Category: World

DONALD Trump has taken another swipe at Putin, warning that he is “playing with fire” as his frustration with the reckless Russian bubbles over.

Furious rhetoric from the US president has intensified over the past few days as Russia has blitzed Ukraine and shown signs of preparing for a major onslaught.

In a Truth Social post, Trump seethed: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD.

“He’s playing with fire!”

Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Medvedev responded by saying the only truly bad thing to worry about was World War Three.

He said: “Regarding Trump’s words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russiam I only know of one REALLY BAD thing: WWIII.

“I hope Trump understands this!”

Putin has been stalling peace negotiations for weeks and cranking up the heat in Ukraine rather than de-escalating – playing Trump for a fool.

On Tuesday it was revealed that Vlad’s marauding forces had snatched another four villages in Ukraine’s Sumy region.

This was the area from which Ukraine launched its surprise invasion to take Russian land in Kursk, which Moscow only recently reclaimed.

Sumy governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote in a post: “The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called buffer zone”.

He said the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been overrun and the resident evacuated.

Trump’s bash at Putin on Tuesday was the latest in a series that charts his growing irritation.

Russia launched a cloud of 367 drones and missiles at cities across Ukraine over the weekend – the largest of the war so far – prompting Trump to brand him “crazy”.

He said: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that.”

And later posted online: “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him.

“He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers.

“Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”

He added: “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

The Kremlin sought to lower the temperature – although hinted that Trump was merely being “emotional”.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We are really grateful to the Americans and to President Trump personally for their assistance in organising and launching this negotiation process.

“Of course, at the same time, this is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions.”

At least 13 Ukrainians were killed in the weekend strikes, including three children.

Trump’s comments also come amid reports that Russia is amassing a 50,000-strong force on the border with Ukraine, in preparation for a renewed onslaught.

Putin is reportedly preparing for a major push to take more land in the north east.

Military analysts believe he is trying to press home his advantage and capture more Ukrainian land.

They warn that Putin only has a “four-month window” to get a breakthrough in Ukraine this year.

And this could be the beginning of Russia’s summer offensive targeting the border city of Kharkiv – the “fortress” city of Ukraine which put up the maximum resistance at the start of the invasion.

Reacting to the reports, German Chancellor Freidrich Merz predicted that peace was still a long way off.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14335414/trump-slams-putin-warning-playing-fire/

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino’s years-old theory about cocaine found in the White House is resurfacing after the agency announced it would re-investigate the incident.

Bongino, who on Monday announced the new probe into the mystery drugs, previously alleged that there is “zero” chance the Biden family wasn’t involved in bringing the substance into the building.

“There’s absolutely ZERO chance anyone other than a family member brought that cocaine inside the White House complex,” he posted on X two years ago.

“No chance that would make it past the mag/security checkpoints.

“Family bypasses those.”

Bongino posted his suspicions on X two years ago, following the discovery of a dime-sized bag inside a cubby near an entrance to the West Wing on July 2, 2023.

The substance inside the bag tested positive for cocaine, leading many people to allege that Biden’s son, Hunter, was responsible for it.

There is no evidence to suggest the drugs was linked to Hunter or any other member of the Biden family.

The former president’s son had previously struggled with crack cocaine addiction and was seen leaving the White House just two days before the drugs were found.

Hunter, 53 at the time, was visiting the Capitol to celebrate Independence Day with his family.

Despite his years of addiction, Biden’s youngest son says he’s completely sober.

“Makes sense. I cannot imagine a staffer bringing drugs into the White House, even in the Biden Admin,” one woman replied to Bongino’s post.

“That would be beyond idiotic.”

The Secret Service closed its investigation just 10 days after the drugs were found in 2023, citing a lack of evidence.

“Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” the agency said at the time.

In February 2025, Trump echoed Bongino’s hunch about the Biden family, questioning why there was no substantial proof found.

Trump assumed that there were usually “hundreds and even thousands” of fingerprints on the locker where the drugs were found, but there weren’t when investigators arrived.

“And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry,” Trump told The Spectator.

Since stepping back into the White House, Trump said he’s even more convinced “either Joe or Hunter” was behind the scandal.

While the owner of the mysterious bag of cocaine has yet to be named, that may be changing soon.

On May 26, Bongino announced that the FBI would investigate the case, along with a couple of other instances that displayed “potential public corruption.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14336026/biden-cocaine-scandal-dan-bongino-theory/

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “crazy” on Sunday (May 25) after Moscow launched a deadly barrage of drones against Ukraine, even as the warring countries completed a large-scale prisoner exchange.

At least 13 people were killed when Russia launched a record number of drones against Ukraine overnight to Sunday.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” he added.

His comments marked a rare rebuke to Putin, whom he often speaks of with admiration. The US leader has, however, expressed increasing frustration with Moscow’s position in deadlocked truce negotiations with Kyiv.

Earlier Sunday, Trump told reporters he was “not happy” about the latest attack on Ukraine and that he was “absolutely” considering increasing sanctions on Moscow.

“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.

“TERROR”

Ukraine’s emergency services described Sunday an atmosphere of “terror” in the country after a second straight night of massive Russian air strikes, including on the capital Kyiv.

Those killed in the latest Russian strikes included victims aged eight, 12 and 17 in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr, officials said.

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

“The silence of America, the silence of others around the world only encourages Putin,” he said, adding: “Sanctions will certainly help.”

In his social media post, Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, a frequent target of his ire, accusing him of “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does”.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” he said.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for “the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war”.

“Last night’s attacks again show Russia bent on more suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine,” she said on social media.

On a Tuesday morning at a Bukit Batok bowling alley, the sound of clattering pins echoes off the walls.

At one end, a couple of youngsters celebrates strikes exuberantly. At the opposite, a group of older men are racking up the points in more stoic fashion.

And then there is Mr William Thong.

A familiar fixture – he bowls here multiple times a week – Mr Thong has his own locker, his own bowling shoes and a flask of teh-o to keep him going.

Mr Thong stands out from the other amateur bowlers.

His gait is slower and his technique guided more by feel than vision, but he is no less adept at picking up the odd strike or two.

Eyes locked on the target, Mr Thong sends an eight-pound ball swirling down the lane. This time, there are still a few stubborn pins left standing, but he keeps at it for the next hour or so.

After all, what keeps the 93-year-old going is not the score flashing on the electronic screen, but his love for the sport.

BOWLING WITH HALF AN EYE

In his younger days, Mr Thong was an all-rounder in sports, who ran cross-country and played basketball and football.

His foray into bowling only began in his early 20s, after joining an American firm.

“I wanted to please the president (of the company) that I could I also bowl. I joined him and he was happy,” he recalled.

He eventually grew into the sport and competed at local amateur tournaments.

“I enjoy getting strikes, getting spares. Especially the speed (of the ball),” said Mr Thong.

According to Mr Alfred George Pillay, a fellow bowler who has known Mr Thong for close to a decade, the latter was also a bowling captain in his fourties.

As much as China sees almost every aspect of life as an issue of national security, it has never published a white paper on the topic – unlike the United States where each administration typically puts out at least one National Security Strategy. That changed on May 12.

China released its first national security white paper, articulating official positions and strategic priorities. Rooted in the “comprehensive national security” concept President Xi Jinping introduced in 2014, it reflects continuity rather than a departure from past practices.

But if it’s an ongoing practice, why did China feel the need to release it as an official document now?

It’s not hard to see why. As the world undergoes unprecedented changes, China aims to project strength, to promote itself as a stabilising force and legitimate counterweight to the US that is shaking up the established international order.

The white paper tells us that even though China has repeatedly said it will “never seek hegemony”, it still wants to remind the world of the rules it plays by.

Since Mr Xi came to power, China’s definition of national security has become broad and all-encompassing, extending over some 20 domains. Beyond traditional domains like politics and the military, non-traditional fields are also seen as risks to national security – from the economy, food and culture to resources, outer space and artificial intelligence. In 2023, China briefly considered a law to ban clothing that “hurts national feelings”.

Still, the white paper – titled China’s National Security In The New Era – offers valuable insight into how Chinese leaders perceive national security, how these concerns shape national interests, and how the government intends to address emerging challenges.

ASIA-PACIFIC AS ARENA OF BIG POWER CONTEST

China sees the Asia-Pacific as the focal point of great power competitions.

Despite previously advocating that the region should not be “an arena for big power contest”, Chinese leaders now recognise that it has become an inevitability. Compared to the Biden era, US President Donald Trump’s confrontational and unilateralist approach presents a frontal challenge to China’s position in Asia.

The direct threat posed by the US is a dominant theme throughout. US efforts to strengthen regional alliances and expand military presence are depicted as exacerbating existing conflicts and territorial disputes involving China. The white paper also blamed the US’ Asian allies for participating in so-called “exclusive cliques” led by Washington.

To counter these, China is positioning itself as a champion of free trade and multilateralism. It calls for leveraging the United Nations as a platform for resolving differences, advocates deeper strategic ties with Russia, and closer engagement with European countries and Global South nations.

China aims to expand security cooperation with ASEAN member states, to offset the impact of the US’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, which it characterises as the “Asia-Pacific version of NATO” designed to contain China.

There are four “red lines” that the US must not cross: “the Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, China’s path and institutions, and the country’s right to development”.

The last point in particular has gained importance given the spate of US tariffs and export controls, with China affirming a forceful response to any effort to stifle its development, vowing to confront “tariff wars, trade wars, technology wars and public opinion wars”.

The favourable outcome of recent US-China trade negotiations appears to have hardened Beijing’s resolve to stand firm in future conflicts with Washington.

Joe Biden’s aides were willing to do “undemocratic things” to cover up the former president’s mental decline and keep him in power for another four years, the author of a bombshell book revealed Sunday.

Biden’s team of unelected staffers felt justified in “picking up the slack” for the faltering commander in chief and shielding him from the public because they viewed President Trump as an “existential threat” to democracy, Alex Thompson, co-author of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” told Fox News’ Shannon Bream.

“Who would have been running the White House in a second Biden term?” Bream asked Thompson, after noting that he quoted a long-time Biden aide in his book “basically admitting he shouldn’t be running again.”

“Well, this person went on to say that when you’re voting for a president, you’re voting for the aides around him,” the author and Axios journalist revealed.

“But these aides were not even Senate-confirmed aides,” Thompson pointed out. “These are White House aides, these were unelected people.”

Bream highlighted a passage from Thompson’s book, where one anonymous aide argued Biden “just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years. He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while … His aides could pick up the slack.”

Thompson explained that in his reporting for the book with co-author Jake Tapper, it became clear that many in Biden’s orbit were willing to go to extreme lengths if it meant keeping Trump out of the Oval Office.

“If you believe — and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy — you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things, which I think is what this person is talking about,” Thompson told Bream.

In his book, Thompson referred to the small group of people in Biden’s inner circle running the White House as the “Politburo,” noting that the term was also used by some within the administration.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/26/us-news/biden-aides-were-willing-to-do-undemocratic-things-to-keep-faltering-president-in-power-original-sin-author/

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed – most of them in a school building sheltering displaced families – during Israeli air strikes on Gaza overnight, hospital directors have told the BBC.

Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City was housing hundreds of people from Beit Lahia, currently under intense Israeli military assault. At least 35 were reported to have been killed when the school was hit.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence said multiple bodies, including those of children, were recovered – many severely burned, after fires engulfed two classrooms serving as living quarters.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted “a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centre” there.

The IDF said the area was being used “by the terrorists to plan… attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops”, and accused Hamas of using “the Gazan population as human shields”.

Video footage shared online showed large fires consuming parts of the school, with graphic images of severely burned victims, including children, and survivors suffering critical injuries.

Faris Afana, Northern Gaza ambulance service manager, said he arrived at the scene with crews to find three classrooms ablaze.

“There were sleeping children and women in those classrooms,” he said. “Some of them were screaming but we couldn’t rescue them due to the fires.

