president-in-video-promoting-accelerator-energy-drink/

England’s triumphant squad had misgivings about how popular their Euro 2025 parade would be, but they need not have worried as 65,000 fans joined their celebrations in London – as well as members of the Royal Family.

The Lionesses held an open-top bus parade along The Mall after becoming back-to-back European champions with a dramatic win over Spain on Sunday.

Fans lined the route before gathering around a stage in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, where some of the players were interviewed by former Lioness Alex Scott.

“I’ve been crying all the way down The Mall,” said captain Leah Williamson.

“This is unbelievable, probably one of the best things we’ve been a part of.”

The 28-year-old Arsenal defender added: “We’re making history every single step. Stay with us, this story is not done yet.”

Chloe Kelly, who scored England’s winning goal at 2022 and the decisive penalty in Sunday’s shootout, said: “Pressure, what pressure?”

The 27-year-old Arsenal forward described how special the team’s support has been at home and at the Euros in Switzerland.

She added: “[It is] so good to stand side by side with every single one of these girls throughout the whole tournament, and the staff that you don’t see behind the scenes. It’s incredible.”

Princess Beatrice of York attended the parade and there was a surprise for England coach Sarina Wiegman as her favourite singer Burna Boy joined the squad on stage.

The Dutchwoman then sang and danced along as the Nigerian sang his hit For My Hand.

“Yeah, Sarina’s got rhythm,” Washington Spirit defender Esme Morgan told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“She absolutely loves Burna Boy. I can’t believe it. Her face when they brought Burna Boy out was a picture. None of us could believe it to be honest and, yeah, she was busting out some moves and singing away, so that was a special moment.”

Starbucks says it will phase out its mobile order and pickup-only outlets because they “lack warmth”, as the world’s biggest coffee chain continues to shake-up its operations.

The company has around 90 shops in the US that have no seating for customers – an approach popular with some of its rivals.

The move will not affect the firm’s mobile ordering service, which accounts for almost a third of transactions, the BBC understands.

Starbucks boss Brian Niccol made the comments after the company’s earnings for the three months to the end of June showed that US same-store sales had fallen by 2% – the sixth quarterly decline in a row.

For the same period the company also reported that net income dropped by 47% to $558m (£418m) – worse than Wall Street expectations.

“We found this format to be overly transactional and lacking the warmth and human connection that defines our brand,” Mr Niccol told investors on Tuesday.

The same level of convenience can be provided by its traditional cafes through mobile ordering, added Mr Niccol, who was appointed the firm’s chief executive officer last year.

Instead, the company will prioritise “welcoming coffeehouses with great seats” and focus on delivering drinks in four minutes or less in its cafes and drive-throughs.

The BBC understands that some of the current pickup-only outlets will be converted to include seating.

Starbucks opened its first pickup-only outlet, which was designed to make collecting orders and delivery easier, in New York in 2019.

Mr Niccol is leading a “Back to Starbucks” initiative, which aims to provide better experiences for customers and boost the company’s financial performance.

At least 1,000 of its cafes in the US will be revamped by the end of next year, with a new look and plans to replace thousands of seats that were removed, said Mr Niccol.

In April, Mr Niccol said the firm will hire more baristas and scale back plans to roll out automation.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8jnj7ewgqo 

Britain said on Tuesday it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes steps to relieve suffering in Gaza, where starvation is spreading, and reaches a ceasefire in the nearly two-year war with Hamas.
The warning, which drew a harsh Israeli rebuke, came after a hunger monitor said a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death. Palestinian authorities said more than 60,000 Palestinians were now confirmed killed by Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

The hunger alert and the new death toll are grim milestones in the current conflict that began in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, sparking an offensive that has flattened much of the enclave and ignited hostilities across the Middle East.
The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the starvation crisis in Gaza could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s warning heightens pressure on Israel amid an international outcry over its conduct of the war. France announced last week it would recognise Palestinian statehood in September, a move that enraged the Israeli government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X that Starmer’s decision “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims,” adding that “A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not discuss Britain’s plans on Palestinian statehood during talks with Starmer in Scotland on Monday, when he told reporters he did “not mind” if Britain made such a move.
But on Tuesday he said aboard Air Force One that he did not think Hamas “should be rewarded” with recognition of Palestinian independence.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described Starmer’s decision as “bold,” according to Palestinian state news agency WAFA.
Starmer told his cabinet that Britain would recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution,” his government said.

The move, if carried through, would be mostly symbolic, with Israel occupying the territories where the Palestinians have long aimed to establish that state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
It makes Israel more isolated on the international stage as a growing number of countries call for it to allow unfettered aid into Gaza, where it controls all entry and exit points to the besieged coastal territory.
However, Trump’s administration – Israel’s closest and most influential ally – has made clear it has no intention of joining others in recognising Palestinian statehood anytime soon. Since returning to office in January, Trump has been vague about whether or not he would support an eventual Palestinian state.
Starmer held separate phone calls with Netanyahu and Abbas on Tuesday before making his announcement.

EVIDENCE OF STARVATION, MALNUTRITION, DISEASE

With the international furore over Gaza’s ordeal growing, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses in warfare on Sunday.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC said, adding that “famine thresholds” have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza.
It said it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as “in famine”.
Gaza health authorities have been reporting more and more people dying from hunger-related causes. The total stands at 147, among them 88 children, most of whom died in the last few weeks.
Images of emaciated Palestinian children have shocked the world, with Israel’s strongest ally Trump declaring that many people were starving. He promised to set up new “food centres”.
Israel has denied pursuing a policy of starvation. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that the situation in Gaza was “tough” but there were lies about starvation there.

DEADLIEST CONFLICT

The Gazan casualty figures, which are often cited by the U.N. and have previously been described as reliable by the World Health Organisation, underline the war as the deadliest involving Israel since its establishment in 1948.
Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, when militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage – Israel’s deadliest ever day. Since Israel launched ground operations in Gaza in October 2023, 454 soldiers have been killed.
The new Palestinian toll does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Thousands more bodies are believed to be buried under rubble, meaning the true toll is likely to be significantly higher, Palestinian officials and rescue workers say.
Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 30 Palestinians in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Gaza health authorities said. Doctors at Al-Awda Hospital said at least 14 women and 12 children were among the dead.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-warns-israel-it-could-recognise-palestinian-state-gaza-starvation-2025-07-29/

Growers and researchers in the driest inhabited continent have dramatically increased crop yields through new agricultural techniques, despite intensifying environmental challenges. Innovations in water-use efficiency, soil re-engineering and seed technology have helped feed a rising global population.

In a newly sown wheat field, Curtis Liebeck scoops up a fistful of sandy soil and lets it pour through his fingers. The light-brown dirt bears little resemblance to the dark, clumpy earth of rainier nations.
The Liebeck farm, 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Perth in Western Australia, gets half the rain of the wheatbelts of central Kansas or northern France. Growing-season rainfall across the state’s crop lands has declined by about one-fifth over three decades.
That should make farming harder. But Liebeck’s wheat yield has doubled since 2015.
Liebeck, 32, is part of a revolution in farm management that has enabled Australia to produce around 15 million metric tons more wheat annually than in the 1980s, despite hotter, drier conditions. The increase is equivalent to around 7% of all wheat shipped around the planet each year and more than the annual harvest of Britain.

