Category: World

The Mumbai Crime Branch probe traced the MD supply chain from Sangli and Surat to the UAE and Turkey, where Dola allegedly directed operations through associates.

Salim Dola, a close associate of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim and an alleged key banned drug producer, has been extradited to India from Istanbul, where he was detained in a joint operation by Turkiye’s National Intelligence Organisation and local police. In Delhi, the fugitive is being kept at the Narcotics Control Bureau’s RK Puram office and will later be handed over to the Mumbai police.

A Dongri resident, Dola had been running a multi-state narcotics network from abroad after fleeing India nearly a decade ago. His role came into focus during a targeted investigation into the proceeds of drug sales allegedly handled by Faisal Javed Shaikh and Alfiya Faisal Shaikh, who are believed to have procured mephedrone (MD) drugs from Dola.

The Mumbai Crime Branch probe traced the MD supply chain from Sangli and Surat to the UAE and Turkey, where Dola allegedly directed operations through associates. Last year, authorities, with the help of the Interpol framework, deported Dola’s son Taher and his nephew Mustafa Mohammad Kubbawala from the UAE, weakening his network.

Who Is Salim Dola

Born in 1966 into a middle-class family in the Byculla area of Mumbai, Dola entered the city’s underworld at a young age. He befriended don Chhota Shakeel, who was, at the time, a member of Dawood Ibrahim’s D-company.

Initially, Dola was involved in the smuggling of gutkha (tobacco) across Mumbai and Delhi. Gradually, he ventured into the drug trade and began trafficking marijuana (ganja).

In 2012, the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested him with a consignment of 80 kilograms of marijuana. After spending nearly five years in jail, he was acquitted by the court.

After he was released from prison, Dola met the fugitive drug supplier, Kailash Rajput. It was at this juncture that he stepped into the world of synthetic drugs. With the assistance of Kailash Rajput, Dola began manufacturing a synthetic drug known as “Button.” This drug is formulated using dangerous opioids –such as Fentanyl –and is sold in the form of tablets or pills.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/who-is-salim-dola-dawood-ibrahims-close-aide-extradited-to-india-in-drug-case-11419257?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Investigators said the manifesto made clear that Allen intended to target top government officials attending the dinner, except for Patel. “Administration officials (not including Patel): they are the targets,” the 1,052-word document stated.

A manifesto sent by the suspected gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting over the weekend outlined his intent to target the US President Donald Trump and his other senior officials, with a noticeable exception of one important member– FBI director Kash Patel.

But why exactly was Patel “spared”? That’s the question being probed by authorities, who are examining multiple theories, ranging from ideology to operational strategy, down to religion, according to a report by The New York Post.

One of the theories under investigation is that Allen, who had anti-Christian sentiments, excluded Patel because he is a Hindu by faith.

“[Allen] was pretty anti-Christian and Kash is Hindu,” a source told The Post.

Other Theories Under Probe

Sources said the other reason why Patel was specifically excluded was that Allen purportedly wanted to avoid targeting law enforcement while focusing squarely on Trump, against whom he ranted in the manifesto.

“Anything would really just be speculation, but he took the time to go through why he wasn’t targeting all of the law-enforcement agencies, so I think it’s probably related to that,” a source told The Post.

Another source claimed Allen “specifically said he didn’t want to target law enforcement.” That’s why Patel was exempted from his list.

However, the report said the theories are still under investigation to understand the true motives of the gunman.

What The Manifesto Said

Authorities said Allen emailed family members and a former employer shortly before launching the attack, attaching a document titled “Apology and Explanation.”

In the message, Allen wrote, “My sincerest apologies for all the trouble I’ve caused”, adding that he did not expect forgiveness for what he was about to do.

The document then shifted to justification. “What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit… crimes,” he wrote, outlining a political rationale for his actions.

Investigators said the manifesto made clear that Allen intended to target top government officials attending the dinner. “Administration officials (not including Patel): they are the targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest,” the 1,052-word document stated.

The manifesto also outlined what Allen described as “rules of engagement”, indicating that Secret Service personnel would be targeted only if necessary and that other groups, including hotel staff and guests, were not primary targets.

Despite that, the document acknowledged the risk of broader harm. Allen wrote that he “would still go through most everyone… if it were absolutely necessary”, a statement prosecutors said underscored the potential scale of the threat.

Officials said Allen apologised in the document to people he “put in danger simply by being near,” even as he outlined his intended targets.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-kash-patel-not-on-cole-allens-kill-list-because-hes-hindu-what-report-said-11418490?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

SpaceX’s board has approved a compensation plan for founder Elon Musk with goals as futuristic and celestial as the company’s ambitions: colonizing Mars and ​running data centers in outer space.
The details of Musk’s sweeping pay package, which have not been widely reported, were revealed in the company’s confidential registration statement ‌filed in recent weeks with the Securities and Exchange Commission and reviewed by Reuters last week.

The lofty rewards dangled for Musk by SpaceX show the challenge of holding the attention of the serial entrepreneur as he prepares to take the rocket maker public. They also potentially set up SpaceX investors for tensions with shareholders of Tesla (TSLA.O), where Musk is CEO, say corporate governance experts.

Connecting science-fiction visions with accounting commitments, the SpaceX board in January approved a ​pay package for the world’s richest man that will award 200 million in super-voting restricted shares if the company hits a market value of $7.5 trillion and establishes a ​permanent human colony on Mars with at least 1 million people, according to excerpts from the company’s registration statement reviewed by Reuters.

His Mars-shot performance ⁠package also gives him as many as 60.4 million in restricted shares awarded on March 23 if SpaceX meets separate valuation goals and operates data centers in space that provide at least 100 ​terawatts of compute capacity – a colossal amount of power equal to 100,000 gigawatts, or about 100,000 one-gigawatt nuclear reactors running all at once. Both awards come with super-voting Class B restricted stock, ​which carries 10 votes to every 1 Class A share, and vest in tranches as the company’s value rises.

CONDITIONAL REWARDS, STOCK OPTIONS

However, he will not receive a single share if the company fails to reach the board’s lofty valuation targets, which are not tied to a specific timeline other than his continued employment. He has received a nominal salary from SpaceX of $54,080 per year since 2019.

The value of the pay package could not be ​determined since SpaceX is privately held. SpaceX is targeting an initial public offering around the time of Musk’s birthday on June 28, which could value the company at some $1.75 trillion, Reuters has ​reported.
As of December 31, he held 68.8 million in previously awarded Class B stock options with a strike price of about $42 that expire in 2031, allowing Musk to pocket any profit above that amount if ‌he exercises ⁠the options before that date.
Musk is already worth $776 billion by Forbes’ estimate. SpaceX aside, he could more than double that if he achieves separate, ambitious performance goals at Tesla, the EV automaker he also runs. He owned about 20% of that company’s stock as of November, according to the registration statement.
SpaceX and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. The Information, and Reuters have previously reported SpaceX pay targets for Musk linked to a Mars colony and to space data centers.

Executive compensation expert Eric Hoffmann, chief data officer for corporate governance consulting firm Farient Advisors, said he knew of ​nothing remotely comparable in compensation packages at other ​companies.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/spacex-ties-musk-compensation-mars-colonization-goal-2026-04-28/

Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday at a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, casting his lawsuit against the ChatGPT ​maker as a defense of charitable giving.
The world’s richest person is suing OpenAI, its co-founder and Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman, saying they betrayed him and the public ‌by abandoning OpenAI’s mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity, and transforming the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut.

“If we make it OK to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed,” Musk testified on the first day of the trial. “That’s my concern.”
Musk, who founded automaker Tesla (TSLA.O), and rocket company SpaceX, characterized OpenAI as his brainchild as well.
“I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding,” Musk said. “It was ​specifically meant to be for a charity that does not benefit any individual person. I could’ve started it as a for profit and I specifically chose not to.”

Before Musk began testifying, William Savitt, a lawyer for ​OpenAI and Altman, told jurors during his opening statement it was Musk who saw dollar signs as he helped finance OpenAI’s early growth and pushed it to become ⁠a for-profit business, one he might eventually lead as CEO.

Savitt said Musk wanted “the keys to the kingdom,” and sued only after he failed. In 2023, he started his own AI business, xAI, now part of SpaceX.
“What he cares about is Elon ​Musk being on top,” Savitt said in his opening statement. “We are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way.”
OpenAI’s lawyer also framed OpenAI’s March 2019 creation of a for-profit entity as critical to letting it buy computing power and pay ​top scientists to stay competitive with Google’s (GOOGL.O), DeepMind AI lab.
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, told jurors in his opening statement it was the OpenAI defendants who were greedy for money, as OpenAI began drawing investors including Microsoft (MSFT.O), which invested $10 billion in January 2023.

“It wasn’t a vehicle for people to get rich,” Molo said.
Musk is expected to resume his testimony on Wednesday.

JUDGE ADMONISHES MUSK OVER SOCIAL MEDIA USE

Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its largest investors, with proceeds going to OpenAI’s charitable arm.
He also wants OpenAI ​to revert to a nonprofit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from its board. Musk’s claims include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.
While Musk described OpenAI as a charity, the organization called itself a nonprofit ​artificial intelligence research company in a 2015 post, “Introducing OpenAI.”

Before jurors were seated, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers admonished Musk after OpenAI lawyers complained about his posts on X on Monday, in which he assailed Altman as “Scam Altman” and accused him of stealing ‌a charity.
Rogers said ⁠she was loath to issue a gag order, but urged Musk to “try to control your propensity to use social media to make things work outside the courtroom … Perhaps you’ve never done that before.”
Musk agreed to minimize his social media activity, and Altman similarly agreed. Altman and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella are also expected to testify.
The trial offers a window into some of the egos and personalities that shaped OpenAI as it evolved from a nonprofit research lab in Brockman’s apartment to a company worth more than $850 billion.
It also risks complicating OpenAI’s plans for a potential initial public offering by casting doubt on its leadership, and could intensify Americans’ fears about AI technology more broadly.

LAWYERS DISPUTE IMPORTANCE OF AI SAFETY TO MUSK

Musk ​and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with a goal ​of developing AI to benefit humanity and fend off ⁠rivals such as Google.
Musk testified that “I’ve had extreme concerns about AI for a very long time,” and focused more intently on it after meetings with former U.S. President Barack Obama and Google didn’t address AI’s risks.
“I was very close friends with Larry Page at Google,” Musk testified, referring to Google’s co-founder. “We would talk for many hours about AI safety. ​At a certain point it was clear to me Larry Page was not sufficiently caring about AI … We had to have a counterpoint against Google.”
Savitt, in his ​opening statement, said AI safety wasn’t ⁠a priority for Musk, and that Musk denigrated OpenAI employees who focused on it. “Jackasses is what he called them,” Savitt said.
Musk has said he provided about $38 million to OpenAI for its original mission, and testified he flexed his connections to provide computing capacity, personally approaching Nadella as well as Nvidia (NVDA.O), CEO Jensen Huang.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/openai-trial-pitting-elon-musk-against-sam-altman-kicks-off-2026-04-28/

 

If the ancestors of Donald Trump and King Charles ‌could see them today, the U.S. president mused Tuesday, they “would surely be filled with awe and pride that the Anglo-American revolution in human freedom” had survived to the present day.
Trump moments later stepped back from the lectern at the ​White House to shake hands with Charles during the U.S. administration’s formal welcome of the UK ​royals, and the two shared a laugh.

The White House captioned a photo of the moment, “TWO KINGS.”,
It ⁠wasn’t the first time Trump has flirted with monarchical imagery in his second presidential term.
In October 2025, ​he posted an AI-generated video depicting him wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet zooming above “No ​Kings” protesters opposed to his administration. Republican leaders in Congress have routinely called the demonstrations “Hate America” rallies.
Midflight, Trump’s character dumps fecal matter onto the gathering.
The same day, he shared another AI video that showed him adorning himself with a crown, ​royal cape and sword as congressional Democrats knelt before him.

Revolutionaries from 13 British North American colonies ​fought an eight-year war for independence, waged against Charles’ fourth great-grandfather George III, beginning in 1775. The United States declared ‌independence ⁠from Great Britain in 1776, citing the crown for “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
“One interesting difference between America and the UK is the people are the sovereign. We don’t have one person that’s sovereign,” Representative Joe Morelle, ​a New York Democrat, ​told Reuters. “I don’t think ⁠the president, respectfully, understands that difference.”
Spokespeople from the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump is hosting Charles and Queen Camilla ​for a formal state dinner Tuesday evening.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-greets-charles-white-house-calls-them-two-kings-2026-04-29/

Two months into a war with the U.S. and Israel, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power — an abrupt break with the past that may be hardening Tehran’s stance as it weighs renewed talks with ​Washington.
Since its creation in 1979, the Islamic Republic has revolved around a supreme leader with final authority on all key matters of state. But the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, and the ‌elevation of his wounded son, Mojtaba, have ushered in a different order dominated by commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and marked by the absence of a decisive, authoritative referee.

Mojtaba Khamenei remains at the apex of the system, but three people familiar with internal deliberations say his role is largely to legitimize decisions made by his generals rather than issue directives himself.
Wartime pressure has concentrated power into a narrower, harder-line inner circle rooted in the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the Supreme Leader’s office and the IRGC, which now dominates both military strategy and key political decisions, Iranian officials and analysts say.
“The Iranians are painfully slow in their response,” said a ​senior Pakistani government official briefed on peace talks between Iran and the United States that Islamabad has been mediating. “There is apparently no one decision-making command structure. At times, it takes them 2 to 3 days to respond.”

Analysts said the obstacle to a deal is ​not internal infighting in Tehran, but the gap between what Washington is prepared to offer and what Iran’s hardline Guards were willing to accept.
The diplomatic face of Iran at the talks with the U.S. has ⁠been Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, more recently joined by parliament speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf — a former Guards commander, Tehran mayor and presidential candidate — who has emerged during the war as a key conduit between Iran’s political, security and clerical elites.
On the ground, however, the central interlocutor has been IRGC ​commander Ahmad Vahidi, according to a Pakistani and two Iranian sources who identified him weeks ago as Iran’s pivotal figure, including on the night a ceasefire was announced.
Mojtaba, who was severely injured in the opening Israeli and U.S. strike that killed his father and other relatives and ​left him disfigured with serious leg wounds, has not appeared publicly and communicates through IRGC aides or limited audio links because of security constraints, two people close to his inner circle said.

There was no immediate reply from the Iranian foreign ministry to a request for comment on the issues raised in this article. Iranian officials have previously denied any divisions over negotiations with the United States.

REAL POWER WIELDED BY WARTIME LEADERSHIP, INSIDERS SAY

Iran submitted a new proposal to Washington on Monday, which according to senior Iranian sources envisions staged talks, with the nuclear issue to be set aside at the start until the war ends and disputes over Gulf shipping are ​resolved. Washington insists the nuclear issue must be addressed from the outset.
“Neither side wants to negotiate,” said Alan Eyre, an Iran expert and former U.S. diplomat, adding that both believed time would weaken the other — Iran through leverage over Hormuz and Washington through economic pressure and a ​blockade.
For now, neither side can afford to bend, Eyre said: Iran’s IRGC is wary of appearing weak to Washington, while President Donald Trump faces midterm election pressure and little room for flexibility without political cost.

“For either, flexibility would be seen as weakness,” Eyre said.
That caution reflects not just the pressures of ‌the moment, but ⁠the way power is now exercised inside Iran.While Mojtaba is formally Iran’s ultimate authority, he is a figure of assent rather than command, insiders say, endorsing outcomes forged through institutional consensus, rather than imposing authority. Real power, they say, has moved to a unified wartime leadership centered on the SNSC.
“Important deals probably pass through him,” Iranian analyst Arash Azizi said, “but I can’t see him overruling the National Security Council. How could he go against those running the war effort?”
Hardline figures such as former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and a cluster of radical MPs have raised their profile using forceful rhetoric during the war, but they lack the institutional clout to derail decisions or shape outcomes.
Mojtaba owes his elevation to the Guards, who sidelined pragmatists and backed him as a reliable guardian of their hardline agenda. Already strengthened by war, the Guards’ growing dominance signals a ​more aggressive foreign policy and tighter domestic repression, sources familiar with ​the country’s inner policy-making circles told Reuters.
Driven by revolutionary Islamism ⁠and a security‑first worldview, the Guards see their mission as preserving the Islamic Republic at home while projecting deterrence abroad.
That outlook, often shared with hardliners across the judiciary and the clerical establishment, prioritises rigid centralised control and resistance to Western pressure, particularly on nuclear policy and Iran’s regional reach.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/irans-guards-seize-wartime-power-blunting-supreme-leaders-role-2026-04-28/

A German tourist has died after a snake crawled into his trousers and bit him as he watched a show in Egypt on a family holiday, German police said on Monday (Apr 27).

The 57-year-old man was watching the snake-charming show at a hotel in Hurghada, a popular beach holiday destination on the Red Sea, in early April.

The two reptiles involved, thought to be cobras, were draped over the necks of audience members, police in southern Bavaria state said.

“The ‘snake charmer’ then let one of the snakes crawl into the trousers” of the German man and it bit him in the leg, they said in a statement.

The victim showed “clear signs of poisoning” and had to be resuscitated before being taken to hospital, but he later died, it said.

The man – who was not named in the statement – came from the Unterallgaeu district in Bavaria and was on holiday with two relatives.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/egypt-snake-bite-german-tourist-dies-6085181

SHOCK claims of men being raped and women being strangled to death in violent sex games at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro ranch have been revealed in a bombshell doc.

Attention is shifting to the billionaire paedophile’s “baby-making” ranch in New Mexico after several survivors and witnesses made chilling claims.

The claims include industrial scale depravity, cold-blooded murder and even a “human farm” where his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell snatched newborn babies from their mother’s arms.

In a series of harrowing interviews on Australia’s 60 Minutes, they paint a picture of a desert fortress where even men were subjected to vile sex attacks—while the FBI allegedly sat on tips about bodies buried in the dirt.

The revelations coincide with King Charles’s official visit to meet Donald Trump in the US as part of a high-stakes mission to save the special relationship between the UK and US.

The family of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s has renewed calls for the King to meet survivors, saying they will be lobbying near Charles’s locations requesting a 10-minute meeting.

On the explosive new doc, survivor Chauntae Davies – who was trafficked by Epstein across his properties in Caribbean island, New York, Paris and St Tropez – says Zorro was the most terrifying of all.

She said: “The scariest was Zorro Ranch. It’s in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by mountains and miles and miles of dirt.

“There was a lot of time being in my room like a mouse in a trap waiting for a knock on the door and for someone to say, ‘Jeffrey is ready for his massage now’.”

When asked what was meant by that order, Davies replied: “Rape, full on, forced on sexual rape.”

One claim that has never been made is that of multiple men being drugged and raped at the ranch.

Democrat congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, who is now leading the charge to get justice for the survivors, tells the doc: “A man actually claims that he met Jeffrey Epstein was brought to the ranch he was drugged and he describes in detail a scene in which multiple young men were raped at the ranch in front of him after he was drugged.”

When asked: “You hear about Jeffrey Epstein’s penchant for minors and for young women but not men? We haven’t heard that before?”

She replied: “Yes, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were serial abusers they really were super predators and it was just how they lived their lives.”

But the depravity went even deeper with the two most explosive claims coming from a leaked email written by a staffer, alleging two women died at the ranch.

The tip-off, sent to the FBI in 2019 but ignored for years, claimed the pair were strangled by Epstein and Maxwell during “rough sex.”

The email read: “Did you know somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G? Both died by strangulation during rough fetish sex.”

Stansbury said: “I was so alarmed by the tip that I immediately contacted the New Mexico Attorney General… The way that tip was reported followed the pattern of how other women were trafficked.”

She added: “That particular tip … matched the pattern of other abuse and transport and trafficking of women. And that’s why it raised alarm bells for me.

“There’s certainly hundreds of allegations of women who experienced really dark experiences. So I think we’re really dedicated to getting to the bottom of the truth of what happened in New Mexico and on that property.”

“They have now conducted a full investigation physically into the property including imaging all 7,500 acres of the property, they are also doing a technical analysis of the imaging data to see if it reveals anything and one of the things that was quite odd is that there were still handwritten letters, documents, and books, still at the property.”

She vowed to turn the “Epstein files into Epstein trials.”

The documentary also exposes Epstein’s twisted obsession with a “perfect gene pool.”

Davies recalls terrifying accounts of girls waking up in dark rooms with doctors standing over them, unsure what medical procedures had been performed without their consent.

She added: “There is another account of a baby actually being born and Ghislaine taking it. I remember overhearing conversations about creating the perfect baby from the perfect gene pool.”

Another email from the Epstein Files, suggests that Epstein was prepared to invest in a human cloning and designer baby project as long as he was anonymous.

State Rep Andrew Romero, who has formed a truth commission, described the claims of harvesting organs and forced pregnancies as “the stuff of a horror film.”

The most damning evidence points to a massive cover-up at the highest levels.

Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas says he was ordered to “stand down” by the Feds in 2019.

It wasn’t until reading files this year that he realised the FBI sat on murder tips while claiming they had no “probable cause” to search the ranch.

He said: “For the life of me, I can’t understand why you would leave New Mexico out.”

The doc comes after New Mexico lawmakers launched a probe into chilling claims victims were trafficked, abused and secretly buried on the desert estate.

The so-called “truth commission” has been assigned $2.5million to uncover who knew what – and who may have taken part – in alleged abuse at the property.

Previously, The Sun revealed how a former police officer told the FBI that Epstein built a “suspicious” barn feared to be concealing an incinerator at his secluded ranch.

The investigation push intensified after the US Department of Justice released more than three million documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Davies, who was recruited by Maxwell, is deeply haunted by Zorro, where, she said, no matter how loud you screamed, no one could hear you.

“Zorro Ranch was probably the most eerie, just giant and quiet, and literally in the middle of nowhere, and miles and miles of just mountains and dirt for miles,” she told 60 Minutes.

“There was a lot of time spent in my room at Zorro, feeling very much like a mouse trapped in its cage.”

However, Davies isn’t holding her breath for justice, saying: “Whoever it is that is covering up… has gone to great lengths to make sure it stays covered up.”

“I don’t think there will ever be a full disclosure of it all.”

It comes as King Charles is not expected to meet with victims of Epstein during his state visit to the US this week.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16280555/men-gang-raped-epsteins-zorro-ranch-bombshell-doc/

Manus claimed to revolutionize agentic AI. Now Chinese authorities are forcing Meta to unwind its purchase of the company in what analysts believe could set a new precedent.

China blocked US tech giant Meta from acquiring the AI firm Manus on Monday.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a one-line statement that it would “prohibit foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations, and requires the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition transaction.”

The announcement will force Meta to unwind its purchase of Manus, which was believed to cost upwards of $2 billion (€1.7 billion).

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among others, said in a statement that its purchase of Manus had “complied fully with applicable law.”

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the California-based company added.

What is Manus?

Manus made headlines last year after announcing what it called the world’s first general AI agent — capable of various tasks like coding, conducting market research and preparing budgets.

Manus does not build its own AI model. Instead, its agent framework operates on top of existing Western large language models.

The company shut its Chinese offices in July last year and relocated its operations to Singapore, where its parent company was re-incorporated.

This move allowed Manus to circumvent US restrictions on investing in Chinese AI firms as well as Chinese rules that limited AI startups’ ability to transfer IP and capital abroad.

Meta announced in December that it would acquire Manus and said at the time that there would be “no continuing Chinese ownership.”

China-US AI rivalry heats up

China has been racing in its attempt to surpass American AI innovation as a matter of both economic strength and national security, at times with some success such as when the launch of its indigenous DeepSeek model caused US stocks like Meta, Nvidia and Microsoft to plummet before recovering some of the losses.

Meta’s decision last year to acquire Manus was a rare case of a US tech giant buying an AI firm with strong links to China.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/manus-meta-china-blocks-purchase/a-76957480

Russia’s Vladimir Putin told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi that Iranians would navigate the “difficult period” of war and he hoped for peace soon. Araghchi is visiting Russia at a time when talks with the US remain on hold.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, with the Russian president telling the Iranian diplomat that he hoped for peace soon.

Moscow, an ally of Iran, has so far resisted being drawn into the Middle East conflict as it continues with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But Putin on Monday offered support to Iran, saying that he was hoping for peace soon and that Iran would navigate this “difficult period” of war, according to Russia’s state news agency.

“For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests, the interests of all the people of the region, so that peace can be achieved as soon as possible,” the RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying during his meeting with Araghchi.

Araghchi landed in Russia on Monday following trips to mediators Pakistan and Oman to discuss the Middle East conflict, as peace efforts between Tehran and Washington remain on hold.

What to know about negotiations to end the Iran war

Iran is said to have offered the US a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, the Associated Press and Axios reported. Axios said Tehran wanted nuclear negotiations postponed to a later stage.

US President Donald Trump appeared to have acknowledged the proposal, with a White House spokesperson telling Bloomberg News on Saturday that the “US holds the cards” in negotiations.

Iran’s Fars news agency said that efforts are still ongoing to create conditions for a second round of US-Iran talks, saying that Tehran had sent “written messages” to Washington via mediator Pakistan.

The White House said Trump’s national security team discussed an Iranian proposal on Monday.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the president or his national security team,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.

“What I will reiterate is that the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.”

US to blame for talks failure: Araghchi

According to the AFP news agency, which cited Iranian state media, upon arrival in Moscow, Araghchi said the US was responsible for the failure of the first round of negotiations in Pakistan in mid-April.

“The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands,” Araghchi was quoted as saying.

He also said that “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is an important global issue.”

The strait’s effective closure amid the conflict has led to massive disruptions in the global oil and gas supply.

Iran pushing regional diplomacy

Araghchi’s trips come against the background of the stalled negotiations with the US, as both sides have rejected several of each other’s demands.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, saying talks there would amount to “sitting around talking about nothing.”

Araghchi met in Pakistan with the country’s military chief, Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday.

He then traveled to Oman before returning to Islamabad once more and then setting off for Russia to meet Putin.

Araghchi said on X that his talks in Oman had focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between Oman and Iran.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/putin-pledges-support-for-iran-in-talks-with-fm-araghchi/a-76947020

Two giants in the AI sector are set for a courtroom battle: Elon Musk (xAI) is taking on Sam Altmann (OpenAI). Musk has accused Altmann of betraying OpenAI’s originally nonprofit mission.

Jury selection began on Monday for a high-profile trial pitting the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, against a company he once backed and that is now a major rival in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, OpenAI.

Musk has accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of deceiving him into investing millions in the company by claiming it was a nonprofit startup whose technology would benefit the whole world.

The trial, which is taking place across the bay from San Francisco, is ostensibly about how AI should be used. Many fear the breakthrough technology could be a job killer and an existential threat to humanity’s survival.