“I cannot describe what we saw due to how horrific it was.”

Local reports said the head of investigations for the Hamas police in northern Gaza, Mohammad Al-Kasih, was among the dead, along with his wife and children.

Separately, a strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza killed 19 people, according to the director of al-Ahli hospital Dr Fadel el-Naim. The Israeli military has not yet commented on what was being targeted.

The twin attacks are part of a broader Israeli offensive that has escalated in the northern part of the enclave over the past week.

The IDF said it hit 200 targets across Gaza in 48 hours as it continued its operations against what it called “terrorist organisations”.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC on Monday that the group had agreed to the latest ceasefire proposal offered by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

However, Witkoff told Reuters that what he had seen was “completely unacceptable” and that the proposal being discussed was not the same as his.

A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said the plan agreed to by Hamas includes the release of 10 Israeli hostages held by the group in two phases.

In exchange, there would be a 70-day truce, a gradual partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners, including several hundred serving long or life sentences.

The BBC has approached the Israeli government for comment on the proposal. Israeli media quoted anonymous Israeli officials as saying the plan would be rejected.

As mediation efforts continued, an Israeli strike on the home of a Palestinian doctor in Gaza killed nine of her 10 children on Friday. Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s 11-year-old son was injured, along with her husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, who is in critical condition.

The nine children – Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Gebran, Eve, Rival, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra – were aged between just a few months old and 12. The Israeli military has said the incident is under review.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said two of its staff were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis the following day.

The killing of Ibrahim Eid, a weapon contamination officer, and Ahmad Abu Hilal, a security guard at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah “points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza”, the ICRC said, repeating its call for a ceasefire.

On Sunday, the head of a controversial US and Israeli-approved organisation planning to use private firms to deliver aid to Gaza resigned.

In a statement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), executive director Jake Wood said it had become apparent that plans to set up distribution hubs would not meet the “humanitarian principles” of independence and neutrality.

The UN and various humanitarian organisations have said they will not co-operate with the GHF, accusing it of being discriminatory over who will receive food.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March that lasted 11 weeks before it allowed limited aid to enter the territory in the face of warnings of famine and mounting international outrage.

The Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, Cogat, said 107 lorries carrying aid were allowed into Gaza on Sunday. The UN says much more aid – between 500 to 600 lorries a day – is needed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9yjj54v3xo

A Palestinian official said on Monday that Hamas has agreed to a proposal by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff for a Gaza ceasefire, only for an Israeli official to deny that the proposal was Washington’s and add that no Israeli government could accept it.
Witkoff also rejected the notion that Hamas had accepted his offer for a hostage deal and a ceasefire in Gaza, telling Reuters that what he had seen was “completely unacceptable” and the proposal being discussed was not the same as his.

The Palestinian official, who is close to Hamas, had told Reuters that the proposal would see the release of 10 hostages and a 70-day ceasefire and was received by Hamas through mediators.
“The proposal includes the release of 10 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two groups in return for a 70-day ceasefire and a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” the source said.
It also included the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, including hundreds serving lengthy prison terms.
An Israeli official dismissed the proposal, saying no responsible government could accept such an agreement and rejecting the assertion that the deal matched one proposed by Witkoff.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said in a recorded message on social media he “hoped very much” he would be able to deliver developments on the subject of Israel’s fight against Hamas and releasing the hostages, “today and if not today then we will tomorrow”.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the video.
On March 18, Israel effectively ended a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas and renewed its military campaign in Gaza. Hamas and allied factions began firing rockets and attacks two days later.
Hamas has said it is willing to free all remaining hostages seized by its gunmen in attacks on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and agree to a permanent ceasefire if Israel pulls out completely from Gaza.
Netanyahu has said Israel would only be willing to agree to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of hostages, vowing that war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after the Hamas-led militants’ cross-border attack, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies, with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-agrees-us-proposal-gaza-ceasefire-palestinian-official-says-2025-05-26/

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering taking $3 billion of previously awarded grant money for scientific and engineering research away from Harvard University and giving it to trade schools.
His comments on his social media platform Truth Social come less than a week after his administration sought to block the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students as part of Trump’s extraordinary effort to seize some government control of U.S. academia.

Trump, a Republican, has frozen some $3 billion in federal grants to Harvard in recent weeks, complaining that it has hired Democrats, “Radical Left idiots and ‘bird brains'” as professors. Harvard, a private university, has sued to restore the funding, saying the cuts are an unconstitutional attack on its free speech rights and unlawful.
Most of that grant money is appropriated by Congress for the National Institutes of Health to disburse to fund biomedical research after a lengthy application process by individual scientists, work that is not typically done at trade schools.
It was not clear whether Trump was referring to Harvard grants his administration has already frozen. Harvard has said it was told that virtually all of its federal grant awards were revoked earlier in May, in a series of letters by the NIH, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and other agencies.

The letters each said the grants were being suspended because they “no longer effectuate agency priorities.”
Harvard did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. The White House did not respond to questions about the specific funds Trump wants to repurpose or how it could be reallocated to trade schools under the law.
On Friday, a U.S. judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students, a policy the university said was part of Trump’s broader effort to retaliate against it for refusing to “surrender its academic independence.”
The order provides temporary relief to thousands of international students, who were faced with potentially having to transfer under a policy that the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts called a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws.

It said the move would have an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.
Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, representing 27% of total enrollment and a significant chunk of its revenue from tuition fees.
The move was the latest escalation in a broader battle between Harvard and the White House, as Trump seeks to compel universities, law firms, news media, courts and other institutions to align with his agenda. Trump and fellow Republicans have long accused elite universities of left-wing bias.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-hes-considering-taking-3-billion-grants-harvard-giving-it-trade-2025-05-26/

Unlike China, India is seen as slow-playing its Arctic card, choosing to cooperate with the Council and present itself as a ‘responsible stakeholder’ by engaging with all sides on key issues.

The race to ‘conquer’ the world’s final frontier is gathering steam and India is gently but firmly positioning itself in that contest, one which China has also entered and which has been given added urgency by Russian military actions in 2014 (the Crimean War) and 2022 (invasion of Ukraine).

The ‘rewards’ are staggering though – from oil and minerals to drinking water, from access to faster shipping routes to a possibly decisive upper hand in the global geopolitical and military arena.

A remote and largely inhospitable region of the world, the Arctic has emerged as the next global geopolitical and geostrategic hotspot, possibly even the next battlefield, thanks to climate change and the warming of polar ice caps. But its strategic importance has never really been in doubt.

It has, for the most part, been a question of access, specifically terrain so bleak it made extracting oil and other natural resources, navigating the waters, or maintaining military bases near-impossible.

Where is the Arctic?
What we identify as the Arctic is the northernmost region of our planet. The common definition is that area within the Arctic Circle, a line of latitude about 66.5 degrees north of the Equator.

Within this area are the Arctic Ocean and the polar ice caps, and over four million people from eight countries – the United States, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

There are also an estimated 500,000 people from indigenous tribal communities.

Together, these countries and communities inside the Arctic make up the Arctic Council and “carry the role as stewards of the region”, and whom India has been ‘engaging’ for several years.

In 2013 India was made an ‘observer nation’ of the Council.

What is in the Arctic?
Compressed into approximately 14.5 million square kilometres, the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of all undiscovered natural gas stores.

That amounts to 90 billion barrels of oil, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, which are hydrocarbons extracted from natural gas or crude oil.re

It also contains vast reserves of coal, iron, copper, zinc, nickel, bauxite, diamonds, and sulphides, and also millions of tons of phosphate used to make fertilisers.

The Arctic also holds an estimated 20 of the world’s freshwater reserves, which is a commodity that could well become more valuable than any other in the not-too-distant future.

There is gold too; the Fort Knox Gold Mine in Alaska is one of the largest in the world.

And Arctic shipping routes could allow maritime trade to cut down on 8,000 km as they ferry the estimated billions of tons of cargo shipped annually between the Europe and Asia.

Why is the Arctic important now
Because it is melting, at a rate nearly four times faster than anywhere else in the world

Ice levels in September 2017, for example, was 25 per cent smaller than end-of-summer averages from 1981 to 2010, and has been melting at an unprecedented rate – over 12 per cent per decade.

Global warming means the Arctic’s ice caps and the vast stretches of frozen ice that otherwise make it impossible for most ships to pass – certainly not without an ice-breaker plowing a path.

Melting polar ice caps are an existential crisis for humanity; rising sea levels will flood coastal cities and low-lying areas, including Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, and even parts of London.

But they open the door to begin extracting those billions of barrels of oil, a treasure trove countries doing the extraction, for example, could use to reduce dependence on West Asian suppliers.

It also opens the door to millions of tons of coal and precious metals under the ice.

Overall, the melting of the ice caps has woken the world to the natural resources and strategic importance of the Arctic, both of which interest countries beyond the Council, including India.

In fact, in May 2025, the Observer Research Foundation and the Arctic Circle, a 60-nation “network of international dialogue and cooperation” met in Delhi to discuss Asia’s involvement in Arctic affairs.

India v China for the Arctic
Back in 2018, China’s first Arctic Policy spoke of a “mutually beneficial polar partnership”, which would have included linking its Belt Road Initiative to the Northern Sea Route to create the ‘Polar Silk Route’.

The resulting passageway, Beijing said, would shorten maritime travel time to Europe by 40 per cent.

The longer route, in use now, sees Chinese ships sail down south, through the Malacca Strait (between the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, a chokepoint that allows the Indian Navy to monitor maritime traffic off its coastline), across the Indian Ocean, and then back up through the Suez Canal.

Since then, i.e., since articulating its Arctic Policy, China has been called itself as a ‘near-Arctic state’, and has sought a seat at the Arctic Council, something that is not likely to be granted.

However, Beijing too was given ‘observer nation’ status.

For China the Arctic quest is more about trade, really, than anything else.

As one of the world’s largest manufacturers (of pretty much everything), it needs fast and reliable distribution routes, and ships are generally cost-effective compared to planes.

And the Malacca chokepoint isn’t ideal, particularly if there should be military conflict with India.

Faster maritime trade is a big attraction for India too.

India’s involvement with the Arctic dates back to 1920, when the Svalbard Treaty was signed in Paris. And today it is one of a handful of nations to have a permanent base in the Arctic.

Set up in 2008 and called ‘Himadri’, it is in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, roughly 1,200km from the North Pole, and has provided field and laboratory support to scientists back home.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/arctic-circle-race-india-vs-china-ndtv-explains-india-vs-china-and-other-nations-in-race-for-arctics-oil-gas-8512718#pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

KILLER camouflage drones the size of insects could be used by Russia and China to commit untraceable murders, an ex-Google futurist warns.

Tracey Follows, who has also worked with Amazon and Meta, warned they could even carry deadly pathogens and be used to spy on the UK.

And it is a prediction which is a chilling echo of the Black Mirror episode “Hated in the Nation”.

The near future sci-fi show envisioned of world where robot bees designed to pollinate flowers could be hijacked to commit murder.

The Future of You author told The Sun: “In time, one expects a drone to have the situational awareness to carry out an attack autonomously without a human in the loop.

“The big question is what’s the payload on these drones, what are you actually attaching to the drone?

“Increasingly, over the last four or five years, I’ve been reading about viruses and how you can potentially attach a pathogen to these sorts of weapons.

“So not only can you identify somebody personally, you can then attack them with a virus, for example.”

Terrifyingly, she warned it could open the door for rogue nations like Russia to assassinate targets on UK soil without leaving a trace.

Moscow was infamously accused of poisoning ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury in 2018.

Skirpal and his daughter, Yulia, survived but local woman Dawn Sturgess was inadvertently killed when she sprayed what she thought was perfume on her wrists. Russia denies any involvement.

Before that, Skripal was convicted of spying for Britain in 2006 and jailed for 13 years.

But in future, drone attacks could make it impossible to identify a culprit.