Australia’s gains in wheat-farm productivity have exceeded those in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, and continue to rise while those of other developed markets slow or reverse.
The ability of Australia’s farmers to produce more wheat for a growing global population owes largely to a cluster of innovations since the 1980s that changed the seeds farmers plant, how they plant them, and how they cultivate the soil, many growers and researchers say. These advances have been turbocharged by Australia’s system of applied research, and by a relentless quest for efficiency among farmers who receive minimal subsidies.

This account of how Australia’s wheat growers defied the climate odds is based on interviews with more than 20 farmers and researchers, a review of more than a dozen academic papers and an examination of decades of farm and weather data. Reuters visited four farms, a seed-breeding company and two government research facilities.
Australia isn’t the biggest wheat producer, and its fields aren’t the most fruitful. But it is important for two reasons. Its modest population means its additional production feeds other countries. And it is the driest inhabited continent, where increasing climate volatility might have rendered some agriculture unviable. Yet it is among the world’s top wheat exporters.

Australia’s success has influenced research in other nations that have dry crop lands, including the U.S. and Canada, five scientists told Reuters. Some Australian practices, to be sure, such as soil re-engineering, haven’t been replicated as widely, sometimes because ground conditions are less suitable. But the country’s focus on closing the gap between theoretical maximum crop yields and real-world outcomes has spurred global efforts to improve productivity over the past 15 years, coinciding with intensifying climate change.

Liebeck’s farm in 2023 received its lowest rainfall in half a century, yet it produced 1 ton of wheat per hectare — to the amazement of his 66-year-old father, Ken.
“I asked dad what it would have been like in his day and he said, ‘Absolute disaster,’” Liebeck said.
The elder Liebeck told Reuters he would have produced just 400 kg a hectare in such conditions around the turn of the millennium.

BEACH SAND

Farming in Australia has always been precarious. The weather swings between drought, heat, fire and flood. The soil is short of nutrients.
Western Australia, the top wheat-exporting region, has seen the biggest decline in average rainfall of Australia’s cropping areas over the past three decades, official weather data show. Rainfall patterns have shifted, with more falling in summer, when fields are fallow, and less in winter, when crops are growing.

The state also has some of the poorest soils.
“Imagine beach sand,” said Tress Walmsley, CEO of Perth-based seed-breeding company InterGrain, which develops wheat varieties that can better cope with Australian conditions. “These soils are nutrient-depleted, often toxic and water-repellent. And at the end of each season, the crop runs out of water.”
Thirst for water provided the spark for many of the changes in Australian agriculture. In 1984, scientists Reg French and Jeff Schultz calculated that in optimum conditions, after evaporation, Australia’s farmers should be able to produce 20 kilograms of wheat per hectare for every millimeter of rain during the April-to-October growing season — about four times what they were achieving.

The discovery allowed producers to plot on a graph what they had grown and what they might have grown, said John Kirkegaard, a plant scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian government’s national science agency. This turned the focus of growers and researchers to closing the yield gap, and they began benchmarking water-use efficiency to extract more crop per drop.
A key step was switching to no-till agriculture. Constant plowing to control weeds damaged soil and exposed it to evaporation, reducing the amount of water stored for crops.

No-till methods, using herbicides instead of plowing, grew out of 1930s dust-bowl America. Australian adoption jumped from roughly 5% in the early 1980s to about 80%, according to the Grains Research and Development Corp. In Western Australia, it’s more than 90%.
One drawback was that over time, farm equipment driven over untilled fields compacted the deeper levels of the soil, hindering water infiltration and root growth. To address that, farmers began to restructure soils, spreading lime to reduce acidity, then employing other kinds of heavy machinery.
Liebeck points to his deep ripper, a massive, bright-orange steel frame with 10 metal claws that tear through the soil at up to 84 centimeters deep. It generates such resistance that his 540-horsepower tractor can haul it only at walking pace.
The ripper, and another device called a spader, a rotating cylinder with protruding shovel heads, break up compacted layers of earth. While plowing, ripping and spading are all tillage methods, no-till farming refers to eschewing the traditional practice of plowing to kill weeds and prepare fields for planting each year. Ripping and spading are less-frequent but bolder interventions, often performed at much greater depths. They change the structure and constituents of the soil, churning unproductive layers into a more-absorbent mix that better holds water and nutrients.

Hauling the ripper through a field can improve his wheat yield by between 36% and 50%, Liebeck said. The machine cost A$220,000 (US$143,396). “A bit dear for a glorified shovel,” he said, but it “digs up profit.”
Rippers and spaders are used elsewhere, but rarely as intensively as in Australia, according to farmers and researchers. In wetter areas such as Europe, rippers are harder to pull through heavy soil that is typically plowed.
Two-thirds of Western Australia’s roughly 4,000 growers had deep-ripped, spaded or inverted their soil by 2023, state government-commissioned research found, up from 52% in 2019.
Efforts to improve Australian soil echo practices in Europe and North America to drain land and reclaim it from the sea, said Kirkegaard. “But the sorts of strategies in Australia that are now making previously poor farming land into good farming land are probably unique,” he said.

Other innovations helped growers curb disease. They introduced new crop rotations, including canola, an oil seed also known as rapeseed, and lupins, a legume used for animal feed. Canola area shot from 50,000 hectares in Australia in 1989 to around 3.5 million hectares today, agriculture ministry data show.
Farmers began sowing two to four weeks earlier, sometimes in dry ground, so plants would flower at optimal times, Kirkegaard said. Sowing now starts around mid-April, giving wheat several months to grow during the southern winter and spring, when water remains available, so that it can mature before the summer heat arrives toward the end of the year.

TAKE-OFF

Productivity took off. Western Australian farmers in the early 1980s grew 3.3 kg of wheat per hectare for every millimeter of growing-season rain, a third below the national average, government data show. In 2024, they achieved 9.3 kg per millimeter, just one-fifth shy of the 11.5 kg nationally.
Those improvements helped Australia double its wheat exports in the last four decades to well over 20 million tons a year. Most goes to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where populations have grown rapidly.
Rising production has kept a lid on prices. A bushel of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade, the global benchmark, averaged about $3.50 during the 1980s. The world population has soared by 3.5 billion people since then but a Chicago bushel costs around $5.50, an increase far below the rate of inflation.

A serious threat to Australian wheat supply would cause prices to rise considerably, said Dennis Voznesenski, an agricultural analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The country accounts for a similar proportion of global exports as Ukraine did before Russia’s invasion, he noted. Wheat prices rose by about 60% when the war disrupted production and exports.
There is room for further productivity gains, farmers and researchers say.

Advances in seed breeding and farm management have lifted maximum theoretical yields to around 25 kg per millimeter, which should rise to 30 kg and perhaps beyond, said Kirkegaard.
Researchers and breeders are testing wheat varieties whose coleoptiles – the protective sheath that surrounds the shoot – can push up from a soil depth of 10 to 12 centimeters rather than the usual 2 to 4 cm, allowing seeds to be planted into subsoil moisture, according to Greg Rebetzke, a CSIRO scientist. Field trials show long coleoptiles should increase yields by up to 20%, and several varieties should be available commercially in Australia within five years, he said.
“People are now looking at some of the drought technologies we’ve developed and asking if they’ll be useful in their countries,” Rebetzke said, identifying Canada, India, Bangladesh and sub-Saharan Africa as sources of interest. “The dry environment we have is very much the future of some countries that are wetter now.”
Government scientists in Western Australia are experimenting with further re-engineering of soil, adding ingredients such as clay, compost and gypsum to increase the earth’s capacity to hold water and produce wheat, said Gaus Azam, the researcher leading the project.
Ty Fulwood, a grower in Grass Valley, east of Perth, showed Reuters the upshot of those efforts. “They are literally trying to create the perfect soil in 10-centimeter-depth increments,” he said, standing in one of his fields surrounded by test strips of re-engineered earth, where varying amounts of clay had been added to the top half-meter of soil to identify the best growth-enhancing mix.
It’s expensive, Fulwood said, but if the promised doubling of yields is demonstrated, farmers and researchers will put money into it.