Some observers, however, also see the case as a personal feud fueled by rivalry, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT a top competitor of the chatbot Grok, made by Musk’s xAI lab and launched in 2023.

Prospective jurors asked about Musk, Altman

Prospective jurors were asked for their thoughts of both Musk and Altman, and whether they could put aside any bias while considering evidence at trial.

One Oakland city employee referred to Musk as “a jerk.”

Another prospective juror, a retiree, said: “Elon doesn’t care about people, much like our president.”

On the other hand, several people said that while Altman’s name sounded familiar, they did not have such strong opinions about him.

What is at issue in the Musk-Altman trial?

Musk has filed a complaint claiming that Altman convinced him to back OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit lab whose technology “would belong to the world.”

After pouring millions of dollars into the startup, Musk later left, while OpenAI went on to create a commercial subsidiary to generate the funds needed for data centers to power its technology.

In his lawsuit, Musk argues that Altman deceived him into believing OpenAI’s mission was altruistic.

He has called for OpenAI to be compelled to return to its nonprofit character and has demanded that Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman be ousted.

Musk, who initially sought as much as $134 billion (€114 billion) in damages, has since pledged to redirect any compensation he receives to the OpenAI nonprofit.

OpenAI currently has a hybrid governance structure that gives its nonprofit foundation control over a for-profit arm.

The company, which has been backed by Microsoft to the tune of billions, is now worth some $852 billion.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/musk-vs-openai-trial-gets-underway/a-76948411

A Nevada judge sentenced “Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse on Monday to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.

A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women.

Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.

“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”

The Associated Press typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Leone-LaCroix has.

Chasing Horse, wearing his navy blue Clark County Detention Center uniform, stared straight ahead as victims read their statements and remained quiet as he was escorted out of the courtroom. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving for 37 years, and has continued to deny the charges against him.

“This is a miscarriage of justice,” he told the judge on Monday.

Peterson said she was struck by his continued denial of the charges despite the evidence shown in trial.

“You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification,” she said before she announced his sentence. When the hearing adjourned, more than a dozen people in the courtroom clapped.

Other charges in Canada are still pending

The sentencing wraps a yearslong effort to prosecute the former actor after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023. That initial arrest reverberated around Indian Country, with law enforcement in other states and Canada following up with more criminal charges. Those charges are still pending.

The British Columbia Prosecution Service said Chasing Horse was charged with sexual assault in February 2023, though the date of the alleged offense took place in September 2018 near Keremeos, a village about four hours east of Vancouver. In November 2023, the case paused due to Chasing Horse’s charges in the United States, but resumed the following year.

After all of Chasing Horse’s appeals have been exhausted, British Columbia prosecutors will assess next steps, Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the British Columbia Prosecution Service, said in an email.

A warrant against Chasing Horse remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta said in a statement following Chasing Horse’s conviction in January. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said that it is in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecutors Office regarding the warrant.

January trial focused on his role as spiritual leader

Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation. Following his appearance as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film “Dances With Wolves,” Chasing Horse traveled across Indian Country to attend powwows and perform healing ceremonies.

During his trial, Nevada prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls.

Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told the jury that for almost 20 years, Chasing Horse “spun a web of abuse” that ensnared many women.

Jurors heard from three women who said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them. The jury returned guilty verdicts on some charges. He was acquitted on others.

Needing medical help

Multiple victims described how they participated in his ceremonies or went to Chasing Horse for medical help.

Chasing Horse allegedly told Leone-LaCroix when she was 14 that the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, according to Pucci. The sexual assaults continued for years, Pucci said.

Chasing Horse denied the allegations and his attorney questioned the main accuser’s credibility, calling her a “scorned woman.” His attorney had filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that a witness was not qualified to talk about grooming and that the statute of limitations had expired. That motion was denied.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/nathan-chasing-horse-nevada-trial-prison-sentence-bf864d7a775d24f22a49d48a067f37cc

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview Monday. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.

Renewed demands to end blockade

Frustration among many nations is mounting, with renewed demands Monday to end the blockade that has had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, including raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.

The Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

The two officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. Iran’s proposal was first reported by the Axios news outlet.

The offer emerged as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

Iran’s ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began, and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Gulf, unable to safely pass through the strait to reach global distribution points.

On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, closed above $108 per barrel, about 50% higher than when the war began.

Dozens of nations push for reopening of strait

Dozens of nations repeated calls to open the critical waterway in a joint statement led by Bahrain.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Monday that the humanitarian toll is mounting.

“These pressures are cascading into empty fuel tanks, empty shelves — and empty plates,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. for going into the war with what he said was no strategy. “The problem with conflicts like these is always the same: It’s not just about getting in. You also have to get out,” Merz said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot blasted all sides. He said the crisis began after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran without clear goals “in a manner that flouts international law.”

But he said Iran is responsible for closing the passageway. “Straits are the arteries of the world. They are not the property of any individual,” he said.

Top Iranian diplomat meets Putin in Russia

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the U.S. and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russian state news agency Tass said. Putin praised the Iranian people as “bravely and heroically fighting for their sovereignty,” and he said Russia would do everything possible to bring peace to the Middle East, Tass reported.

Araghchi told a Russian state TV reporter that the U.S. and its leaders “have achieved none of their goals” in the war. “That’s why they ask for negotiation,” he said. “We are now considering it.”

The meeting came as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the U.S., and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.

Iran wants to persuade Oman, which shares the strait with Iran, to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Oman’s response was not immediately clear.

The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the U.S. blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/us-iran-war-hormuz-april-27-2026-374d81d1aac6d8f19c21e1d1e10ab103

A spate of attacks against civilians and military bases in Colombia’s southwestern region has raised security concerns as the country heads to a May presidential election in which crime is expected to be one of the top voter concerns.

Rebel groups have staged 26 attacks with explosives and drones since Friday, including a deadly blast Saturday on a highway between the cities of Cali and Popayan, according to Colombia’s defense ministry. The death toll in that explosion rose to 21 people on Monday.

Violence in the region is nothing new. Illegal groups have sought to control the area for decades, deeming it strategic for illicit activities, such as illegal mining and drug trafficking, including the cultivation of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.

Authorities blamed a group known as the FARC-EMC for the lethal explosion, near a tunnel on the Pan-American Highway. The group is led by Nestor Vera — commonly known as Iván Mordisco — a former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, who refused to join a 2016 peace deal with the nation’s government.

Sergio Guzmán, a political risk analyst in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, said that Mordisco’s group could be trying to demonstrate that it has the capabilities to do serious damage, and is seeking to “establish its credibility” with Colombia’s next government as it positions itself for future negotiations.

“Part of what they are doing is establishing leverage towards the future,” Guzmán said.

Under President Gustavo Petro, a former member of a guerrilla group, the Colombian government has attempted to stage peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups through a strategy known as ” total peace.”

The government has offered ceasefires to various groups in an effort to promote peace negotiations, but analysts say the strategy has failed, because these groups used the ceasefires to regroup, rearm and strengthen their grip over communities.

Groups like the FARC-EMC have been known to tax residents in areas under their control, and also forcibly recruit youth into their ranks.

“The government’s peace policy has been naïve,” said Javier Garay, a political science professor at Colombia’s Externado University. “They thought that if they had a condescending attitude towards these groups they would receive a positive response.”

In late 2023, the FARC-EMC entered peace talks with the Colombian government. But a faction led by Mordisco abandoned the talks in April 2024, and has been fighting the Colombian government since then.

Elizabeth Dickinson, a Colombia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that Mordisco’s group is particularly strong in the provinces of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, where it’s fighting for control of drug trafficking routes and illegal gold mines.

For the past two years, Mordisco’s group has also used drone attacks and car bombs, to respond to an offensive from the Colombian military in the Micay Canyon, a remote area covered with coca fields that is under the FARC-EMC’s grip.

Dickinson said that the latest attacks in southwest Colombia are one way for the group to show that it can sustain its “asymmetrical war” against the government.

Colombia’s defense minister on Sunday said that kidnappings and lockdowns enforced by rebel groups on communities had decreased in Cauca over the past year because of the government’s actions.

In a nationally televised address Monday night, Petro said his government has fought drug trafficking and slowed down the cultivation of coca crops in Colombia, where he said 258,000 hectares (638,000 acres) were planted with coca in late 2025.

But the government’s total peace strategy has come under fire from the opposition, whose candidates are hoping to benefit from the nation’s security woes, as they promise to take a tougher stance on crime.

Petro is barred by Colombia’s constitution from running for another term. But his party’s candidate, Iván Cepeda, has promised to continue peace talks with rebel groups.

Cepeda said on X that he rejected the recent attacks in southwest Colombia, and urged authorities to investigate whether they were part of an effort to interfere with the election.

The request was echoed Monday night by Petro, who asked security forces in Colombia to investigate whether the explosives used in Saturday’s attacks came from Ecuador, whose conservative government recently started a trade war with Colombia over security issues along their border.

“They want to sabotage our elections so that the extreme right wins,” Petro said without specifying who might be trying to undermine the May election. “They are scared,” he said in his televised address.

Voters in Colombia will head to the polls on May 31 to choose from 14 different presidential candidates, including Cepeda, and conservatives Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/colombia-attacks-farc-emc-election-7ac52e6856ee13bbed22575a89383d56

President Trump and Melania Trump welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla with handshakes and a kiss on the cheek, a warm start to a visit designed to settle diplomatic tensions between the transatlantic allies.

The two couples exchanged handshakes upon the royal arrival — while Melania Trump kissed the queen’s cheek before bowing to King Charles.

With the charm offensive in full force, the foursome adjourned to the Green Room in the White House for a traditional English afternoon tea — complete with tiny sandwiches, mini-cakes and loose-leaf tea poured through a strainer.

The Trumps also showed off Melania’s new beehive and the president was seen pointing to the construction on his ballroom.

After departing the White House, the King and Queen attended a massive garden party at the British ambassador’s residence.

Charles and Camilla – drinks in hand – were spotted rubbing elbows with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chiefs of staff Stephen Miller and James Blair and CNN host Kaitlin Collins.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), also mingled with the royals and both said they will be well-received by congressional lawmakers on Tuesday.

The royal couple is embarking on a four-day state visit to America, the highlights of which include the king’s address to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday followed by a White House state dinner.

Charles and Camilla are also due to visit the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan Wednesday.

But the 77-year-old monarch is under pressure to do some building of his own — rebuilding bridges between the two countries as part of his mission to smooth over relations between Trump and the British government.

The president has been vocal in his criticism of beleaguered British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of not doing enough to help with the Iran war and slamming him for not allowing oil drilling in the North Sea.

Starmer has been on his own charm offensive, calling Trump on Sunday after Saturday night’s shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“He expressed his relief that the President and First Lady were safe and wished a speedy recovery to the officer injured,” 10 Downing Street said in a readout of the PM’s conversation.

But the king is the biggest weapon in London’s charm offensive.

Trump is an avowed royalist. The king and queen’s visit — in honor of the 250th anniversary of American independence from England — is the first state visit of Trump’s second term.

The visit was off to a smooth start with the landing at Joint Base Andrews, where children from British military families based in the US offered posies to the royals. A US military honor guard lined the red carpet. The band played both “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Queen Camilla donned a new outfit for the occasion – a pink Dior coat dress – and a piece of jewelry with strong ties to New York.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/27/us-news/king-charles-iii-queen-camilla-land-in-america-for-state-visit-with-trump/

President Trump called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after the comedian referred to Melania Trump as “an expectant widow” two days before Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social, echoing a call made by the first lady earlier in the day.

“Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking. He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be,” the president noted.

One of Washington, DC’s social events of the year, the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner received outsize attention due to the president and first lady attending for the first time since they entered the White House.

Kimmel mocked the event on his show Thursday night, giving his own speech in which he said: “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Melania Trump savagely criticized the late-night host earlier Monday, calling him a “coward” who “hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”

“Enough is enough,” the first lady added on X. “It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?”

The Trump administration launched an all-out assault on Kimmel and also went after Democratic lawmakers who were critical of the president, saying their rhetoric led to incidents like the one that took place Saturday night.

“Who, in their right mind, says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday. “And having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but.”

Leavitt, who is nine months pregnant, was seated at the head table at Saturday night’s dinner, next to the first lady.

Both women had to crawl off stage as security escorted them — and the president — to safety.

Kimmel is facing severe backlash after Saturday’s attack on the gala dinner, in which a Secret Service agent suffered minor injuries after a gunman charged a checkpoint in a bid to kill President Trump and others in his administration.

Cole Allen, 31, was detained by authorities and was arraigned on multiple federal charges Monday afternoon in the DC federal court.

Monday marked the second time Trump has called for the comedian’s firing. The first was in September 2025, when Kimmel was taken off the air for a week following backlash from affiliates in the wake of his comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.

The week-long suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” prompted widespread boycotts of Disney, with liberals accusing it of violating the First Amendment.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/27/us-news/donald-trump-joins-wife-melania-in-calling-on-abc-to-fire-jimmy-kimmel/

All Claire’s standalone stores in the UK and Ireland have stopped trading after the accessories chain’s financial woes saw it fall into administration twice in a year.

Administrators Kroll said 154 stores have shut and more than 1,300 staff have been “notified of redundancy”, though its 350 concessions will remain open.

Known for its colourful shop fronts and racks of jewellery, bracelets and its ear piercing services, the brand’s bright purple branding was a familiar sight for millions of teens during a Saturday shop.

But it suffered in the face of competition from cheaper, online brands such as Shein and Temu.

Changing consumer tastes also spelled the death knell for the retailer, which has struggled like many High Street firms.

Kroll said: “As of 27 April, all Claire’s standalone stores in UK and Ireland have ceased trading. All store employees have been advised of redundancy.”

Claire’s owners Modella Capital said in January that part of the reason it had to put Claire’s into administration was “alarming” low Christmas trading that left it in a “vulnerable” position.

It also blamed the climate on the High Street, which it said “remains extremely challenging”, adding that government policy had caused a tough trading environment by raising staffing costs such as National Insurance Contributions.

‘Juvenile’

But Claire’s problems are more long-term, fashion expert Priya Raj told the BBC.

“We’ve moved away from novelty, colourful jewellery for the most part, which is what Claire’s are best known for.

“If we think about teens today, they’re looking at social media for influence on what to buy, rather than their local High Street or shopping centre.

“So naturally their tastes are evolving into what’s mainstream right now – minimal jewellery, sometimes chunky, sometimes with a more curated look – basically not the cutesy, juvenile look that Claire’s is known for.”

Claire’s was not only facing competition from online – other bricks-and-mortar competitors ate into its space too.

Primark and Superdrug compete heavily with Claire’s value offering, says retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth.

Plus, she added, young people had more places to spend their money, including spending on desserts, coffee, matcha and bubble tea.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4047qnpk2o

Warning: this piece contains descriptions of alleged child abuse.

For years, Noorman had entrusted his two young children to Little Aresha, a daycare centre near his home in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta which advertises its well-equipped facilities and variety of play activities.

So it came as a shock last Friday when the civil servant got a frantic phone call from a friend. Police were raiding the daycare centre, his friend said, go pick up your children right now.

“We were then shown a video of the raid, showing the children with their hands and feet tied up, with no clothes and only wearing diapers,” Noorman told BBC Indonesian.

The raid lifted the lid on an alleged culture of abuse within the walls of the centre, which authorities say have involved dozens of children under its care, in a case that has gripped the nation.

The Yogyakarta police have accused 13 people – including the centre’s principal, the head of the Little Aresha Foundation and its caregivers – of multiple child protection offences.

The investigation has also prompted further scrutiny of the country’s childcare centres, many of which authorities say are not properly licensed.

A California man, Cole Tomas Allen, has been charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after opening fire at a high-profile Washington dinner.

A California man accused of launching a brazen armed attack at a high-profile Washington gala attended by US President Donald Trump has been formally charged with attempting to assassinate the President, according to multiple media reports.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, appeared in a federal court in Washington on Monday, where prosecutors outlined charges stemming from the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

According to Reuters, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine told the court, “He attempted to assassinate the President of the United States, Donald J Trump.”

Allen faces a potential life sentence if convicted on the primary charge.

In addition, he has been charged with firearms-related offences, including transporting weapons across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

DRAMATIC INCIDENT AT HIGH-PROFILE DINNER

The attack unfolded on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton hotel, where hundreds of journalists, officials and guests had gathered.

As per Associated Press (AP), the suspect attempted to breach a security barricade near the ballroom, triggering an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service personnel.

The situation caused panic inside the venue, with attendees taking cover under tables while security rushed Trump off the stage.

The President was unharmed.

Authorities said Allen was armed with multiple weapons, including a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a semi-automatic handgun.

Reuters reported he also carried three knives at the time of the incident.

SECURITY RESPONSE AND INJURIES

A Secret Service officer was struck in the chest during the exchange but survived due to a ballistic vest.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “Violence has no place in civil life. It cannot continue to be used against the president of the United States.”

Investigators are still determining key details, including whether the suspect fired the shot that hit the officer or if it resulted from crossfire.

Ballistics analysis is ongoing.

Allen himself was subdued at the scene and later taken into custody.

A magistrate judge ordered that he remain detained pending further hearings later this week.

PLANNING AND TRAVEL DETAILS EMERGE

Court documents indicate the attack may have been premeditated.

Allen allegedly booked a room at the event hotel weeks in advance, on April 6, and travelled from California to Washington by train in the days leading up to the dinner.

Investigators believe this level of planning suggests the attack was not spontaneous but carefully orchestrated.

EMAIL REVEALS ALLEGED MOTIVE

Authorities say an email sent by Allen shortly before the attack provides insight into his intent.

According to the affidavit, he referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and expressed grievances related to the Trump administration.

Reuters reported that Allen wrote, “On to why I did any of this. I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me.”

Prosecutors allege he also outlined intentions to target senior administration officials, suggesting a broader threat beyond the President.

COURT PROCEEDINGS AND DEFENCE RESPONSE

The ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan is jeopardised following claims by Taliban officials that Pakistani artillery struck civilian areas, including a university, in Kunar, resulting in four deaths and numerous injuries. Pakistan has disputed these allegations.

The fragile ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan is at risk after Taliban officials on Monday claimed that mortars and missiles fired by Islamabad struck a civilian area, including a university in the Kunar district on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring several others. However, Pakistan denied the claims.

Notably, these alleged strikes were the first incident of cross-border strikes since Chinese-mediated peace talks between the two neighbouring countries. As per Taliban officials, the Pakistan strikes targeted homes and the Syed Jamaluddin Afghani University in Kunar’s Asadabad area.

Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, claimed that around 70 people were injured in the strikes, including around 30 students and several children. “Today, April 27, 2026, the military regime of Pakistan once again conducted artillery shelling using mortars and rockets against multiple areas of Asadabad, the provincial capital of Kunar, as well as parts of Manogai District,” Fitrat said in his X post, along with sharing the pictures of the injured.

“In these attacks, which commenced at 2:00 PM, civilian residences, including Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University, were deliberately targeted; as a result, 70 civilians, among them women and children, were injured, including 30 students, while four individuals were martyred,” he added.

Notably, Pakistan and Afghanistan had been involved in months of deadly clashes that killed hundreds of people since February this year.

In March this year, both countries announced a temporary ceasefire in hostilities in the view of Eid al-Fitr. Kabul and Islamabad indicated that the pause was requested by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, aiming to provide a respite from ongoing conflict, reported The Associated Press.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/asia/pakistan-afghanistan-ceasefire-at-risk-taliban-alleges-islamabad-hit-civilian-areas-4-dead-article-154185035

Asked if Iran is serious about making a deal, Rubio mentioned the internal turmoil the country is facing as the reason for them want to get out of “the mess they’re in”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran has used the Strait of Hormuz as an “economic nuclear weapon” against the world, ruling out any deal that excludes Tehran’s nuclear program.

Rubio told Fox News, “They’re putting up billboards in Tehran bragging about how they can hold 25 per cent of the world’s energy hostage. Imagine if those same people had access to a nuclear weapon.” He detailed why any agreement with Iran has to include clauses that prevent them from “sprinting towards a nuclear weapon”. “We wouldn’t be able to do anything about Hezballah, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about Hamas, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about the Shia militias in Iraq, Because they’d be sitting there with a nuclear weapon saying we are untouchable,” he added.

Rubio said Iran is not just a radical country run by radical people, but a player that seeks to export their revolution, alleging Tehran’s ties with the Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Iraq militias. “They don’t just seek to dominate Iran, they seek to dominate the region. And imagine that with a nuclear weapon,” he said.

An impediment in reaching a deal with Iran, he said, is that those with ultimate power in the country have an “apocalyptic vision of the future”. “You have a supreme leader whose credibility is still untested, whose access is questionable, who has not been seen visibly publicly, has not spoken, we have not heard his voice,” he said, referring to Mojtaba Khamenei.

Asked if Iran is serious about making a deal, Rubio mentioned the internal turmoil the country is facing as the reason for them want to get out of “the mess they’re in”. “I think they’re serious about figuring out how can they buy themselves more time. They’re very experienced negotiators,” he said. In case a deal is not reached, US President Donald Trump will decide further course of action, he said, adding that, “I hope that in the aftermath of this conflict the whole world’s eyes have been opened to the threat Iran poses. Again, they want to do with the world with a nuclear weapon what they are doing now with oil. They want to hold the world hostage so they can do whatever they want.”

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-war-economic-nuclear-weapon-marco-rubios-strait-of-hormuz-charge-against-tehran-11418366?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

In January, the Franklin County Board of Elections in Ohio received a surprising call.
The man on the line said he was an agent at the Department of Homeland Security – and he needed immediate access to voter records. Franklin County has a large population of Democrats and has long been a focal point of Republican skepticism about urban voting centers in Ohio.
In the weeks that followed, the requests multiplied. According to emails reviewed by Reuters, the agent asked for voter registration forms and voting histories for dozens of voters – records that include driver’s license numbers and other confidential data. He pressed for information about local voter‑registration groups, describing the request as an “investigation” and “very time sensitive.” But he offered no explanation for what prompted his probe or where it was headed.

The requests were a bolt from the blue for Franklin County election officials. Under the U.S. Constitution, elections – even for national offices such as the presidency – are run by states, not the federal government. Adding to the confusion, DHS’s mission has traditionally focused largely on counterterrorism, border security and immigration enforcement.
“We’d never received a call from Homeland Security before, so that was unusual,” said Antone White, the county’s elections director. He said he complied, but still does not know the purpose of the inquiry. DHS declined to comment on the Ohio operation, but said its agents are “actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found.”
The U.S. attorney’s office for southern Ohio declined to comment on whether any federal investigation was underway.
The Ohio episode is part of a larger pattern Reuters found in at least eight states: a wider-than-known federal push into the machinery and conduct of U.S. elections, which since the founding of the republic in 1789 have been run by states and local governments. Trump administration officials and investigators have fanned out across the country, seeking confidential records, pressing for access to voting equipment and re-examining voter-fraud cases that courts and bipartisan reviews have already rejected.

In Ohio, federal investigators have collected voter records in at least six counties, two of them solidly Democratic and the others politically competitive, citing unspecified investigations. The scope of those probes hasn’t been previously reported.
In Nevada, the FBI sought voter information from the secretary of state’s office, a request not previously disclosed, as part of a Justice Department probe into the 2020 election.
In Colorado, a senior Trump administration cybersecurity official approached a county clerk to seek access to voting machines, the clerk said, in another previously unreported incident.
The episodes are prompting local election officials in some states to reassess a federal government long viewed as a partner in election security. In Colorado, at least 63 county clerks are consulting with their statewide association on how to respond to possible federal subpoenas or the arrival of federal agents at polling places, while in South Carolina, officials from more than 40 counties plan to attend an all‑day July workshop focused on similar scenarios, including the presence of armed federal officers at voting sites, officials in those states told Reuters.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has been open about his desire to expand federal authority over elections, calling on his party this year to “take over” and “nationalize” voting in at least 15 places.

It isn’t just bluster. Through executive orders and proposed legislation, his administration has sought to require proof of citizenship to vote, allow federal agencies to compile voter registration lists and mandate use of a Homeland Security database to verify eligibility. The administration has pushed aggressive voter‑roll purges, limits on mail‑in voting and baseless claims about voting machines, while Trump has directed DHS and the Justice Department to intensify investigations of election fraud allegations.
“President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters,” said White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “Noncitizens voting is a crime. Anyone breaking the law will be held accountable.”
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation think tank have for years argued that voter fraud – including voting by non‑citizens and other ineligible voters – poses a serious threat to U.S. elections. Trump and his allies have also pressed false claims that voting machines were rigged against him in the 2020 election.

Courts and election law-scholars have said these claims are unsupported by evidence. But Trump’s relentless cries of cheating have had an effect: A Reuters-Ipsos poll last week found that 63% of Republicans believe the 2020 vote was stolen and that a majority of Americans support voter-ID requirements.
Rather than seek a sweeping federal takeover of elections, the administration appears to be testing constitutional limits one state and one county at a time, Reuters found.
Minnesota’s secretary of state, Democrat Steve Simon, said states now have to prepare for the possibility “that our own federal government will interfere with the election, either directly or indirectly,” whether through federal agents at polling places, emergency executive action or the seizure of election equipment. “It would be irresponsible for me or anyone administering the elections not to game out scenarios, not to think about the possibilities of what federal interference would look like,” said Simon.

Amy Burgans, the Republican clerk and treasurer of Douglas County, Nevada, said that even the prospect of federal enforcement can be unsettling for election officials. “There is an intimidation factor,” she said, citing concerns about personal legal exposure if an inquiry escalates. High‑profile actions, including federal raids and record demands tied to the 2020 election, have heightened that anxiety. “It puts the question in the back of your mind,” she said. “Who’s going to be next?”
Reuters identified at least 20 current and former Trump officials who supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election or promoted broader voter‑fraud claims and have since been involved in the White House’s renewed push to reshape federal elections. Some actions have drawn national attention, including a January raid on election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, aimed at reviving Trump’s bogus claims of fraud there in the 2020 vote. Others have unfolded off the radar, like the collection of voter data in Franklin County, Ohio, a heavily Democratic county that includes Columbus.
Reuters interviewed more than two dozen state and local election administrators, reviewed hundreds of pages of correspondence between election officials and federal authorities through public records requests, and consulted more than a dozen election‑law experts.
Nine administrators – including five Republicans, two Democrats and two independents – said they feared the administration’s actions could open the door to intensified federal scrutiny of election results this November, when control of U.S. Congress is at stake.
That doesn’t mean elections are destined to be overturned, several election experts told Reuters, but attempts at tampering cannot be ruled out. “If the election turns on a few jurisdictions, states or counties where there are disputed races, then we’d be more likely to see attempts at subversion,” said Richard Hasen, an election‑law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

FEDERAL SCRUTINY TESTS OLD ALLIANCES

The push has played out across a range of jurisdictions.
They include battleground states, Democratic counties within otherwise Republican states and areas deeply supportive of Trump. Election‑law experts said the strategy seems to be less about a single “takeover” than finding multiple pressure points – probing voter rolls, seeking access to election machines, searching for evidence of fraud – that could potentially be used to justify stricter rules or contest outcomes if the margin is narrow.
Even in some conservative regions that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, the federal push into election administration has unsettled local officials who once dealt with Washington at arm’s length.
That includes several counties in Colorado, where a lobbyist tied to the Trump administration made a series of calls to Republican election clerks last summer. Three clerks told Reuters that the lobbyist, Jeff Small, raised the possibility of White House partnerships with their offices and discussed access to voting machines. Carly Koppes, the president of the Colorado Clerks Association and a clerk in Weld County, said she spoke with Small and was aware of at least nine other counties he contacted.