Follows, who founded consultancy service Futuremade, said: “If you can camouflage these micro weapons, and if you’ve got technology that’s so advanced that the enemy country doesn’t know what’s happened, you can’t really trace exactly what’s happened.

“If you’re adding a virus as a payload onto a drone, it could be a completely new virus.

“You may not know what that virus is in your country and it’s attacked somebody individually because it’s autonomously targeted and activated against that person.”

Follows, ranked in the world’s Top 30 Futurists by Global Gurus, added: “I don’t think it’s just Russia and China that one has to worry about.

“I think it’s anybody, in any country, in any region who is starting to integrate AI into the military and into these lethal weapons.”

Drone technology continues to advance at an alarming rate as the AI explosion shows no signs of slowing down.

This month, chilling images emerged of a new Chinese “mothership” drone carrier that can launch swarms of mini-drones.

The small drones would then work together to “swarm” enemies. State broadcaster CCTV said its inaugural mission will launch on Monday.

Follows warned that not only are drones becoming better at identifying targets, but people are simply becoming easier to track down.

She said: “I spoke to Erik Prince. He’s the biggest kind of private military contractor in the world, and the founder of Blackwater.

“Among other things, he co-founded a company called Unplugged, which brings privacy to your mobile phone. So it doesn’t collect any data.”

She added: “So he’s very aware of communications technologies and how they can be used for surveillance.

“He talked to me about the way in which drones can do precision targeting now if the data is available on your AI, a sort of advertising ID, if you like.

“So if you’ve got stuff on your phone and you’ve got an identification on your phone, if you’re carrying that with you, the drone can identify that and that can be set to attack.”

As technology continues to advance rapidly, so too do security and privacy concerns.

Follows warns that drones may also pave the way to record personal conversations without consent.

Worse, they could even film us without us being aware we’re being filmed at all.

That would therefore spark a race with the technology used to detect them.

Asked if drones the size of flies will one day be able to film us, she added: “They probably will be able to, yes.

“DARPA (a US military research agency) used to have a program called SHRIMP and they put it out as a competition for researchers, engineers and computer scientists to come back and say, how could you do these tiny micro drones?

“The problem was with the energy as they’re so small. You can’t get the energy in them for them to be transported for a long enough distance or carry out the actions you want them to.

“So they had this short range micro micro robotics program. And that was in 2019, and it’s all gone very quiet since then.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14295752/china-russia-insect-drones-spy-uk-murder/

KING Charles yesterday took his initial steps on a “diplomatic tightrope” on his first trip to Canada since his crowning.

Charles — also the giant nation’s monarch — and Queen Camilla landed in Ottawa, where the couple were saluted by the military and given a Guard of Honour.

Their trip, on which Charles will be the first monarch to open the country’s Parliament since 1957, follows Donald Trump’s call for Canada to become the US’s 51st state.

Experts hailed the packed two-day trip as a “clever” move designed to signal to the US President that Britain stands by its Commonwealth ally.

Charles, 76, has praised the realm since its dispute with Mr Trump, 78, but has also invited the US leader for a second State visit.

Royal commentator Ingrid Seward said: “This is a diplomatic challenge for Charles. He takes his obligations as King of Canada and Head of the Commonwealth very seriously.

“He is walking a tightrope, but he has so far found the right words and actions to navigate it. I think he will stay away from saying anything inflammatory, but he will handle whatever is thrown at him.”

Charles and Camilla, who were also greeted by an indigenous tribe elder, were taken from the airport to meet locals at a party on the city’s Lansdowne Park.

Some made trips of up to eight hours to get there.

Charles dropped a puck to start a street hockey game as royal fans waved Canadian and Union flags and cheered “God save the King”.

The royals also participated in a tree planting at Government House.

Charles, still having cancer treatment, will give a speech today in English and French, Canada’s official languages, as he opens parliament.

Dr Dexter Govan, director of research for the Constitution Society, said it is “certainly no coincidence” that Charles is doing so.

He said: “The King must balance his role as Head of State of both the UK and Canada, while also refraining from commenting directly on politics.

“When President Trump suggests Canada should become the 51st state, that becomes even more challenging. By opening Parliament, the King’s continuing a long constitutional tradition where a monarch uses a symbolic gesture to make their point.”

“He takes his obligations as King of Canada and Head of the Commonwealth very seriously

Prof Damien Claude Bélanger, expert in Canadian-US relations, added: “The visit is designed to show that Canada has close, intimate ties, with one of the world’s great powers, and that we’re not alone in the face of the US or American power.”

Prof Robert Hazell, expert in Government and the Constitution at University College London, said: “Undoubtedly King Charles’s visit has political significance.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/royals/14328165/king-charles-visit-canada-camilla-trump/

THE FBI has launched a fresh investigation into the mysterious discovery of cocaine in President Joe Biden’s White House that saw the entire building evacuated.

The Secret Service stumbled upon the dime-sized bag inside a cubby near an entrance to the West Wing on July 2, 2023, but a suspect still hasn’t been found.

On Monday, Dan Bongino, the FBI’s deputy director, announced several probes that he says showed signs of “potential public corruption.”

“We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention to these cases,” he wrote on X.

“These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case.”

Bongino explained that he would receive weekly briefings regarding the FBI’s progress in investigating these cases and asked people close to the matter to send tips.

Mystery still hangs in the air after the cocaine was found near the entrance that’s commonly used for tours.

Just 10 days after the discovery, the Secret Service closed its investigation and blamed a lack of evidence in the surveillance footage they reviewed.

“Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” the agency said at the time.

Many lawmakers felt the case could be cracked wide open if investigators found who had access to the cubby and called for a fresh look.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump suggested that someone in the Biden family was responsible for the drugs.

He questioned the lack of fingerprints on the lockers and guessed that there were normally “hundreds and even thousands” of prints.

“And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry,” Trump told The Spectator in February.

After stepping back into the White House, Trump said he was convinced that “either Joe or Hunter” was behind the massive flub.

Hunter was addicted to crack for years, and many of his drug-fueled antics were caught on videos leaked from his laptop.

The former first son said that he is now completely sober.

FURIOUS Iran would face a devastating invasion if it followed through on threats to assassinate Donald Trump, a former US advisor has warned.

Dr Kenneth Katzman, a retired Middle East analyst for the US Congressional Research Service, even warned of a “full-scale invasion” with special forces storming the streets of Tehran.

He spoke after Trump’s former security advisor, John Bolton, said the US President is “at the top” of an “assassination list” from the Middle East nation.

Bolton, who claimed he is also on the hit list, said it would be revenge for a US airstrike in 2020 in Iraq that killed military leader Qasem Soleimani, ordered by Trump.

But Dr Katzman warns Iran would face a response so dramatic it would overthrow its regime.

Analysts have previously warned such a conflict would be a devastating quagmire.

US historian Max Boot predicted would take up to 1.6million troops for the US to fully invade and occupy Iran.

The US forces would face a war that spill across the Middle East as they tried to battle Iran’s wide-ranging proxy forces.

Other forecasts have predicted smaller attacks – such as the long mulled joint-strike with Israel on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Dr Katzman told The Sun: “If Trump were to be assassinated, there would be many targets in Tehran that would be attacked.

“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters is in Tehran, the besieged headquarters, all the security forces I’m sure would be attacked.

“If they assassinated the US president you could even see, conceivably, US ground operations in Iran if that happens.

“It would be just so dramatic. You could even see US special forces operations in Iran and infantry operations in Iran, the marketplace is wide open.

“The objective of troops in Iran? To take the regime out.

He added: “If they assassinated a US president, a full-scale invasion is very much an option.”

In November last year the Justice Department said it charged a man, Farhad Shakeri, 51, for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate Trump, tasked by the Iranian regime.

Iran, where the suspect is now believed to be, denies this.

Dr Katzman also warned that Bolton’s comments may have been a cry for help over an “active plot”

He continued: “I think he’s trying to highlight that he feels threatened. Trump withdrew the security protection for some of these guys that served in the first term that I mentioned, including Bolton.

“So I think Bolton, by bringing this up again, is trying to signal that he feels he needs security, there is still a threat, still an active plot.”

“Iran knows full well that that’s the kind of thing that could bring a massive US intervention, on enough scale that the regime is gone.”

But Dr Katzman believes the extent of the retaliation will deter Iran from following through with any threats.

Instead, he believes the threats serve as leverage to intimidate the US.

He added: “What’s always puzzled me and other experts like me: what is Iran hoping to achieve here? Because the retaliation presumably would be so dramatic.

“No one could quite figure out what the percentage is for Iran in actually going ahead with these types of operations.

“The retaliation is sure to be dramatic, but I think the sense is that Iran feels that these operations do give it a certain leverage and ability to intimidate, an ability to exert leverage.

“That’s the way Iran sees it. I don’t think anybody here necessarily sees it that way, but that’s how Iran sees it.

“There have been no policy changes by the threat of Iranian assassination attempts in the United States.

“These threats have not caused any change in policy more favorable to the regime, so it’s a mystery what Iran is really thinking with these plots.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14295764/iran-us-invasion-donald-trump-assassination-list/

US-backed group begins aid distribution in Gaza

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group that is backed by Israel and the Trump administration, said Monday that it has started distributing food in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the GHF said it had “commenced operations in Gaza today, delivering truckloads of food to its Secure Distribution Sites, where distribution to the Gazan people began.”

More trucks with aid will be delivered on Tuesday, the group said, adding that the flow of aid would increase “each day.”

The Geneva-based organization, which was established in February, has pledged to distribute 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operating.

But the United Nations and international aid agencies have refused to work with the GHF amid allegations that the group is collaborating with Israel without any Palestinian involvement.

The UN has said the plan allows Israel to use food as a weapon, as it will force civilians to walk miles through Israeli military lines to find food.

Israel has faced rising global condemnation because of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where it has waged a military campaign in response to an attack in October 2023 by Hamas.

After a ceasefire collapsed in March, Israel imposed a two-month blockade on the Palestinian enclave, sparking fears of a famine in Gaza.

The GHF, meanwhile, has accused Hamas of trying to block its operations, condemning the Islamist group for making “death threats targeting aid groups.”

“It is clear that Hamas is threatened by this new operating model, and will do everything in its power to see it fail,” it said.

The group has also faced internal turmoil after its executive director Jake Wood resigned Sunday saying the new aid program would not allow him to do his job independently.

“It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/merz-says-israeli-actions-in-gaza-no-longer-justified/live-72666924

PARANORMAL fanatics have spoken out after baseless rumors surrounding the disappearance of the supposedly haunted doll Annabelle went viral.

Social media has been rife with conspiracy theories claiming the red-headed toy had vanished or been stolen.

The doll burst onto the big screen via The Conjuring Universe horror franchise, but its real-life story dates back to the 1970s.

Baseless rumors have been swirling on TikTok that the real-life version of Annabelle escaped from its box, or went missing in Texas and Chicago.

Tourists in Louisiana claimed the doll went missing after it failed to show up at an exhibition as part of the Devils on The Run Tour, as reported by the Fox affiliate WFLD-TV.

The speculation has even prompted the New England Society for Psychic Research to speak about the doll’s whereabouts.

A TikTok video revealed Annabelle is still housed in the Warren’s Occult Museum in Connecticut.

The video showed the doll sitting in a case.

“Annabelle’s not missing. She’s not in Chicago,” the man in the video, known only as Dan, said.

Those who approach Annabelle’s glass box are instructed not to touch it based on a note.

The doll has been blamed for a blaze that gutted the Louisiana mansion, the Nottoway Plantation.

And, it has been bizarrely linked to a jailbreak that saw 10 inmates escape a New Orleans lockup.

The Raggedy Ann doll was given to student nurse Donna in 1970 as a present from her mom.

She claimed the doll inexplicably moved to different locations within her and her roommate’s homes.

Donna recalled on one instance she put the doll on the couch before leaving work only to discover that it was on the bed.