“We should always be cautious because we are disturbing the natural soil. But the benefits outweigh the risks.”

Adaptation has limits, to be sure. Wheat doesn’t thrive in hot conditions, which accelerate evaporation and growth phases. Rainfall is not only diminishing but is becoming less reliable.
Plant scientist Zvi Hochman, in a 2017 paper, found hotter, drier conditions had reduced Australia’s maximum achievable wheat yield by 27% between 1990 and 2015.
“With continued effort we can move from achieving 55% of potential yields to about 80%, but going beyond that in a variable climate is likely to be uneconomic,” Hochman told Reuters.
And there are downsides to the new ways. Greater use of herbicides can harm the environment and encourage weed strains that are resistant to the chemicals, scientific studies show. Australian farmers are using more synthetic nitrogen as fertilizer — albeit less per hectare than many others, according to the U.N. — which is manufactured using natural gas, a contributor to atmospheric carbon emissions. And they are intervening on a massive scale in the earth.
“We should always be cautious because we are disturbing the natural soil,” said Azam, the researcher. “But the benefits outweigh the risks.”

OTHER NATIONS

Challenging soil and weather conditions keep Australian yields low by global standards. Last year’s 2.6 tons per hectare lagged behind the U.S. (3.5 tons), China (5.9 tons), and Britain (7.3 tons), USDA data show.
Some developing nations, including China and India, have made faster progress than Australia in improving wheat yields since the 1980s, according to the USDA. But productivity growth in many advanced economies has been slower, which global researchers attribute in part to soil degradation and restrictions on fertilizers and pesticides.
Farmers and scientists credit Australia’s system of applied research and low subsidies for helping to set it apart.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/investigations/less-rain-more-wheat-how-australian-farmers-defied-climate-doom-2025-07-29/

U.S. President Donald Trump is getting his tariffs. Companies are making it clear how they intend to deal with it – passing them on to American consumers.
Throughout the spring, big retailers and consumer product makers warned that levies on imported goods would squeeze their operations, forcing them to choose between lower earnings and passing on higher costs to customers.

In the case of Procter & Gamble (PG.N), and others, it is both of those things.

On Tuesday, the packaging giant, which makes household basics spanning from Bounty paper towel to Tide detergent, issued a sour outlook for 2025 and sent a message to big retailers like Walmart (WMT.N) that it would have to raise prices on some U.S. goods from next week.

This challenge facing companies in coming quarters will likely feed through to everyday consumers. P&G said it would raise prices on about a quarter of its products in the U.S. to help offset the cost of new tariffs.
Price hikes are in the mid-single digits across categories, a spokesperson for the company said.
While U.S. stock indexes have soared to record highs this year, built on massive investment in technology shares, many consumer bellwethers have struggled.

Since Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, P&G shares have declined 19%; Nestle (NESN.S), is down 20%; Kimberly-Clark (KMB.O), has lost 11%, and PepsiCo (PEP.O), is off nearly 7%, while the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), stock index has gained more than 13%.
Consumer goods, food and drink companies have struggled with lackluster sales since the pandemic, as shoppers have balked at increasingly expensive name-brand packaged food. Nestle said last week that consumers in North America remained wary of paying more at the cash register.
More price hikes will deepen investor worries about how big brands are navigating the combined challenge of thrifty consumers and hefty costs created by Trump’s trade war.
“You’re going to see companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy forced to pass price increases to consumers,” said Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and executive education fellow at Harvard Business School.

“Main Street has yet to see the fallout from increased tariffs – and they’re going to go higher.”
Between July 16 and 25, companies in the Reuters global tariff tracker said they expected to lose a combined $7.1 billion to $8.3 billion for the full year.
GM (GM.N), Ford (F.N), and other carmakers have absorbed the cost of tariffs – totaling billions of dollars – so far.
Many companies shipped more goods and raw materials into the U.S. before tariffs hit. Economists and analysts reckon that hoarding has helped some delay hiking prices until later in the year and explains why tariffs have not yet shown up in U.S. inflation data.
Andrew Wilson, International Chamber of Commerce deputy secretary general, estimates inflation will be felt once companies have run down inventory, but that might not be until the fourth quarter or first quarter of next year.

Others like Ray Ban-maker EssilorLuxottica have already hiked prices.
Swiss watch and jewelry maker Swatch (UHR.S),  increased prices by about 5% after Trump announced tariffs in April with “zero impact” on sales, CEO Nick Hayek told Reuters recently.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-gets-tariffs-americans-get-price-hikes-2025-07-29/

Combs’ lawyer argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are dangerous, noting that others convicted of similar prostitution-related offenses were typically released before sentencing.

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is asking a judge to free him on a US$50 million (S$64 million) bond while he awaits sentencing in October after a jury found him not guilty of the most serious federal charges he faced earlier this month.

In a court filing Tuesday (Jul 29), Combs’ lawyer argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are dangerous, noting that others convicted of similar prostitution-related offenses were typically released before sentencing.

“Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct,” Marc Agnifilo said. “In fact, he may be the only person currently in a United States jail for being any sort of john, and certainly the only person in jail for hiring adult male escorts for him and his girlfriend.”

A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors have previously insisted he remains a flight risk.

Combs, 55, faces up to a decade in prison on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, for sexual encounters. A conviction on racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures in prison for life.

Immediately after he was acquitted on Jul 2, Agnifilo had asked that Combs be released on bond.

But Judge Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Combs at the time had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community”.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/sean-combs-diddy-asks-release-bail-bond-468756

Indonesia has signed a contract to buy 48 KAAN fighter jets from Türkiye, the Indonesian defence ministry said on Tuesday (Jul 29), sealing the latest purchase by the Southeast Asian nation aimed at modernising its ageing military hardware.

In order to strengthen its air force, Jakarta also ordered 42 French Rafale jets worth US$8.1 billion in 2022. It is also considering ordering China’s J-10 fighter jets and continues talks to purchase the US-made F-15EX jets.

Indonesia and Türkiye “signed an implementation contract” last Saturday on the sidelines of the International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul, defence ministry spokesperson Frega Wenas Inkriwang said in a statement.

He did not provide details of the contract value or delivery dates.

KAAN is Türkiye’s first national combat aircraft and it completed its first flight in February last year, but serial production is not expected to begin until 2028.

Türkiye’s defence ministry called the jet a fifth-generation aircraft and said it will be powered by two General Electric F-110 engines, which are also used in the fourth-generation Lockheed Martin F-16 jets.

Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeedin witnessed the agreement signing, Frega said, adding the contract signing reaffirms the commitment of both governments to strengthen joint technology development and expand Indonesia’s defence industry capacity.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-turkiye-turkey-kaan-fighter-jets-military-prabowo-5264191

The divisions now are a stark contrast with times of peace, when the lives of Thais and Cambodians along the border were very much intertwined, locals tell CNA.