Small previously served as a senior adviser to the interior secretary during Trump’s first administration. He later worked as chief of staff to Lauren Boebert, a Republican congresswoman from Colorado and a Trump ally who has promoted the president’s false claims about the 2020 election. Small now works in Washington at a public‑affairs and lobbying firm, where he focuses on energy issues.
One of the people Small called was Steve Schleiker, the Republican clerk and recorder in El Paso County, a reliably conservative region. Schleiker said he was home on a Friday night last summer when Small phoned, identifying himself as acting on behalf of the White House. Small praised the clerk’s handling of elections and asked whether someone from the Department of Homeland Security could follow up with him. Schleiker agreed.
Minutes later, Schleiker received a second call. That caller said Trump was frustrated with the pace of carrying out his election agenda and was seeking local “partners” to help execute it, but did not specify what the agenda entailed, Schleiker said. The caller identified himself, Schleiker added, as a senior official at another arm of Homeland Security: the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is responsible for safeguarding elections and other critical infrastructure. Reuters was unable to confirm the caller’s name.
The caller then asked for access to El Paso County’s voting machines, made by Dominion Voting Systems. Schleiker said he refused, telling him that granting access would violate Colorado law. The call ended abruptly, he said. Dominion has been the target of debunked claims promoted by Trump and some of his allies that its machines were used to rig the 2020 election – allegations repeatedly rejected by courts and election officials.
Reached by Reuters, Small confirmed that he had contacted Schleiker and other Colorado clerks but said the accounts of his and others’ outreach and the others contained inaccuracies, without offering specifics. He said Schleiker’s description of a call from a senior CISA official was “not accurate,” but declined to elaborate. Small didn’t respond to follow-up inquiries.
The White House did not respond to questions about Small. In a statement, DHS declined to say whether a CISA official had called Schleiker but said that Small “does not have any role with DHS and has never been formally authorized to conduct any official business for the department.”

“I WAS INCREDULOUS”

In Ohio, federal agents have sought access to sensitive voter records as the state re-enters the ranks of closely watched midterm battlegrounds.
Recent polling shows the state’s high‑stakes U.S. Senate race statistically tied, with control of the chamber potentially hinging on Ohio and a handful of other contests. Both the Senate race and the contest for governor are highly competitive in Ohio, making turnout and election administration in large counties especially important. After years of trending Republican, Ohio’s shift back toward battleground status has given its election offices outsized national significance.
White, the director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said the federal agent who called his office in mid-January said he was coordinating his investigation with Ohio’s Republican secretary of state. White said he later called the secretary of state’s office to confirm the request and was told it was legitimate. He complied. The secretary of state’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
In Franklin County, the agent collected unredacted registration and voting records for at least 50 voters, including signatures, addresses and partial Social Security numbers, according to email correspondence between DHS and the county. In a March 16 email to White’s office, the agent, who works for the Homeland Security Investigations division at DHS, also sought information about a local voter‑registration group, calling it a “priority” and offering to seek a summons if necessary.
Election-fraud investigations have traditionally been handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department, not Homeland Security. White said his office turned over the records because “DHS is a law enforcement agency,” and his office routinely complies with requests from legal authorities at the state and local level.
In his emails, the DHS agent told White’s staff he had been working with an unidentified prosecutor. The U.S. attorney’s office for southern Ohio said it would neither confirm nor deny any federal voter‑fraud investigation.

White said the agent never explained the basis for the request and has not contacted his office since.
Reuters found that Homeland Security agents have also sought records from at least five other Ohio counties. Among them is Montgomery County – home to Dayton, a solidly Democratic city in a politically competitive region.
In February, three agents visited a vocational high school in Dayton to investigate an uncorroborated claim by a former student that, two years earlier, an organizer of a voter registration drive at the school had improperly advised her how to vote. Reuters couldn’t establish the identity of the organizer.

“I was incredulous,” David Lawrence, the superintendent of Dayton Public Schools, said in an interview. Lawrence said there was no evidence or corroborating claims to support the allegation. “I asked them, ‘Why here, and why now?’” He said the agents told him voter fraud allegations were now being prioritized. “They said, ‘We have agents everywhere. Every time we get these things, we investigate them.’”
The election fraud investigations mark a departure for DHS – particularly its Homeland Security Investigations unit, which previously focused on transnational crimes such as money laundering, human trafficking and terrorism.
“Everything that HSI does is supposed to have some sort of immigration or border nexus,” said A. Scott Brown, who spent more than 20 years in supervisory roles at the agency before retiring in 2023. “What are they pulling resources away from? An investigation of a child being exploited? Fentanyl being smuggled?”
In its statement, DHS defended changes at the agency: “Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.”
Early in his new term, Trump dismantled key election‑security functions at the department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and slashed its budget and staff. For years, CISA had focused on protecting election infrastructure from cyber threats. In 2020, days after CISA publicly rejected Trump’s claim that the election was stolen, Trump fired the agency’s director.
Since Trump returned to power, CISA’s role has shifted markedly. Several local election officials told Reuters they now struggle to obtain security assessments from the agency and instead have hired private contractors to evaluate physical and cyber risks.
At the same time, people who championed bogus claims disputing the 2020 election have moved into positions of influence in DHS and CISA. Among them: Marci McCarthy, who was CISA’s director of public affairs until joining the Pentagon this month. She previously served as chair of the DeKalb County Republican Party in Georgia and was active in party efforts attacking the legitimacy of the 2020 vote.
The administration has also created a new “Election Integrity” office within DHS and appointed Heather Honey, a prominent promoter of debunked election fraud claims, to lead it. A former corporate investigator with no experience in administering elections, Honey took part in Republican‑led efforts to reexamine Arizona’s 2020 results and worked on voter‑eligibility challenges in Pennsylvania. Honey and McCarthy didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The DHS statement said CISA is “serving as the national coordinator for securing and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure” and “delivering timely, actionable cyber threat intelligence” – including “defending against both nation-state and criminal cyber threats.” The people DHS recruited are “focused on keeping our elections safe, secure, and free” while implementing “the president’s policies,” the statement said.

RE-EXAMINING THE 2020 VOTE

Elsewhere, the Trump administration is mounting on‑the‑ground efforts to revisit the 2020 election and scrutinize who is eligible to vote.
On April 14, the Justice Department demanded that Michigan’s Wayne County – a solidly Democratic county in a pivotal state – turn over an array of 2024 election records. State officials declined to comply and said they will file a court challenge, denouncing the demand as baseless.
Last August in election battleground Nevada, the state’s then-acting U.S. attorney, Trump appointee Sigal Chattah, announced a wide-ranging investigation into alleged voter fraud focused on 2020. Months later, the FBI contacted the office of Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar seeking specific voter information related to that election, Aguilar said in an interview. His office told the FBI the requested data did not exist and therefore Nevada could not comply.
Even so, Aguilar said, the probe had a chilling effect, leaving employees worried about potential criminal exposure and straining relations with federal authorities. “People were afraid,” said Aguilar, a Democrat. He said the FBI later closed the investigation without filing charges. The FBI declined to comment.

And in the Republican-led state of Missouri, a senior Justice Department official intervened last September.

Andrew “Mac” Warner, who served in leadership roles in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during the Trump administration, contacted at least two county clerks seeking access to Dominion voting equipment and election records in the Republican‑led state, according to the clerks and the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities.
One clerk no longer had the equipment, and the other refused access.
Warner, who recently left the Justice Department, declined in a call with Reuters to comment on why he contacted the clerks, but he did not dispute their accounts.
More recently, the state’s top election official, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, disclosed in February that his office had shared publicly available voter‑roll data with federal authorities so the names could be screened against citizenship databases. The federal government returned a list of individuals flagged as potential noncitizens, which Hoskins’ office then asked county clerks to review.
But clerks in several of Missouri’s largest counties, including St. Louis and St. Charles, said most individuals flagged by the federal screening were U.S. citizens, many of them naturalized. Smaller counties reported similar conclusions. In Miller County, Clinton Jenkins, the Republican clerk and head of the state clerks association, said none of the people reviewed in his county had voted illegally.
“It looks like if you have too many vowels in your name, you show up on a list,” Jenkins told Reuters, suggesting that some of the names appeared to belong to people of Latino and Hispanic heritage. Hoskins did not respond to requests for comment.
Jenkins said harassment and pressure from people who believe unfounded claims of election fraud – including demands for hand counts and access to voting machines – have taken a toll in Missouri, where Trump has won each of his three bids for the presidency. Since 2024, about 15 election officials in Missouri have resigned over a 14‑month period, citing job stress and mental‑health strain, Jenkins said, calling it “unprecedented.” Before that, he added, typically one or two clerks quit a year before their terms ended. Some have been targeted by statewide efforts by far‑right activists to vet Republican nominees for clerk and other offices and press candidates to pledge to eliminate voting machines.
The administration has now sued 30 states, including nine with Republican leadership, that have refused to turn over voter-roll information. Most of the states are citing state laws protecting the confidentiality of that information – and the states’ constitutional prerogative to manage elections.
West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner, a Republican and longtime Trump supporter who served in Trump’s first administration, said he never expected to be battling his former boss over states’ rights.
“One of the things that I campaigned on was fighting federal overreach,” Warner, who took office last year, told Reuters. “I just didn’t have any idea at the time I was campaigning that it was going to be the Department of Justice demanding our voter files.”

BRACING FOR FEDERAL INTERVENTION

Several election officials said the federal push has already changed how they’re preparing for November’s vote. Some described turning more frequently to lawyers and drafting internal playbooks for dealing with federal warrants, subpoenas or demands to access voting equipment.
Koppes, the Republican clerk and recorder in Colorado’s conservative Weld County, said she has trained her staff to recognize FBI credentials, to know what a legitimate federal subpoena looks like, and who to contact if federal agents arrive unannounced. She has also discussed with the county attorney how her office would respond if federal law enforcement attempts to seize ballots, machines or other voting materials.
Koppes described the moment as one of constant “whiplash,” from the president’s calls for new voting rules, to the FBI’s January raid on Georgia election offices, to threats from people who believe claims of rigged U.S. elections and have targeted clerks. Their security preparations include a glass‑breaking tool — typically used to escape a car — placed at windows in the clerk’s office, in case staff need to evacuate immediately.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/investigations/how-trump-is-moving-control-us-elections-one-state-time-2026-04-27/

A strong earthquake rattled Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido early on Monday (Apr 27), US and Japanese meteorological agencies reported, the latest in a series of powerful tremors to hit the island nation.

The 6.2-magnitude quake struck at 5.23am in Hokkaido’s southern region, at a depth of 83km, the Japanese Meteorological Agency reported, revising its preliminary estimate of magnitude 6.1.

No tsunami alert was issued, JMA said, and the US Geological Survey predicted that damage to property and threat to life was minimal, given the limited population in the region some 200km east of Sapporo.

But “in areas that experienced strong shaking, the danger of falling rocks and landslides has increased”, a JMA official told reporters.

JMA also warned that risks of experiencing more quakes of a similar strength in the area in the coming week are high.

Hours earlier, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake occurred in the sea a few hundred kilometres south of Hokkaido.

The temblors come less than a week after the JMA warned of an increased risk of a megaquake – 8.0 magnitude or stronger – after last Monday’s 7.7 earthquake off northern Iwate prefecture.

Six people were reported injured as a result of that quake, which shook large buildings in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre.

In addition, 80cm tsunami waves lashed a port in Iwate, while small waves also hit elsewhere in northern Japan.

Afterward, the JMA said “the likelihood of a new, huge earthquake occurring is relatively higher than during normal times”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/62-quake-hokkaido-island-latest-shake-japan-6082621

 

Strikes have resumed in south Lebanon as the ceasefire between Israel and Hazbollah failed.

Israeli strikes killed 14 people and wounded 37 on Sunday (Apr 26), Lebanon’s health ministry said, as the Israeli military warned residents to leave seven towns beyond the “buffer zone” it occupied before a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities.

Sunday’s death toll included two children and two women, the health ministry added in a statement. Israel said one of its soldiers was also killed as a fragile ceasefire came under further strain.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military said in a statement on X that Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was violating the ceasefire and that Israel would act against it, telling people to head north and west away from the towns.

The towns are north of the Litani River and the zone in southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli troops, who have continued military operations despite the ceasefire. The military said that it struck Hezbollah fighters, rocket launchers and a weapons depot.

“From our perspective, what obliges us is the security of Israel, the security of our soldiers, the security of our communities,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“We act vigorously according to the rules we agreed upon with the United States, and also, by the way, with Lebanon.”

Hezbollah said it would not cease its attacks on Israeli troops inside Lebanon and on towns in northern Israel as long as Israel continued its “ceasefire violations.”

The Iran-backed group added in a statement that it would not wait for diplomacy that has “proven ineffective” or rely on Lebanese authorities that had “failed to protect the country”.

Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops inside Lebanon as well as the rescue force that came to evacuate them. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed and six more were wounded.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted three drones before they crossed into Israeli territory on Sunday, after sirens sounded in northern Israel.

The US-mediated ceasefire, which started on Apr 16 and has been extended to mid-May, has brought a significant reduction in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, though both sides have continued to fire at each other, trading blame over breaches.

More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the most recent war between Hezbollah and Israel began on Mar 2, days after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israeli-strikes-kill-14-in-lebanon-israel-warns-residents-leave-towns-beyond-buffer-zone-6082436

China’s economy was just starting to open up in the late 1980s when a determined high school dropout made his way to Beijing with 600 pairs of shoes.

Ding Shizhong had them made in a relative’s factory and now he was going to sell them. The money he earned paid for his first workshop where he began making footwear for other companies.

The 17-year-old was one of China’s many newly minted entrepreneurs as capitalism took off under the watchful eye of its Communist Party rulers.

But, as it turns out, Ding had much bigger plans.

His business has since grown into a sportswear powerhouse called Anta, which has been building a stable of international brands, including Arc’teryx and Salomon. Most recently it bought a stake in Puma.

Now it is trying to take on the likes of Nike and Adidas, a goal that Ding spelled out in 2005: “We don’t want to be the Nike of China, but the Anta of the world.”

Anta may not be a household name in the West yet, but it has more than 10,000 shops in China and sponsors top athletes like freestyle skier Eileen Gu.

In February, it opened its first US outlet – a flagship store in Los Angeles’ upscale Beverly Hills area.

The company’s global push, which comes as Donald Trump aims to bring factory jobs back to the US with tariffs, highlights just how essential and competitive Chinese supply chains have become for manufacturing.

The rise of Anta – which means “safe steps” – is not exactly unique. Decades of being the world’s factory have given several ambitious Chinese companies the opportunity to take on the very firms they once counted as customers.

From shoe maker to global brand

Founded in 1991, Anta began far from the glitz and the glamour of Beverly Hills as a small manufacturer in Jinjiang city in the south-eastern province of Fujian.

Jinjiang grew rapidly from a quiet agricultural county into the “shoe capital” of the world as part of the government’s plan to create specific industries in different provinces.

Soon, there was an influx of investment from sneaker giants who were in search of overseas factories that could help bring down their production costs.

Several clusters focusing on different sorts of footwear emerged in Jinjiang and neighbouring cities along the eastern coast, each with its own specialised supply chain.

At the Jinjiang hub’s core lies Chendai town, an area of around 40 sq km (15.4 sq miles) that is home to thousands of factories and suppliers. The district helped cement the city’s reputation making shoes for global brands such as Nike and Adidas.

Each hub brought together suppliers of laces, soles and fabric, as well as logistics firms that help to quickly turn designs into store-ready products and ship them out.

By 2005, Fujian alone accounted for nearly a fifth of the world’s shoes, according to estimates by the UN.

As much as a third of Jinjiang’s workers are still employed by one of thousands of shoe-makers in the city, which is among the highest-earning economic districts in China.

Something similar has played out in various parts of China – Jinjiang was just one of many manufacturing clusters on the eastern coast alone. The others made clothes or electronics.

This level of specialisation in manufacturing was unseen elsewhere in the world at the time, says University of Bath associate professor Fei Qin, who studied factories across eastern China in the 2000s.

As foreign customers flocked to strike deals with these factories, the country reaped more than income.

“They learned not only how to make more, but how to produce better, faster and more consistently,” Fei adds.

It was along these streets that Anta grew, making shoes in bulk and cheaply for global brands.

It established a vast distribution network to retailers across China, which is crucial for manufacturers seeking to expand.

At the same time, Anta was slowly getting its name out domestically, opening new shops and partnering with major sporting events, including national basketball and table tennis competitions.

Firms like Anta know that there is more value in being a known brand rather than a subcontractor, Fei says.

In 2007, Anta listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising around HKD3.5bn (£330m; $450m) – a record then for a Chinese sports company.

Branding consultant Wei Kan, who worked with Converse and Nike in China, says Anta had stood out to him because of its fully-fledged production hub that allowed it to design and sell shoes faster than its rivals.

It was also among the few Chinese firms that targeted the same buyers as big Western brands, Kan says.

Companies like Anta, which start off making goods for global brands, gradually learn the fundamentals of managing the business, do well in China and “naturally go on to bigger things”, Kan adds.

There are many others such as technology firm Xiaomi, which began as a software developer customising Android-based systems, before making its own phones, electronics and now, electric vehicles (EVs).

Likewise, DJI made gear for cameras and drone components before it became an international drone maker in its own right.

The best-known example is perhaps BYD, once a battery-maker for EV pioneers like Tesla and now the world’s top manufacturer for the sector.

“Each of these firms are now giants in their fields,” Kan says.

Wooing the West

Anta is now eyeing markets in the West.

It runs more than 12,000 shops in China. The company also has more than 460 outlets outside of the country, with plans to have 1,000 shops operating in South East Asia alone in the next three years.

But Nike which still has the biggest market share in sports footwear only has 1,000 shops across the world.

Chinese firms have been known to expand quickly within the country, before venturing abroad where they encounter more challenges while scaling up.

For one there is a perception challenge. Chinese products are often viewed as cheap, low-quality or copycat goods.

Anta has tried to beat that with acquisitions, as part of an approach it calls a “multi-brand strategy”. The first big move was buying the rights to Fila in China in 2009 and turning the Italy-founded brand into a major earner for its business, says Elisa Harca from Chinese marketing agency Red Ant Asia.

In 2019, Anta bought a controlling stake in Finnish athletics brand Amer Sports. The deal gave Anta control of Amer’s companies, which included upmarket brands Arc’teryx and Salomon.

Anta also owns Wilson, the US maker of tennis rackets and balls used by the National Basketball Association. And this year, it bought a 29% stake in Puma, pledging to help the German firm grow in China.

These are moves that help Anta avoid “forcing” its goods into every market and instead use its Western brands as a gateway, says business analyst Rufio Zhu from global sports marketing agency IMG.

That way Anta can reach buyers who may be wary of a “made in China” brand, Zhu says.

Celebrity sponsorships are a key commodity for a truly global brand. Nike, for instance, had its groundbreaking deal with Michael Jordan in the 1980s.

Anta has signed basketball players like Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving but deals of the kind that earned Nike or Adidas their brand are yet to happen.

And being a Chinese brand comes with hurdles given Beijing’s rocky relationship with the West and especially the US.

American-born skier Eileen Gu – an Anta brand ambassador – proved a polarising figure after her choice to represent China over the US at the OIympics came under scrutiny.

Companies that grow big need to toe the line between China and the West, Kan says. “Brands like Anta need to be ready for it.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87r2d850q4o

Iran’s foreign minister was back in Islamabad on Sunday reportedly hoping to work on a peace plan — while President Trump said his top aides will only participate by phone at this point because Pakistan is too far to go to again.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did the quick turnaround after leaving Pakistan’s capital without meeting with US officials Saturday, a move that prompted Trump to then swiftly cancel American negotiators’ intended return trip to Islamabad.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected to leave for Pakistan’s capital Saturday before being called off.

Trump on Sunday doubled down on his refusal to send the US negotiators back to Islamabad, telling Fox News that the 18-hour trip is too far to travel if Iran continues to refuse his nuclear demands.

“Great respect for Pakistan, because they’ve been terrific. They’ve really tried, and they’ll stay involved, but we’re going to do it by telephone, so if they want, they can call us,” Trump said of Tehran.

“But again, they know what has to be in the agreement. Very simple: they cannot have a nuclear weapon — otherwise there’s no reason to meet,” he said.

Iran has previously been willing to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons in deals, but the major hang-up is what to do with the remaining enriched uranium in Iran, Pakistani sources said.

But Iranian state media on Sunday claimed the nuclear issue was not to be discussed in meetings with Pakistani officials.

Araghchi and the Iranian delegation eventually visited Muscat in Oman, where they consulted with Omani officials — including on issues related to a potential peace proposals, sources said.

Pakistani mediators Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who met with the Iranian team before their departure Saturday, are expected to speak with Araghchi again.

Araghchi wa then headed to Moscow on Monday for additional consultations, this time with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s stance about not returning envoys to Pakistan echoed his comments Saturday as the latest round of talks broke down.

“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’”

“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” he added.

Later in the day he explained further, saying the distance was just too far to travel so frequently for something the Iranians were only going to flake out on.

“There’s no reason to wait two days, have people traveling for 16, 17 hours, and we’re not doing it that way,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“When they want, they can call me,” the president added.

Flying all the way to Pakistan was also “too expensive,” according to the president.

“I’m a very cost-conscious person,” he said.

The last round of negotiations with Iran were led by Vice President JD Vance and ended without a deal April 12.

That’s despite a marathon 21 hours of negotiations.

The gridlock was again centered on Iran’s ongoing refusal to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions – which is the single sticking point the White House has said it is completely unwilling to negotiate on.

“That is the core goal of the president of the United States,” Vance said of the nuclear weapons. “And that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/26/world-news/top-iranian-negotiation-arrives-in-pakistan-after-regime-skipped-peace-talks-and-trump-canceled-his-teams-trip/

Russia’s defense minister and the chairman of the State Duma are both visiting North Korea. One helped inaugurate a memorial to North Korean soldiers killed fighting Ukraine, the other hashed out a new defense deal.

Two senior Russian politicians visited North Korea over the weekend, inaugurating a memorial to North Korean troops who died fighting against Ukraine and negotiating a new defense cooperation agreement set to run until 2031.

The two countries’ military, political and economic cooperation has intensified amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Pyongyang offering military support to Moscow, not least to push Ukrainian forces back from the Russian border region of Kursk.

Moscow and Pyongyang already signed a mutual defense deal in 2024 amid a meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang that June.

Defense minister hails new military cooperation agreement

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea, both countries’ media reported on Sunday, for talks with Kim and other officials.

Belousov was set to hold talks with North Korea’s top leadership and senior military officials, and to take part in “ceremonial and commemorative events” in the capital. Images released by Russia’s Defense Ministry showed him embracing Kim.

“We agreed with the DPRK Defense Ministry to place our military cooperation on a stable, long-term footing,” Belousov said, using the intials of North Korea’s official name.

“We are ready to sign a plan this year for Russian-Korean military cooperation for the period of 2027-2031,” he said, in talks also including Defense Minister No Kwang.

Duma chairman attends memorial to North Korean soldiers killed fighting against Ukraine

Belousov also presented military awards to North Korean servicemen who had fought against Ukrainian forces in the Russian border region of Kursk, parts of which Ukraine seized for several months in a counteroffensive.

Putin sent Kim a telegram to mark the opening, the Kremlin said, thanking Kim and the soldiers for their efforts to help reclaim the Kursk region for Russia.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/russia-north-korea-agree-long-term-military-cooperation/a-76945404

 

Suspected guerillas carried out a deadly explosives attack on the Pan-American Highway in southwest Colombia. The region has been gripped by violence over the past few days.

A bomb attack on a highway in southwestern Colombia has left at least 19 people dead, with the authorities blaming a drug lord who was once part of the FARC guerilla group for the attack.

At least 38 people — including five children — were injured in the attack on Saturday, which comes a month before the country’s presidential election.

What do we know?

The explosion took place on the Pan-American Highway in the municipality of Cajibio in the Cauca province.

According to local media reports, an explosive cylinder fell onto a minibus and detonated.

Governor Octavio Guzman described the incident as a “tragedy” and warned of a “terrorist escalation.”

Visuals shared by Guzman on X showed extensive damage to a number of vehicles.

Some cars had been overturned because of the force of the blast.

Another image showed a large crater etched into the highway, following the attack.

Who is behind the attack

President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on Ivan Mordisco — one of Colombia’s most wanted criminals — whom the leftist leader has compared to the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

He called those responsible “terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers.”

Mordisco is a dissident of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), operating in the region. He opted out of the peace agreement that FARC signed with the state in 2016.

Southwest Colombia sees surge in attacks ahead of elections

Saturday’s attack is the latest in a string of explosions targeting public infrastructure.

At least 26 incidents have taken place over the last two days in the Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments and have only affected civilians, according to the Commander of Colombia’s Armed Forces, Hugo López.

The incidents prompted a dispatch of high-ranking officials, including Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez, to the region.

Sanchez was leading a delegation in Cali to assess the situation in Valle del Cauca after two attacks were reported on Friday, when Saturday’s explosion took place.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/colombia-highway-bomb-attack-kills-at-least-19/a-76939450

 

Trump explained that if Iran is unable to continue exporting oil, the pipelines will eventually fail, both mechanically and due to the earth’s natural forces.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a new warning to Iran, claiming the country has just three days to agree to a ceasefire deal to end the war, or its oil pipelines will “explode from within.”

In an interview with Fox News, Trump explained that if Iran is unable to continue exporting oil, the pipelines will eventually fail, both mechanically and due to the earth’s natural forces.

“When you have lines of vast amounts of oil pouring through your system, if for any reason that line is closed because you can’t continue to put it into containers or ships, which has happened to them, they have no ships because of the blockade,” Trump said.

See more

Trump: “What happens is that line explodes from within. Both mechanically and in the earth, something happens where it just explodes and they say they only have about 3 days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never rebuild it the way it is. It’s a very… pic.twitter.com/1ceZbjOjTQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 26, 2026

“What happens is that line explodes from within, both mechanically and in the earth… They say they only have about three days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never, regardless, you can never rebuild it the way it was,” he added.