The doll apparently left notes and even turned violent against one of the student’s friends.

One of the notes said: “Help us,” while another reportedly said: “Help Lou,” according to the New England Society for Psychic Research.

Lou was a friend of the nurse and her mom.

The male friend claimed he woke up to a feeling of being strangled and had scratches on his body.

Meanwhile, the doll just stared at him as he was being allegedly attacked.

CHILLING BACKSTORY

The nurse and her mom called a medium, who revealed the story about a girl named Annabelle Higgins who was found dead at the age of seven.

The nurse called paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and they probed the claims whether Annabelle was indeed haunted.

Legend has it that Annabelle was responsible for a man who died after visiting the museum.

The man apparently banged on the doll’s case – despite being warned not to touch it.

He then smashed into a tree while riding back from the museum with his girlfriend.

Rumors about the doll mysteriously escaping the Warren’s Occult museum circulated in 2020.

Tony Spera, the Warrens’ son in law, debunked the rumors.

“I don’t know if you’re going to want to hear this or not, but Annabelle did not escape,” he emphatically said in a YouTube video.

“Annabelle’s here in all her infamous glory. She never left the museum.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14323071/annabelle-doll-haunted-missing-conspiracy-theories/

Saudi Arabia, an ultra-conservative country, is planning to legalise alcohol at 600 tourist spots ahead of hosting the 2034 World Cup. It will allow the sale of wine, beer, and cider at licensed locations, such as five-star hotels. Saudi Arabia believes that allowing alcohol at certain tourist sites will help the country compete with the UAE and Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia, once an ultra-conservative country, is planning to legalise alcohol use at 600 tourist spots ahead of hosting the 2034 World Cup football, according to reports. The country has already taken a liberal turn under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and allowed women to drive, reopened cinemas and hosted music concerts. But allowing alcohol, beer, wine and cider by a Muslim country would be quite a radical step.

Saudi Arabia will allow the sale of wine, beer, and cider at licensed locations, including five-star hotels, luxury resorts, and expat-friendly compounds at 600 tourist sites, according to a report in The US Sun.

Saudi authorities believe allowing alcohol at certain tourist sites would help the country compete with the UAE and Bahrain, where alcohol is allowed at some tourist hotspots.

Drinks and liquor with more than 20% alcohol content will remain banned, according to a report by the UK-based Metro, which quoted local Saudi media.

Though Saudi Arabia is allowing soft alcohol with an eye on tourism, the general ban on booze in public, homes, and shops will remain, according to The Sun report.

SAUDI TO END 73-YEAR-OLD ALCOHOL BAN?

The move to allow beer and wine ahead of the 2034 World Cup will in effect bring to an end Saudi Arabia’s 73-year ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, said The UK’s Metro.

Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 under Abdulaziz Al Saud with a legal system based on Wahhabi Islam, a strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.

It followed Sharia law and alcohol was always forbidden, but the actual state-level enforcement and legal ban on alcohol sales and consumption was formalised in 1952.

FIRST ALCOHOL STORE OPENED IN RIYADH IN 2024

The store is in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter. It caters exclusively to non-Muslim diplomats and currently stocks liquor, wine, and a limited selection of just two types of beer, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Access is restricted to customers with valid diplomatic identification.

Upon entry, mobile phones must be sealed in pouches. Purchases are managed through a mobile app that operates on an allotment system, according to a diplomat familiar with the process.

Alcohol had been available only through diplomatic mail or on the black market.

MBS GIVING LIBERAL TURN TO SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), is writing a story of transformation, giving up its traditional image and ushering in a new era of openness and modernity. One of the reasons is to diversify its oil money-based economy to tourism.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/saudi-arabia-lifts-alcohol-ban-major-rules-ahead-world-cup-2034-wine-beer-cider-2026-heres-what-happened-2730627-2025-05-26

AT least 10 people have been taken to hospital after a Memorial Day Weekend celebration turned to chaos.

The Atlantic Beach Bike Festival in South Carolina was shut down by cops after panicked concert-goers caused a stampede on Saturday night.

It is believed that an argument sparked the sudden reaction with shoes and personal belongings left scattered on the floor as people fled.

Police have said they are investigating a “mass casualty event” with further updates expected later on.

Atlantic Beach Interim Police Chief Carlos Castillo told ABC affiliate WPDE that he would answer questions at some point but there would be no immediate comment.

It is claimed by a witness that an argument on the street caused festival goers to surge towards the stage, per Myrtle Beach Online.

Hilton Dewitt told the outlet that the incident occured around 1 am on Sunday.

“They started panicking. It was a stampede,” Dewitt said.

The scene was quickly attended by cops and ambulances who rushed to help the injured.

At least 10 injured people were taken to hospital, according to reports.

The severity of their injuries has not yet been shared and there is no confirmation about what exactly took place.

It is not known if the annual Memorial Day weekend event will continue following the incident.

Those at the scene have reported watching vendors packing up on Sunday morning.

Road closures and diversions have been enforced with emergency services reportedly still at the scene.

This year is the 45th anniversary of the Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival, also known as Black Bike Week which is traditionally celebrated on Memorial Day weekend.

Bikers flood the streets and celebrate with food, live music, and parties.

Over 400,000 people were expected to attend the event this weekend.

Ahead of his first Atlantic Beach Bike Week, Nick Beard from Virginia, shared his excitement for the event with WPDE.

“It’s about the people and the connections you make with the people, and everyone enjoying themselves and smiling,” he said.

“The world is hard enough as it is. come out here for a couple of days or a week in my case, and see everyone smiling, it’s a greatest thing.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14319906/stampede-atlantic-beach-black-bike-week-myrtle-beach/

Easier trade among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as with the regional bloc’s top economic partner, China, is on the horizon as the grouping pushes ahead with “bolder” moves to stave off the threat of steep US tariffs.

ASEAN has concluded negotiations on upgrading the ASEAN Trade In Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), with the enhanced deals set to be signed in October, Malaysia’s Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz told reporters on Sunday (May 25) ahead of the 46th ASEAN summit.

“We remain confident that these milestones will serve as a pivotal enabler for ASEAN’s sustained growth and competitiveness,” Tengku Zafrul said after chairing an ASEAN Economic Community Council Meeting.

“The successful conclusion of these negotiations is expected to enhance the region’s economic integration and generate significant economic benefits for ASEAN as we continue to navigate an increasingly volatile global economic landscape.”

As the rotating chair for ASEAN this year, Malaysia has urged the bloc to diversify its trading partners in the face of sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking on Sunday, Tengku Zafrul warned the bloc against staying still at a time of economic uncertainty.

“ASEAN would need to break away from a business-as-usual approach,” he said.

“We need to adopt bolder, more agile and more forward-looking strategies. We need to safeguard and advance ASEAN socioeconomic interests.”

ASEAN has reaffirmed its commitment to stand by the principles of multilateralism and a rules-based global trading order, even as it continues to maintain a policy of non-retaliation against the US tariffs, Tengku Zafrul said.

“We don’t plan to have any measures that will represent a retaliation to what has been introduced,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said every ASEAN member is a “sovereign nation” and should be supported in pursuing bilateral tariff negotiations with the US.

“But it’s important that in all these meetings, we also reiterate the ASEAN position,” he added.

At the summit on Monday and Tuesday, ASEAN is expected to explore the expansion of regional free trade agreements alongside engaging other economic blocs and dialogue partners, measures which Tengku Zafrul said were discussed at the economic council meeting.

FACILITATING TRADE WITHIN ASEAN

“We also discussed how ASEAN can improve trade within,” the minister added, noting that intra-ASEAN trade accounts for approximately 23 per cent of the bloc’s total trade.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement. When we look at other economic blocs, they trade with each other internally more than what ASEAN is doing today.”

ATIGA is aimed at achieving a free flow of goods between ASEAN member states, resulting in lower business costs, increased trade, and a larger market and economies of scale for businesses.

The upgraded agreement targets the further lowering of tariffs and the removal of non-tariff barriers among member countries.

It will feature “forward-looking and commercially meaningful provisions aimed at further boosting regional trade, enhancing supply chain resilience, and also boosting deeper economic integration within ASEAN”, Tengku Zafrul said.

Singapore, which chaired the upgrade negotiations, said it will continue to work with ASEAN and global partners to secure the bloc’s long-term growth, competitiveness, and shared prosperity.

The successful conclusion of the upgrade negotiations “demonstrates ASEAN’s commitment to building a more seamless and resilient economic region, as well as to preserve a rules-based trading environment to better support businesses’ operations in the ASEAN region amidst an uncertain global economic climate”, Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, also the country’s deputy prime minister, said in a statement on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan highlighted that ASEAN nations are among those most heavily hit by US tariffs.

“We must seize this moment to deepen regional economic integration, so that we can better shield our region from external shocks,” he said in opening remarks at a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers.

The US-China trade war is “dramatically disrupting” production and trade patterns worldwide, Mohamad said, cautioning that a global economic slowdown was likely to happen.

TAKING ASEAN-CHINA TRADE FORWARD

ASEAN is China’s largest trading partner, with the value of total trade reaching US$234 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to Chinese customs data.

The so-called 3.0 version of CAFTA will “promote the deep integration of the production and supply chains of both sides”, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, when it announced the completion of negotiations.

The upgraded pact will also “inject greater certainty into regional and global trade and play a leading and exemplary role for countries to adhere to openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation”, the ministry said.

China has intensified engagement with ASEAN since Trump announced hefty import tariffs on countries around the world and targeted China with even heavier levies. Some of the levies have since been delayed while China and the US agreed this month to pause some of their tariffs.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/asean-summit-us-tariffs-china-trade-5152036

The alleged rift between Megan Markle and former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful goes deeper than him reportedly being unable to accommodate her for a cover in 2022, we hear.

The former royal gave the fashion maven an impossible list of demands, and even tried to also appeal to US Vogue’s Anna Wintour, a source tells Page Six.

The Daily Mail reported this week that Markle and Enniful had plans for a UK Vogue September 2022 issue that would include Markle’s keynote appearance at the One Young World Summit in Manchester, and “involved extensive features across the magazine and its digital editions.”

The outlet reported that Markle wanted the cover, but Enniful already had a star, Linda Evangelista, booked — causing Markle to pull the plug and causing a falling out between the former friends.

But we hear scheduling wasn’t the only reason the cover never materialized.

A source tells us Markle wanted a “global cover,” appearing on the covers of UK and US Vogue simultaneously, along with a list of demands.

“Meghan asked for control over [the] photographer, writer, final edit, photos, cover lines, and wanted a global issue,” says a source.

We hear there was no way any editor would agree.

“Nobody gets that. Not even Beyoncé,” says the source.

We hear Markle even set up a personal Zoom call with Wintour in order to try and pitch her on the idea.

“Anna wasn’t interested,” says the source, adding the mag already had its own cover star, Serena Williams.

While Markle was not in the running, the source tells us: “Meghan asked for a Zoom with her to reconsider, and Anna did it to be polite.”

Adele is the only celebrity to appear on both US and UK covers simultaneously for the November 2021 issues.

However, another source insisted that Markle never sought a cover from Vogue, and that the mag had actually approached her multiple times after her wedding to Prince Harry.

Enninful had previously asked Markle to be on the cover of British Vogue’s 2019 “Forces for Change” issue, but she chose to guest edit instead, the source said.

Markle did wind up getting a September 2022 cover, at the time she was promoting her now failed “Archetypes” podcast.

She appeared on the digital cover of New York magazine’s the Cut, which also featured another digital cover with Megan Thee Stallion.

She was also slated to appear on the cover of Variety that month, but it was held a month after Queen Elizabeth II passed away.

Sources told Daily Mail that Markle and Enninful — who quit British Vogue in February — are no longer on speaking terms.

“The duchess and her team had high expectations and were expecting she might get a print cover or at least a digital cover out of it, but Enninful was not able to meet those expectations. He already had a magazine cover in the bag for that month,” an insider said.