SURIN, Thailand/ODDAR MEANCHEY, Cambodia: It is a rare sight in Thailand to see a 7-Eleven with its doors locked up.

But on the main highway through Surin province, the ubiquitous convenience store was one of many that remained closed on Tuesday (Jul 29) even after the ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia came into force.

The Chong Chom border crossing, a major trade route, also remained closed.

Artillery fire may have fallen silent, but life is yet to return to normal on both sides of the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia, where deadly fighting has seen at least 38 people killed and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate since last Thursday.

Among the hastily abandoned market stalls, shops and small restaurant in Chong Chom, Teerawat Saendang cast a lonely figure sitting at the counter of his grocery store.

The 65-year-old returned on Tuesday to check on his business after sheltering with relatives in a safe area in neighbouring Buriram province.

“I have been away for a full four days, so I was worried about my belongings — many were left outside. I will go back (to the safe area) around 4 or 5 pm. I don’t dare to stay,” he said.

For residents who chose to stay put, however, it was community spirit that spurred them to carry on with business as usual.

At a market in the Thai town of Prasat, some 30km north, small-goods seller Yuttana Akarapoowadol said: “I want to help displaced people get food. If I close, there will be no food for them.”

Fellow shop owner Nathana Aekthananonkul has also kept her shop open to provide food and essentials like meat, eggs and underwear to soldiers on the frontline.

“We see how much the soldiers are struggling,” she said.

“Whether living on the frontline or being away from their homes and loved ones, to do this duty, they have already sacrificed,” she added. “If we abandon them, it would be selfish.”

In Cambodia, locals showed the same solidarity with their countrymen and soldiers on the frontline.

Nammuy Heng, chief executive of DJI Agriculture Drone, is one of the volunteers at a relief camp in Oddar Meanchey who have helped gather two tonnes of food for the evacuees and military personnel there.

“One reason is because I really want to encourage my military … I want to tell them that they are not alone,” said Nammuy.

“The second thing is that I really want to share the love (with) the people.”

For evacuee Ouk Pov, it is the second time she has had to flee her home due to fighting between both countries – the first was in 2011, when troops clashed over the Preah Vihear temple.

“Since we’re near the border, our village leader told us to evacuate. It’s a hot zone for bombing. Back in 2011, a bomb fell near my house — there was a big fire and shattered glass flew into our home,” Ouk said.

“This time, no bombs landed directly near our house but bullets flew so low they hit and damaged our roof.”

The divisions now are a stark contrast with times of relative peace, when the lives of Thais and Cambodians along the border were very much intertwined, locals told CNA.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-thailand-border-conflict-ceasefire-locals-solidarity-5264851

Justin Bieber admitted he can be self-centered in a reflective new social media post.

“Thanking Jesus for his patience with me this morning,” he wrote via X Tuesday. “I can be extremely selfish and impatient yet Jesus always has his arms open toward me.”

Alongside several photos of the “Yummy” singer enjoying time out in nature, he added, “Let’s have a good day, let’s go outside Get in nature.”

The trio of pics showed Bieber, 31, descending stairs down a tree-lined path to a body of water. He wore a T-shirt and shorts, and accessorized with a pair of hot pink sunglasses and hiking boots.

Social media users took to the comments thread with supportive messages for the “Baby” crooner.

“This is the justin bieber i stan,” wrote one person, while another remarked, “Imagine walking through a forest and seeing Justin Bieber.”

“Stop being so hard on yourself, you’re literally a human, sir!!” wrote a third, while a fan account gushed, “We love you, thank you for everything and thank you for Swag! We, the fans, are super happy and excited about this album it gets better with each listen!”

The pop star’s candid post comes two weeks after he admitted to marriage struggles with wife Hailey, 28, via his new album “Swag.”

“Girl, we better stop before we say some s–t / We’ve been testing our patience / I think we better off if we just take a break / And remember what grace is,” he sings in “Walking Away.”

“Baby, I ain’t walking away. You were my diamond / Gave you a ring / I made you a promise. I told you, ‘I’d change’ / It’s just human nature / These growing pains / And baby, I ain’t walking away.”

Despite putting on a united front in family photos for the album’s long-awaited surprise release, a source told Page Six earlier in July that Justin “doesn’t particularly handle [fame] well.”

“Imagine being 14 and famous and people either love you for no reason just because you’re who you are, or they hate you? There’s not a lot of in between,” the insider divulged.

“A lot of people wouldn’t deal well with that to begin with. It breaks a lot of people. I’m concerned about him.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/29/celebrity-news/justin-bieber-admits-he-can-be-extremely-selfish/

JUSTIN Trudeau and Katy Perry were spotted enjoying a night out in Canada after the singer split with Orlando Bloom earlier this year, sparking romance rumors between the pair.

Perry, who was in Canada for her tour, was photographed dining with the former Canadian Prime Minister on Monday night.

The two seemed to be in deep conversation with each other at Le Violon in Montreal.

Perry, 40, has just separated from longtime beau Orlando Bloom this summer after nine years together, while Trudeau announced the separation from wife Sophie after 18 years of marriage in 2023.

The restaurant’s chef, Danny Smiles, told TMZ, however, that it seemed like a dinner between friends.

The report said lobster and cocktails were on the menu for the pair.

The two went to the kitchen afterward to thank the staff, according to the outlet, and were nice throughout.

The chef even divulged that Trudeau, 53, picked up the tab.

Before the dinner, the two were spotted walking together with Perry’s dog, TMZ reported.

The pair have both had a whirlwind year, from the pop star going on a space trip and touring to Trudeau stepping down as Canada’s PM.

Perry had been engaged to Bloom, 48, since 2019, and welcomed a daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom a year later.

Rumors had swirled that things had gone sour between the pair for months, with The Sun reporting in June that Bloom did not think Perry’s Blue Origin space trip “was a good idea.”

“He always thought it was a stupid idea and she wouldn’t get anything positive out of it,” the source said.

A close source told The Sun that Perry had told friends in January that the “relationship was as good as done.”

Weeks ago, representatives for the couple told E! News that the pair have been “shifting their relationship over the past many months to focus on co-parenting.”

“They will continue to be seen together as a family, as their shared priority is—and always will be—raising their daughter with love, stability and mutual respect.”

Right after the breakup news, Perry teared up on stage while performing in Australia.

“Thank you Australia for always being there for me,” she said, fighting back tears in her eyes.

In June, Bloom was spotted with star Sydney Sweeney in Venice after the two attended the A-list studded Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez wedding.

The actress had also announced her split from fiancé Jonathan Davino earlier this year.

The two were together for 7 years.

Trudeau announced his separation from his wife, Sophie, 48, in 2023 after “many meaningful and difficult conversations,” he wrote on Instagram at the time.

The two married in 2005, and have three children together.

In January, he resigned as party leader after a controversial decade in power.

In 2019, photos emerged of Trudeau in brownface at a party in 2001, sparking massive outrage.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14856753/katy-perry-justin-trudeau-dinner-date-orlando-bloom/

Ukrainians over the age of 60 will be allowed to enlist in the military following the enactment of a law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian officials also called a Russian strike on a prison a war crime.

Three killed in Russian strike on Ukraine army training unit

At least three Ukrainian soldiers were killed, and 18 others were wounded, in a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training ground on Tuesday.