The US President also noted that once the explosion occurs, Iran would be unable to rebuild the pipeline to its original capacity, stating it would only function at about 50% of its previous output.

Trump added that the situation stems from Iran’s inability to store or transport its oil due to the blockade. He warned that when storage options run out, a “very bad thing” would happen.

“When you have to turn it off because you have no place to store this oil, either put it on ships or storage tanks, which they are just about finished with, a very bad thing is going to happen,” he said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/they-have-3-days-before-oil-pipelines-explode-from-within-trumps-fresh-threat-to-iran-ws-l-10058868.html

 

In a manifesto sent to family members roughly ten minutes before he opened fire, Allen laid out exactly who he intended to target.

Saturday night was meant to be a landmark evening. After a decade-long absence, US President Donald Trump was finally returning to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Trump himself later admitted he had been preparing to be particularly sharp with the media.

Then the shots were fired.

The president, the first lady, and the vice president were moved to safety by Secret Service officials, along with other members of the cabinet. The shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, had arrived at the Washington Hilton carrying three weapons, namely two handguns and a shotgun. He also had a plan, and he had written it all down.

In a manifesto sent to family members roughly ten minutes before he opened fire, Allen laid out exactly who he intended to target. According to a New York Post report, the list worked its way down from the most senior Trump administration officials. But one name was absent.

“Administration officials (not including [FBI Director Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest,” Allen wrote.

The reason why Allen chose to exclude FBI Director Kash Patel from his list has not been made clear.

The manifesto also included Allen’s justification for the attack.

“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behaviour; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” he wrote.

Allen also explained his plan, including the type of ammunition he had chosen and why.

“In order to minimise casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls). I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people chose to attend a speech by a paedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit), but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trump-event-shooters-manifesto-spares-fbi-chief-kash-patel-from-hit-list-11412920?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Ukraine commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster on Sunday, amid fears that Russia’s four-year war could spark a repeat ​of the world’s worst nuclear accident that led to thousands of deaths and devastating environmental consequences.
Marking the disaster – which spewed radioactive material across much ‌of Europe as Soviet authorities sought to hide its true scale – has taken on sharp new meaning during Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Kyiv says Moscow has repeatedly sent missiles and drones on a flight path near the plant to attack Ukrainian cities, even damaging a critical protective shield in an attack last year.
Russian forces also occupy Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the southeast, which Kyiv’s state atomic ​agency said on Sunday suffered its 15th temporary blackout since Kremlin troops took over in March 2022.
On Sunday, foreign officials including the EU energy commissioner arrived ​in Kyiv to commemorate the anniversary and pledge fresh support for Ukraine’s power system, which is regularly targeted by Russian air strikes.

Sombre ⁠ceremonies took place in Kyiv and at the Chornobyl plant itself – which was briefly occupied in the first weeks of war – where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy laid a candle ​alongside the visiting Moldovan president and other officials.
“Right now, the risks are no less great because of what Russia is doing with our Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, and in general ​with our energy and our land,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv.

WAR DAMAGE

A Russian drone strike in February 2025 punctured a massive arc installed over part of the Chornobyl plant in 2016 to shield a sarcophagus built in 1986 to cover tons of radioactive debris. No leaks were detected, and workers have patched up the hole.
But the arc needs at least 500 million euros’ worth of more extensive ​repairs to prevent permanent damage, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is helping raise funds for the project.

Speaking in Kyiv on Sunday, International Atomic ​Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said repairs should start as soon as possible.
Kyiv’s top state prosecutor told Reuters that Ukrainian radars had detected at least 92 Russian drones that had flown within ‌a 5-km (3-mile) ⁠radius of the shield since June 2024.

Nuclear power has become the backbone of Ukraine’s energy system since Russia’s full-scale invasion, accounting for around 70% of total power generation, according to state-owned firm Energoatom.
Control of the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest, is one of the most contentious points in U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow that have produced few results.

LONG-LASTING CONSEQUENCES

Millions were exposed to radiation, hundreds of thousands forced to flee, and wide swathes of land contaminated after the accidental explosion and resulting meltdown inside reactor four at the Soviet-built Chornobyl ​plant in the early hours of April 26, ​1986.
Thousands have since succumbed to radiation-related ⁠illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.
Pope Leo on Sunday said the Chornobyl disaster had left a mark on humankind’s collective conscience, and he urged that atomic power “always be used to support life ​and peace”.
Serhii Balashov, one of those who worked on the clean-up, told Reuters that Soviet authorities sought to cover up the ​consequences of the accident ⁠even among those who had played a critical role in containing it.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-marks-40th-anniversary-chornobyl-disaster-under-cloud-war-2026-04-25/

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the suspect accused of trying to attack administration officials at a black-tie gala on Saturday night was a “pretty sick guy” who had been flagged to law ​enforcement by family members.
Trump said in TV interviews that the suspect, whom an official identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, had posted what Trump described as an “anti-Christian” manifesto.

“He was a Christian, ‌believer, and then he became an anti-Christian, and he had a lot of change,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” program. “He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
In the manifesto, Allen calls himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and said he planned to attack Trump administration officials, prioritizing them from highest-ranking to lowest but excluding FBI Director Kash Patel, a law enforcement official told Reuters. Allen cited Christian theology as he said he was trying to protect those harmed by the administration’s policies.
“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s ​crimes,” the manifesto read, according to the official.

The manifesto, which was sent to members of Allen’s family shortly before the attack, mocked the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents’ Association ​dinner was held, the official added. Allen was arrested at the scene.
“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” the manifesto’s ⁠author reportedly wrote. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”
The chaotic events raised fresh questions about the security of top U.S. officials, many of whom were gathered in ​the hotel’s expansive ballroom. Trump seized on the attention brought by the incident to promote his planned White House ballroom as a safer venue for such events.

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at ​the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The suspect traveled by Amtrak train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, checking into the Hilton on Friday, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on multiple Sunday talk shows, adding that Trump and top members of his administration were the likely targets. Train passengers in the United States are not required to pass through airport-style metal detectors.
Amtrak said it is cooperating with the investigation.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Officials have said the suspect fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent ​at a security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel before being tackled and arrested.

Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet officials were rushed out as the incident unfolded. The Secret Service agent who was shot escaped serious ​injury because the bullet struck his protective vest, Trump said.
Trump, who had boycotted the media gala in the past, has requested that the dinner be rescheduled within 30 days. White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang of CBS said the group’s board would determine ‌their next steps.
The ⁠suspect will be charged in federal court on Monday with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Blanche said, adding he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack. Further federal indictments will be coming later, Blanche said.
Saturday’s incident was another reminder of a rising tide of political violence in the United States in recent years. Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a rally last September, just months after the June 2025 slaying of Democratic Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of a Minnesota state senator.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll, opens new tab conducted in the days following Kirk’s murder found Americans believe increasingly harsh rhetoric surrounding politics is encouraging violence in the U.S.
A ​White House official said law enforcement officials who interviewed Allen’s ​sister were told he had a tendency to make ⁠radical statements, had attended an anti-Trump “No Kings” protest and referred to a plan to do “something” to fix issues with today’s world.
Trump suggested the protest might have spurred the suspect to action. “Part of the reason you have people like that is you have people doing No Kings,” he told CBS. “I’m not a king.”
Around the world, leaders condemned the attack and expressed relief ​that Trump and all present were safe.
A planned U.S. visit by King Charles of Britain scheduled to start on Monday will proceed, Trump and British officials said.
Little was immediately ​known about the alleged shooter’s background, but ⁠social media posts indicated he had worked at C2 Education, a national private test preparation and tutoring service. C2 Education said in a statement that it was cooperating with law enforcement investigators.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-was-likely-target-shooting-white-house-correspondents-dinner-us-official-2026-04-26/

Israel’s president said on Sunday that he will consider Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request in his long-running corruption trial only ​after efforts to reach a plea deal are exhausted, signalling ‌no decision will come soon.
Netanyahu’s legal troubles, which began with investigations around a decade ago, have polarised Israelis and shaken national politics through five rounds of elections ​between 2019, the year of his indictment, to 2022. The ​next ballot is due by the end of October 2026.

Netanyahu ⁠denies the bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges.
President Isaac Herzog ​said on Sunday that a deal would be the best solution in ​Netanyahu’s case.
“The President therefore believes that before addressing the pardon request itself, efforts should first be exhausted to reach an agreement between the parties, outside the courtroom,” ​Herzog said in a statement.
Herzog’s office published it after a report ​by the New York Times said on Sunday that the president was planning to ‌initiate ⁠mediation for a plea bargain, putting off any pardon decision for now.
A spokesperson for Herzog declined to comment beyond the statement when asked whether any plea deal bid was underway. Netanyahu’s office did not respond ​to a request ​for comment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-president-says-he-wants-deal-reached-netanyahu-case-before-pardon-2026-04-26/

President Donald Trump said on Sunday Iran could telephone if it wants to negotiate an end to their two-month war and stressed it ​can never have a nuclear weapon, after Tehran said the U.S. should remove obstacles to a deal, including its blockade of Iran’s ports.
Hopes of reviving peace efforts receded on ‌Saturday when Trump scrapped a visit to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi shuttled to and from mediators Pakistan and Oman on Sunday before heading to Russia, where he is due to meet President Vladimir Putin.

Oil prices rose, the dollar inched higher and U.S. stock futures wobbled lower in early Asia trade on Monday after the peace talks stalled, leaving Gulf shipping blocked.
“If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, ​there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines,” Trump told “The Sunday Briefing” on Fox News.
“They know what has to be in the agreement. It’s very simple: They cannot have a nuclear ​weapon, otherwise there’s no reason to meet,” Trump said.
Axios reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed U.S. official and two sources with knowledge of the matter, that Iran ⁠gave the U.S. a new proposal through Pakistani mediators on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the ending of the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage. The U.S. State Department and White ​House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Iran has long demanded Washington acknowledge its right to enrich uranium, which Tehran says it only seeks for peaceful purposes, but which Western powers say is ​aimed at building nuclear weapons.
Although a ceasefire has paused full‑scale fighting in the conflict, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, no agreement has been reached on terms to end a war that has killed thousands, driven up oil prices, fuelled inflation and darkened the outlook for global growth.

TRUMP FACES DOMESTIC PRESSURE TO END WAR

With his approval ratings falling, Trump faces domestic pressure to end the unpopular war. Iran’s leaders, though weakened militarily, have found leverage in negotiations with their ​ability to stop shipping in the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of global oil shipments.
Tehran has largely closed the strait while Washington has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports.

Before heading to Russia, ​Araqchi returned to Islamabad after holding talks on Sunday in Oman.
Iranian state media said Araqchi discussed security in the strait with Omani leader Haitham bin Tariq al-Said and called for a regional security framework free of outside interference.
Araqchi said on ‌X that the ⁠focus of his Oman talks “included ways to ensure safe transit that is to benefit of all dear neighbors and the world.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said topics for Araqchi’s talks with Pakistani officials included “implementing a new legal regime over the Strait of Hormuz, receiving compensation, guaranteeing no renewed military aggression by warmongers, and lifting the naval blockade.”
Iran’s envoy in Russia, Kazem Jalali, said in a post on X that Araqchi would meet with Putin “in continuation of the diplomatic jihad to advance the country’s interests and amid external threats.”

“Iran and Russia are present in a united front in the campaign of the world’s totalitarian forces against independent and justice-seeking countries, as ​well as countries that seek a world free from ​unilateralism and Western domination,” Jalali said.
On Saturday, Trump ⁠said he cancelled his envoys’ visit due to too much travel and expense for what he considered an inadequate Iranian offer. Iran “offered a lot, but not enough,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone on Saturday that Tehran would not enter “imposed negotiations” under threats or blockade, an Iranian statement ​said.
He said the United States should first remove obstacles, including its maritime blockade, before negotiators could begin laying the groundwork for a settlement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-iran-peace-hopes-fade-trump-scraps-talks-2026-04-26/

Tammy Blanton’s life unraveled after years of taking opioids initially prescribed for migraines, according to her daughter Mary Anne, who says the drugs left her mother isolated, unemployed and estranged from her family.
Tammy was given opioid prescriptions by multiple providers for decades — receiving more than 200 pills a month on average during one two-year period — and a medical examiner later concluded that oxycodone and extended‑release morphine, along with alcohol and anti-anxiety drugs, contributed to her accidental death at age 58 in 2017.
When Purdue Pharma sought bankruptcy protection in 2019, Blanton believed her mother’s story would qualify her for compensation. Purdue, whose painkiller OxyContin has been widely blamed for fueling the opioid crisis, acknowledged misconduct and pledged to compensate those ​harmed.

While lawsuits over the crisis have generated more than $57 billion in settlements — mostly pledged to state and local governments — Purdue’s deal is the only major agreement to set aside a substantial sum for individuals harmed by opioids, with about $865 million earmarked for them.
The fund represents the last and best chance for victims of the opioid crisis to receive any compensation. The sprawling litigation that once targeted nearly every ‌major opioid manufacturer, distributor and pharmacy chain is largely over, and no comparable fund for individuals is coming.
For Blanton and many others, that promise is now slipping away. Reuters analyzed the vast bankruptcy record built over six years, including hundreds of legal filings, more than 100 letters from people seeking compensation, and interviews with eight victims and lawyers close to the case. The deal was hailed by both the company and the plaintiffs’ lawyers as a victory for victims, but the news agency’s examination shows how the long, grinding bankruptcy wound up creating daunting hurdles for many trying to qualify for compensation.

Blanton is among those who may receive nothing from the deal because they cannot produce records proving Purdue — and not a generic competitor — made the pills they or their relatives were prescribed. Many individuals were able to file claims without documentation when the process began, only to learn years later that records they needed had been destroyed.

The requirement that victims prove they took a Purdue-manufactured opioid can be very difficult to meet years later. Doctors’ records typically list the drug prescribed, not the manufacturer. Insurance companies often steer patients toward ​generics to save money. Pharmacies can switch suppliers over time, and in many states, neither they nor doctors, hospitals nor insurers are required to retain records for more than a few years.
“To me, it’s irrelevant whether Purdue manufactured her specific prescription — it ultimately came from them,” Blanton said. Purdue told “everybody that they were safe and not addictive. They created this mess.”
Members of the Sackler family, which owned Purdue, referred to the company for ​comment. Purdue declined multiple requests for comment.

BILLIONS, BUT FOR WHOM?

The documentation requirement was embedded in the bankruptcy plan Purdue negotiated with its creditors, reflecting its long-standing position that it should be held liable only for harms directly traceable to its products.
Victims and their lawyers say Purdue and its Sackler family owners should be held broadly responsible for igniting ⁠an opioid epidemic through aggressive and misleading marketing that drove widespread use of prescription painkillers, including generics, with many patients later turning to illegal drugs.

Purdue has twice pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges related to its marketing of OxyContin, admitting it misled regulators, doctors and patients about addiction risks and engaged in illegal practices to boost opioid sales.
Purdue is scheduled to be sentenced on April 28. The judge overseeing the criminal case delayed sentencing by a week to allow victims who ​wanted to speak about Purdue’s conduct to participate in person.
When the company filed for Chapter 11, people who said they had been harmed by its opioid pills became creditors in its case — placed in the same legal category as states, cities and other governments that had sued the company.

“How much time do I put towards this, and energy and money, just to get to the end and then have them say, ‘No, denied’?”

In March 2021, when Purdue introduced its initial bankruptcy plan, Steve Miller, chairman of the company’s board of directors, called it “historic” and said it would have “a profoundly positive impact on public health by directing critically‑needed ​resources to communities and individuals nationwide.”
Purdue encouraged individuals to file claims. Almost 140,000 people did so by the September 2021 deadline, filling out a seven‑page form that did not require detailed documentation. Some claims were filed by lawyers representing many clients, but many were submitted by people struggling with addiction or unable to afford a lawyer.

Purdue’s bankruptcy then dragged on for years, becoming entangled in appeals that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The settlement was negotiated behind closed doors, through confidential mediation sessions, as part of a complex bankruptcy that produced more than 9,000 court filings.
In May 2025, nearly four years after the deadline for filing claims had passed, a trustee appointed to administer the fund requested for the first time that people produce records proving that Purdue had manufactured the drug that caused their harm. He set a deadline of 60 days. The long delay made it more likely that the requested documents would no longer be available from doctors, pharmacies or insurers, which generally only need to retain records for a few years.

An earlier version of the plan would have allowed people without prescription records ​to qualify for a $3,500 payment if they signed a sworn affidavit saying they had used the drug. People with records and more serious harms could qualify for up to $48,000, according to court filings. But after the appeals process, the reworked deal limited payouts only to people who had records. The change was not discussed openly in court, which ProPublica was the first to report in a piece published Thursday.
Ed Neiger, an attorney who helped represent a group of about 30,000 victims, ​said plaintiffs’ lawyers sought to make the requirements about what proof individuals needed to provide as flexible as possible, but ran up against demands from other lawyers negotiating the bankruptcy settlement that claimants provide proof similar to what would be required in a lawsuit. ”We couldn’t get it to a point where you could get recovery without a prescription. And the option was either, you know, blow up the settlement or take the concessions that you were able to extract.”
Despite its shortcomings, the Purdue settlement offers an easier ‌path to compensation than traditional litigation, ⁠Neiger said. Individual lawsuits against Purdue or the Sackler family would likely have taken years, cost significant sums and required far more detailed proof, with no assurance of success. No individual has ever successfully sued the Sacklers or Purdue over a personal opioid addiction.
Nevertheless, more than 40% of the claims filed have already been rejected by U.S. District Judge Sean Lane in White Plains, New York, who is overseeing Purdue’s bankruptcy.
Even for those whose claims will be approved, recoveries are expected to be relatively modest. Purdue estimated in December that eligible individuals could receive about $8,000 or $16,000, depending on how long opioids were prescribed. Those figures are estimates, and they could rise if fewer claimants ultimately meet the documentation requirements, since the pool of money would be divided among fewer people.

PAPER TRAIL, DEAD ENDS

Purdue sold extended-release morphine under the name MS Contin and later extended-release oxycodone under the name OxyContin — the same drugs Blanton said her mother took in vast quantities over decades. She said in an interview that she knows her mother took some Purdue-manufactured pills, but could not prove that Purdue made the morphine or oxycodone her mother took. Purdue developed and first marketed both drugs, but many other companies later won approval to sell generic versions.
After her mother’s death, Blanton began searching for records from doctors, hospitals and pharmacies to support her claim, but said much of the information required either no longer exists or was never recorded in the first place. Tammy’s primary care physician had legally ​destroyed her records, Blanton said, and hospital records she obtained often did not identify the manufacturer. She was also unable ​to obtain records from Arizona’s Medicaid program, which paid for most of her mother’s prescription, because of ⁠documentation hurdles tied to proof of next‑of‑kin status and privacy rules.
Purdue says it has taken a flexible approach to documentation, accepting a range of evidence including prescription records, references to Purdue opioids in other qualifying documents, or photographs of prescription bottles. In a January court filing, the company described its requirements as “flexible and far less onerous” than the proof a plaintiff would need in a lawsuit.
Michele Capozzi‑Pollock, a 59-year-old Massachusetts resident whose husband died after years of opioid use, laughed when she was told pill bottles could be used as proof of a claim. “Like I’m going to save 16 years’ worth of prescription bottles,” she said in an interview.
Capozzi-Pollock said she was told the claim would be denied because she did not respond ​to the documentation request sent last summer and addressed to her husband three years after his death.
“How much time do I put towards this, and energy and money, just to get to the end and then have them say, ‘No, denied’?”

“AT A LOSS”

When Purdue in January asked the bankruptcy court to expunge more than 57,000 claims from people ​who did not respond to the trustee’s May 2025 request for documentation, ⁠hundreds of victims sent letters to the court in protest.
Their letters describe not only difficulty obtaining records, but basic confusion about how the settlement works.
“I am at a loss and do not know what to do,” wrote Terry Hughes, an inmate at Huttonsville Correctional Center in West Virginia, in a letter to the bankruptcy court dated February 20. Hughes said the pharmacy where he filled opioid prescriptions had closed years ago.

Michael Galipeau, a 42-year-old resident of Red Hook, New York, received an email in January with the subject line: “Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., Case No. 19-23649 Omnibus Claims Objection to Unsubstantiated Claims,” almost six years after filing his claim.
Galipeau, who has struggled with opioid addiction for nearly two decades, became dependent on painkillers prescribed for a broken wrist in 2007, served time in prison for dealing drugs, and now counsels people recovering from addiction.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/after-waiting-years-justice-many-purdue-opioid-victims-are-defeated-by-paperwork-2026-04-24/

The Justice Department is closing its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Friday, removing an obstacle ​to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the central bank.
The move by Pirro, a Trump ally and the top federal prosecutor in ‌Washington, D.C., for now ends an inquiry involving renovation costs for Fed buildings that had been rebuked by a federal judge and prompted a key Republican senator to block Trump’s nominees to the central bank.

Pirro said she had instead asked the Fed’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General, to examine cost overruns in renovations of the central bank’s Washington headquarters. The inspector general has already been examining the project after Powell requested a review last year.
“The ​IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers,” Pirro said in a social media post. “I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am ​confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas.”
JUDGE HALTED PROBE
The Powell probe, which ⁠had been examining the renovation and Powell’s statements to Congress last year about the project, became the latest flashpoint in the Justice Department’s pursuit of adversaries and critics of Trump.

A federal judge ​last month blocked subpoenas to the Fed’s Board of Governors, finding they were issued for the improper purpose of pressuring Powell to cave to Trump’s demands to rapidly lower interest rates or resign. Chief ​U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found prosecutors had shown “essentially zero evidence” Powell committed a crime.
As recently as this week, Pirro had vowed to continue the investigation and appeal the ruling, which DOJ lawyers have not yet filed in court. She said reports of cost overruns in the $2.5 billion project were enough of a basis to conduct an inquiry.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has vowed not to support Warsh ​until the DOJ ends what he has called a baseless investigation into Powell. Tillis’ blockade had effectively stalled Warsh’s confirmation.

A spokesperson for Tillis had no immediate comment on Friday, but Tillis indicated ​during Warsh’s confirmation hearing this week that he would support Warsh if the Justice Department abandoned the probe into Powell.

The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, on Friday said he would ‌ask the ⁠inspector general to brief the panel within 90 days on its findings.
A spokesperson for the Fed declined to comment. A White House spokesperson said the inspector general was best positioned “to get to the bottom of the matter” and said it was confident the Senate would confirm Warsh.
The decision to end the probe may clear the way for Warsh’s Senate confirmation as Fed chair, potentially by May 15 when Powell’s leadership term ends. It’s less clear if the move meets Powell’s own bar for stepping down as governor.
“I have no intention of leaving the Board until the investigation is well and ​truly over, with transparency and finality,” Powell said ​last month. Pirro said on Friday that ⁠she may resume her investigation depending on the inspector general’s findings.
WATCHDOG REVIEW ALREADY UNDERWAY
The Fed’s current $2.46 billion budget for overhauling the two buildings is about $1.1 billion more than it had originally allocated in 2020, with most of the increase attributable to rising costs for material and labor driven by ​the post-pandemic surge in inflation, Fed budget documents show.
A spokesperson for the Fed’s inspector general said on Friday that the office has been ​reviewing the renovation project since ⁠July 2025, including examining “substantial cost increases and overruns.”
“We are actively working to complete our review, and look forward to making the results available to the public and Congress upon completion,” the spokesperson said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/justice-dept-close-investigation-federal-reserve-renovations-us-attorney-pirro-2026-04-24/

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung arrived in Eswatini saying Taipei would not be held back by “authoritarian forces”, ​after the government accused China of pressuring three African states to ‌block overflight permission for President Lai Ching-te.
Taiwan last week said the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar unilaterally revoked flight permits for its presidential aircraft to cross airspace they manage on a ​planned trip to Eswatini, one of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies.

It marked ​the first time a Taiwan president cancelled an entire foreign trip ⁠due to denial of airspace access, representing what appeared to be a ​new Chinese strategy to curb the island’s international engagement.
Late on Saturday Lin posted a picture ​on Facebook of himself getting off a private jet upon arrival in the small southern African kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland.
“In that moment, I felt the deep friendship between Taiwan ​and Eswatini that transcends distance, and I became even more convinced that Taiwan ​will not be held back by authoritarian forces,” he wrote.
Lai, in a video message on ‌Sunday ⁠to King Mswati III for the 40th anniversary of his accession, said the Republic of China, Taiwan’s formal name, is a “sovereign country” and belongs to the world.

“Our 23 million people have the right to engage with the international community. ​The greater the ​external pressure we ⁠face, the more courage and resolve we have,” he said in English.
China denied pressuring the three countries but praised them for ​blocking flight permission.
Lin did not offer details on his ​trip, saying ⁠only that his delegation “overcame all obstacles” to get to Eswatini in his capacity as Lai’s special envoy.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwan-foreign-minister-arrives-eswatini-after-presidents-trip-blocked-2026-04-25/

Hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran receded as a new ‌week began, with talks aimed at ending the two-month conflict at a standstill and both Tehran and Washington showing little willingness to soften their terms.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi left mediator Pakistan empty-handed at the weekend, and U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a planned visit ​to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, dealing back-to-back blows to peace prospects.

The deadlock ​leaves the world’s biggest economy and a major oil power locked in a confrontation that ⁠has already pushed energy prices to multi-year highs, stoked inflation and darkened global growth prospects.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told ​Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone that Tehran would not enter “imposed negotiations” under threats or blockade, according to a ​statement from the Iranian government.
Pezeshkian said the United States should first remove “operational obstacles,” including its blockade on Iranian ports, before negotiators can lay any groundwork to resolve the conflict.

Araqchi described his visit to Pakistan as “very fruitful.” An Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad said Tehran would ​not accept “maximalist demands” from the United States.
Trump told reporters in Florida that he scrapped the envoys’ visit because the talks ​involved too much travel and expense to consider an inadequate offer from the Iranians. After the diplomatic trip was called off, Iran “offered ‌a lot, ⁠but not enough,” Trump said.
On Truth Social, he wrote that there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.
“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he posted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
Pezeshkian said on Thursday that there were “no hardliners or moderates” in Tehran and ​that the country stood united ​behind its supreme leader. ⁠Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Araqchi echoed the message in recent days.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-iran-peace-hopes-fade-trump-scraps-talks-2026-04-26/

It looks like a “wild” combination of a tiger and a python, but AI tools are calling out this viral Bangladesh Forest Department uniform as a total meme hoax.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) is drawing attention after it claimed to show a new uniform of the Bangladesh Forest Department. The image features two men standing side by side indoors, both dressed in bold, animal-print outfits.

While the claim sounds unusual, the picture quickly sparked curiosity and confusion among viewers. As more people saw it, many began questioning whether the uniform was real or just another internet joke making the rounds online.