“Edward was furious to have lost the project, as were the powers that be at Condé Nast,” said the source.
“The whole process became very difficult. Edward could only promise her a big showy feature inside the magazine and online — but she turned it down,” they added.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/24/royal-family/meghan-markle-made-impossible-demands-for-2022-vogue-cover/

Sean “Diddy” Combs won’t be popping Cîroc bottles this Memorial Day.

The “Act Bad” rapper, who is currently behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY, will be celebrating the holiday Monday differently than he’s used to.

The disgraced hip-hop mogul will spend Memorial Day engaging in friendly competition with his fellow inmates, playing 3-on-3 basketball, dominoes, spades and board games, according to TMZ.

The outlet reported that Combs, 55, will have plenty of food items to choose from throughout the day, starting with fruit and cereal for breakfast.

For lunch, the dad of seven will dine on BBQ chicken, macaroni and cheese, mixed veggies and a holiday dessert, while dinner will consist of chicken and rice, pinto beans, canned corn and whole wheat bread.

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

Combs is currently on trial, facing three charges: racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The “I’ll Be Missing You” emcee has pleaded not guilty and denied all culpability.

Several witnesses have testified about Combs’ alleged physical abuse against his ex Casanda “Cassie” Ventura, including Dawn Richard.

The former Danity Kane singer, 41, claimed she saw the Revolt co-founder get “violent or volatile” toward the “Me & U” songstress.

“He would drag her and kick her and punch her in the mouth,” she told the jury last Monday, alleging that Ventura, 38, would be attacked when she “would speak up for herself.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/25/celebrity-news/how-sean-diddy-combs-will-spend-his-first-memorial-day-behind-bars/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed deep unhappiness at Russia’s weekend bombing of Ukraine, saying of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “I’m not happy with Putin.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that,” Trump told reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington.

Trump spoke in reaction to a Russian barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight on Sunday, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more.

Trump has been trying to get both sides to agree to a ceasefire in the three-year-old war in Ukraine and he spoke for more than two hours with Putin last week.

He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing attacks.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-he-is-not-happy-with-putin-bombing-ukraine-2025-05-25/

There is no excitement as the camera passes. The children barely glance. What can surprise a child who lives among the dead, the dying, the waiting to die? Hunger has worn them down.

They wait in queues for scant rations or for none at all. They have grown used to my colleague and his camera, filming for the BBC. He witnesses their hunger, their dying, and to the gentle wrapping of their bodies – or fragments of their bodies – in white shrouds upon which their names, if known, are written.

For 19 months of war, and now under a renewed Israeli offensive, this local cameraman – who I do not name, for his safety - has listened to the anguished cries of the survivors in hospital courtyards.

His physical distance is respectful, but they are on his mind, day and night. He is one of them, trapped in the same claustrophobic hell.

This morning he is setting out to find Siwar Ashour, a five-month-old girl whose emaciated frame and exhausted cry at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis affected him so much, when he was filming there earlier this month, that he wrote to tell me something had broken inside him.

She weighed just over 2kg (4lb 6oz). A baby girl of five months should be about 6kg or over.

Siwar has since been discharged and is now at home,  my colleague has heard. That is what brings him to the street of pulverised houses and makeshift shelters of canvas and corrugated iron.

He conducts his search in difficult circumstances. A few days ago I messaged to ask how he was doing. “I am not okay,” he replied. “Just a short while ago, the Israeli army announced the evacuation of most areas of Khan Younis… We don’t know what to do – there is no safe place to go.

“Al-Mawasi is extremely overcrowded with displaced people. We are lost and have no idea what the right decision is at this moment.”

He finds a one-bedroom shack, the entrance formed of a floral patterned, grey and black curtain. Inside there are three mattresses, part of a chest of drawers, and a mirror which reflects sunlight across the floor in front of Siwar, her mother Najwa and her grandmother, Reem.

Siwar is quiet, held secure by the protective presence of the two women. The baby cannot absorb regular milk formula because of a severe allergic reaction. Under the conditions of war and an Israeli blockade on aid arrivals, there is a severe shortage of the formula she needs.

Najwa, 23, explains that her condition stabilised when she was in Nasser hospital, so doctors discharged her with a can of baby formula several days ago.

Now at home, she says the baby’s weight has started to slip again. “The doctors told me that Siwar improved and is better than before, but I think that she is still skinny and hasn’t improved much. They found her only one can of milk, and it [has] started running out.”

Flies dance in front of Siwar’s face. “The situation is very dire,” says Najwa, “the insects come at her, I have to cover her with a scarf so nothing touches her”.

Siwar has lived with the sound of war since last November when she was born. The artillery, the rockets, falling bombs – distant and near. The gunfire, the blades of Israeli drones whirring overhead. Najwa explains: “She understands these things. The sound of the tanks, warplanes, and rockets are so loud and they are close to us. When Siwar hears these sounds, she gets startled and cries. If she is sleeping, she wakes up startled and crying.”

Doctors in Gaza say many young mothers report being unable to breastfeed their babies due to lack of nutrition. The pressing problem is food and clean water.

Najwa was malnourished herself when Siwar was born. She and her mother Reem still find it difficult to get anything to eat themselves. It is the struggle of every waking hour. “In our case, we can’t provide milk or diapers because of the prices and the border closure.”

On 22 May Israeli military body Cogat said there was no food shortage in Gaza. It said “significant quantities of baby food and flour for bakeries” had been brought into the enclave in recent days.

The agency has repeatedly insisted that Hamas steals aid, while the Israeli government says the war will continue until Hamas is destroyed and the Israeli hostages held in Gaza are released. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 20 hostages seized by Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attacks are believed to be alive and up to 30 others dead.

Aid agencies, the United Nations and many foreign governments, including Britain, reject Cogat’s comment that there is no food shortage. US President Donald Trump has also spoken of people “starving” in Gaza.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza as “a teaspoon”. He said Palestinians were “enduring what may be the cruellest phase of this cruel conflict” with restricted supplies of fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y2kd1nkleo

Joseph Neumeyer, 28, was detained in Israel after the attack and deported to the United States, where he was arrested on arrival, court documents and a Justice Department statement said.

A dual US-German citizen was charged in a New York court Sunday on suspicion he tried to firebomb the United States’ mission in Tel Aviv earlier this week, the US Justice Department said.

Joseph Neumeyer, 28, was detained in Israel after the attack and deported to the United States, where he was arrested on arrival, court documents and a Justice Department statement said.

He was also accused of issuing assassination threats against US President Donald Trump.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said her department would “prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”

If convicted, Neumeyer faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, with a maximum fine of $250,000, the Justice Department said.

Neumeyer had traveled to Israel last month, according to statements from the Justice Department and the US attorney’s office in New York.

On May 19, he had posted on his Facebook account an invitation to “join me as I burn down the embassy,” the statements said.

“Death to America, death to Americans, and f—k the west,” he wrote, before going to the US diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv — a branch of the US embassy, which was moved to Jerusalem in 2018.

There, Neumeyer spit on a guard as he walked past the mission, and when the guard attempted to detain him, he broke free and ran off, leaving behind his backpack, the statement from the US attorney’s office said.

“Law enforcement recovered from Neumeyer’s backpack several bottles that had been turned into improvised incendiary devices, commonly known as ‘Molotov cocktails’,” it said.

Law enforcement, which confirmed the presence of flammable fluid in the devices, later tracked Neumeyer to his hotel and arrested him.

After being deported to New York on Saturday, he appeared at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn Sunday afternoon, where he was ordered detained pending trial.

US authorities highlighted threatening posts alleged to have been posted by Neumeyer on social media.

“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and President Trump’s life,” US Attorney General Bondi said.

“This despicable and violent behavior will not be tolerated at home or abroad,” said FBI director Kash Patel.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-german-man-arrested-for-attempted-firebombing-at-us-embassy-in-tel-aviv-8507614

Two Texas residents have been arrested for allegedly operating a criminal racket that exploited the US immigration system through fraudulent visa applications, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced this on Friday.

Abdul Hadi Murshid, 39, and Muhammad Salman Nasir, 35, both originally from Pakistan, were taken into custody following a joint investigation led by FBI Dallas and federal law enforcement partners.

The duo now faces multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy and Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) conspiracy.

The charges were announced by Acting US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Chad E Meacham. Murshid and Nasir are also accused of unlawfully obtaining and attempting to obtain US citizenship.

According to the indictment, the accused, along with the Law Offices of D Robert Jones PLLC and Reliable Ventures, Inc., allegedly orchestrated a large-scale visa fraud scheme for financial gain.

Investigators claim they submitted false and fraudulent applications on behalf of non-citizens – referred to in the indictment as “visa seekers” – to help them enter and remain in the US illegally.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/pakistani-nationals-arrested-visa-fraud-money-laundering-case-texas-2730242-2025-05-25

In an interview with British tabloid The Sun following her return to the UK, Magee expressed disappointment with the pageant’s environment, stating that it did not align with her expectations of ‘beauty with a purpose’.

Controversies continue to plague the international Miss World pageant, which the Telangana government has been hosting with great fanfare to promote the state globally. Following an earlier uproar over local women washing the feet of beauty pageant contestants during their visit to the iconic Ramappa Temple, another controversy has cast a shadow over the competition as one contestant has withdrawn from the event.

Miss England 2024 Milla Magee has withdrawn from the ongoing Miss World 2025 pageant being hosted in Telangana, citing personal and ethical concerns for her decision. The 24-year-old, who arrived in Hyderabad on May 7, returned to the UK on May 16, ending her participation in the global beauty competition.

In an interview with British tabloid The Sun following her return to the UK, Magee expressed disappointment with the pageant’s environment, stating that it did not align with her expectations of “beauty with a purpose.” However, Miss World organisers have refuted her claims. Following her exit from the competition, Miss England runner-up Charlotte Grant has stepped in to replace her.

According to The Sun, Milla Magee reportedly “fled the competition,” citing “superficial treatment and lack of respect toward contestants.” She claimed to have quit the Miss World beauty pageant because she felt organisers were exploiting her.

“I went there to make a difference, but we had to sit like performing monkeys. It’s stuck in the past. Morally, I couldn’t be a part of it,” Magee told The Sun.

The publication also reported that Magee said she “felt like a prostitute” and was “farmed out for entertainment” by Miss World organisers. She said she decided to take a stand after being paraded in front of wealthy male sponsors.

“Contenders were told to wear make-up 24/7 and ball gowns all day, including at breakfast,” she said in the interview.

According to The Sun, Magee said the final straw came when contestants were told to entertain middle-aged men as a “thank you” for their financial support of the show.

“There were two girls assigned to each table of six guests. We were expected to sit with them for the whole evening and entertain them as a thank you. I found that unbelievable. I remember thinking, ‘This is so wrong.’ I didn’t come here to be farmed out for people’s entertainment. Miss World is supposed to have the same values, but it’s outdated and stuck in the past. They made me feel like a prostitute,” The Sun quoted Magee as saying.

“I went out to make a difference, to help create a different future, perhaps inspire young people. Never in a million years did I expect to find myself in that situation. We were there to please these people and sit like performing monkeys. I couldn’t stand it.”

She also claimed that one official reprimanded contestants for being “boring” after an event.

Responding to Magee’s allegations, Miss World Organisation CEO and Chairperson Julia Morley CBE’s office stated that earlier this month, Milla Magee had requested to leave the competition due to a reported family emergency involving her mother’s health. As a mother and grandmother herself, Julia Morley CBE, Chairwoman of Miss World, said she responded to Magee’s situation with compassion and immediately arranged her return to England, prioritising the well-being of the contestant and her family.

Following Magee’s departure, Charlotte Grant, the first runner-up of Miss England, stepped in to represent her country. Charlotte arrived in India on Wednesday and has since been welcomed into what the organisation calls “the Miss World sisterhood.”

“Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that certain UK media outlets have published false and defamatory statements, allegedly made by Milla Magee, regarding her experience in India. These claims are completely unfounded and inconsistent with the reality of her time with us. In response, the Miss World Organisation is releasing unedited videos recorded during Milla’s stay in India, in which she expresses gratitude, joy, and appreciation for the experience. These videos reflect her own words and sentiments and serve as a direct contradiction to the recent false narratives,” the organisation stated.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/india/telangana/made-me-feel-like-a-prostitute-miss-world-milla-magee-contestant-quits-citing-ethical-concerns-3555980

North Korea has detained three people over an accident that occurred during the launch of a new warship this past week, state media reported early Sunday (May 25).

The failed launch that crippled the 5,000-tonne warship was witnessed by leader Kim Jong Un who said the accident damaged the country’s dignity and vowed to punish those found responsible, calling it a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness”.

The mishap likely occurred in front of a large crowd at the northeastern port of Chongjin, increasing the public humiliation for Kim who tried to show off military might, experts say.

Those detained are Kang Jong Chol, the chief engineer at the Chongjin shipyard; Han Kyong Hak, head of the hull construction workshop; and Kim Yong Hak, deputy manager for administrative affairs, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The KCNA report said the three were “responsible for the accident”.

Satellite imagery shows the warship, covered in blue tarps, lying on its side, with the stern swung out into the harbour, but the bow remaining on the side slipway, according to the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

South Korea’s military said US and Seoul intelligence authorities assessed that North Korea’s “side-launch attempt” of the ship failed, and the vessel was left listing in the water.

KCNA, however, reported that an “underwater and internal inspection of the warship confirmed that, unlike the initial announcement, there were no holes made at the warship’s bottom”, calling the extent of the damage “not serious”.

Kim has ordered the ship restored before a ruling party meeting in June. KCNA said the rehabilitation plan was pushing ahead.

Based on its size and scale, the South Korean military said the newly built warship is believed to be similarly equipped to the 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel Choe Hyon, which North Korea unveiled last month.

Pyongyang has said the Choe Hyon is equipped with the “most powerful weapons”, and that it would “enter into operation early next year”.

Seoul’s military has said the Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian help – possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/north-korea-warship-accident-3-officials-detained-kim-jong-un-5151661

Russian strikes killed three people in the Kyiv region overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday (May 25), as the two countries fired drones towards each other’s capitals.

AFP journalists heard explosions in the Ukrainian capital, with the head of the city’s military administration warning “the night will not be easy”.

Russian authorities meanwhile reported that a dozen drones flying towards Moscow had been downed.

The latest fire comes as the two sides pursue a major prisoner swap more than three years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In Kyiv region “three people died last night as a result of an enemy attack”, said Mykola Kalashnyk, who heads the regional military administration.

The city’s mayor earlier said Russia’s attack wounded at least 10 people, while he warned residents to stay in shelters.

The capital was “under attack” but “air defences are operating”, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Tymur Tkachenko, Kyiv city’s military administration chief, reported “more than a dozen enemy drones” were in airspace around the capital.

“Some of the drones over Kyiv and the surrounding area have already been dealt with. But the new ones are still entering the capital,” he wrote on Telegram.

Debris fell on a five-storey residential building, he added.

Overnight attacks were also reported in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

In Moscow, restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main hub Sheremetyevo, the Russian civilian aviation authority said.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 drones flying towards the Russian capital had been intercepted.

“CRAZY FEELINGS”

The renewed attacks follow Ukraine’s air force on Saturday morning saying Russia had launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 drones overnight.

Officials said 15 people were wounded in those strikes.

The Russian military said Saturday that Ukraine had targeted it with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday.

Dozens of drones targeting Moscow have been shot down over the past week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war” and repeated his call for ramped-up sanctions.

But he also said he expected officials to press on with a prisoner swap agreed during talks last week in Istanbul.

On Saturday, 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow.

Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total.

Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement after the exchange, without saying what those terms would be.

The two enemies have held regular prisoner swaps, but none has been on this scale.

An AFP reporter saw some of the formerly captive Ukrainian soldiers arrive at a hospital in the northern Chernigiv region, emaciated but smiling and waving to crowds waiting outside.

After they stepped off the bus, tearful relatives rushed to embrace the soldiers while others held pictures of their loved ones, hoping to find out if they had been seen in captivity.

Many of the soldiers were draped in bright yellow and blue Ukrainian flags.

“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a soldier, told AFP after he was released following three years in captivity.

DIPLOMATIC PUSH

US President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the two countries for the swap.

“This could lead to something big???” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end the fighting.

One of the soldiers formerly held captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, told AFP it was hard to put words to his emotional homecoming.

Captured in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 months and 12 days.

“I didn’t expect such a welcome. It’s impossible to describe. I can’t put it into words. It’s very joyful,” he said.

After more than three years of fighting, thousands of POWs are held in both countries.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/ukraine-kyiv-drone-attack-warns-missile-threat-russia-5151751

The six people onboard a small plane that crashlanded in a California neighbourhood amid dense fog were all killed, according to investigating authorities.

The Cessna 550 Citation, which federal records show belonged to music agent Dave Shapiro, struck a power line before plummeting into a residential area of San Diego at 3.47am (6.47pm, Singapore time) on Thursday (May 22), according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

It was not immediately clear what caused the Cessna to come plunging into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood, about 3.2km from the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport where the aircraft was headed.

In an audio recording posted to air traffic website liveatc.net, the pilot can be heard asking about weather conditions prior to descent, while indicating that visibility was down to a minimum.

“Doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot said.

As the plane came down, it clipped a power line and the impact of the crash set several nearby houses and vehicles alight, jolting families awake before dawn.

“The pilot and passengers were fatally injured,” NTSB investigator Dan Baker told a press conference on Friday. He added that no one on the ground had been seriously hurt.

While Baker did not specify the number of fatalities, the US Federal Aviation Administration previously said the private plane had six people onboard.

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office named three of the victims as Shapiro, 42, Emma Huke, 25, and Celina Kenyon, 36.

Music veteran Shapiro was a co-founder of Sound Talent Group, which counts artists Hanson, Sum 41, Modern Baseball and Vanessa Carlton on its roster.

The company told US media that two other members of its staff, booking assistants Huke and Kendall Fortner, were also killed in the crash.

“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted,” Sound Talent Group said in a statement.

NBC7 identified the other victims as software engineer Dominic Damian and Daniel Williams, a former drummer for metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada.

“No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever,” the band wrote in a tribute to Williams on Instagram.

Kenyon was a professional photographer and mother, according to her social media. Her father, Bryan Charles Feldman, told NBC7 she had chosen to fly home early with friends after a photo shoot rather than take a commercial plane so she could take her daughter to school the next day.

At least 10 homes in San Diego’s Murphy Canyon neighborhood were hit by debris, while the street was littered with charred remnants, scattered fiberglass and jet fuel.

Eight people were treated for minor injuries, according to responding police and firefighters.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/australia-floods-new-south-wales-deaths-thousands-isolated-property-damage-5151816

Founded in 1636, Harvard University is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. It has produced many Nobel laureates and eight US presidents. However, the current US president, Donald Trump, has declared Harvard “a JOKE” — one he doesn’t find funny. According to Trump, the university teaches “hate and stupidity” and hires “woke, radical left, idiots.” This, he stated in a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social, in mid-April, was why Harvard “should no longer receive federal funds.”

Government agencies immediately froze $2.2 billion (approximately €2.2 billion) that had been earmarked for the university. Then, in May, a government antisemitism task force informed the university leadership that an additional $450 million of funding was also being cut.

On Thursday, May 22, the Trump administration escalated the conflict further. The US Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, issued a letter revoking the university’s license to enroll foreign students. Harvard was given a 72-hour deadline to provide the administration with specific information about foreign students if it wished to regain its license.

Harvard promptly sued the administration, and scored an initial legal victory the following day when US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs found in the university’s favor. She accepted its argument that the government order would cause Harvard “immediate and irreparable injury,” and temporarily blocked the order pending a further hearing.

What is the Trump administration’s justification for its actions?

As Trump himself and many of those close to him have repeatedly indicated, they are troubled that, in their eyes, Harvard’s teaching and research are dominated by left-wing content and ideologies. However, the US Constitution makes clear that the government can only restrict freedom of speech in a few, very specific instances. Last month, more than 100 US universities signed an open letter, citing the Constitution, and protesting “unprecedented government overreach and political interference.”

The legal pretext for the funding cuts is the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have taken place at many US universities as a reaction to Israel’s war against Hamas. The war is Israel’s response to the terrorist attack launched from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. There have been many reports that Jewish students have been targeted in antisemitic attacks during protests in the United States. The US, along with Germany, Israel and other countries, characterize Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Why does the US government have Harvard in its sights?

The new US government has withdrawn funding, or has threatened to do so, from around 60 universities. In March, for example, it pulled $400 million of federal funding from Columbia University in New York, accusing the university leadership of “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Columbia sued the administration over the cancellation of funding, but it did comply with several other government demands, such as banning the wearing of masks during protests, hiring new security personnel and making changes to the management of the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. In spite of this, the US Department of Health and Human Services nonetheless upheld the accusation of inaction.

Harvard, which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a suburb just outside Boston, is so far the only university to openly resist the administration’s demands. Part of the reason why it can afford to challenge the government is that it has an endowment of more than $50 billion. This endowment may now be targeted by the government.

What would the new measures mean for Harvard?

If the administration is successful in blocking Harvard from enrolling international students, one consequence will be that many international students will lose their US residence permits, unless they are able to enroll at a different university.

This would not only deprive Harvard of international talent. There are around 6,800 non-US citizens enrolled at the university, which receives around $400 million per year from them in tuition fees. Fees are the same for US students — around $59,000 per year — but many are awarded scholarships that the university funds. Overall, Harvard therefore earns more from international students than from American ones.

The US government is also considering imposing heavy taxes on capital gains from university endowments. Endowment funds are invested primarily in securities, yielding hundreds of millions of dollars per year. During his first term in office, Trump introduced a capital gains tax of 1.4% for universities with endowments that exceed $500,000 per student. Now, he proposes to add further tiers, and for capital gains on endowments in the highest category — in excess of $2 million per student — to be taxed at 21%.

In the USA Today national newspaper, the economist Phillip Levine estimated that elite universities like Yale, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and, of course, Harvard, could each face tax bills of between $400 and $850 million a year under the new scheme.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-vs-harvard-elite-university-with-no-international-students/a-72660190

A WOMAN who stabbed 18 people in a bloody rampage at Hamburg Central Station had been released from a psychiatric hospital just one day earlier, it’s been revealed.

The 39-year-old suspect, named by local media as Lydia S., launched her frenzied knife attack as commuters waited on platforms 13 and 14 during Friday evening’s rush hour.

She had a known history of mental illness and was considered a “danger to other people”, according to police sources cited by Bild.

A judge has since ordered her return to a clinic.

Dramatic footage on social media showed a woman dressed in a dark hoodie and black tracksuit bottoms, being dragged away by cops.

She was being led away from Hamburg Central Station in the aftermath of the shocking attack.

The short clip also showed a large entourage of police officers following the detained individual through the street while astonished bystanders looked on.

During the frenzy on Friday at 6:05pm local time, the woman suddenly pulled out a knife and began randomly stabbing passengers waiting for the ICE 855 train to Munich.

Police and federal officers rushed to the scene and were able to overpower and disarm the attacker before arresting her.

The brutal attack left four people critically injured, six seriously hurt, and eight others with minor wounds, according to emergency services.

The suspect is a German national known to police and has a history of mental illness, having previously spent time in a psychiatric facility, German newspaper Bild reported.

Hamburg police later confirmed in a post on X: “The person arrested is a 39-year-old woman.

“Based on the information so far, we assume that she acted alone.”

Police are continuing their investigation but say there is currently no evidence of a political motive behind the attack.