In a statement on Facebook, Ukraine’s Ground Forces said Russia “launched a missile strike on the territory of one of the training units of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

“Despite the security measures taken, unfortunately it was not possible to completely avoid losses among the personnel,” the army added.

An investigation into the incident has been opened to “find out all the circumstances and causes of the loss of personnel,” the statement added.

“If it is found that the actions or inaction of officials led to the death and injury of military personnel, the perpetrators will be brought to justice,” the military said.

It was not clear which training facility was struck.

This is not the first time a Ukrainian army training unit has been attacked by Russian missiles.

In June, the then-commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Mykhailo Drapaty, resigned after 12 soldiers were killed and more than 60 others were wounded when Russian missiles hit a training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Khloé Kardashian threw her son, Tatum Thompson, an over-the-top “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”-themed party for his 3rd birthday.

The Good American co-founder took to her Instagram Stories Monday to give an inside look at the bash — dubbed “Tatum’s Clubhouse.

She flaunted the entryway of her home, which featured a massive multicolored balloon arch and cardboard cutouts of characters Mickey Mouse and Pluto.

At the front door, a person dressed up as a Chip ‘N Dale character greeted guests, including Kardashian’s 7-year-old daughter, True Thompson.

Inside, the “Kardashians” star, 41, showed off Mickey Mouse-shaped backdrops, including one that read, “Tatum Turns 3.”

A person dressed up as Mickey Mouse was seen enthusiastically dancing with the birthday boy, who wore a tan shirt and Disney-themed jeans.

Donald Duck and Daisy Duck brought the fun to the backyard, as they were seen dancing and posing with Tatum.

Another duo dressed up as Goofy and Pluto also busted a few moves.

Balloons and cutouts of Disney characters, including Goofy, also filled the backyard.

Kardashian went all out for the party favors and recruited Stoney Clover Lane to customize Disney-themed bags for guests.

There was also a candy station for attendees to stock up on goodies.

Festivities at the event included a sensory station with trays filled with a Play-Doh-like compound and mini Disney figures, a slime station and a station to make beaded bracelets or necklaces.

Guests indulged in a variety of finger foods, such as chicken tenders, fries and a charcuterie board, labeled “Minnie’s Picnic Bread Basket.”

Kardashian shared a snap of Tatum’s cake, which was the shape of Mickey Mouse’s clubhouse as seen in the five-season series, which aired from 2006 to 2016.

The TV personality also celebrated her ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson’s brother Amari Thompson’s 19th birthday, revealing a Cinderella’s castle-shaped cake.

“We have two cakes because we are celebrating Amari’s birthday and Tatum’s birthday,” she said in a clip.

Source :https://pagesix.com/2025/07/28/parents/inside-khloe-kardashians-disney-themed-bash-for-son-tatums-3rd-birthday/

Prince Harry has reportedly agreed to share his official schedule with the royal family as a peace offering to his dad, King Charles III, and brother Prince William.

The olive branch would help avoid conflicts between Harry and Meghan Markle’s events and royal family engagements, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.

The proposal is allegedly a way of shutting down claims that the Sussexes are trying to steal the spotlight from the British royals.

The move came days after Harry’s trip to Angola dominated headlines and buried Charles’ wife Queen Camilla’s 78th birthday portrait reveal.

Harry’s transparency could potentially pave the way for a face-to-face meeting between him and his estranged dad being scheduled into their busy itineraries, especially considering peace talks have allegedly been held between the two camps.

“Before that meeting between their aides in London, conflicts of interest or clashes of publicity were relished and even perhaps encouraged by the Sussexes,” an insider claimed to the outlet, adding, “Now, Harry has shifted into a new way of thinking. The tone is now all about ‘deconflicting’ with his family.”

The source explained that the Sussex household has offered to “draw up a ‘grid’ of his activities and share them with Buckingham Palace.”

In doing so, Kensington Palace would also be looped in on the plans, therefore keeping William and Kate Middleton informed.

“Harry still doesn’t like being controlled by the Royal machinery, and that won’t change,” the insider said. “However, if the Royal Family have full sight of his movements they can at least plan accordingly.”

The source called Harry’s peace offering a “significant gesture.”

Page Six has reached out to Harry’s rep for comment.

Harry, 40, has been on the outs with his father, 76, and older brother, 43, since he and Markle, also 43, resigned from their royal duties in 2020. They ultimately moved to Montecito, Calif., where they live with their two kids: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/07/28/royal-family/prince-harrys-latest-peace-offering-to-estranged-dad-king-charles-brother-prince-william-revealed/

No economy rises or falls for just one reason, even a shock as big as Donald Trump’s trade policy, says Ruchir Sharma for the Financial Times.

At the beginning of the year, the world was in striking agreement on one point: If Donald Trump went ahead with tariffs, it would strengthen the dollar and trigger stagflation.

Chief executives, investors and commentators all said the same. Economists estimated that every percentage point increase in the tariff rate would shave 0.1 per cent off US growth and add 0.1 per cent to inflation. But so far, the consequences have been far less disruptive than just about anyone expected.

Some analysts still think that’s because Trump’s threats have been mostly posturing. But the effective US tariff rate has already risen from 2.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Tariff revenue is rolling in at an annual rate above US$300 billion, roughly four times the pace this time last year.

Many economists had assumed that, by lowering imports, tariffs would strengthen the dollar almost automatically, as an accounting identity. Instead, it suffered its worst fall over the first half of a year since the early 1970s.

This unexpected turn is now attributed to the fact that the dollar started the year historically overvalued. Many foreigners were heavily exposed to dollar assets. Of late, they have been hedging those risks and investing more outside the US. Many countries are increasingly attractive places to park money, in part because tariff threats inspired them to push economic reform and cut trade deals with non-US partners.

WHY STAGFLATION HAS YET TO MATERIALISE

The bigger mystery is why the stagflationary impact of tariffs has yet to materialise in the aggregate data. Is the US really enjoying a free lunch, taking in US$300 billion a year in tariff revenues with none of the expected heartburn?

By some estimates, foreign exporters are indeed absorbing 20 per cent of the costs – a much larger share than they did in response to tariffs in Trump’s first term. The remaining 80 per cent, however, is still getting paid in roughly equal shares by US corporations and consumers.

The likely answer is that the negative economic effect of tariffs is being countered by other forces, including the mania for artificial intelligence and more government stimulus.

Since January, estimates of what the big tech companies will spend this year on building out AI infrastructure have risen from US$60 billion to US$350 billion. Smaller businesses are scrambling to catch the wave too, further boosting growth. And all this excitement is neutralising the fear that trade policy uncertainty would dampen animal spirits and freeze new capex.

AI-driven bullishness is also lifting growth by keeping financial conditions loose, even with higher interest rates. According to a new index from the Federal Reserve, those conditions would be neutral, not loose, were it not for the stock market, which has continued rising this year due largely to AI stocks.

Meanwhile, the promise of tax relief makes it easier for US corporations to absorb a larger than expected share of the tariff costs, rather than pass it all on to consumers. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is expected to save US businesses around US$100 billion this year and more than that in 2026, mainly in tax breaks.

ECONOMIES AREN’T SHAPED BY JUST ONE FACTOR

That is not to say tariffs have no negative economic effect. The costs are in fact starting to show up in higher prices for major household appliances, sporting goods and toys.