Post Shows Unusual Animal-Print Uniform

The post, shared on X, reads, “New uniform of the Bangladesh Forest Department.” Along with the caption, it shows two men posing in what looks like an office or public building. Both are wearing matching outfits that are hard to miss.

Their shirts have a tiger-stripe pattern in shades of brown and black. The shirts are tucked neatly into their trousers, and they are also wearing belts, ID cards, and badges, which make the outfit look official at first glance. However, the trousers stand out even more. They have a snake-skin pattern, with large, scale-like prints covering the entire fabric. The men are also wearing black boots, completing the look.

At first, the image may appear real because of the formal setting and the badges. But the mix of tiger and snake prints makes it look unusual for an official uniform.

Users React With Jokes And Comments

As more people saw the post, they began reacting in a humorous way. A user wrote, “This is how Mexicans dress to go to the club.” Another said, “Shit, I can’t stop laughing.”

“Mexicans wear the same outfit to court, baptisms and weddings, and funerals,” a person said. A comment read, “Standing out seems to get the attention.” Another wrote, “I thought it was a wax figure and its base model, lol.”

Some users also made jokes about the animal prints. “Gonna confuse the snakes and tigers at the same damn time,” a user wrote. Another commented, “got tiger on top, python on the bottom… full ecosystem.” An individual wrote, “Leopard clothing for the top while snake’s skin for the trousers. A wild combination.”

Source: https://www.news18.com/viral/the-internet-is-obsessed-bangladesh-forest-departments-tiger-snake-uniform-but-theres-a-catch-ws-l-10057046.html

Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away.

Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location history of cellphone users near the crime scene.

The geofence warrant police served on Google found that Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed.

Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It’s the latest high court case that forces the justices to wrestle with how a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 applies to technology the nation’s founders could not have contemplated in their wildest dreams.

Chatrie’s appeal is one of two cases being argued Monday. The other is an effort by Bayer to have the court block thousands of state lawsuits alleging the global agrochemical manufacturer failed to warn people that its popular Roundup weedkiller could cause cancer.

Geofence warrants turn the usual way of pursuing suspects on its head. Typically, police identify a suspect and then obtain a warrant to search a home or a phone.

With geofence warrants, police do not have a suspect, only a location where a crime took place. They work in reverse to identify people who were in the area.

Prosecutors credit the warrants with helping crack cold cases and other crimes where surveillance cameras did not reveal suspects’ faces or license plates.

Civil libertarians say that geofences amount to fishing expeditions that subject many innocent people to searches of private records merely because their cellphones happened to be in the vicinity of a crime. A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the technique could “unleash a much broader wave of similar reverse searches,” law professors who study digital surveillance wrote the court.

Investigators used geofence warrants to identify supporters of President Donald Trump who attacked the Capitol in the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as in the search for the person who planted pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican party headquarters the night before.

Police also credit these warrants with helping identify suspects in killings in several states, including California, Georgia and North Carolina.

An academic group that works to bridge gaps between the police and communities wrote that the court should avoid an all-or-nothing approach in Chatrie’s case.

The Trump administration’s position would allow police to use geofence warrants and similar tools “with no judicial supervision or constitutional safeguards,” according to the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law. Chatrie’s lawyers want the court to rule out any use of geofence warrants at all, impeding “legitimate law enforcement activities,” the group wrote.

In Chatrie’s case, the geofence warrant invigorated an investigation that had stalled. After determining that Chatrie was near the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian around the time it was robbed in May 2019, police obtained a search warrant for his home. They found nearly $100,000 in cash, including bills wrapped in bands signed by the bank teller.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. Chatrie’s lawyers argued on appeal that none of the evidence should have been used against him.

They challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s location history.

A federal judge agreed that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-geofence-warrants-unreasonable-searches-constitution-a61c200a806cba89ded43685279eccae

A spectacular brass astrolabe – or a hand-held astronomical computer – from the 17th Century, once part of the royal collection of Jaipur city in western India, will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on 29 April.

The object is “perhaps the largest in existence” and has never been exhibited before, Benedict Carter, head of the department of Islamic and Indian Art at Sotheby’s, told the BBC.

Known to be part of the royal collection of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur, it was passed on to his wife Maharani Gayatri Devi, one of the most glamorous women of her time, after his death. It then moved to a private collection during her lifetime.

Astrolabes are metallic disks with multi-layered, interlocking components that were historically used to tell the time, map the stars, the direction of Mecca and the motion of the sky.

“They are essentially a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional universe. I compare them to modern-day smartphones because you can do so many things with them,” says Dr Federica Gigante of the Oxford Centre for History of Science, Medicine and Technology.

“You can calculate the time of sunset, sunrise, the height of a building, the depth of a well, distance and even use them to predict the future. Along with an almanac they were once used to cast horoscopes.”

Astrolabes were first developed in ancient Greece in the 2nd Century BCE and spread to the Islamic world by the 8th Century. Over the following centuries, centres of production flourished across Iraq, Iran, North Africa and al-Andalus (in present-day Spain).

This particular instrument was made in the early 17th Century in Lahore, now in Pakistan, at a time when the city had become a leading hub of astrolabe-making in the Mughal world. It was created by two brothers, Qa’im Muhammad and Muhammad Muqim, for a Mughal nobleman.

The pair were part of the so-called “Lahore School”, one of the most renowned centres of astrolabe production of its time. The craft itself was kept within a single family and passed down generations.

Only two astrolabes are known to have been jointly made by the brothers; the other, a much smaller one, is kept in a museum in Iraq.

This one was commissioned by Aqa Afzal, a nobleman who administered Lahore during this period. Originally from Isfahan in Iran, he held several senior posts under the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The object’s massive size and opulence reflect the patron’s stature.

“It weighs 8.2kg, measures nearly 30cm in diameter and stands about 46cm tall – almost four times the size of a typical astrolabe from 17th Century India,” said Carter.

“It also has a striking cross-cultural element. The star pointers carry their standard names in Persian, alongside Sanskrit equivalents etched in the Devanagari script.”

According to Sotheby’s, the piece contains 94 cities inscribed within it, each marked with their respective longitudes and latitudes, along with 38 star pointers linked by intricate floral tracery. It also features five precision-calibrated plates and degree divisions “so fine they are subdivided down to a third of a degree”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8x7kw9lp8do

A huge armada of vehicles were used to clean-up the radioactive aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago. Many of them still lie rusting inside the exclusion zone.

In the early hours of Saturday 26 April 1986, a safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what is now Ukraine went horribly – almost apocalyptically – wrong.

Technicians cooling off one of the Soviet power plant’s four reactors during a test to simulate an accidental loss of power were unaware of a crucial design flaw in the reactor. The power spiked, causing a thermal reaction when the cooling system was offline. Components inside reactor number four ruptured, causing steam explosions and a reactor meltdown, which destroyed the reactor building.

Radiation from the debris and the smoke from the reactor fire drifted across Ukraine, other states in the USSR, and eventually the furthest reaches of Northern Europe.

The explosions, and the resulting radioactive cloud, caused panic around the world. But the effects were most keenly felt in the area around Chernobyl, especially the “model city” that had been bult for its technicians, Pripyat.

This city of 49,000 people was surrounded by farmland and forest, dotted with villages and small towns. After initial paralysis – officials did not want to believe that a reactor in one of their model nuclear power plants could fail – an enormous evacuation plan rumbled into life.

In little more than 36 hours after the explosion, Pripyat’s entire population was bussed out of the affected area, never to return to their homes. Another 68,000 were removed from other smaller settlements. And after the evacuation came the clean-up.

This enormous fleet of vehicles themselves become a poisonous problem with no quick fix
The full weight of the Soviet Union’s civil defence network was brought in to deal with the disaster, the most serious nuclear event to have happened in peacetime. Countless trucks and buses were used to bring in the 500,000 military and civilian personnel who would have to deal with the zone’s radioactive contamination, given the grisly designation “liquidators”. A significant chunk of the Soviet Air Force’s helicopter fleet was used to douse the reactor fire and cover other irradiated areas. Army scout cars and demolition vehicles – designed to work in the radioactive aftermath of nuclear explosions – were also brought in to monitor the “hot zones”.

The work to clean up the toxic aftermath took many months. At the end of it, this enormous fleet of vehicles themselves become a poisonous problem with no quick fix.

The radiation made them too dangerous to return to service out of the zone, and so Soviet authorities set up vehicle graveyards for them, including the giant heavy-lift helicopters that had flown over reactor number four’s fuming pyre. Two enormous sites were prepared in Rassokha and Buryakovka within the exclusion zone, and the vehicles were flown or driven there – and left to rust in the open air for at least 100 years until the radiation levels fell to normal levels.

When the zone around Chernobyl became one of Ukraine’s unlikely tourist attractions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the vehicle graveyards became a surreal highlight, an almost science-fiction setting.

The BBC’s former online news picture editor, Phil Coomes, was one drawn to the site at Russokha during a visit to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster in 2006. He headed over to Ukraine for a 10-day trip with fellow BBC journalist Stephen Mulvey.

“I think there’d been a few tourist trips into the zone, but not many,” Coomes says, shortly before the 40th anniversary. “I think the actual explosion happened more or less when I started at the BBC. So we pitched it, off we went, with our little dosimeters to make sure we didn’t get too much exposure.”

Coomes says he stayed for about three days in the exclusion zone, staying in the hotel that had been specially set up for guests and workers at the plant – which still had one reactor producing electricity.

“You forget how big the space is, you think, ‘Oh, we’ve got two days there, that’ll be great, we can see everything.'” He says of the two young guides who were showing them around “I think they just spent their life in the zone, they didn’t seem to be bothered about any dangers whatsoever.

“You think, ‘Oh, it’s like 10 minutes up the road, but it’s not, it’s like a half-hour drive over completely destroyed roads and potholes, in the back of this car [where] the doors would fly open occasionally.

Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said he will not take up his seat in parliament after his party was defeated in a landslide that ended his 16-year rule.

“I am now needed not in parliament, but in the reorganisation of the patriotic movement,” he said in a video statement released on social media on Saturday evening.

Despite his nationalist party Fidesz going from 135 seats to 52 in the 12 April vote, Orbán was re-elected as an MP on its proportional representation list.

Tisza, led by former Fidesz insider Péter Magyar, won more than a two-thirds majority in the 199-seat parliament, paving the way for a reset of both Hungary’s domestic policies and its global relationships.

Following a meeting of Fidesz officials, Orbán, 62, said the party’s parliamentary bloc would be led from Monday by Gulyás Gergely, who until now has served as the minister overseeing the prime minister’s office.

“The mandate I obtained as the lead candidate of the Fidesz-KDNP list is, in fact, a parliamentary mandate of Fidesz. For this reason, I have decided to return it,” Orbán said.

About half of Hungary’s parliamentary seats are divided among political parties according to their national vote share, while the other half represent individual constituencies.

Orbán has held a seat through one electoral format or the other since 1990, and has led Fidesz throughout that period. He has served as Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, becoming the predominant figure in Hungarian politics.

However, voters abandoned him in their droves amid brewing public unhappiness over allegations of corruption and graft while living standards slipped.

Hungary’s incoming PM has promised to reverse Orbán-era changes to education and health, tackle corruption, restore the independence of the judiciary and kill off the widely loathed system of patronage known as NER that helped enrich party loyalists and squander state resources.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9v1wll8qqo

Mali’s army said unidentified “terrorist” groups had attacked several positions in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

Two loud explosions and sustained gunfire rocked the area near Mali’s main military base in Kati, outside the capital city of Bamako, early Saturday morning, according to the AFP and Reuters news agencies.

A Reuters witness reported that soldiers had been deployed to block off roads in the area. Kati is the home of military ruler General Assimi Goita.

Meanwhile, AFP reported fighting in Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, as well as in Sevare, in central Mali.

Gunfire was also heard near Mali’s international airport, AP reported.

Images of militant convoys in trucks and motorcycles moving through Kati’s deserted streets were captured by onlookers on social media, according to AP.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a statement, Mali’s army said unidentified “terrorist” groups had attacked several positions in the capital and elsewhere in the country without specifying the locations.

Later on Saturday, the ‌army ⁠said ​that the ​situation ​was ‌under control following ‌attacks by ‌armed groups ​in Bamako and other towns.

The African Union (AU) condemned the attacks for putting civilians at risk. The organization “strongly condemns these acts, which risk exposing civilian populations to significant harm,” AU chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said in a statement.

He stressed the AU’s commitment to stability and peace in Mali.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/mali-explosions-gunfire-rock-main-military-camp-near-capital/a-76931743

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is ready to hold talks with Russia in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Russian attacks killed several people across Ukraine.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said his country is ready to hold talks with Russia in Azerbaijan, where he is currently visiting.

This announcement was made after the Ukrainian leader met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

Earlier, Zelenskyy wrote on X that he had begun his visit to Azerbaijan by meeting a Ukrainian expert team that is sharing their country’s experience of protecting the skies from Russian drones and missiles.

Zelenskyy arrived in Azerbaijan on Friday ​to sign agreements on defense and energy co-operation, after visiting Saudi Arabia, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Russian attacks kill several people across Ukraine
Meanwhile, Russian drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least five people and wounded more than 30 others on Saturday, according to local authorities.

According to the regional head Oleksandr Ganzha, the bodies of the four were found in the ruins of a house that was destroyed in overnight attacks.

“The Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities practically all night,” Ganzha wrote on Telegram.

He also said that a later strike on another apartment building in the city killed one more person.

In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone hit a civilian minibus, killing one person and wounding four, Ivan Fedorov, the head of the region’s administration, said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region was also targeted in overnight Russian attacks, which wounded two people there.

On Saturday, regional head Oleh Kiper said residential buildings, port infrastructure and cars had been damaged in the south of the region.

Russian drone crashes in Romania
As Russia attacked Ukraine’s Odesa region, a drone fell in neighboring Romania. The drone crashed in a residential area of the town of Galati, near the Danube River, which separates the two countries.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Romania, a NATO member, has repeatedly experienced violations of its airspace and found fragments of drones on its territory.

However, according to local media reports, this is the first time that debris from Russian drones has caused material damage on Romanian soil.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/zelenskyy-ready-to-hold-ukraine-russia-talks-in-azerbaijan/a-76933298

THIS is the terrifying moment a cable snaps mid-air on a slingshot-style fairground ride leaving two children dangling 300ft up.

The capsule can be seen slamming into the support poles as onlookers scream in terror in a horror video filmed by an bystander on the ground.

Two brave kids decided to take a turn on the Steel Max ride at Seville’s famous annual fair on Friday evening.

The ride was in an area of attractions dubbed Calle del Infierno which in English translates as Street of Hell.

They were strapped in and launched skyward in a reverse bungee experience.

Everything was going well for the thrillseekers as they were propelled at around 100mph.

They sprung back towards earth thanks to metal cables attached to the capsule and were travelling upwards again when the unthinkable happened.

Suddenly, one of the cables snaps and the capsule swings out of control and slams into a support structure.

The nightmare malfunction left the two children strapped into the ride injured.

Two other people were also reportedly injured as debris fell to the ground from the broken ride.

A Spanish emergency response spokesperson said: “Firefighters have cordoned off the Steel Max attraction after an accident that occurred during its operation at 8.20pm.

“Four people were slightly injured and treated on site although the two on the ride were later taken to a medical center.

“The area was secured after the rescue with the help of Civil Protection workers.

“Local police immediately carried out an inspection of documentation and National Police are taking charge of the investigation.”

The extreme amusement propels a two-person capsule over 300 feet into the air at speeds up to 100mph using a spring-propulsion system or elastic cables.

Riders experience intense acceleration, forces up to 5Gs, temporary weightlessness, and a dramatic, high-speed vertical ascent followed by bouncing.

It was not immediately clear who the other two casualties were apart from the children in the capsule.

The Seville Feria is a week-long spring festival featuring a massive fairground with over 1,000 casetas or tents where locals drink and dance.

It originated in 1847 as an agricultural and livestock fair.

At the same festival, a bullfighter dubbed the world’s worst matador has been brutally gored just 18 months after he was last impaled.

Horrific footage shows the furious beast charging at Andres Roca Rey before it drives its left horn into his upper right thigh.

At the same festival, a bullfighter dubbed the world’s worst matador has been brutally gored just 18 months after he was last impaled.

Horrific footage shows the furious beast charging at Andres Roca Rey before it drives its left horn into his upper right thigh.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16273889/horror-cable-snaps-slingshot-ride-thrill-seekers-smash-pole/

A former reality television star is in the sixth year of his presidency. His Cabinet includes a former wrestling executive along with a onetime “Real World” cast member who was filmed decades ago dancing in nothing but a towel. More than a half-dozen stars from the “Real Housewives” franchise just swung through Capitol Hill.

Shouldn’t TMZ have been in Washington already?

The tabloid gossip site that reinvented Hollywood and celebrity gossip coverage is taking a swing at the nation’s capital of late with TMZ DC, deploying staff to confront lawmakers paparazzi-style in Washington and turning to the public to capture candid images of politicians living it up on the road. The push has already created viral moments, including an image of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., holding a wand at Disney World as chaos gripped airport security lines because of congressional inaction on a funding bill.

On Friday, TMZ put its Beltway foray on display at the Pentagon, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calling on the outlet and singling them out as “new members of our press group here” — a subtle dig that mirrored his not-so-subtle campaign criticism of legacy media outlets.

Washington and Hollywood have long had an awkward relationship, with players in each power center harboring insecurities and misunderstandings about the other as politics and entertainment have steadily merged into a single cultural force.

Earlier efforts by TMZ to build a Washington bureau faltered. But this time may prove different.

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House further normalizes a particular brand of celebrity culture in the nation’s capital that made him a tabloid fixture for decades. Moreover, Congress is currently gripped by scandal, with three lawmakers resigning in April alone after varying allegations, which include sexual misconduct and fraud.

Also, Gallup polling released this week found that disapproval of Congress has climbed to 86%, tying the record high. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s overall job performance, according to AP-NORC polling released this week. That’s a decline of 9 percentage points since early in Trump’s second term.

Washington’s institutions are held in low regard

With Washington’s institutions held in such low regard, the bigger surprise may be that TMZ hasn’t attempted such a flex here sooner.

“I am legitimately surprised they weren’t already there,” said Ana Marie Cox, who wrote the Wonkette blog, which covered Washington with an irreverence that was rare in the early 2000s. “They’re actually a little bit late to the game.”

A representative for TMZ did not respond to a request for comment.

TMZ was founded in 2005 and is still run by hard-charging Los Angeles lawyer and media figure Harvey Levin, who has had an off-and-on relationship with Trump. Within a decade, TMZ made its name with a combination of sleazy and sensational celebrity news. Early in its life, TMZ broke stories that included antisemitic statements made by actor Mel Gibson during an arrest and an angry voicemail message left by actor Alec Baldwin to his daughter.

But the site, whose initials reference the 30-mile zone from the historic center of the television and film industry in Los Angeles, really established itself by breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 and the drug use that led to it.

Its tactics can cross traditional journalistic boundaries, particularly when it comes to paying sources. Beyond the professional breach involved with such arrangements, the payments could run afoul of congressional ethics rules. Levin has not denied paying for story tips, which is frowned upon by traditional journalism outlets.

And TMZ has also had some high-profile failures, including reports that Beyoncé would perform at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which didn’t happen.

Some of TMZ’s work is being applauded

Yet some of TMZ’s early work in Washington is being applauded.

Robert Thompson, a trustee professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, said the photo of Graham at Disney World was genuinely newsworthy because it showed lawmakers away from Washington during a political crisis. A representative for Graham didn’t respond to a request for comment.

TMZ published images of lawmakers from both parties who left Washington during the recent congressional recess that overlapped with the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Beyond Graham, the site published pictures of Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Robert Garcia of California.

TMZ is not currently credentialed by the congressional press galleries. That limits its Washington coverage to walk-and-talk interviews on the sidewalks outside the Capitol or in the hallways of public office buildings — a feature of its ambush-style celebrity interviews.

Some of the interviews are entertaining for audiences who are in on the bit. In one video this week, Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., seemed confused by questions about a party hosted by the gay dating and hookup site Grindr ahead of this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I don’t understand,” Downing said. “Are they a media company?”

Others go in unexpected, sometimes touchingly personal, directions. When Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., was asked how lawmakers celebrate the 4/20 marijuana holiday, she spoke of how the day marked the anniversary of her father’s death.

“4/20 is the day that my daddy died,” she said. “My dad was an amazing man in San Francisco. I think about him every single time there’s 4/20.”

And sometimes the gotcha nature of the reports backfires. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., was among the lawmakers whose image was captured away from Washington during the DHS shutdown. He was shown at his son’s basketball game, prompting defense from colleagues, including Republicans, who said he shouldn’t be shamed for being a present father.

At Friday’s briefing, TMZ’s Charlie Cotton eagerly played into Hegseth’s branding of “the Department of War,” and the Trump administration’s claim that the war in Iran is necessary. “Would you consider changing the name again to the Department of Peace since that’s what we’re all after?” Cotton asked.

Hegseth gushed over the “great question” and declared that “the one institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every single year is the United States military.”

The long history of the ambush interview

The TMZ approach isn’t particularly new. Longtime CBS correspondent Mike Wallace made a habit of the so-called ambush interview, catching unprepared subjects on camera.

Before he broke the news of an extramarital affair that would doom Democrat Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential campaign, Tom Fiedler confronted the Colorado senator in a Washington alley. A reporter for the Miami Herald at the time, Fiedler said he “didn’t set out to do that.”

“We simply found ourselves in that situation,” he recalled this week. “At that point, we knew that he knew we were there to observe what he was doing. Our feeling was we needed to let him know who we were so he wouldn’t think there was, in the worst case, an attempted assassin stalking him.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/tmz-dc-congress-reporting-celebrity-trump-politics-5982252bc3bd3a489a21d03ab8918b15

The body of a Bangladeshi doctoral student who went missing with his girlfriend from the University of South Florida was found on a bridge over Tampa Bay, and his roommate has been taken into custody, law enforcement authorities said Friday.

Zamil Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Frankland bridge Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing, Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said.

Limon’s roommate Hisham Saleh Abugharbeih, 26, was taken into custody at his family’s home nearby on preliminary charges that include unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment and battery. He was expected to make a first appearance in court Saturday morning.

“We are still actively searching for Nahida,” Maurer said, appealing to the public to share any useful information. Law enforcement dive teams were searching the bay near the bridge as part of those efforts, the sheriff’s office said.

Officers encountered Abugharbeih as they responded to a report of domestic violence at his family’s home, just north of the campus, and were able to move his relatives to safety. But then he barricaded himself inside and refused to come out. A SWAT team responded — along with a drone, a robot and crisis negotiators — before Abugarbeih came out with his hands up, apparently wearing nothing but a blue towel.

“This is a deeply disturbing case that has shaken our community and impacted many who were hoping for a safe resolution,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “While the discovery of Zamil Limon’s remains is heartbreaking, I want the public to know that our detectives worked and are working tirelessly and relentlessly to uncover the truth.”

Limon and Bristy, both 27, were considering getting married, a relative said. They disappeared from campus on April 16. Limon was last seen at his home in an off-campus apartment complex where he lived with Abugharbeih. Bristy, who lived on campus, was last seen an hour later at a campus science building.

A family friend contacted authorities last Friday after being unable to contact either one, USF police said.

Investigators spoke with Abugharbeih, who is a native-born U.S. citizen, on Thursday, Maurer said, but after initially talking, Abugharbeih chose to end the interview. He said Abugharbeih was speaking with detectives again after his arrest Friday morning.

There are no other suspects in the investigation at this time, Maurer said.

An autopsy is being done on the remains to determine the manner and cause of Limon’s death, and those results are expected Saturday morning, he said.

Abugharbeih had been a USF student but was not currently enrolled. University records showed he had attended the school from Spring 2021 through Spring 2023, and had pursued a BS in Management, a university spokesperson said.

Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy, and Bristy is studying chemical engineering.

Abugharbeih had several previous arrests, the sheriff’s office said. He was charged with battery and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling in September 2023, and with battery that May — both classified in court records as misdemeanors. Court records show Abugharbeih entered into a diversion program for first-time offenders charged with misdemeanors. He completed the program in 2024 and the charges were discontinued. A phone call to his lawyer in that case was not immediately returned.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/florida-usf-missing-students-bangladesh-43a85acb9d9e1ef964470bbba7cd0724

Fashionistas knew this already: “Fashion is Art.” But how will Met Gala guests interpret that dress code at this year’s extravaganza?

Last year’s theme, “Tailored For You,” led to a lot of great suits; this year’s promises to produce some truly flamboyant attire as guests mount the famous carpeted steps on May 4. As always, the dress code is inspired by the spring exhibit at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Costume Art” will pair some 200 art objects with 200 garments to highlight the connection between fashion and art through the centuries.

Here are some key things to know as fashion’s biggest night approaches:

When is the Met Gala?

As always, the first Monday in May.

What exactly is the Met Gala?

It’s a fundraiser for the Costume Institute, the only self-funding department at the Met — and it’s a huge one. Last year the evening brought in a record sum of more than $31 million.

Who’s hosting?

None other than Beyoncé, a familiar gala guest, is a co-chair, joined by Nicole Kidman,tennis champ Venus Williams and the one who runs it all, Vogue’s Anna Wintour. There’s also a “host committee” chaired by designer Anthony Vaccarello and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz, and featuring names from Sabrina Carpenter and Teyana Taylor to Lena Dunham and Misty Copeland.

But the names generating the most discussion are ….

“The exhibition and benefit are made possible by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos,” said a Met press release in February. We tried, but the museum won’t say how much the Amazon founder and his wife, as lead sponsors and honorary chairs, are contributing. Protest against their participation has come from an activist group called Everyone Hates Elon, which posted an Instagram video of members hacking subway display cases to post anti-billionaire messages.

Who WON’T be there?

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office on an affordability platform, told the local news outlet Hell Gate he will not attend. Among past New York mayors who’ve attended is Eric Adams, who wore a tuxedo with the words “End Gun Violence” on the back in 2022.

Anything new this year?

Yes, new digs. “Costume Art” will inaugurate the Conde M. Nast Galleries, created from what was formerly the museum’s retail store and occupying nearly 12,000 square feet (1,115 square meters) off the museum’s Great Hall.

Aside from giving fashion a grander display space, this means gala guests now can stroll easily between the show and the dinner at the Temple of Dendur. In a more lasting way, it will prevent snaking lines elsewhere in the museum once the show opens to the public May 10.

Even the mannequins are new

Despite the prominence of classic body shapes through art history, curator Andrew Bolton has made sure there’s an element of body positivity in his exhibit, with sections on body types long ignored in art: the corpulent body, for example, and the disabled body. And he’s added 25 new mannequins that reflect these body types. Nine real-life people — including disability activist Sinéad Burke and musician Yseult — allowed their bodies to be digitally scanned for the mannequins, which will also bear mirror-like polished steel surfaces so viewers can see themselves.