Hamburg’s fire department declared a major incident, deploying emergency doctors, paramedics, and a large-capacity ambulance to the scene.

Dramatic pictures showed several police officers and first responders securing the scene outside the station.

Some victims were treated aboard the train, while others were rushed to the hospital.

A Red Cross crisis response team was on site to support the victims’ families.

The ICE train on platform 14 was evacuated and rail services around Hamburg Central Station were partially suspended, according to local reports.

The station – located in the heart of Germany’s second-largest city – is a major hub for local, regional, and long-distance travel.

Friday’s rush hour and the start of school holidays meant it was especially crowded.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz reacted with shock, speaking to Hamburg’s mayor Peter Tschentscher on Friday evening.

His spokesman said: “His thoughts were with the victims and their families.”

The Chancellor also thanked emergency responders and offered federal support.

Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” and extended sympathy to those injured.

It added that carrying weapons – including knives – is strictly banned on the station premises and on Hamburg’s public transport network.

It comes after two people were killed and two police officers wounded in a brutal knife attack in the Netherlands.

Emergency crews, including ambulances and trauma teams, raced to a property in Hoofddorp, near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, on Wednesday morning.

One police vehicle at the scene was left spattered with blood.

Both victims were inside the house after initial reports of a “fight”.

Police confirmed two officers were injured, but there was no immediate confirmation about the extent of their injuries.

Locals say the house, located on Fanny Blankers-Koenlaan, is known for drug and alcohol-related disturbances.

Local newspaper De Telegraaf also reported, citing multiple sources, that two people were killed in the stabbing spree.

Chilling images showed emergency vehicles lined up along the residential street in the aftermath of the deadly attack.

Meanwhile, police were urgently called to Majorca’s Palma Airport on Tuesday morning after reports of a man being stabbed in the neck in the arrivals area.

Detectives said the victim was a young Argentinian who suffered a wound a few centimetres from the artery which required several stitches.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14313701/hamburg-knifewoman-train-rampage/

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had a low-key date night in Florida amid the singer’s rumored friendship fallout with Blake Lively.

The pair was spotted having dinner at Harry’s restaurant in West Palm Beach on Friday night.

MMA fighter Jose Andres Cortes shared a photo on his Instagram Story of the couple looking cozy while sitting side-by-side in a booth and enjoying some drinks before having their entrees.

Another snap posted by singer Mark Morrison caught the Grammy winner making an excited facial expression while seated at the table.

A source told TMZ that the lovebirds, both 35, entered the restaurant holding hands before Swift walked ahead of Kelce.

The “Cruel Summer” songstress wore a floral off-the-shoulder sundress for the romantic outing and styled her hair in a loose bun.

The NFL star, on the other hand, wore a printed black-and-white button-down shirt with tan pants.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has been renting a $20 million mansion in Boca Raton, Fla., while training in the offseason.

The outing comes after it was reported that Swift is further distancing herself from her longtime pal Lively after being subpoenaed in the “Gossip Girl” alum’s ongoing legal feud with Justin Baldoni.

“Right now, if Taylor had one wish, it would be that she never met Blake,” an insider claimed to the Daily Mail Thursday.

“Although there have been good times during their relationship, the issues now concerning the Baldoni case have outweighed them.”

“When Taylor looks back at their friendship, she realizes it wasn’t worth all the stress Blake put her through. She can now see all the red flags that should have been a warning to her,” the source further alleged.

Kelce is said to be supporting his girlfriend in the drama — even unfollowing Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, on Instagram.

Baldoni’s lawyers originally subpoenaed Swift on the belief that she played a role in Lively’s alleged attempts to take control of “It Ends With Us.”

In Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, the “Jane the Virgin” alum claimed the “Another Simple Favor” star name-dropped Swift to push her script rewrites.

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman went on to allege in a written affidavit to the court that Lively’s lawyer threatened to release Swift’s private texts if she did not publicly support the actress. She also allegedly demanded that Swift delete their messages.

Baldoni and his legal team dropped Swift’s subpoena earlier this week after reportedly getting the information they wanted.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/24/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce-have-cozy-date-night-in-florida/

Andriy Portnov’s murder in a Madrid suburb has shocked Ukrainians, but it has not exactly triggered an outpouring of grief.

The controversial former official had just dropped his children off at the American School when he was shot several times in the car park.

The image of his lifeless body lying face down in a gym kit marked the end of a life synonymous with Ukrainian corruption and Russian influence.

Ukraine’s media have been discussing the 51-year-old’s frequent threats to journalists, as well as his huge influence under the country’s last pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

“A man who called for the killing of political opponents suddenly got what he wanted from others,” observed reporter Oleksandr Holubov. News website Ukrayinska Pravda even called him “the devil’s advocate”.

Rare words of restraint came from Portnov’s once political rival Serhiy Vlasenko, an MP, who said: “You can’t kill people. When discussing someone’s death, we must remain human.”

Portnov was controversial and widely disliked. The motives for his murder may seem evident, but his death has still left unanswered questions.

Sophie Turner shared a telling sign about the current status of her relationship with ex-husband Joe Jonas.

Turner proved the two are now on good terms as she showed her support for the singer’s new album, “Music For People Who Believe in Love,” following their messy divorce.

“Go go @joejonas,” the “Game of Thrones” alum posted on her Instagram Story Saturday with a link to the project.

Jonas’ new album is currently available for streaming after dropping Friday.

In a TalkShopLive stream on Wednesday, the “Camp Rock” star — who called it quits with Turner in September 2023 — revealed how his divorce specifically inspired the song “Only Love.”

“I was seeing somebody at the time and I was kind of having this idea of dating again. It was really scary and intimidating,” he said.

“Love takes different shapes and forms and I was rediscovering what that was.”

The Jonas Brothers member said the unnamed person he was dating at the time quickly dismissed his fears by telling him, “Well, it’s only love.”

Jonas, 35, and Turner, 29, finalized their divorce in September 2024 after a contentious custody battle over their two daughters, Willa, 4, and Delphine, 2.

The actress previously filed a lawsuit, accusing him of withholding their daughters’ passports and preventing them from returning to England, her home country. He denied the allegations.

Turner later dropped the filing once they reached a co-parenting agreement.

The “Dark Phoenix” star quickly moved on with British aristocrat Peregrine Pearson, though the pair sparked breakup rumors in April after nearly two years of dating.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/24/celebrity-news/sophie-turner-hints-at-current-status-with-ex-joe-jonas/

The brunette beauty arrested alongside Kentucky-based crypto investor John Woeltz for the alleged kidnap and torture of an Italian man in Manhattan is a small-time actor who claims to work as a marketing manager for luxury brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley and whose family lives in Connecticut.

Beatrice Folchi – the 24-year-old who police sources said worked as Woeltz’s assistant – was arrested Friday at the SoHo penthouse where a man from Turin, Italy, told cops he was held hostage and brutally tortured for nearly three weeks, in a sick extortion attempt to gain the password to his cryptocurrency account.

She was charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful imprisonment, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute pending further investigation, a spokesperson said.

But Folchi — who’s originally from Latina, Italy, according to her Facebook profile — bizarrely claimed she wasn’t implicated in the sadistic crimes when approached by The Post Saturday.

“I’m not arrested,” she told The Post in an exclusive interview outside of her ritzy Chelsea apartment building, where she was walking with another woman.

“Everything is going to be told but with a lawyer — I can’t make any comments right now,” added Folchi, who was sporting an all-black outfit, sunglasses and a nearly $1,300 Stella McCartney tote.

The duo turned around and took off in the opposite direction on West 21st Street without answering further questions.

Folchi studied communication and philosophy at the University of Connecticut from 2017 to 2020, and has since held various positions in marketing, according to her LinkedIn.

“Experienced in managing media production and events for prestigious clients in the sports and automotive industries, including Puma, Manchester City, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley,” reads the bio of her profile, which also boasts her fluency in the Italian language.

Profiles for the 5’9” bombshell on IMBD and Backstage show she’s held roles in several movies, short films and series since 2020, including a 2021 drama titled “Butterfly Wings.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/05/24/us-news/meet-crypto-boss-john-woeltzs-young-beautiful-assistant-in-italian-mans-kidnap-and-torture/

A stabbing attack at the main railway station in the German city of Hamburg left multiple people injured on Friday.

Emergency services said 17 people were injured in the attack, though police later increased this number to 18.

Four people suffered life-threatening injuries and six were seriously injured, officials said.

Hamburg police said they had arrested a 39-year-old woman, a German national, near the scene of the crime on platform 13/14.

Suspect thought to have ‘acted alone’

“Based on the findings so far, we assume that she acted alone. Investigations into the background are in full swing,” police said on X.

The police also do not believe that the stabbing was politically motivated, and appeared to be more of a random act. Investigators were looking into whether the suspect may have been mentally ill, police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth said.

The German national is set to be brought before a judge on Saturday, a police spokesman
told the news agency dpa, adding that the woman remains in police custody.

Germany’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn has said train services to the station were disrupted by the police operation, warning of “delays and partial cancellations.”

The attack occurred during rush hour at the station, which is one of the busiest in the country.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke by phone with Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher and offered the federal government’s assistance.

“The news from Hamburg is shocking. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. My thanks go to all the emergency services on the ground for their rapid assistance,” Merz wrote on X.

Third knife attack in Germany this week

The incident is the latest stabbing in Germany in the past week.

Five people in their 20s were injured, four of them seriously, when a Syrian-born man attacked them in the early hours of Sunday morning at a bar in the western city of Bielefeld.

The 35-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with four counts of attempted murder.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/germany-several-injured-in-attack-at-hamburg-train-station/a-72653451

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ twin daughters celebrated their high school graduation as their dad’s sex-trafficking trial continues to rage on.

Jessie and D’Lila Combs, both 18, shared photos and videos from their graduation ceremony at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, Calif., to their Instagram Story Friday.

The twins matched in blue caps and gowns as well as similar white heels as they walked on stage.

They were then handed their diplomas by a school administrator as the crowd cheered.

After the procession, they put on a united front by holding hands as they waved their diplomas in the air.

The duo posed for several photos with their friends as they clutched flower bouquets and a stuffed teddy bear. They also showed off their sparkly new class rings.

In a series of videos, Jessie and D’Lila were seen being gifted diamond necklaces from their 31-year-old brother, Justin Dior Combs.

Their older sibling also presented them both with coordinating Van Cleef & Arpels bracelets.

“Thankkkk u Justin we love uuuu,” they captioned their joint post.

Their 27-year-old brother, Christian Combs, also commemorated their academic achievement by posting a video from the event in which he said, “It’s lit! Jessie and D’Lila we see you!”

The youngest Combs kid, 2-year-old Love, was seen sitting on one of her brother’s shoulders as she watched her older sisters from the audience.

Their brother Quincy Brown, 33, posed in some sweet selfies with the graduates, captioning his post, “Congrats Love you J&D!”

This weekend, Jessie and D’Lila got all glammed up in matching red gowns for their senior prom.

Diddy has seven kids with four different women. He welcomed Jessie, D’Lila and Christian with the late Kim Porter, who died at the age of 47 in 2018 due to lobar pneumonia. The rapper had also adopted Quincy, Porter’s kid from a previous relationship.

The Bad Boy Records producer shares Justin with Misa Hylton, Chance, 19, with Sarah Chapman and Love with Dana Tran.

Sean’s eldest daughters finished high school amid the disgraced music mogul’s sex-trafficking trial, which began May 5.

Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who sued Diddy for rape in 2023, took to the witness stand and accused her ex-boyfriend of physically and emotionally abusing her during drug-infused “Freak-Offs” in a harrowing testimony.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/23/celebrity-news/sean-diddy-combs-twins-jessie-and-dlila-graduate-from-high-school-amid-rappers-trial/

In the shadow of Japan’s most iconic peak, a seemingly ordinary bridge has become the latest flashpoint in the country’s growing struggle with overtourism. Locals in Fuji town are complaining of excessive tourist footfall around this scenic spot owing to its rising popularity, which has in turn made their lives tough.