Yet the overall inflation rate has been held in check by falling rents and prices for other kinds of goods, including used cars and energy. And those prices are declining for reasons unrelated to tariffs; used-car prices are still retreating from highs created by supply disruptions during the pandemic.

So economists were not entirely wrong about the tariffs. And stagflation may yet materialise, particularly if the average effective rate continues to climb. But so far even a much higher rate has not been enough to overwhelm the larger forces sustaining growth and containing inflation.

In a way what we are seeing is a replay of 2023. That year, too, many expected a big shock (then mainly from Fed rate rises) to dramatically slow US growth, only to find the impact offset by the AI spending boom and the US government’s seemingly bottomless capacity to keep doling out fiscal support.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/trump-tariff-economy-us-dollar-stagflation-consumer-prices-5262491

North Korea said on Tuesday (Jul 29) the United States must accept that reality has changed since the countries’ summit meetings in the past, and no future dialogue would end its nuclear programme, state media KCNA reported.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who is believed to speak for his brother, said she conceded that the personal relationship between Kim and US President Donald Trump “is not bad”.

But if Washington intended to use a personal relationship as a way to end the North’s nuclear weapons programme, the effort would only be the subject of “mockery”, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by KCNA.

“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the US side,” she said. DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea’s capabilities as a nuclear weapons state and the geopolitical environment have radically changed since Kim and Trump held talks three times during the US president’s first term, she said.

“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state … will be thoroughly rejected,” she said.

Asked about the North Korean statement, a White House official said Trump was still committed to the goal he had for the three summit meetings he held with Kim in his first term.

“The president retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearised North Korea,” the White House official told Reuters.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-says-trump-must-accept-nuclear-reality-5263631

The militant “Islamic State” group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Catholic church in eastern Congo, leaving more than 40 people dead. The attack put an end to months-long calm in the region.

At least 43 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a Catholic church was attacked on Sunday.

Officials initially reported that Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels had carried out the attack in which terrorists raided the church located in the northeastern town of Komanda as worshippers gathered for prayer.

Later on Monday, the self-named “Islamic State” group (IS) announced on the messaging app Telegram that it had been behind the deadly incident.

What do we know about the attack on the Catholic church?

Nine children were among those killed, according to MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the country.

According to reports, houses and shops surrounding the church were also set ablaze by the rebels.

“These targeted attacks on defenseless civilians, especially in places of worship, are not only revolting but also contrary to all norms of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the mission’s deputy chief, Vivian van de Perre, said in a statement.

Congo military denounces attack

Sunday’s attack marked the end of a months-long period of calm in the region of Ituri, bordering Uganda.

In February, 23 people had died in an attack by the ADF in the province’s Mambasa territory.

The Congolese military condemned what it described as a “large-scale massacre” on Sunday.

It said the ADF had decided to take “revenge on defenseless peaceful populations to spread terror.”

Eastern Congo is considered one of the world’s most dangerous regions.

Nearly 130 different armed groups are said to be active across the country, many of which are focused on controlling the region’s vast and valuable reserves of natural resources like coltan, cobalt, gold and diamonds.

Hostilities earlier this year between Congolese forces and the M23 rebel group ended in a truce on July 19.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/congo-over-40-killed-in-militant-attack-on-church/a-73433602

More than 20 provincial-level administrations in China now offer childcare subsidies. But analysts are skeptical that they will be able to reverse the declining population or spur spending.

The Chinese government will offer parents subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500, €429) per child under the age of three per year, Beijing’s state media said Monday.

China’s population has declined for three consecutive years, the world’s second most populous nation — after India — is facing an emerging demographic crisis.

The number of births in 2024 — 9.54 million — was half as many as in 2016, the year that ended its one-child policy that was in place for more than three decades.

Marriage rates in China have also hit a record low. Young couples put off having babies due to the high cost of raising children and career concerns.

Provinces push to raise birth rates

More than 20 provincial-level administrations in China now offer childcare subsidies, according to official data.

In March, Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia in northern China, started giving families money to have more children. Couples with three or more children can get up to 100,000 yuan for each new baby.

In Shenyang, in northeastern Liaoning province, local authorities give families who have a third child 500 yuan per month until the child turns three.

In order to create a “fertility-friendly society”, China’s southwestern Sichuan province is proposing to increase marriage leave from 5 to 25 days, and more than double the current 60-day maternity leave to 150 days.

A positive step, but limited impact

Analysts said the subsidies are a positive step, but warned they won’t be enough on their own to reverse China’s population decline or lift its sluggish domestic spending.

Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, told Reuters that the new subsidy showed the government had recognized the “serious challenge” that low fertility poses to the economy.

Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, said the policy marked a “major milestone” in terms of direct handouts to households and could lay the groundwork for more fiscal transfers in the future.

But he also said the sums were too small to have a “near-term impact on the birth rate or consumption.”

“For young couples who just got married and already have a baby, it might actually encourage them to consider having a second child,” Wang Xue, a mother to a nine-year-old son from Beijing, told AFP.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/china-to-offer-500-per-child-in-move-to-boost-birth-rate/a-73441098

DONALD Trump has slashed the 50-day deadline for Vladimir Putin to cut a peace deal down to just the end of next week.

Trump has slammed the tyrant – who has not taken Trump’s peace efforts seriously – saying he was “very disappointed” with him during a press conference with Sir Keir Starmer in Scotland today.

Trump said Putin’s new deadline had been reduced down to “10 to 12” days from today, which would be August 6 to 8.

The President is clearly fed up with Vlad’s unwillingness to cut a peace deal and his nightly blitzes that target and kill civilians.

He said: “I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him.

“So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.”

He later clarified saying: “I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason in waiting, we just don’t see any progress being made.”

Trump said that the US would do secondary sanctions on Russia – slapping sanctions on those who buy oil from Moscow.

But that could all be avoided if Putin cuts a peace deal – which Trump thinks could still happen.

The new deadline will be announced tonight or tomorrow, with Trump saying “there’s no reason to wait”.

He said: “It [peace] should happen fast, so many people are dying.”

Trump also said he is not so interested in speaking to Putin anymore – due to the tyrant consistently bombing Ukraine after peace talks.

The deadline was set to end on September 5, but is now set to end a month earlier.

The Moscow stock market quickly dropped 1.2 per cent at the prospect of massive US sanctions on the economy.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that the “language of ultimatums, blackmail, and threats” is unacceptable to Moscow and that it views the threat of new sanctions as mundane.

A fortnight ago, Trump vowed to slap brutal 100 percent tariffs on Russia if Moscow did not reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.

He also agreed to send US weapons – compromising of “everything” in their arsenal – to Nato so they can distribute them to Kyiv.

The meeting with Mark Rutte marked a shift in US policy more towards backing Ukraine after Vlad did not take peace seriously.

Trump has made getting peace in Ukraine a priority and has talked to Putin directly as he has tried to get him to cut a deal.

But the tyrant has not moved away from his maximalist demands and will only sign a deal that leaves Ukraine defenceless.

Vlad has spent months talking up the prospect of peace, but appears to have alienated Trump after launching huge barrages at Ukrainian civilians.

The Kremlin responded to the deadline at the time saying: “We of course want to understand what is behind this statement – 50 days.

“It used to be 24 hours, it used to be 100 days, we have been through all of this and we really want to understand what motivates the President of the United States.”

Trump’s deadline slashing comes after Putin launched his latest blitz on Ukraine with Poland scrambling jets in response.