How long has this been going on?

The Met Gala started in 1948 as a Manhattan society midnight supper — held at various places like the Waldorf Astoria and the Rainbow Room. It took many years before it turned into a global event and one of the starriest nights of the year.

Can anyone buy a ticket to the Met Gala?

No. You must be rich, famous or powerful enough to be invited.

If I had one, how much would it cost?

Individual tickets are $100,000, and a table of 10 starts at $350,000. There will be approximately 400 guests in all.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/met-gala-beyonce-jeff-bezos-5014084c48de8d13488925287669fe94

Members of the screenwriters union overwhelmingly ratified a four-year agreement with Hollywood studios and streamers on Friday, bringing an end to a surprisingly smooth and quick process that brought a prolonged strike the last time around.

Union leaders said 90% voted to approve the deal struck between the Writers Guild of America West, Writers Guild of America East and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Studios will now shift to negotiations with actors and directors.

Leaders of the unions emphasized gains in health coverage.

“In the face of industry contraction and runaway health care cost inflation, writers were able to secure a contract that returns our Health Fund to a sustainable path and builds on gains from the 2023 strike,” WGA West President Michele Mulroney said in a statement.

Guild leaders said the deal also includes minimum pay hikes, especially for comedy and variety writers, with more money in residuals for the re-airing of their work.

The AMPTP congratulated the union on the ratification.

“This deal reflects a collaborative approach that supports both writers and the industry’s long-term stability,” it said in its own statement.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/writers-guild-contract-approved-wga-sag-d46bf8ff282fe68f214bcc9e8bdd4631

The vengeful sister-in-law who doused a UK bride in black paint spilled the details on the messy family feud behind what she branded a “spur of the moment” attack.

Antonia Eastwood – sentenced last week for the spite-fueled May 2024 outburst aimed at bride Gemma Monk – told the Daily Mail that she is “ashamed” of what happened at the Maidstone wedding, but claimed simmering tensions and jealousy between them had been brewing for years.

The 49-year-old hairdresser claimed the blazing rivalry began when she started dating Monk’s brother in April 2023.

The pair married just five months later – but Eastwood said setting the date sent Monk into a jealous spiral, as her partner of more than 20 years still hadn’t asked her to tie the knot.

“After that, Gemma started coming round and talking about Ash’s past girlfriends,” she told the outlet.

“She’d say, ‘Aren’t you bothered about all those other girls?’ I kept telling her I wasn’t jealous of Ash’s past. I knew what she was doing wasn’t right, but she was part of my soon-to-be husband’s family.”

Monk, 35, also admitted “bad blood” between them, noting she “didn’t warm to” Eastwood “that much.”

Eastwood claimed her new sister-in-law then set out to sabotage her wedding – with Monk ousting her longtime beau as best man and then trying to trip her as she walked down the aisle.

Monk denied the “ridiculous” tripping attempt, stressing she isn’t tall enough to do it “even if I wanted to,” and pointing to wedding footage that shows Eastwood walking past her “without any incident.”

The bitter fallout escalated further when Monk banned her brother and his new wife from her nuptials a year later – but the pair still showed up.

Eastwood said she intended to give the bride a “piece of my mind,” the outlet reported.

Eastwood then found her daughter’s tub of “child-friendly” black paint in the car upon arriving – which she claims was a coincidence – before hurling it at Monk just moments before she walked down the aisle.

“I saw [Monk] get out of her car – she was a few yards away,” she said.

“Then I just shouted to her and threw the paint. It hit the back of her dress. I don’t know why I did it,” Eastwood added, claiming the cruel payback was a “spur of the moment thing.”

Shocking photos showed the crestfallen bride-to-be with dark, mud-like paint covering the left side of her face and chest and spattered across her white wedding dress.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/24/world-news/truth-behind-ugly-family-feud-that-led-to-supposed-spur-of-the-moment-black-paint-attack-on-bride/

Thirty-one sloths planned for a new “slothnarium” in Florida have died before the attraction’s planned opening, authorities have found.

The mammals were planned to be showcased at a permanent, public exhibit at Sloth World in Orlando, set to open this spring.

Many of the sloths died due to conditions at a Florida warehouse where they’d been shipped, according to a report released on Friday by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Others arrived in Florida already dead or appeared in ill health and later died, the report states.

The owner of Sloth World has denied allegations in the report and said there is “so much false and inaccurate information out there right now”.

“The truth is, we lost sloths that had a virus of which showed barely any symptoms and was undetectable even after necropsy,” Ben Agresta, the owner of Sloth World, told Fox-35 in Orlando.

The BBC has contacted Sloth World, along with its listed owner and representatives.

Sloth World is advertised as Orlando’s only “slotharium,” with a rainforest-inspired habitat “designed exclusively with sloth well-being in mind”, according to its website.

The report from the FWC, which was obtained by the BBC on Friday, outlines two instances the mammals dying ahead of the attraction’s planned opening.

In December 2024, 21 sloths shipped from Guyana died due to cold conditions at a warehouse in Florida where they were shipped, according to the FWC report.

Then in February 2025, two of 10 sloths travelling from Peru arrived dead. The remaining eight “appeared emaciated” and later succumbed to “poor health issues”, the report states.

When FWC investigators were alerted and began investigating, Peter Bandre, who is listed online as the attraction’s vice-president, told them that the warehouse where the sloths died was not properly set to receive the animals.

Bandre told investigators: “It was too late to cancel the shipment.”

He attributed their deaths to a “cold stun”, the report adds.

The building had no water or electricity, so space heaters were purchased to keep it warm for the animals. But the heaters tripped a fuse and shut down, the report states.

For at least one night, the sloths were in the building without heat, investigators found. The animals are native to tropical rain forests and typically live in areas with temperatures ranging from 70F – 86F (21C – 30C).

The report notes those sloths arrived in Florida on 18 December 2024. Historical weather data shows lows hit 46F (7C) the following week.

In its investigation, the FWC also found that in two instances, the sloths under Bandre’s care were in cages that did not meet captive wildlife requirements. A verbal warning was issued at the time.

It its promotional material, Sloth World describes Bandre as “one of the most respected sloth experts in the world”.

The FWC closed its investigations into the animal deaths without a written warning or citation, an agency spokesperson told the BBC. There are, however, a number of other regulatory bodies investigating, the spokesperson said.

The Orange County’s Building Safety’s office on Thursday posted a stop work order at the warehouse where animals had been housed. A report obtained by the BBC from the agency notes alleged violations of state building codes and county rules.

It’s unclear whether the attraction, located in a popular tourist corridor in Orlando, will open as planned later this year.

The FWC said the owner of Sloth World has a permit for wildlife on file. The permit allows individuals or businesses to exhibit or sell wildlife.

Local media has also reported that more than a dozen remaining sloths set to be part of the attraction were now being cared for by another zoo in Central Florida.

The revelations about Sloth World has prompted criticism from several lawmakers and animal rights advocates.

Florida state Rep Anna Eskamani said the case exposed a “major gap” in wildlife permits, as FWC is not required to be alerted to animal deaths.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz675j3y151o

The eldest son of the late Hollywood director Rob Reiner has told how his world “collapsed” after his parents were stabbed to death, and his own brother was charged with their murders.

Jake Reiner, 34, wrote in a blog post that “nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it”.

“My world, as I knew it, had collapsed,” the actor wrote of the moment his sister phoned him with the devastating news. “I was in a trance.”

Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home in December. Their youngest son, Nick Reiner, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murder. He is due back in court next week.

In a lengthy Substack post published on Friday, Jake Reiner wrote: “We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable.”

“Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process.

He continued: “I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.”

Rob Reiner, 78, directed films including This Is Spinal Tap, the Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and Stand By Me.

Michele Singer Reiner, 70, was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.

The Reiners were found dead in their Brentwood home by their daughter Romy on 14 December.

The couple died from “multiple sharp force injuries”, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

Nick Reiner was arrested in Los Angeles the same day, as US outlets reported that he and his father had attended a party the previous night and had a row.

Prosecutors allege that Nick Reiner fatally stabbed his father and mother inside a bedroom of their home before fleeing.

He faces two counts of first-degree murder, with a special circumstance alleging multiple murders.

He remains in custody and is next due in court on 29 April.

Jake Reiner said he keeps thinking about how frightened his parents must have been the night they died and that they were “the last people in the world to deserve what happened to them”.

“They deserved to be loved, they deserved to be respected, and above all they deserved to be appreciated for how much they gave to all three of us and to the world,” he wrote.

His 1,625-word essay follows a statement released jointly with his sister in December in which they did not directly address the allegations against their brother.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74v2enw8l7o

 

Amid rising numbers of complaints and attacks, Talking Point looks into waste management issues and control strategies for crows, with a conservationist saying that easy access to food waste is helping fuel their population growth.

The mandatory tray return scheme, and the way it has been managed, could be one reason for the crow population increase in Singapore, according to a conservation expert.

Authorities began encouraging diners to return their trays and crockery in 2020. This became mandatory in 2021. At about the same time, the number of crow-related complaints started to rise.

And that is no coincidence, thinks Nature Society Singapore assistant director of conservation Albert Liu. “We continue to have hawker centres and coffee shops placing tray returns at the edge of (dining spaces), so open … to the birds,” he observed.

“If we can control the way we manage food waste — how we do our tray returns — there’ll be (fewer) crows in due time.”

About 15,000 complaints about crows were filed last year, triple the number in 2020. More people are also being attacked; over 2,000 cases were reported last year, up from more than 460 cases in 2020.

This crow problem has grown alongside the bird’s population size, from an estimated 7,300 crows in 2016 to about 160,000 by 2024. That is one crow for every 38 people in Singapore.

And the increase is due to the accessibility of urban food sources, Liu stressed. “Because the crows have no natural predator, … food is one of the key determinants of the crow population,” he told Talking Point.

“There’s so much food (in Singapore). And when they meet, they reproduce. … When all the food is taken out, … you’ll see the population of the crows decline.”

Speaking to programme host Steven Chia in Pasir Ris Park, he pointed out that the cawing of crows — heard every day in residential areas from Bishan to Hougang to Yishun — was absent as they walked along a mangrove trail.

“The food that crows need can be found all in the forest here,” Liu said. “But it’s hard work for them, right? They must hunt for it, … and they just prefer the urban environment.”

Across Singapore, authorities have removed nests and set traps. Last month, crow shooting resumed after a six-year hiatus. But questions remain about the efforts to catch up with the crow problem.

WHAT NPARKS HAS DONE

One of the people managing the issues with urban birds is National Parks Board (NParks) deputy director of wildlife management and outreach Gerard Lim.

And one of the possible reasons he cited for the crow population growth is that “there are more and more eateries and … food sources available” to the crows.

There were 50,700 National Environment Agency hawker stalls, other food stalls and food shops including restaurants and eateries in 2024 — close to 5 per cent more than the number in 2020 and about 13 per cent more than in 2016.

“It’s not just the food establishments,” Lim added, citing estate cleanliness and food litter as other possibilities. “Or maybe (by) just eating biscuits and then dropping some crumbs on the floor, … this provides food sources for these crows.”

Data on estate cleanliness is collected from inspections conducted by Housing and Development Board officers. Since 2016, only once has a town council not achieved a green banding for estate cleanliness in the annual Town Council Management Report.

To keep the number of crows in check, NParks is getting rid of the next generation by removing about 30 to 60 nests each day, with three to five eggs found in each nest.

As nest removal alone has not been enough, trapping has been ramped up to target areas where crows gather and feed. Captured crows are then euthanised.

Generally, NParks can catch more than 10 crows a day in each location and up to 50 a week per location.

One resident of a neighbourhood where traps have been deployed has seen up to 20 crows trapped and thinks it is an effective method.

Still, it is not foolproof. Closed-circuit television footage of one trap showed more crows outside than the ones inside. The traps, which NParks said are cleared daily, are also not placed near hawker centres and coffee shops.

“When there’s a high footfall, it kind of spooks the crows,” said Lim, who noted that they will go for more convenient food sources that they see, “as opposed to entering a cage … to feed”.

More than 13,000 crows were caught last year — about 8 per cent of the population. “We’re constantly improving and trying to find ways to … bring down the numbers fast,” he added.

SMART CRITTERS, INVASIVE PESTS

For all these efforts, the crows are adapting. Traps can be deployed only so many times in a location — deploying them too often will result in the birds figuring out what they are, said Lim.

Bishan resident Ronnie Kuek has seen this with his own eyes. There are crows in his area that wake him up as early as 6am every day, and he has logged complaints through the Municipal Services Office’s OneService app.

“Because of the noise, we always keep our door and windows closed,” said Kuek, who has also been attacked once, when a crow swooped down on his head while he was walking.

After his first complaint in 2021, a trap was set up at the back of his apartment block. He used to see a few crows inside, “then … they stopped going in”, he recalled. “I think crows are quite smart.”

Animal behaviour expert Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, who has more than 10 research papers on members of the crow family to his name, can vouch for their intelligence.

“Social learning, (or) learning from others, is something that we don’t see … in other animals as we see in crows,” he said.

A theme park in France has even taught crows to pick up litter such as cigarette butts and put them in a box, he highlighted.

Of the various animals Talking Point has investigated, from monkeys to pigeons to rats, he would rank crows as the smartest, then “monkeys and rats together, and pigeons at the bottom”.

But pigeons “aren’t as dumb as they seem”, as they are good at pattern recognition. Rats, meanwhile, “are great at puzzle-solving in terms of labyrinths — they have great memory”. As for monkeys, they have thumbs and can use tools.

“The issue here is that crows can do all of these,” said Garcia-Pelegrin, the director of the Animal Behaviour and Cognition Lab, a research group in the National University of Singapore’s psychology department.

In some cases, they can also live for up to 30 years. “It depends on their environment,” he added. “But here, crows are healthy.”

The thing is, the species of crows ruffling feathers here — that thrives on human food, adapts quickly to urban life and is known to be aggressive, especially when nesting — is not native to Singapore.

They are house crows, an invasive species that “causes damage to our ecosystem”, said Liu, whose job is to help protect Singapore’s natural habitats and biodiversity.

“They prey on the eggs of our native birds. … They outcompete our native wildlife for food and nesting sites,” he elucidated, citing a risk to the critically endangered straw-headed bulbul, “one of the most precious birds we have”.

“We have to deal with the situation right now. … The (crow) population is huge, and if it grows any larger, there’ll definitely be negative impacts (on) our ecosystem.”

SHOOTING CROWS, NO COUNT TARGET YET

To complement the existing crow management efforts, shooting has now resumed in nine districts with a high level of crow activity where conditions allow for safe operations and where traps have proven less effective.

Kuek, who has lived in Bishan for about 20 years, observed that when shooting stopped in 2020, his problems started. The crow culling measure, which began in 1973, was halted after pellets hit homes and safety concerns grew.

So, how have safety protocols been stepped up? In a shooting operation in Jurong observed by the media this month, safety areas were marked out, and extra security officers were around to keep watch.

The shooter had to stand in a blue square, where the angles of shooting were also specified. This meant, for instance, he could not turn to shoot at crows behind him.

Members of the media witnessed six crows being shot. Another 10 crows were brought down later in the operation, which spanned an hour.

NParks director of wildlife management and outreach (urban birds) Soh Ze Bin agreed with Chia that such numbers were not really moving the needle.

“But … having more options on hand is going to enable us to sort of address this crow issue,” Soh said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/singapore-crows-population-growth-tray-return-scheme-nparks-shooting-6075866

Data center developer Related Digital said on Friday it has secured financing for a $16 billion data center campus it is building in Michigan for Oracle.

• The financing includes equity from Related Digital and funds affiliated with Blackstone, as well as fixed-rate, long-term debt financing anchored by PIMCO-managed funds and accounts, the company said.

• PIMCO bought about $10 billion of the bonds that priced Friday, while other investors bought the remainder of the debt, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar. PIMCO declined to comment to Reuters.

• OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital in October announced the project of more than 1 gigawatt data center in Saline Township, Michigan, as part of their push to expand U.S. AI infrastructure capacity. Construction started in February.

• Big Tech companies have been pouring billions into building AI infrastructure. Alphabet, Amazon and Meta will collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure this year, according to Bridgewater Associates.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/related-digital-secures-financing-16-billion-oracle-data-center-in-michigan-6080191

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals ​for restarting peace talks with the U.S., offering some hope for an end to the eight-week war that has killed thousands and sown turmoil in global markets.
U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Friday that Iran ‌plans to make an offer aimed at satisfying U.S. demands, but said he did not yet know what the offer entailed.

When asked who the U.S. was negotiating with, Trump said: “I don’t want to say that, but we’re dealing with the people that are in charge now.”
But Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on X that Iranian officials did not plan to meet with U.S. representatives, even though U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner planned to travel to Islamabad. Iran’s concerns would be conveyed to Pakistan, the spokesperson said.
After a U.S. bombing campaign and ​Iran’s blocking of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the two countries are at a costly impasse, with Iran’s oil exports blocked and U.S. gasoline prices at multi-year highs.

Speaking before the Iranian foreign ministry’s statement, White House press ​secretary Karoline Leavitt said Witkoff and Kushner would leave for Pakistan on Saturday morning for talks with Araqchi.
Leavitt struck an upbeat tone, saying the U.S. had seen some progress from ⁠the Iranian side in recent days and hoped more would come this weekend.
She added that U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who earlier this month led a first round of unsuccessful talks with Iran to end their war, is ready to travel to ​Pakistan as well.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Iranian statement.
Pakistani sources said earlier that a U.S. logistics and security team was already in place in Islamabad for potential talks.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed Araqchi’s ​arrival in Islamabad, where a heavy military and paramilitary presence was visible across the central parts of the city.

Speaking before the Iranian foreign ministry’s statement, White House press ​secretary Karoline Leavitt said Witkoff and Kushner would leave for Pakistan on Saturday morning for talks with Araqchi.
Leavitt struck an upbeat tone, saying the U.S. had seen some progress from ⁠the Iranian side in recent days and hoped more would come this weekend.
She added that U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who earlier this month led a first round of unsuccessful talks with Iran to end their war, is ready to travel to ​Pakistan as well.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Iranian statement.
Pakistani sources said earlier that a U.S. logistics and security team was already in place in Islamabad for potential talks.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed Araqchi’s ​arrival in Islamabad, where a heavy military and paramilitary presence was visible across the central parts of the city.

The last round of peace talks had been expected to resume ‌on Tuesday but ⁠never took place, with Iran saying it was not yet ready to commit to attending and a U.S. delegation led by Vance never leaving Washington.
Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.
Oil prices remained volatile on Friday, as traders weighed potential disruption from the worst oil shock in history amid the prospect for further talks.
Brent crude futures settled at $105.33 a barrel, about 0.3% higher, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 1% at $94.88.

HEZBOLLAH DISMISSES LEBANON CEASEFIRE EXTENSION

On Thursday, Israel and Lebanon extended a separate ceasefire for three weeks at a White House meeting brokered by Trump.
The war in Lebanon, which Israel invaded last month to root out Iran’s Hezbollah allies after the militant group fired across the border, ​has run in parallel with the wider Iran war, ​and Tehran says a ceasefire there is a precondition ⁠for talks.
There was little sign of an end to the fighting in southern Lebanon. Lebanese authorities reported two people were killed by an Israeli strike and Hezbollah downed an Israeli drone.
While the ceasefire that came into force on April 16 has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade blows in southern Lebanon, where Israel has ​kept soldiers in a self-declared “buffer zone.”
“It is essential to point out that the ceasefire is meaningless in light of Israel’s insistence on hostile acts, including assassinations, shelling, and gunfire” ​and its demolition of villages and ⁠towns in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said in response to the extension of the ceasefire.
Israel’s military said it had killed six armed Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon on Friday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-lebanon-extend-ceasefire-trump-seeks-best-deal-with-iran-2026-04-24/

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that a U.S. blockade on ​Iran is going global, adding Tehran had a chance to make a “good deal” ‌with Washington.
“Our blockade is growing and going global,” Hegseth told reporters.

“No one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without the permission of the United States Navy,” he said.
Peace talks ​between Iran and the United States could resume soon in Pakistan, three Pakistani ​sources told Reuters on Friday, after the last round of talks expected ⁠earlier this week fell through.

Standing next to top U.S. General Dan Caine, Hegseth said ​the U.S. was “not anxious” for a deal with Iran, and repeated Trump’s previous comments of ​having “all the time in the world.”
“Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely … at the negotiating table. All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and ​verifiable ways,” he said.

Caine said the U.S. Central Command continues to maintain a ​strict blockade on all ports in Iran. Thirty-four ships had been turned around as of Friday morning, he ‌said. The U.S. ⁠military would continue to interdict Iranian vessels in the Pacific and Indian oceans, Caine added.

“We’re enforcing the blockade across the board against any ship of any nationality that is transiting to or from an Iranian port or territory,” Caine said.
“We’re closely tracking vessels of ​interest headed towards Iran ​and those moving ⁠away from Iran that were outside the blockade area when this blockade was ordered and … we’re prepared and postured to intercept them,” he ​said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pentagon-chief-hegseth-says-iran-has-chance-make-good-deal-2026-04-24/

The Justice Department is closing its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Friday, removing an obstacle ​to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the central bank.
The move by Pirro, a Trump ally and the top federal prosecutor in ‌Washington, D.C., for now ends an inquiry involving renovation costs for Fed buildings that had been rebuked by a federal judge and prompted a key Republican senator to block Trump’s nominees to the central bank.

Pirro said she had instead asked the Fed’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General, to examine cost overruns in renovations of the central bank’s Washington headquarters. The inspector general has already been examining the project after Powell requested a review last year.
“The ​IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers,” Pirro said in a social media post. “I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am ​confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas.”

JUDGE HALTED PROBE

The Powell probe, which ⁠had been examining the renovation and Powell’s statements to Congress last year about the project, became the latest flashpoint in the Justice Department’s pursuit of adversaries and critics of Trump.

A federal judge ​last month blocked subpoenas to the Fed’s Board of Governors, finding they were issued for the improper purpose of pressuring Powell to cave to Trump’s demands to rapidly lower interest rates or resign. Chief ​U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found prosecutors had shown “essentially zero evidence” Powell committed a crime.
As recently as this week, Pirro had vowed to continue the investigation and appeal the ruling, which DOJ lawyers have not yet filed in court. She said reports of cost overruns in the $2.5 billion project were enough of a basis to conduct an inquiry.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has vowed not to support Warsh ​until the DOJ ends what he has called a baseless investigation into Powell. Tillis’ blockade had effectively stalled Warsh’s confirmation.

A spokesperson for Tillis had no immediate comment on Friday, but Tillis indicated ​during Warsh’s confirmation hearing this week that he would support Warsh if the Justice Department abandoned the probe into Powell.

The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, on Friday said he would ‌ask the ⁠inspector general to brief the panel within 90 days on its findings.
A spokesperson for the Fed declined to comment. A White House spokesperson said the inspector general was best positioned “to get to the bottom of the matter” and said it was confident the Senate would confirm Warsh.
The decision to end the probe may clear the way for Warsh’s Senate confirmation as Fed chair, potentially by May 15 when Powell’s leadership term ends. It’s less clear if the move meets Powell’s own bar for stepping down as governor.
“I have no intention of leaving the Board until the investigation is well and ​truly over, with transparency and finality,” Powell said ​last month. Pirro said on Friday that ⁠she may resume her investigation depending on the inspector general’s findings.

WATCHDOG REVIEW ALREADY UNDERWAY

The Fed’s current $2.46 billion budget for overhauling the two buildings is about $1.1 billion more than it had originally allocated in 2020, with most of the increase attributable to rising costs for material and labor driven by ​the post-pandemic surge in inflation, Fed budget documents show.
A spokesperson for the Fed’s inspector general said on Friday that the office has been ​reviewing the renovation project since ⁠July 2025, including examining “substantial cost increases and overruns.”
“We are actively working to complete our review, and look forward to making the results available to the public and Congress upon completion,” the spokesperson said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/justice-dept-close-investigation-federal-reserve-renovations-us-attorney-pirro-2026-04-24/

New York Times reports Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is severely injured and in hiding, IRGC commanders now drive key military and diplomatic decisions in Tehran

A group of senior Iranian military commanders is effectively steering key decisions in Tehran as the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei remains largely out of direct control and communicates through handwritten letters, according to a New York Times report.

The report said Khamenei, who was seriously injured in US-Israeli airstrikes earlier this year, has limited access to officials and is not exercising centralised authority in the way his father, the late Ali Khamenei, once did. Instead, power has shifted to top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), described by insiders as functioning like a “board of generals” guiding strategy and governance.

Leader Communicating Through Letters

According to the report, Khamenei is in hiding and his communication is being routed through handwritten notes sealed in envelopes and passed along a chain of trusted couriers. These messages travel across highways and back roads before reaching their destination, with responses sent back the same way.

Access to the leader is said to be extremely restricted, with even senior officials and military chiefs avoiding direct contact due to fears of being targeted. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon, has reportedly been involved in overseeing his medical treatment.

Injuries Limit Direct Control

The report said Khamenei sustained severe injuries in the strikes, including burns to his face and damage to his limbs, leaving him with limited ability to speak and move. He has undergone multiple surgeries and is expected to require further treatment, including reconstructive procedures.

Despite this, officials cited in the report described him as mentally alert, though physically constrained, contributing to his reliance on intermediaries and advisers.

Generals Driving Key Decisions

Analysts and former officials told the publication that decision-making has shifted significantly, with IRGC commanders now taking the lead on major issues, including military strategy, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and diplomatic engagement with the United States.

A former adviser to ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying Khamenei is operating more like a “director of the board,” with generals acting as the key decision-makers. Others described him as not being in full command, with decisions often presented to him after being finalised.

Shift From Centralised Authority

The arrangement marks a departure from the earlier system under Ali Khamenei, who maintained firm, centralised control over Iran’s political and military apparatus.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iran-war-decisions-now-taken-by-irgc-board-of-generals-injured-mojtaba-communicates-by-letters-ws-l-10053481.html

 

Trump said he has no plans of deploying nuclear arms but maintained that the Islamic Republic was already “decimated” through conventional means.

US President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t turn the war in Iran into a nuclear conflict but threatened, “The clock is ticking” for Tehran to make a peace deal with Washington as a third American aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East. The warning came as Iranian media reported blasts over Tehran, a first since an increasingly tenuous ceasefire came into effect two weeks ago.

The cause of the blast is still unknown. However, Israeli sources told news agency AFP that their country was not currently striking Iran.

Trump’s Threat

Talking to reporters in the White House, Trump said he has no plans of deploying nuclear arms but maintained that the Islamic Republic was already “decimated” through conventional means.

“Why would I use a nuclear weapon? We’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it,” he said.

“No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”

Trump, meanwhile, ordered the US Navy to destroy any Iranian boat caught laying mines in Hormuz.

Later, he posted on his Truth Social platform that the ‘clock was ticking’ for Iran to make a deal.

“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!” Trump said, adding that Iran’s military was destroyed and “their leaders are no longer with us, the Blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse.”

US-Iran Standoff

Prospective peace talks between Iran and the US, set to be held in Pakistan, are hanging in the balance, with no sign of a return to diplomacy to end a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. Since Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire, both Washington and Tehran have shifted their focus to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports ordinarily flow. Iran has, in effect, closed it in retaliation for the war.

US’ Third Aircraft Carrier In Gulf

The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, bringing the number of massive American warships operating in the region to three. “A second carrier was operating in the Red Sea on Thursday, while a third is also in the region,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-us-war-live-news-donald-trumps-new-ultimatum-to-iran-rules-out-nuclear-strike-clocks-ticking-11401382?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

In Washington, at least 11 incidents involving scientists in areas such as nuclear technology, space research and advanced weapons are under scrutiny.

Something strange is happening to some of the world’s top defence scientists. In China, they are dying in car crashes in the middle of the night. In America, they are vanishing. All of them have worked at the cutting edge of military technology, including artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, nuclear research, and space defence.

These disappearances are fueling conspiracy theories and raising one question: Is it just a mere coincidence or a well-thought-out plot?

In Washington, at least 11 incidents involving scientists in areas such as nuclear technology, space research and advanced weapons are under scrutiny. The issue has reached political circles, with Republican Representative Eric Burlison suggesting a possible “foreign operation”.

“We are in competition with China, Russia, and Iran on nuclear technology, advanced weapons, and space. Meanwhile, our top scientists keep vanishing,” he wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump described the situation as “pretty serious stuff”, while expressing hope that it may be coincidental. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation.

Across the Pacific, reports from Chinese and overseas media point to at least nine deaths of scientists working in similarly sensitive sectors. Most cases have been attributed to accidents, sudden illnesses, or remain unexplained. The scientists were aged between 26 and 68.

One of the most closely watched cases is that of Feng Yanghe, a 38-year-old professor at the National University of Defence Technology, who died in a car crash in Beijing in July 2023.

Feng had been working on simulation models related to potential scenarios involving Taiwan. According to state reports, he was returning from a meeting at around 2.35 am when the accident occurred.

A government-affiliated science platform described him as having been “sacrificed while performing official duties”, a phrase more commonly used for military personnel. He was later buried at Babaoshan cemetery, a site typically reserved for Communist Party elites and state-recognised figures.

A researcher tracking Chinese military developments told Newsweek that aspects of the case appeared unusual, including the timing of the crash and the official description of his death.

“Feng was a mastermind behind AI simulations of potential Taiwan scenarios, and it’s very odd that the accident happened in the middle of the night,” the researcher said.

They also questioned the terminology used in official accounts, noting that a road accident victim would not typically be described as having “sacrificed” his life.

This is not an isolated incident. Several other Chinese scientists in critical domains have died in recent years:

• Chen Shuming, 57, a microelectronics specialist, died in a similar incident in 2018.
• Feng Yanghe, a military AI expert, died in a car crash in July 2023.
• Zhou Guangyuan, a chemist, died in December 2023 of unspecified cause.
• Liu Donghao, a data scientist, died after an unspecified accident in March 2024.
• Zhang Xiaoxin, 62, a space expert, died in a car accident in December 2024.
• Zhang Daibing, 47, a drone expert, died in January 2025. The cause is not disclosed.
• Li Minyong, a biomedical chemist, died following a sudden illness in November 2025.
• Fang Daining, a hypersonics expert, died after a medical episode abroad in February 2026.
• Yan Hong, a hypersonics researcher, reportedly died after an illness in March 2026.

Many of the scientists were working in fields considered strategically significant, particularly in military AI, hypersonics and advanced weapons systems.

“The areas are in hypersonics, in military AI, including swarming technology simulations… these types of tech seem to be overrepresented,” the researcher said, while adding that some cases could still be “complete accidents”.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/20-scientists-2-giants-mysterious-deaths-disappearances-rattle-us-china-11400824?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Over the last quarter century, Elon Musk ​revived space travel, turning cosmic exploration into thriving businesses. For its next act, Musk’s SpaceX is eyeing an even bigger opportunity in something ‌more prosaic: building artificial intelligence for the enterprise.
SpaceX estimates that its total addressable market – a closely watched metric – could be as much as $28.5 trillion, according to a S-1 filing reviewed by Reuters. TAM is the maximum revenue a company could generate if it captured every customer in a particular market.

The S-1 regulatory filing, in which companies disclose their financials and key risks before going ​public, shows that SpaceX expects more than 90% of that market – or $26.5 trillion – could stem from the AI sector. The vast majority of that, $22.7 trillion, could come ​from AI for businesses.
The company is moving ahead with an IPO expected this summer targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion and seeking ⁠to raise about $75 billion, which would make it the largest initial public offering in history.
“We believe we have identified the largest actionable total addressable market in human ​history,” according to the filing.

The new information about where SpaceX sees its biggest market opportunity stands in stark contrast to how the company currently makes its money.
SpaceX did ​not reply to a request for comment.
Although a company’s TAM is neither a forecast or a valuation, it is an important indicator for investors evaluating a high-growth company’s potential.
These figures are often vast and rarely questioned. When Uber went public in 2019, it claimed a $5.7 trillion market opportunity for its ride-sharing business alone.
The eye-popping opportunity identified by SpaceX, tucked into more than 300 ​pages detailing its finances, underscores Musk’s long-held desire to occupy a central role in the advancement of AI technology.
The AI for enterprise market is currently dominated ​by Anthropic and OpenAI, AI industry leaders locked in intense competition, and both of which have indicated intentions to go public as early as this year.

In February, SpaceX acquired xAI, an ‌AI research ⁠company founded by Musk in early 2023. The filing seen by Reuters shows that xAI remains a nascent and deeply loss-making operation.
The AI unit posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion in 2025, sharply wider than the $1.6 billion loss a year earlier.
Those losses eclipsed the $4.4 billion in operating profit generated by Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet business and its largest revenue engine, which brought in $11.4 billion of its $18.7 billion total revenue last year. Overall, SpaceX lost $4.9 billion.
SpaceX’s AI unit is also resource hungry. In 2025, ​SpaceX’s total capex surged to $20.7 billion, with ​AI accounting for $12.7 billion – more than ⁠it spent on its space and connectivity businesses combined.
The company said it could capitalize on some of xAI’s preexisting tools, such as Grok Enterprise and an agentic or autonomous platform it is developing with Tesla called Macrohard.

In the filing, the company ​warned prospective investors of its big spending plans to develop AI and other technologies, including manufacturing the keys to powering artificial ​intelligence called graphics processing ⁠units, or GPUs.
SpaceX also said it would assemble a specialized salesforce and send employees known as forward deployed engineers to embed directly with customers to help their workforces embrace AI.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/spacex-conquered-stars-now-eyes-bigger-opportunity-ai-2026-04-23/

Pope Leo on Thursday firmly condemned the killing of protesters in Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Catholic leader last week for not doing so while speaking out ​against the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, also decried the deaths of “so many” ‌civilians in the war and lamented the collapse of U.S.-Iran peace talks in comments aboard his return flight to Rome after a four-nation Africa tour.

“I condemn all actions that are unjust. I condemn the taking of people’s lives,” the pope said in response to a question ​in a press conference about reports that Iran has killed thousands of protesters.
“When a regime, when a ​country takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that ⁠is something that should be condemned,” he said.
Leo was attacked by Trump on social media as “terrible” on April 12, ​after the pope emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war and the president’s hardline anti-immigration policies.
In a post ​two days later, Trump asked “will someone please tell Pope Leo” about the deaths of Iranian protesters.

Iranian authorities killed thousands of people during anti-government protests in January, Iran’s worst domestic unrest since the era of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rights groups say the government has continued to ​crack down on opponents while war rages, with Tehran carrying out another execution this week.
Leo did not mention Trump ​in his remarks on Thursday. He said that as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church he does not support war.

“As a pastor, ‌I ⁠cannot be in favor of war,” he said, adding that he carries with him a photo of a child killed by Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Leo said the child had been among the crowds that greeted him during his visit to Lebanon in November and December, as part of the pope’s first overseas trip.
“We have seen so ​many innocents killed,” Leo said ​of the war.

Referring to ⁠the recent breakdown in peace talks, the pope said: “One day Iran says yes, the United States says no and vice versa. We don’t know where it will go.”
“It has created ​a situation that is still chaotic … and also there is the whole population of ​Iran, innocent ⁠people, who are suffering because of this war,” he said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-condemns-killing-protesters-iran-reaffirms-stance-against-war-2026-04-23/

Lebanon and Israel extended their ceasefire for three weeks after a ​high-level meeting at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. Nada Moawad in the Oval Office for ‌a second round of U.S.-facilitated talks, a day after Israeli strikes killed at least five people including a journalist.

“The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned armed group that is fighting Israel, was not present at the talks. It says it has “the right to resist” occupying forces.
Trump added that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the near future.
Trump also spoke to reporters ​in the Oval Office alongside the participants in the meeting, saying he hoped the leaders would meet during the three-week cessation of hostilities. He said there was “a great chance” the two countries would reach a peace ​agreement this year.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa also attended the meeting.
The ceasefire, ⁠reached after talks between the two nations’ ambassadors to Washington last week, was set to expire on Sunday. It has yielded a significant reduction in violence, but attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared ​buffer zone.

‘MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN’

Ambassador Moawad, who went into the meeting seeking an extension of the ceasefire, thanked Trump for hosting the talks. “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again,” she said.
A Lebanese official earlier ​said Beirut would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border in a next phase of negotiations.

Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.
Israeli ambassador Leiter said during the meeting that the talks must focus on rooting out Hezbollah rather than on Israel withdrawing its forces. “If Hezbollah and IRGC operatives continue to be treated with ​kid gloves, a real process of achieving our mutual goal will remain unachievable,” Leiter said, according to remarks shared by the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Asked how the U.S. would help Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, Trump did not provide details but ​said the U.S. had “a great relationship with Lebanon.” Trump said Israel had to be able to defend itself against attacks from Hezbollah.
Trump also called for Lebanon to abolish laws against engagement with Israel. “It’s a crime to talk with Israel?” he responded when asked about ‌the statutes ⁠known as anti-normalization laws, which he did not appear to be aware of. “Well, I’m pretty sure that that will be ended very quickly. I’ll make sure of that,” Trump said.

DEADLIEST DAY SINCE CEASEFIRE

The Israeli military said that Hezbollah militants fired a missile at an Israeli military aircraft on Thursday, while also targeting Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon with rockets and a drone, in separate incidents. The militant group also fired rockets toward northern Israel, it said.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
Israel’s military said it carried out a number of strikes in response, killing three Hezbollah militants and targeting the group’s infrastructure that was used to launch the attacks.
Lebanon’s health ministry had earlier said an Israeli air strike had killed ​three people and artillery shelling wounded two others, including a ​child.
Wednesday was Lebanon’s deadliest day since the ceasefire took ⁠effect on April 16.
Those killed by Israeli strikes included Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, according to a senior Lebanese military official and her employer, Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it was reviewing an incident in which it had received reports that two journalists were wounded by strikes it said were aimed at vehicles departing a military structure used by Hezbollah. It ​said Israel does not target journalists.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group wanted the ceasefire to continue but “on the basis of full compliance by the Israeli enemy”. At ​a televised press conference, he reiterated ⁠Hezbollah’s objections to the face-to-face talks and urged the government to cancel all forms of direct contact with Israel.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-seek-ceasefire-extension-us-hosted-talks-with-israel-2026-04-23/

A U.S. Army soldier involved in the capture of Nicolas Maduro has been charged with making $400,000 ‌by betting on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan leader, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
In the weeks leading up to Maduro’s January 3 capture, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a master sergeant with U.S. Army Special Forces, used sensitive classified information to make wagers on prediction market Polymarket that U.S. ​forces would enter Venezuela and that Maduro would be out of power.

A grand jury in Manhattan federal court indicted ​Van Dyke, 38, on charges of unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft ⁠of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
The case appeared to mark the first time ​the department had brought insider trading charges involving a prediction market.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in ​order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

POLYMARKET SAYS IT COOPERATED

Defense attorney information for Van Dyke was not immediately available. He is expected ​to be presented before a judge in North Carolina later on Thursday, the Justice Department said.
The Pentagon deferred comment to the ​Justice Department.

Asked by reporters about the arrest, President Donald Trump said he was not familiar with the case but that it reminded him of Pete ‌Rose, ⁠who was banned from Major League Baseball over a gambling scandal.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said. “If he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I’ll look into it.”
In a post on X, Polymarket said it had referred the matter to the Justice Department. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest ​is proof the system works,” ​the post read.

INVOLVED IN ‘PLANNING AND ⁠EXECUTION’ OF MADURO CAPTURE

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also brought civil charges against Van Dyke.

Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army since 2008 and had most recently ​been stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, according to the indictment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-arrests-soldier-accused-betting-400000-maduro-removal-abc-news-reports-2026-04-23/

A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.

He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.

A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement.

Second complaint filed against the soldier
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.

Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/solider-justice-department-polymarmet-74047663d9ae104127948896fdfb59d9

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line.

On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery said the overwhelming majority of its stakeholders voted in support of selling Paramount for $31 a share. Including debt, the deal is valued at nearly $111 billion based on Warner’s current outstanding shares.

Paramount, which was bought by Skydance just last year, wants all of Warner. That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement that stockholder approval marks “another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction.” Paramount added that it looks forward to closing in the coming months, and “realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company.”

It’s not a done deal quite yet. The acquisition still faces ongoing regulatory reviews. Many critics have decried further consolidation in an industry already controlled by just a few major players, and are calling for the merger to be blocked — if not from the Trump administration, which so far seems unlikely, perhaps at the state level or through other court fights both in the U.S. and abroad.

Meanwhile, Warner shareholders rejected a separate measure Thursday outlining post-merger payments for company executives.

The takeover fight
Paramount’s quest for Warner has been a bumpy road. And Warner leadership wasn’t always eager to enter this particular marriage.

Late last year, Warner rebuffed Paramount’s overtures to instead strike a $72 billion studio and streaming deal with Netflix. Paramount, meanwhile, went directly to shareholders with a hostile bid to take over the whole company, including the cable business that Netflix did not want. All three companies spent months fighting publicly over who had the better offer on the table. Warner’s board repeatedly backed Netflix’s bid. But eventually, Paramount offered more money and Netflix abruptly bowed out of the race.

That corporate drama may now be over, but implications of a potential Warner sale remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the Paramount deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers.

Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment called Thursday’s vote to advance the merger a “serious setback” — but maintained the fight wasn’t over. “A handful of powerful decision-makers should not be allowed to quietly reshape American media, culture, and creative life without accountability,” the advocacy group said in a statement, while pointing to other efforts to challenge consolidation.

Some have called on states, rather than the federal government, to fight the deal. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been particularly vocal about the transaction, and said his state is investigating it.

“State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight,” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a longtime antitrust hawk, wrote on social media Thursday.

What would come under the same roof
The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s five remaining legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms (Paramount+ and HBO Max) and two big names in America’s TV news landscape (CBS and CNN ) — as well as a heap of other brands and entertainment networks.

Company executives argue this will be good news for consumers, who they say will have access to bigger content libraries, particularly if HBO Max and Paramount+ become one streaming service. And Paramount CEO David Ellison has tried to assure filmmakers with a 45-day theatrical window guarantee and goal to release 30 movies a year between Paramount and Warner, which he’s said will remain stand-alone operations under a combined company.

“I love cinema and I love film,” Ellison said at CinemaCon last week. “You can count on our complete commitment.”

But the new owner will also be looking to cut costs. Regulatory filings have already indicated that would include layoffs and downsizing some overlapping operations. And critics are skeptical about consumer benefits — warning of higher prices that could arise when it comes to streaming, and potentially less diversity in content down the road.

Then there’s the news. Since coming under Skydance ownership less than a year ago, CBS has already seen significant editorial shifts, notably with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief. If the Warner takeover goes through, many are expecting similar changes at CNN, a network that has long attracted ire from President Donald Trump.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/warner-brothers-paramount-skydance-netflix-david-ellison-d52e8730ba894adf2ebb9a69646d323b

 

Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t released an audio or video message since assuming power because his face was badly burned in Israeli airstrikes on Feb, 28, according to a report — as President Trump says peace talks are inhibited by a lack of clear leadership in Tehran.

Khamenei, 56, “does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak,” four Iranian officials told the New York Times, adding that one of the ayatollah’s legs has been “operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic,” while he also has had surgery on one of his hands.

“His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak [and] he will need plastic surgery,” the Times reported.

“Senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him,” added the outlet, which said most decision-making is being delegated to Tehran’s generals rather than civilian political leaders.

“Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.”

Although the report describes Khamenei as difficult to reach, it also cites the Iranian officials as saying the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and health minister, Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, “have both been involved in his care.”

The report supports Trump administration officials’ contention that peace talks are inhibited by slow communication and uncertainty about whether foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are able to speak for their nation.

Trump on Tuesday extended a two-week cease-fire indefinitely as the US awaited a response to the latest American offer, which prioritizes an end to nuclear enrichment and the relinquishment of about 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

“There’s obviously a lot of internal division,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.

“This is a battle between the pragmatists and the hardliners in Iran right now, and the president wants a unified response. And so, as we await that response, there’s a cease-fire.”

The Times reported Thursday that Khamenei has delegated significant authority to the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/04/23/us-news/iran-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khameneis-face-is-so-disfigured-hell-need-plastic-surgery/

AN EX-COP has been busted after intending to carry out a mass shooting at an upcoming music festival.

Christopher Gillum, 45, was arrested on Wednesday and found in possession of roughly 200 rounds of gun ammo.

Gillum was nabbed by the sheriff’s office in Okaloosa County, Florida, roughly 150 miles outside of Tallahassee, after allegedly making threats to carry out a mass shooting at a music festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Before his arrest, Gillum worked as a police officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department in North Carolina from 2004 to 2019, USA Today reported.

He also previously worked as a detention officer and a deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, according to Fox affiliate WVUE.

Gillum was traveling to New Orleans through Florida when police noticed him on the Okaloosa County FLOCK camera system.

“This disturbing case highlights how technology like FLOCK and strong partnerships between agencies can help prevent potential violence and bring wanted fugitives into custody safely before a tragedy could occur,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden.

Gillum is currently awaiting extradition to Louisiana, cops said.

Family members who had reported Gillum missing before his arrest said the ex-cop had a history of self-harm, according to WVUE.

Gillum also had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’” family members told police.

Police did not explicitly say what festival Gillum was planning to attack.

However, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is set to kick off on Friday.

“Jazz Fest is grateful to all law enforcement partners for their dedication and exceptional service in protecting our community,” festival press director Matthew Goldman told USA Today.

“As always, we coordinate closely with the FBI, Louisiana State Police, NOPD (New Orleans Police Department), NOCEM (New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management), and other agencies, and we will continue to do so as we look forward to another safe and joyful Jazz Fest.”

Louisiana State Police will continue investigating Gillum and the incident.

“At this time, there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana,” they said.

“We are constantly working with local, state and federal partners to ensure safety.”

In January 2025, 10 people were killed, and dozens of others were injured after a man drove his car into a New Year’s Eve celebration in New Orleans.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16266775/mass-shooting-music-festival-new-orleans-avoided-cop-arrested/

Cyber criminals hacked into the Sri Lankan finance ministry’s computer system and siphoned off US$2.5 million, the government said on Thursday (Apr 23), the largest amount of cash ever stolen by hackers from a state institution in the debt-saddled country.

The cyberattack is a major blow to Sri Lanka, which is recovering from a crippling economic crisis in 2022 after Colombo defaulted on its US$46 billion external debt.

The money was destined for debt repayment to Australia, finance ministry secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma told reporters in the capital.

Four senior officers at the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) were suspended after the breach, he said.

Authorities were alerted to an attempt to break into the ministry’s e-mail server, and investigations showed that a US$2.5 million payment owed to Australia had disappeared.

“Criminal investigators are looking into this, and we are not in a position to give further details,” Suriyapperuma said, adding that Sri Lankan authorities were seeking help from foreign law enforcement agencies.

Sri Lanka established the PDMO earlier this year in line with an International Monetary Fund-backed US$2.9 billion bailout loan from early 2023, following the island’s economic meltdown.

Australia’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Matthew Duckworth, said Canberra was aware of “irregularities” in payments owed to it.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/hackers-steal-millions-sri-lanka-finance-ministry-australia-6076376

A FORMER bodyguard and close pal of Michael Jackson has claimed the new biopic about the star whitewashes his life by not delving further into the sex abuse claims made against him.

In an exclusive interview, Matt Fiddes claimed Jackson would have wanted any movie to include the allegations and their impact on his life.

Fiddes also revealed he received a “delirious” call from Jackson two days before he died with the star allegedly pumped full of ephedrine and desperately reaching out for his dad.

Speaking ahead of the release of a new biopic on Friday, Fiddes said the star also claimed on the call that bosses were “making him rehearse too much” and that he “never agreed to 50 shows.”

Giving a unique insight into the moments leading up to Jackson’s death, Matt claimed Jackson was forgetting his lyrics and acting erratically – but it was still a complete shock to everyone who knew him as they were convinced he would just pull out of the tour.

The new movie based on the life of the “King of Pop’ is set to hit the big screen later this month with Jackson’s own nephew Jaafar in the title role.

An earlier trailer became the most watched of all time – amassing 150million views when it was released.

Jackson was first accused of abuse in 1993 by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler and his father Evan, who reached a $23million civil settlement with the star a year later.

He was never ultimately charged in connection with these allegeations after a 18-month criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and Santa Barbara Sherriff’s Department found they could not prove the case without Jordan’s testimony.

The movie was forced to undergo expensive reshoots last year after lawyers found an overlooked clause in the settlement with Jordan that barred him from being depicted or mentioned in any movie, according to Variety.

The movie was reportedly supposed to originally open with Jackson in 1993 surrounded by cop cars and its entire third act was dedicated to the allegations before the rewrite.

But Fiddes, 46, claimed the impact of the sex abuse claims played a direct role in Jackson’s death and accused filmmakers of whitewashing the allegations.

Fiddes, who was one of Jacko’s closest confidants for many years, claimed although all the allegations made against him were “proven untrue,” to cut them out of the movie wouldn’t do justice to the impact they had on him.

Jackson was still plagued by further allegations from 1993 on.

He underwent a high-profile criminal trial in 2005 after being hit with felony charges of abuse against 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo – but was found not guilty on all counts.

After his death the FBI confirmed they had found no evidence of criminal conduct to warrant federal charges against Jackson by releasing 300 pages of their decade-long investigation.

And over a decade after his death, Jackson’s estate is still facing lawsuits about his alleged behavior.

Accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck are seeking $400million in a civil lawsuit that will go to a jury trial in November.

Fiddes said the release of the Michael Jackson movie would be “extremely controversial” and although he hasn’t yet seen it, he’s been told what will be in and out of it.

He added: “I’ve heard accounts from people who’ve seen the film. And from my understanding, it doesn’t cover the child abuse allegations and a lot of the struggles that Michael had behind the scenes, which are well publicised and what eventually led to his death.

“I know the fans are disappointed in this. They been contacting me. They want to see the real Michael. They want to see behind the scenes Michael, how he created his genius and how he suffered, how lonely
the man was.

“But I understand how business works. I’m a businessman, and if you’re running the Michael Jackson estate, you are going to want to have it all about the music, which is what Michael would have wanted.

“But Michael, as I knew him, would have wanted his fans and the public to see what it was like to be Michael Jackson. It was not all glitz and glamour. It was anything but.

“We could not go out. He couldn’t do anything. We had to go through the kitchen entrance to go into the hotels. He was manipulated by people he couldn’t trust. Many people. He was paranoid. He struggled to eat sometimes due to being nervous and anxious.”

Matt also said he believes allegations that Jackson was a child abuser were untrue but should still be referenced in the biopic.

He added: “It fascinates me to see still now in 2026 that there’s TV shows and documentaries being made about my friend Michael Jackson, that he’s a child molester, that he’s into young boys.

“Because having known the man personally, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He wanted to keep his life a mystery and would always remind me wanted his life to be the greatest show on earth.

“I said to him, I think you should show how you talk about girls from the back of the car. He had a nickname for a girl he fancied or always attracted to. He’d call them fish.

“He always said, that’s a nice fish there. Well, Matt, try and get that fish to my room.

“I told him ‘Michael, you should show this side to the public. But he always refused and said one thing Motown taught him when he was a young boy, in the Jackson Five, is that he mustn’t ever show that he was straight, that he was gay, or that he was married in a relationship. As this was going to cut off his fan base and it’ll be the end of the Jacksons.

“So all the fans feel that they got a chance to marry him, whether they’re gay, straight or whatsoever.

“I understand there are contracts signed from his girlfriends that can’t be talked about. But from what I’m hearing, there’s going to be a Michael movie part two of this franchise.

“What I will say is that everything Michael Jackson touches turns to gold. And I predict that Michael the movie will be the biggest movie ever of all time, not only the biggest biopic. I think it will be the biggest movie of all time. And we’ll go past a billion dollars turnover in no time whatsoever.”

Fiddes, who now runs the largest martial arts and dance chain in the world, worked with Jackson for a decade and recalls meeting him through a friend.

He added: “He called me up in the middle of the night and said, you have to come to my house now. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. It took me a good three hours to get there, but he would not tell me who I was going to meet.

“I walked in the living room and this man walks up to me. He bows to me due to the fact that we’re both martial artists. And he said, nice to meet you, Matt. For this. My name is Michael Jackson. I’m thinking, I know who you are.”

Fiddes said they quickly became friends and hang out and do normal stuff together.

He added: “He was a very shrewd character. I always say you got two sides to Michael. You got the very shy, quiet, humble person of his mother, Mrs. Jackson. Katherine, who’s a lovely lady. And then you’ve got the toughness, brutal, ruthless businessman of his father, Joe Jackson.

“And Michael had both sides of them. But aside from that being around him, he was the the most gentle soul and would do anything for anybody. And he was just extremely clever. He loved being Michael Jackson, but he was the nicest guy in the world, most misunderstood man in the world.”

Fiddes also gave a unique insight into the state of mind of the star when he died and revealed he had desperately tried to reach out to his dad Joseph Jackson to help, but could only reach his voicemail.

Fiddes, who believes the movie would become the most watched of all time, said: “You can’t talk about Michael Jackson without talking about the bad times and the negative times and none of us were expecting that he was going to die.

“I didn’t think he was going to do the 50 show concerts. We were getting reports all the time that he was not well, that he was underweight.