Eight people, including a two-year-old girl, were injured in the strikes with shrapnel wounds after one bomb hit an apartment building in the capital.

Volodymyr Zelenksy addressed the latest blitz saying “our sky defenders intercepted several hundred Russian attack drones”.

One person is fighting for their life in a critical condition, while three others were hospitalised.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14838839/donald-trump-putin-peace-deadline/

Heavy rains hit northern China over the weekend and intensified around Beijing on Monday. President Xi Jinping has ordered an “all-out” search and rescue effort.

At least 30 people have died in the outskirts of Beijing after intense rainstorms battered China’s north, state media reported on Tuesday.

“The latest round of heavy rainstorms has left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight Monday,” state news agency Xinhua said.

Over 80,000 people have been evacuated from the Chinese capital, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

28 deaths were reported in the hilly district of Miyun and two in Yanqing, both of which are on the outskirts of the sprawling city, far from the downtown.

Torrential rain causes floods and landslides in northern China

Intense rainfall lashed northern China over the weekend, including in the provinces of Hebei, Jilin and Shandong. The rains intensified around Beijing on Monday.

The Huairou district in the capital’s north and Fangshan in the southwest were also badly impacted.

Roads and communication infrastructure were damaged, while over 130 villages were left without power.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/heavy-rain-in-beijing/a-73444229

Nvidia (NVDA.O), placed orders for 300,000 H20 chipsets with contract manufacturer TSMC (2330.TW), last week, two sources said, with one of them adding that strong Chinese demand had led the U.S. firm to change its mind about just relying on its existing stockpile.
The Trump administration this month allowed Nvidia to resume sales of H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) to China, reversing an effective ban imposed in April designed to keep advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands due to national security concerns.

Nvidia developed the H20 specifically for the Chinese market after U.S. export restrictions on its other AI chipsets were imposed in late 2023. The H20 does not have as much computing power as Nvidia’s H100 or its new Blackwell series sold in markets outside China.
The new orders with Taiwan’s TMSC would add to existing inventory of 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chips, according to the sources who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
For comparison purposes, Nvidia sold around 1 million H20 chips in 2024, according to U.S. research firm SemiAnalysis.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during a trip to Beijing this month that the level of H20 orders it received would determine whether production would begin again, adding that any restart to the supply chain would take nine months.

The Information reported after Huang’s trip that Nvidia had told customers it had limited H20 stocks available and it had no immediate plans to restart wafer production for the GPU.
Nvidia needs to obtain export licenses from the U.S. government to ship the H20 chips. It said in mid-July it had been assured by authorities that it would get them soon.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has yet to approve those licenses, one of the sources and a third source said.
Nvidia on Monday declined to comment on the new orders or the status of its license applications. TSMC declined to comment. The U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nvidia has asked Chinese companies interested in purchasing Nvidia H20 chips to submit new documentation including order volume forecasts from clients, said one of the sources and a fourth source.

KEY PRODUCT IN US-SINO TRADE WAR

The Trump administration said the resumption of H20 sales was part of negotiations with China over rare earth magnets – elements essential for many industries and which Beijing had limited exports of as trade war tensions escalated.
The decision drew bipartisan condemnation from U.S. legislators who are worried that giving China access to the H20 will impede U.S. efforts to maintain its lead in AI technology.
But Nvidia and others argue that it is important to retain Chinese interest in its chips – which work with Nvidia’s software tools – so that developers do not completely switch over to offerings from rivals like Huawei.
Before the April ban, Chinese technology giants including Tencent (0700.HK), ByteDance and Alibaba (9988.HK), substantially increased H20 orders as they deployed DeepSeek’s cost-effective AI models as well as their own models.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/nvidia-orders-300000-h20-chips-tsmc-due-robust-china-demand-sources-say-2025-07-29/

The Trump administration has heard competing proposals that would significantly alter longstanding U.S. policy toward Myanmar, with the aim of diverting its vast supplies of rare earth minerals away from strategic rival China, four people with direct knowledge of the discussions said.
Nothing has been decided and experts say there are huge logistical obstacles, but if the ideas are ever acted upon, Washington may need to strike a deal with the ethnic rebels controlling most of Myanmar’s rich deposits of heavy rare earths.

Among the proposals are one advocating talks with Myanmar’s ruling junta to get a peace deal with the Kachin Independence Army rebels and another calling for the U.S. to instead work directly with the KIA without engaging the junta. Washington has avoided direct talks with the country’s military leaders following their overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government in 2021.
The ideas have been proposed to administration officials by a U.S. business lobbyist, a former adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, in indirect talks with the KIA and some outside experts, the sources said.
The conversations have not previously been reported.

Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion. So-called heavy rare earths are used to build fighter jets and other high-performance weaponry. The U.S. produces very small amounts of heavy rare earths and is reliant on imports.
Securing supplies of the minerals is a major focus of the Trump administration in its strategic competition with China, which is responsible for nearly 90% of global processing capacity, according to the International Energy Agency.
Engaging the junta would be a sharp departure for the United States, given U.S. sanctions on the military leaders and the violence committed against the Rohingya minority that Washington calls genocide and crimes against humanity.

Last week, the Trump administration lifted sanctions designations on several junta allies, but U.S. officials said this does not indicate any broader shift in U.S. policy toward Myanmar.

The ideas pitched to the U.S. administration also include easing U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened 40% tariffs on the country, pulling back sanctions against the junta and its allies, working with India to process some heavy rare earths exported from Myanmar, and appointing a special envoy to execute these tasks, people familiar with the matter said.
Some of these suggestions were discussed in a July 17 meeting in Vice President JD Vance’s offices that included Adam Castillo, a former head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar who runs a security firm in the country, a person close to Vance’s office said. Among those present were advisers to Vance on Asian affairs and trade. Vance himself did not attend, the source said.
Castillo told Reuters he suggested to U.S. officials that the United States could play a peace-broker role in Myanmar and urged Washington to take a page out of China’s playbook by first brokering a bilateral self-governance deal between the Myanmar military and the KIA.

Myanmar’s ruling junta and the KIA did not respond to a request for comment.
While Vance’s office declined to comment on Castillo’s visit to the White House, one person familiar with the situation said the Trump administration has been reviewing policy on Myanmar, also known as Burma, since Trump’s January inauguration and had weighed direct discussions with the junta over trade and tariffs.
The White House declined to comment.

REVIEWING MYANMAR POLICY

The White House discussions were described as exploratory and in early stages by people familiar with them, who added the talks may result in no shift in strategy at all by Trump, given the administration’s wariness about intervening in foreign conflicts and in Myanmar’s complex crisis.
“The officials took this meeting as a courtesy to the American business community and to support President Trump’s efforts to balance the U.S. $579 (million) trade deficit with Burma,” a senior administration official said when asked about the July 17 meeting.
Castillo, who describes Myanmar’s rare earth deposits as China’s “golden goose,” said he told U.S. officials that key ethnic armed groups – particularly the KIA – were tired of being exploited by China and wanted to work with the United States.
Mines in Myanmar’s Kachin region are major producers of heavy rare earths that are exported to China for processing.
He said he had repeatedly urged officials in Washington to pursue a deal with the KIA that includes cooperation with U.S. partners in the Quad grouping – specifically India – for resource processing and eventual heavy rare earths supply to the United States. The so-called Quad grouping brings together the United States with India, as well as Australia and Japan.
India’s Ministry of Mines did not respond to an email seeking comment.
An Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was unaware of whether the Trump administration had communicated any such plan to India but stressed that such a move would take several years to materialize because it would require infrastructure to be built for processing rare earths.
Another pitch to the White House was more in line with the Myanmar policy Trump inherited from former President Joe Biden.
Sean Turnell, an Australian economist and former adviser to Suu Kyi, whose government the junta toppled in 2021, said his rare earths proposal was to encourage the Trump administration to continue supporting Myanmar’s democratic forces.
In a visit to Washington earlier this year, Turnell said he met with officials from the State Department, the White House National Security Council and Congress, and urged continued support for the country’s opposition.
“One of the pitches was that the U.S. could access rare earths via KIA etc,” he said, adding that the group wants to diversify away from China.
There have also been multiple discussions between U.S. officials and the Kachin rebel group on rare earths through interlocutors in recent months, said a person with knowledge of the talks, which have not previously been reported.

OBSTACLES

In the years since the coup, Myanmar has been ravaged by civil war and the junta and its allies have been pushed out of much of the country’s borderlands, including the rare earths mining belt currently under control of the KIA.
A rare earths industry source said that U.S. officials had reached out around three months ago, following the Kachin takeover of the Chipwe-Pangwa mining belt, to ask for an overview of the Kachin rare earths mining industry.
The person added that any new, major rare earths supply chain, which would require moving the minerals out of remote and mountainous Kachin State into India and onward, may not be feasible.
Swedish author Bertil Lintner, a leading expert on Kachin State, said the idea of the United States obtaining rare earths from Myanmar from under the nose of China seemed “totally crazy” given the unforgiving mountainous terrain and primitive logistics.
“If they want to transport the rare earths from these mines, which are all on the Chinese border, to India, there’s only one road,” Lintner said. “And the Chinese would certainly step in and stop it.”
For its part, the junta appears eager to engage with Washington after years of isolation.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-team-hears-pitches-access-myanmars-rare-earths-2025-07-28/

Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Ryne Sandberg has died at the age of 65, the Cubs announced Monday evening.

Sandberg was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2024, and had been battling the disease since.

He spent 15 of his 16 MLB seasons with the Cubs, and he earned All-Star nods in 10 consecutive seasons, from 1984-93.

He also earned nine consecutive Gold Gloves and seven Silver Sluggers, and won the National League MVP in 1984.

“Ryne Sandberg was a legend of the Chicago Cubs franchise and a beloved figure throughout Major League Baseball,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “He was a five-tool player who excelled in every facet of the game thanks to his power, speed and work ethic. Ryne earned 10 consecutive All-Star selections, nine straight Gold Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers and 1984 National League MVP honors.

“Ryne remained active in the game he loved as an ambassador for the Cubs, a manager for the Phillies and in the Minor Leagues, and a frequent participant at the Hall of Fame. His many friends across the game were in his corner as he courageously fought cancer in recent years. We will continue to support the important work of Stand Up To Cancer in Ryne’s memory.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/28/sports/hall-of-famer-ryne-sandberg-dead-at-65-after-cancer-battle/

A heartbreaking video shows the final moments of a Wisconsin teen’s life that was allegedly taken by an illegal immigrant drunk driver as his family gave their final goodbye before his organs were donated.

Tearful family and friends surrounded the lifeless body of 19-year-old Brady Heiling as doctors wheeled him on a stretcher through a hospital hallway, according to a video posted by his mother, Jen Heiling. Draped across the front of the gurney was a sign that read “DONATE LIFE,” a nod to his organ donation.

“Brady Allen Heiling you are soooooo LOVED!…” his mother wrote in the emotional post.

Loved ones bid the teen, who was hooked up to a breathing machine, farewell as they leaned onto his chest and cried out.

Heiling, along with his “love” Hallie Helgeson, 18, tragically died after an illegal immigrant drunk driver hit them while driving the wrong way on an interstate outside Madison, officials said.

Honduran national Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila, 30, was drunk and driving her SUV the wrong direction on a highway outside Madison when she allegedly struck a vehicle and killed the two teens on July 20, according to police.

Helgeson, who was a passenger in the vehicle, died at the scene, while Heiling, who was behind the wheel, clung to life for five days after he was airlifted from the wreck. He fought through multiple unsuccessful surgeries before succumbing to his injuries.

“Hallie Helgeson and Brady Heiling had their whole lives ahead of them—and they would still be alive today if it weren’t for Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila—a criminal illegal alien from Honduras,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

“We are weak, weary and heart broken and need to rest,” Jen Heiling posted online following her son’s tragic death.

She said she hopes her son’s harvested organs can save more lives, according to the West Central Tribune.

The devastating crash wasn’t Martinez-Avila’s first time getting in trouble behind the wheel.

She already had a drunk driving conviction from November 2020 and has had several other traffic violations since then for driving without a license, speeding, following too closely and inattentive driving, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Martinez-Avila’s rap sheet required her to have a special device in her car that blocks it from starting if she has alcohol in her system, according to the local news outlet.

However, she did not have it installed during the fatal collision.

DHS railed against the sanctuary policies in Dane County, where Madison is located.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/28/us-news/family-tearfully-sends-off-teen-killed-by-drunk-illegal-immigrant-before-his-organs-donated/

The plight of Gazan civilians lacking enough food has made headlines, but make no mistake: Whatever hunger exists in Gaza is Hamas’ fault — and the way to address it is to end Hamas. And thus, the war.

Claims of “mass starvation,” of course, are utter baloney. They’re based by all sorts of falsehoods, including, most recently, lurid, upsetting photos of supposedly sick, malnourished kids, whose protruding bones make them look like Nazi concentration-camp prisoners.

Numerous publications published one particularly disturbing photo, of a boy named Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, to show the effects of “widespread hunger.”

Only it turns out the boy is not malnourished but has a genetic disease; uncropped pictures show his well-fed brother nearby.

It’s likely many Gazans have trouble getting enough food for their families day-to-day. But relying on any information out of Gaza about food supplies is a dangerous business.

Reports of “mass starvation” there have been circulating from early in the war. In May the BBC reported that “14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours,” yet that turned out to be a willful misreading of a projection by the United Nations (itself an unreliable source).

Meanwhile, Israel is permitting truckloads of aid into Gaza, and facilitating air drops. This week it even paused military action for 10 hours a day to allow for humanitarian aid.

Remember, though, that food shortages in Gaza have largely been orchestrated by Hamas, which steals international aid for its own members and to resell to finance its war efforts.

And this morally perverse group actually wants its people to starve, so the world will blame Israel and pressure it to halt its attacks on . . . Hamas.

That strategy has been succeeding, which is why Hamas has refused to surrender or even agree to a cease-fire.

Just this weekend, for example, French premier Macron fecklessly “recognized” Palestine as a state.

That just rewards Hamas further, and encourages it to keep the war going. Expect only more suffering for Gazans.

At least President Donald Trump is wise to the game: Last week, he pulled US negotiators back from cease-fire talks, saying Hamas “didn’t want to make a deal,” but rather “wanted to die.”

Spot on: The group is nothing more than a power-hungry death cult that gloats over the “martyrdom” of innocent people it hides behind. It built hundreds of miles of tunnels for its soldiers but not one shelter for its people.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/07/28/opinion/to-end-food-shortages-in-gaza-the-world-should-unite-to-end-hamas/