“He was not remembering his lyrics. I spoke to him two nights before he passed away, and I remember that conversation vividly.

“My ex-wife answered the phone and handed me the phone and said, It’s Michael, you need to speak to him urgently. He was unhappy. He said, Matt, I need to speak to Joe, meaning his father, Joseph Jackson.

“Do you know where he is? I thought, if he’s asking for his dad, then there must be something wrong. He said ‘I need him to come and sort this situation out here. Only Joseph can do it.

“He said ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. They’re making me rehearse too much. And I never agreed to 50 shows.’”

Fiddes, who runs a martial arts business and lives in England, said Jackson sounded erratic and he asked if he had taken anything.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/16261352/michael-jackson-biopic-whitewashed-bodyguard-slams/

The teenager who Los Angeles prosecutors allege was killed by musician D4vd and found inside the trunk of a car in Hollywood died from “multiple penetrating injuries” from objects, a medical examiner’s report released on Wednesday (Apr 22) said.

The dismembered body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was discovered in September in the trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, police and prosecutors have said.

Authorities had kept details about the manner of death secret while they launched an investigation.

D4vd pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges on Monday, the same day the judge in the case ordered that the autopsy report be made public.

In the report, Los Angeles medical examiners said they found two “penetrating wounds to the torso” and “dismemberment of the upper and lower extremities”.

The report said the torso wounds may have been “sharp force injuries” but did not specify what objects may have caused them. The autopsy was limited by “extensive postmortem changes”, the report added.

The time of death was listed as unknown.

Prosecutors say that Celeste, who was 14 at the time, went to D4vd’s Hollywood Hills home in April 2025 and then disappeared.

D4vd gained fame in 2022 after songs he recorded ​on his phone for his Fortnite gaming videos went viral on TikTok, with the hit Romantic Homicide helping him sign a deal with Interscope Records. He ​performed at the Coachella music festival in 2025.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-dv4d-teen-murder-cause-death-6074861

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticised the former leadership of the International Olympic Committee as “shameful” and “cowardly” and said he hoped for a new approach from those now in charge of the Olympic movement.

Putin made the remarks during a Kremlin ceremony honouring Russian boxers, according to Russian news agencies. He did not name individuals but appeared to be referring to policies adopted under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach, who stepped down in 2025 and was succeeded by Zimbabwean former Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry.

Under Bach’s leadership, the IOC banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at the Olympics under their national flags following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, part of which was launched from Belarus.

Bach’s tenure as president also included the 2014 Sochi Games’ Russian state-backed doping scandal, which led to Russian athletes participating as neutrals in several editions of the Games.

“The shameful, I would say cowardly, politically motivated behaviour of the previous leadership of the International Olympic Committee has caused enormous damage to the Olympic movement and to the very principles of Olympism,” Putin was quoted as saying in the Kremlin ceremony.

“I hope that the new leadership of the International Olympic Committee and the international sports federations will overcome this difficult and, as I said, shameful legacy of their predecessors, as soon as possible.”

The IOC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

While a small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes were permitted to take part in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games as neutral participants, with no national flags or anthems, a contingent of athletes from the two countries was allowed to use both flags and anthems at the subsequent Paralympic Games.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/putin-criticises-previous-ioc-leadership-shameful-cowardly-6074981

Judges ruled the court has authority to try the former Philippine leader despite the Philippines’ exit from the ICC.

Appeals judges ruled on Wednesday that the Internation Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

The judges dismissed a bid to drop the case over the killings of thousands of people during Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, carried out while he was mayor and later president.

The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2018. Duterte’s lawyers had argued the court has no authority over the case because the country is no longer a member.

What did the ICC judges say in Duterte’s appeal?

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, 81, faces three counts of crimes against humanity at the ICC. The charges relate to killings during his so-called war on drugs, when he was mayor of Davao, between 2013 and 2016, and subsequently president until March 2019 when the ICC withdrawal took effect.

Prosecutors said the alleged crimes took place while the Philippines was still part of the ICC, meaning the court can still investigate and try the case.

In October, a lower ICC chamber agreed with prosecutors and allowed the case to move forward.

Appeals judges have now upheld that decision. They confirmed the court has jurisdiction and rejected the defence request to immediately release Duterte.

“Having rejected the entire appeal, the chamber considers the request for Mr Duterte’s immediate and unconditional release to be moot,” presiding judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza said.

Why is Duterte facing trial at the ICC?

Judges are now considering whether to confirm the charges against Duterte, the final step before a full trial. If confirmed, it would mark the first ICC case against a former head of state from Asia.

Prosecutors say Duterte created, funded and armed death squads to target and kill suspected drug dealers and users while he was in power between ⁠2016 and 2022.

Duterte has been in ICC custody in The Hague since his arrest at Manila airport in March 2025. The court allowed him to skip a February hearing after his lawyers said he was not mentally fit to attend.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/icc-blocks-ex-philippine-president-duterte-release-says-it-can-try-him/a-76894601

 

 

Courtesy of last night’s Truth Social post from US President Donald Trump, the ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel which was due to expire on Wednesday does at least persist.

Instead of fighting, we have a “war of blockades” over the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides using force to intercept and seize commercial vessels.

The mood out in one of the world’s most important waterways is combustible. It would be unwise to bet against events spiralling out of control.

In the meantime, Islamabad still waits for Iranian and American representatives to arrive for peace talks.

Parts of the city remain sealed off, the signs are still up and the hotel where talks were expected to take place is empty, ready for the hoped-for return of high-level delegations.

But after several days of fevered anticipation, the atmosphere has changed.

Gone is the talk of press pools in faraway Washington being told to head for the airport, or speculation about the contents of the giant C-17 Globemaster transport planes that landed at a nearby military airbase earlier in the week.

In its place is the gloomy realisation that an opportunity for Pakistan to prove itself on the international stage, to broker a deal – any kind of deal – between mortal enemies may have slipped out of Islamabad’s grasp. For now.

Pakistan has not given up. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has invested considerable diplomatic capital in getting the two parties together, posted on social media that Pakistan would “continue its earnest efforts for negotiated settlement of the conflict”.

Donald Trump has told at least one journalist that a deal is still possible in the next few days.

It’s hard to know if this is reality speaking, or the voice of an impatient man, anxious to remove Iran from his most urgent to-do list before King Charles arrives in Washington for a state visit next Monday – and Trump’s much anticipated visit to China not long afterwards.

Iran dismissed the president’s suggestion that he was giving Tehran time to come up with a “unified position”, but it seems unlikely that the regime, already bruised and battered by the war, will break the ceasefire, thus inviting more punishment from the air.

In the meantime, what are we to make of the Iranian delegation’s reluctance to get on a plane for the short ride to Islamabad?

Iran accuses the US of a “breach of commitments” and cites what it called Washington’s “contradictory behaviour”.

Iran accuses the US of a “breach of commitments” and cites what it called Washington’s “contradictory behaviour”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q9xq7knq2o

Artificial intelligence (AI) is flattening the jobs market for young people and governments should eliminate National Insurance to make hiring workers more attractive, former prime minister Rishi Sunak has told the BBC.

Sunak, now an adviser to AI firm Anthropic and Microsoft, said while he is an enthusiast for the transformative impact of AI, he said concerns from graduates looking for entry level jobs were justified.

He said company bosses were privately acknowledging to him that recruitment of young people is flattening because of the technology.

“There are reasons to be worried and think about the future. But we are able to do something about this,” he said.

Sunak suggested rebalancing the tax system by abolishing National Insurance “over time” and replacing with it with taxes on corporate profits.

These, he said, would be boosted by productivity and efficiencies in deploying AI.

Sunak said it is becoming tougher for young people to get jobs in service sectors such as law, accountancy and the creative industries.

Meanwhile, he said chief executives are telling him that “flat is the new up”.

“They’re talking about this concept that they think they can continue to grow their businesses without having to significantly increase employment because they’re starting to see how they can deploy AI,” said Sunak.

“That’s why I think we do have to look at this issue very seriously and with purpose.”

The former chancellor told BBC Newsnight: “We should be thinking about, well, how do we tip the balance in favour of AI being used in that positive way… to help people do their jobs better [rather than replacing them].”

Sunak said that lots of countries will have to examine how to rebalance their systems as they face raising less revenue from employment taxes and have to find that money elsewhere.

He said the impact on employment by AI “may be different to previous technology cycles, and we want to do what we can to tip the scales in a more positive direction”.

Sunak was appointed as an advisor to both Anthropic and tech giant Microsoft last year.

During his time as prime minister, he made tech regulation a significant priority, setting up an AI safety summit in 2023.

Earlier this month, Anthropic announced its new AI model, called Claude Mythos.

The company said it found that the tool can outperform humans at some hacking and cyber-security tasks, prompting discussions by regulators, legislators and financial institutions about the dangers it could pose to digital services.

Sunak, who is also a senior adviser at investment bank Goldman Sachs, said concerns about the development of Mythos showed “we shouldn’t rely on companies to mark their own homework”.

He said it was to Anthropic’s credit and to the UK’s benefit, that Britain’s AI Security Institute, established under his premiership, had become the first to test Mythos’ capabilities.

The Conservative MP also revealed that he had joined forces with Labour’s deputy prime minister David Lammy to promote investment in the UK tech sector at a recent AI summit.

Sunak said he was a “big believer” in “Londonmaxxing” and “Britmaxxing” which was how some in the tech industry are describing a wave of recent multi-billion pound investments in the sector.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg07x4rejdo

President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women after he pleaded Tuesday for their freedom — calling it “very good news” in a social media post.

“I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed. Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”

The announcement came hours after Trump extended a two-week cease-fire with Iran as US negotiators await Tehran’s reply to the latest American offer to end the nearly two-month conflict.

Iran’s judiciary denied that the eight women were ever set for execution, claiming that “Trump was misled once again by fake news” and that “some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”

Iran’s claim is contested. One of the women, Bita Hemmati, was sentenced to death for allegedly being part of a group that threw objects onto Iranian forces during protests in January, human rights groups said.

Her case was reported last week by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.

Hemmati and four men were convicted of “participation in protest gatherings on January 8 and 9, 2026,” including “chanting protest slogans,” “throwing objects including bottles, concrete blocks, and incendiary materials from rooftops,” and “destruction of public property,” the activist news agency said.

However, two of the eight — Golnaz Naraghi, 37, and Venus Hosseininejad, 28, — have been out on bail since late March, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization.

Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad, who lives in the US, publicized the cases of the eight women, tweeting their names and photos and specifying which four were believed to be sentenced to death.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/22/us-news/trump-says-iran-wont-execute-8-women-after-he-pleaded-for-their-release/

Khalil’s death has been condemned by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam as a war crime, highlighting a troubling pattern of targeting media professionals in conflict zones.

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to local officials and her employer, as violence continued despite a recent ceasefire. Khalil, 43, who worked for the newspaper Al-Akhbar, died after coming under fire while reporting near the town of al-Tayri. A freelance photographer accompanying her, Zeinab Faraj, was wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Khalil’s death. Earlier, it said it had received reports that two journalists were injured as a result of its strikes.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, a senior Lebanese military official and press advocates, Khalil and Faraj were covering developments in the area when an Israeli strike hit a vehicle in front of them. The pair ran into a nearby house for shelter, but the building was also struck, the same sources said. Faraj was later rescued with a head wound, according to Elsy Moufarrej, who heads the Union of Journalists in Lebanon.

Rescuers initially struggled to reach Khalil. Moufarrej and a senior military official said Israeli forces dropped a sound grenade when emergency teams attempted to access the damaged building, blocking their efforts.

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استشهدت مراسلة الأخبار في جنوب لبنان الزميلة آمال خليل بعد ملاحقة طائرات جيش العدو لها، واستهدافها بعدد من الغارات التي أصابت سيارتها أولاً، ثم البيت الذي لجأت إليه، في استهداف واضح للصحافة والصحافيين في لبنان. pic.twitter.com/NKnb0jvaAe

— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) April 22, 2026

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned the killing of journalist Amal Khalil, calling her targeting and preventing rescuers from reaching her a “blatant war crime”.

“Israel’s targeting of media professionals in the South while they are performing their professional duties can no longer be viewed as a series of isolated incidents. Rather, it has become a proven pattern – one that we condemn and reject, just as it is condemned and rejected by all international laws and norms,” Salam said on X.

The health ministry said Israel’s military “prevented the completion of the humanitarian mission by firing a sound grenade and live ammunition at the ambulance”.

The Israeli military has denied preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.

Rescuers were eventually able to return about four hours after the initial strike. After a further three hours searching through rubble, they recovered Khalil’s body, the military official said. Her death was later confirmed by Al-Akhbar on its website.

 

The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in ‌Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.
Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran’s trade by sea while Iran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle ​East Gulf. Nearly two months after the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran, there is little sign of peace ​talks resuming during an uneasy ceasefire.

The closure of the strait has disrupted supply of a fifth of the ⁠world’s oil and gas supplies, and caused a global energy crisis. U.S. forces have seized an Iranian cargo ship and an oil tanker in ​recent days. Iran said it had captured two container ships seeking to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after firing ​on them and another vessel, its first seizures since the war began.
The U.S. has diverted at least three more Iranian-flagged oil tankers in recent days, according to two US and Indian shipping sources and two separate Western maritime security source who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a ​request for comment on the interceptions.
One of the vessels was the Iranian-flagged Deep Sea supertanker, which was part loaded with crude and last ​seen on its public tracking transponder off Malaysia’s coast a week ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The smaller Iranian-flagged Sevin, which ‌had a ⁠maximum capacity of 1 million barrels and was carrying 65% of its load, was also intercepted. The vessel was last seen off Malaysia’s coast a month ago, ship tracking data showed.
The Iranian-flagged supertanker Dorena was also intercepted, fully loaded with 2 million barrels of crude, and last seen off the coast of southern India three days ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.

The U.S. Central ​Command said on Wednesday in a post ​on X, that the Dorena ⁠has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after attempting to violate the blockade.
U.S. forces may have intercepted the Iranian-flagged Derya tanker, shipping sources said. The vessel failed to discharge ​its cargo of Iranian oil in India before a U.S. waiver on Iranian crude purchases expired on ​Sunday. That vessel was ⁠last seen off India’s western coast on Friday, according to MarineTraffic data.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-intercepts-three-iranian-oil-tankers-asian-waters-sources-say-2026-04-22/

Traders placed a series of bets worth $430 million on a drop in crude prices just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump ​said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday.
It is the third ‌time this month, and the fourth in total, that large, well-timed directional bets on the oil price have been made shortly before major announcements on the Iran war. One combined wager in ​March was worth $500 million, while April’s bets have together totalled some $2.1 billion.

• Between 1954 ​and 1956 GMT on Tuesday, 4,260 lots of selling hit the oil ⁠market, worth a combined $430 million, based on the prevailing Brent futures price , according ​to LSEG data. Trump said he would extend the ceasefire indefinitely at 2010 GMT.
• The Brent ​market settles at 1830 GMT, meaning these trades took place in what is known as post-settlement hours, when volumes are usually extremely limited.
• The trades did not have much impact on the price, which ​edged down to $100.66 a barrel, from $100.91 before they took place. After Trump’s announcement, Brent ​crude futures fell to a low of $96.83 in the minute that followed. They were last trading at $99.2 ‌a ⁠barrel at 1200 GMT on Wednesday.
• On March 23, 15 minutes before Trump announced a delay to threatened attacks on Iranian power infrastructure, anonymous traders placed $500 million on a drop in the oil price. Similarly, on April 7, bets worth $950 million went through just ​hours before Trump’s announcement ​of a two-week ceasefire.
• On ⁠April 17, some 20 minutes prior to the Iranian foreign minister posting on social media that the Strait of Hormuz would ​be open to commercial shipping, traders placed $760 million in bets on ​a falling ⁠oil price.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/traders-place-430-million-bet-lower-oil-price-before-trump-ceasefire-extension-2026-04-22/

Tesla (TSLA.O), sharply raised its spending plan to more ​than $25 billion for the year as CEO Elon Musk pours money into artificial intelligence, robotics and chips – moves he said were “well justified” to build big future revenue streams.
The EV maker’s ‌investors took a more skeptical view, pushing its stock down 2.4% after these remarks on a post-earnings call with analysts on Wednesday. The shares had risen as much as 4% after the bell as Tesla reported positive free cash flow in the first quarter.

“We are going to be substantially increasing our investment in the future,” Musk said. “You should expect to see very significant increase in capital expenditures that are I think well justified for a substantially increased future revenue stream.”
“Tesla is not alone in ​this,” he added, noting big capex plans at top tech companies.
Tesla is in the middle of one of the most expensive bets in its history. Musk pivoted the electric vehicle maker’s focus ​to building artificial-intelligence-powered self-driving cabs and humanoid robots, and much of Tesla’s $1.45 trillion market cap rests on that vision.

The company in January had forecast more than $20 billion ⁠in capital expenses for 2026. Last year, it spent $9 billion.
“We are in a very big capital-investment phase, which is going to start now and would last a couple of years,” Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said, ​adding that the company will record negative free cash flow for the rest of 2026.

TESLA RECORDS UNEXPECTED CASH SURPLUS

In the first quarter, Tesla recorded positive free cash flow of $1.44 billion, compared with estimates for a cash ​burn of $1.43 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
First-quarter profit topped Wall Street targets in a sign that the electric vehicle maker was holding the line on costs in a difficult global environment. Tesla’s capital expenditures in the quarter were about 40% below what analysts on average were expecting.
The Austin, Texas-based automaker reported revenue of $22.39 billion for the three months ended March 31, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $22.6 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

ROBOTAXI AND CYBERCAB

Investors have increasingly turned their ​attention to Musk’s push into self-driving technology and robotics, seeking clearer evidence that the autonomy narrative is shifting from promise to commercial reality.
Tesla said it was gearing up to start volume production of its Cybercab – a ​fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals – this year. The company had in January said production ramp would start in the first half.
Musk said on Wednesday that initial production of Cybercab would be slow, but he expected ‌that to gather ⁠pace toward the end of this year.
Tesla started rolling out its Model Y robotaxis in Dallas and Houston, it said on Saturday, marking further expansion of its nascent service in the United States since its Austin launch last year.
Preparations are under way to expand the service to five other cities in Arizona, Florida and Nevada, and Musk said on Wednesday he expects the service in a dozen or so states by the end of this year. That expansion was to take place in the first half of the year, according to plans laid out in January, though the company has previously missed similar timelines.
Dutch vehicle authority RDW has notified the European ​Commission of its plan to seek European Union-wide approval ​for the Full Self-Driving software system, the regulator ⁠said earlier this month.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-revenue-misses-estimates-demand-weakens-2026-04-22/

Over 30 nations meet in London to plan reopening the Strait of Hormuz, led by the UK and France, aiming to protect shipping once a ceasefire allows safe maritime operations.

Military planners from more than 30 countries are holding two days of talks in London starting Wednesday to advance plans for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restoring safe maritime movement.

The initiative, led by the UK Ministry of Defence, aims to convert diplomatic consensus into a coordinated military strategy to safeguard shipping routes once conditions stabilise.

More than a dozen nations have already signalled willingness to join the proposed mission, spearheaded by United Kingdom and France, to protect vessels transiting the crucial waterway.

The push gained momentum after around 50 countries from Europe, Asia and the Middle East participated in a virtual conference last week, seen as a signal of collective intent following remarks by US President Donald Trump that Washington did not require allied support.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the focus of the London meeting is to translate that consensus into concrete action.

“The task… is to translate the diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Strait and support a lasting ceasefire,” he said, expressing confidence that “real progress” could be achieved during the discussions.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/military-planners-from-over-30-nations-to-meet-in-london-on-reopening-strait-of-hormuz-ws-l-10048914.html

US-Iran war depletes key US missiles, nearly half of Patriot and THAAD used, experts warn years needed to rebuild stockpiles, raising risk if another major conflict erupts.

It appears that President Donald Trump needs to secure a deal with Iran more than Tehran itself, as prolonged fighting has significantly depleted key missile stockpiles. A fragile pause in fighting between the United States and Iran has been extended, even as doubts remain over the next round of negotiations. The move comes at a time when questions are being raised about the state of US military resources. Recent developments suggest that the pressure of a prolonged conflict is beginning to show, particularly in terms of missile reserves.

Heavy use of key missiles

A CNN report said that the US has used a large portion of its missile stockpile during the war with Iran. According to assessments, nearly half of the Patriot air defence interceptors have already been spent. Other systems have also seen heavy use.

The findings, based on analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, show that more than half of THAAD interceptors have been used. At least 45 per cent of Precision Strike Missiles have also been expended. These numbers closely match internal Pentagon assessments shared by sources familiar with the situation.

• Patriot Missiles: almost 50% of the total stockpile depleted
• THAAD Interceptors: Over half of the inventory expended
• Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs): Over 45% of the stockpile used

Arsenal depletion

The impact is not limited to a few systems. Around 30 per cent of Tomahawk missiles have been used, along with more than 20 per cent of long-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. Stocks of SM-3 and SM-6 missiles have also dropped by about 20 per cent.

Experts warn that this level of usage has created serious gaps in US military readiness. While the country may still have enough weapons to continue operations in the short term, the overall reserve is no longer strong enough for a major conflict elsewhere.

Risk if another war breaks out

Military experts say the situation creates a “near-term risk” if another conflict breaks out. The concern is particularly strong when it comes to facing a near-peer rival such as China. Rebuilding stockpiles to earlier levels could take years.

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and one of the authors of the study, said the heavy use of munitions has opened a period of vulnerability, especially in the western Pacific. He added that it could take between one and four years to refill current stocks, and even longer to reach desired levels.

Missile production and delays

The Pentagon has already signed contracts to increase missile production. However, the timeline for delivery remains slow. Even with expanded manufacturing, replacing key systems could take three to five years.

The report notes that past under-ordering has made the situation worse. Current agreements with private companies are expected to help, but immediate relief is unlikely due to low short-term output.

US official response

Despite these concerns, US officials have maintained that the military remains fully capable. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the armed forces have what they need to carry out operations whenever required. He stressed that multiple missions have already been completed successfully under the current administration.

However, this stance contrasts with recent funding requests. President Trump has sought additional resources for munitions, citing the strain caused by the Iran conflict. While he has said the US is not running short, he also acknowledged the need to preserve high-end weapons.

Warnings before the war

Concerns about stockpiles were raised even before the conflict began. Senior military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, had warned that a long campaign could affect supplies, especially those supporting allies like Israel and Ukraine.

Since the war started, lawmakers have also voiced worry about the pace of usage. Some have pointed out that Iran still has significant missile and drone capabilities, which could prolong the strain on US resources.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/us-missile-stockpiles-heavily-depleted-nearly-50-per-cent-of-patriot-thaad-missiles-used-in-iran-war-ws-l-10048953.html

A 22-year-old Indian student created “Emily Hart,” an AI influencer, and earned thousands targeting a MAGA audience. Using tailored political posts and viral “rage bait,” the account gained millions of views before being banned.

A 22-year-old medical student from northern India has revealed how he made thousands of dollars by creating and operating “Emily Hart,” an AI-generated Instagram model designed to target a specific audience. The fictional persona, launched in January, was portrayed as a conservative twenty-something inspired by Jennifer Lawrence and Sydney Sweeney, with interests in The Bible, fishing, and beer.

The creator, identified only as Sam, said his earlier attempts to earn money, including YouTube content creation and selling study notes, failed. His approach changed when he turned to AI-generated content, eventually building a character that quickly gained traction online. Within a month, the account had amassed 10,000 followers, with videos reaching millions of views.

“Every Reel I posted was getting 3 million views, 5 million views,” he said. “I haven’t seen any easier way to make money online.” He later monetized the account using Fanvue and merchandise sales. While Instagram initially failed to label the posts as AI-generated, the account was eventually banned for “fraudulent” activity. However, the Facebook page remains active.

A 31-year-old Brazilian beauty queen died of a sudden heart attack, highlighting the rising heart-related issues in young women, hidden factors, subtle symptoms, and the importance.

A 31-year-old Brazilian beauty queen, Maiara Cristina de Lima Fiel, died after reportedly suffering a sudden heart attack, sparking grief and shock among her community and followers. The young mother’s untimely death has once again raised concerns over unexpected cardiac events in seemingly healthy individuals.

According to news reports, Maiara has no known health issues, but suffered a fatal heart attack days before a major beauty pageant. Her passing raises a pressing concern: why are heart attacks occurring in young, seemingly healthy women?

Recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least five Palestinians amidst escalating violence, despite a ceasefire established last October. Since the ceasefire, over 750 Palestinians have died, while four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip on Monday (April 20), Palestinian health officials said, even as clashes broke out between Hamas fighters and gunmen from a militia operating in Israeli-controlled areas, according to witnesses. The violence marks the latest escalation despite a ceasefire deal brokered last October after two years of war.

Medics reported one death in an airstrike in Bureij camp and another in Gaza City, while a later strike in western Khan Younis killed at least three people, according to officials at Nasser Hospital. Residents also reported armed confrontations east of Khan Younis after militia members entered a Hamas-run area, triggering exchanges of fire, reported Reuters.

The latest incidents come amid continued strain on the ceasefire, with more than 750 Palestinians reported killed since the truce took effect, according to local medics. Israel has said militants have killed four of its soldiers during the same period, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

The two years of Israel-Gaza conflict has had a broader humanitarian impact, with over 1.2 million people reported displaced and thousands killed, and over 200 journalists killed, underscoring what is being described as one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recent years. Arrest warrants issued on November 21, 2024, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant list charges including starvation as a method of warfare, wilful killing of civilians, extermination, persecution and other inhumane acts. All 125 ICC member states, including France and the UK, are required to arrest them if they enter their territory.

The impact on civilians has been marked by severe shortages of basic necessities. Food, water and electricity were cut off, with less than five litres of water available per person per day in Gaza, below the WHO minimum of 15 litres.

By January 2024, around 71,000 child diarrhoea cases per month were reported, compared to 2,000 before October 7. Healthcare systems have come under sustained pressure, with over 660 attacks on healthcare facilities recorded by January 2024 and described as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

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The conflict has also been described as the deadliest for journalists in recorded history, with more than 200 media personnel killed.

In October 2023, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired shells at a clearly identified group of journalists, with investigations by AFP, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reuters terming it a deliberate attack. On October 25, 2024, three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Hasbaya, Lebanon, while on April 8, 2026, Al Jazeera journalist Mohammad Weshah was killed in a drone strike in Gaza City.

Further allegations include the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas and violence in detention. Euro-Med Monitor recorded 300 white phosphorus strikes in under 40 minutes in Beit Lahia in November 2023, while Human Rights Watch verified unlawful use in June 2024 and Amnesty International reported its use in Lebanon in October 2023, where at least nine civilians were injured.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/1-2-million-displaced-200-journalists-killed-gaza-wars-staggering-human-toll-article-154129224