Built in 2016 to connect two major roads in the city of Fuji, located in the Shizuoka prefecture, the now-famous structure, also called the “Mount Fuji Dream Bridge”, was originally promoted by the local government as a picturesque photo spot. With its unique design, the bridge’s staircase appears to lead directly to the summit of Mount Fuji, offering a very surreal and Instagrammable visual for camera-toting tourists.
To encourage visitors, the local authorities provided free parking and even installed multilingual signage asking visitors to keep noise to a minimum while enjoying their moment with Japan’s sacred mountain. What started as a clever tourism push, however, has now spiralled into a logistical and social headache for the surrounding community.

Reports indicate that on days when skies are clear, the bridge attracts up to 1,000 visitors daily, leading to a host of problems. Residents say the influx has led to illegal parking, persistent noise, and even trespassing on private property by overzealous tourists trying to secure the perfect shot. Locals have been complaining about loud noises too, that often start early in the morning.

This is just the latest in a series of overtourism-related incidents affecting Japan in recent years. While the country has worked hard to revive its tourism sector post-pandemic, some initiatives are now backfiring. In Kyoto, locals have grown weary of tourists harassing geisha and wandering into private alleys, prompting bans and stricter regulations. At Mount Fuji, authorities have introduced entry fees, daily visitor caps, and physical barriers to manage crowds and protect the environment.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/travel/news/mount-fuji-dream-bridge-is-the-latest-victim-of-overtourism-in-japan-article-151693758

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to ratchet up his trade war again, pushing for a 50% tariff on European Union goods starting June 1 and warning Apple (AAPL.O), he may slap a 25% levy on all imported iPhones bought by U.S. consumers.
The twin threats, delivered via social media, roiled global markets after weeks of de-escalation had provided some reprieve in the tariff battle. Major U.S. stock indexes and European shares fell and the dollar weakened, while the price of gold, a safe-haven for investors, rose. U.S. Treasury yields fell on fears about tariffs’ effect on economic growth.

Trump’s broadside against the EU was prompted by the White House’s belief that negotiations with the bloc are not progressing fast enough. His saber-rattling also marked a return to Washington’s stop-and-start trade war that has shaken markets, businesses and consumers and raised fears of a global economic downturn.
And the president’s attack on Apple is his latest attempt to pressure a specific company to move production to the United States, following automakers, pharmaceutical companies and chipmakers. The United States, however, does not mass-produce smartphones – even as U.S. consumers buy more than 60 million phones annually – and moving production would likely increase the cost of iPhones by hundreds of dollars.

Later on Friday, Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office that his proposed tariff on Apple would also apply to “Samsung and anybody that makes that product,” apparently referring to smartphones. He said he expected the new phone levy to be in place by the end of June.
Trump reiterated his complaint that the European Union treated the U.S. badly and restricted the U.S. from selling cars into the EU. “And I just said, ‘It’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game.'”
“I’m not looking for a deal,” Trump said when asked whether he expected a deal before June 1. “We’ve set the deal – it’s at 50%. But again, there’s no tariff if they build their plant here.”
EU trade Chief Maros Sefcovic said the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, was fully committed to securing a deal that worked for both sides, following a Friday phone call with U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He added that EU-U.S. trade “must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.”

Speaking to reporters in The Hague, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof backed the EU’s strategy in trade talks and said the EU was likely to see this latest announcement as part of the negotiations.
“We have seen before that tariffs can go up and down in talks with the U.S.,” he said.
The White House paused most of the punishing tariffs Trump announced in early April against nearly every country in the world after investors furiously sold off U.S. assets including government bonds and the U.S. dollar. Trump left in place a 10% baseline tax on most imports, and later reduced his massive 145% tax on Chinese goods to 30%.
A 50% levy on EU imports could raise consumer prices on everything from German cars to Italian olive oil.
The EU’s total exports to the United States last year totaled about 500 billion euros ($566 billion), led by Germany (161 billion euros), Ireland (72 billion euros) and Italy (65 billion euros). Pharmaceuticals, cars and auto parts, chemicals and aircraft were among the largest exports, according to EU data.

DISPUTES OVER TARIFFS

The White House has been in trade negotiations with numerous countries, but progress has been unsteady. Finance leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies tried to downplay disputes over the tariffs earlier in the week at a forum in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
“The EU is one of Trump’s least favorite regions, and he does not seem to have good relations with its leaders, which increases the chance of a prolonged trade war between the two,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
Talks with Japan appeared less fraught.
After meeting separately with Lutnick and Greer on Friday, Japan’s top trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said the two sides discussed expanding trade, non-tariff barriers and economic security issues. He described their talks as franker and more in-depth than before.
Speaking to reporters, Akazawa said that while it would be great if an agreement could be reached when Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meet at the Group of Seven summit next month in Canada, he would not rush just to secure a deal.
“Our country has national interests that must be protected, so it is not sufficient simply to forge an agreement quickly,” Akazawa said. “As a negotiator, I can tell you that in negotiations the party stuck to a deadline usually loses.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would not comment on other potential trade deals, but said on Fox News that there would be more announced as the end of the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs approaches in July.
Apple declined to comment on Trump’s threat, which would reverse exclusions he granted on smartphones and other electronics imported largely from China in a break for Big Tech firms that sell consumer goods. Apple shares fell 3% after Trump said in an early Truth Social post that he told company CEO Tim Cook “long ago” that “I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”
Cook and Trump met on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Apple is speeding up plans to make most iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026 to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-pay-25-tariff-if-phones-not-made-us-trump-says-2025-05-23/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday expressed support for Nippon Steel’s (5401.T), $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel (X.N), saying their “planned partnership” would create jobs and help the American economy.
Shares of U.S. Steel soared 21% as investors interpreted Trump’s post on Truth Social to mean Nippon Steel had received his approval for its long-planned takeover, the last major hurdle for the deal.

“This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
This week, Reuters reported that Nippon Steel has said if the merger is approved, it would invest $14 billion into U.S. Steel’s operations, including up to $4 billion in a new steel mill.
Trump added that the bulk of that investment would occur in the next 14 months and said he would hold a rally at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh next Friday.
U.S. Steel praised Trump’s leadership.
“U.S. Steel will remain American, and we will grow bigger and stronger through a partnership with Nippon Steel that brings massive investment, new technologies, and thousands of jobs,” the company said in a statement.

Nippon Steel also applauded Trump’s decision. “The partnership is a game changer – for U.S. Steel and all of its stakeholders, including the American steel industry, and the broader American manufacturing base,” the Japanese company said in a statement on Saturday.
A Nippon Steel spokesperson in Tokyo declined to comment on the $14 billion investment and the 14-month timeline that Trump cited.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the announcement. It is unclear whether Trump’s term “partnership” refers to the full acquisition Nippon Steel has been pursuing.
For Japan’s top steelmaker, the deal is core to its global expansion strategy, lifting production to 86 million metric tons from 63 million tons now – especially at a time when domestic demand is declining.
The merger would create the world’s third-largest steel producer by volume, following China’s Baowu Steel Group and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal (MT.LU), according to World Steel Association data.

U.S. Steel kept rising after hours, hitting $54, just shy of the $55 per share that Nippon Steel offered in late 2023. While no details were released, investors expressed confidence that terms will be similar to those agreed in 2023. Investors said that eventually U.S. Steel will no longer be publicly traded and they will receive a cash payout for their shares.
The deal has been one of the most highly anticipated on Wall Street after it morphed into the political arena with fears that foreign ownership would mean job losses in Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered. It factored into last year’s election, in which Trump regained the White House.
Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, who also called the deal a “partnership,” said on Friday it was a “huge victory for America and the U.S. Steel Corporation,” which will protect more than 11,000 Pennsylvania jobs and support the creation of at least 14,000 more.

The last pieces of the deal came together surprisingly fast. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews deals for national security risks, told the White House this week that the security risks can be addressed, Reuters reported, moving the final decision to Trump’s desk.
Following an earlier CFIUS-led review, then-President Joe Biden blocked the deal in January on national security grounds. The companies sued, arguing they did not receive a fair review process. The Biden White House rejected that view.
The companies argued Biden opposed the deal when he was running for reelection to win support from the United Steelworkers union in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The Biden administration had defended the review as essential to protecting security, infrastructure and supply chains.
Trump also initially opposed the deal, arguing the company must be owned and operated in the U.S.
The United Steelworkers were against the deal as recently as Thursday when they urged Trump to block the deal despite the $14 billion investment pledge from Trump.
For investors, including prominent hedge funds, the news spells relief after more than a year of waiting for a resolution. “There were huge high-fives all around today,” one recent investor said, adding, “We understood Donald Trump’s psyche and we played it to our advantage here.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-steel-remain-america-form-partnership-with-nippon-trump-says-2025-05-23/

SCIENTISTS have finally cracked the mystery behind a “very odd” long-necked sea monster found on the coast of Canada.

The creature, which loosely resembles the infamous Loch Ness monster, measures 12 metres and has large, heavy teeth.

These robust gnashers were ideal for crushing and feasting on ammonites – coiled-shelled cephalopods, according to researchers.

The bizarre elasmosaurus is actually one of North America’s most famous fossils, becoming the official fossil emblem of British Columbia, Canada in 2023.

Three specimens, all roughly 85-million-years old, were found along the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island in 1988.

Except one had a strange mix of primitive and derived traits unlike any other elasmosaurus, according to a new study, published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

The fossils were first described in a 2002 study, when experts were reluctant to create a new genus based solely on one adult elasmosaur fossil.

One fossil had a “fascinating and long list of autapomorphic characters” – suggesting it had strong capabilities for downward swimming, researchers wrote.

This set it apart from other plesiosaur – the umbrella species under which elasmosaurus fall.

However, a new “excellently preserved” partial skeleton enabled this latest international team of scientists to shed new light on the creature, and declare it a new species: the Traskasaura sandrae.

“Plesiosaur fossils have been known for decades in British Columbia,” said lead author Professor F. Robin O’Keefe from Marshall University, in West Virginia, US.

“However, the identity of the animal that left the fossils has remained a mystery, even as it was declared BC’s provincial fossil in 2023. Our new research… finally solves this mystery.

“The scientific confusion concerning this taxon is understandable. It has a very odd mix of primitive and derived traits.

“The shoulder, in particular, is unlike any other plesiosaur I have ever seen, and I have seen a few.”

Researchers named the new type of plesiosaur Traskasaura, in honor of Michael and Heather Trask, who discovered the original specimen in 1988, and the Greek word sauros, meaning lizard.

The species name sandrae was inspired by Sandra Lee O’Keefe (nee Markey) who was “a valiant warrior in the fight against breast cancer.” “In loving memory,” the team of authors write.

“With the naming of Traskasaura sandrae, the Pacific Northwest finally has a Mesozoic reptile to call its own,” Professor O’Keefe, an expert on marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs, said.

“Fittingly, a region known for its rich marine life today was host to strange and wonderful marine reptiles in the Age of Dinosaurs.”

He added: “The fossil record is full of surprises. It is always gratifying to discover something unexpected.

“When I first saw the fossils and realized they represented a new taxon, I thought it might be related to other plesiosaurs from the Antarctic.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/14306244/mystery-85-million-year-old-sea-monster-giant-teeth/

DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a private jet carrying a music star and a talent agent exploded into a fireball after crashing in a San Diego neighborhood.

Six people died in the high-impact smash that claimed the life of rocker Daniel Williams and his agent Dave Shapiro.

Ring doorbell footage captured the impact of the Cessna plane crash just after 3:45 am local time.

A ball of fire could be seen in the background, according to the footage recorded by David Nero’s device and seen by the NBC affiliate KNSD-TV.

The night sky was illuminated by the bursts of light, and then plumes of smoke could be seen billowing.

In the moments leading up to the crash, the pilot had to navigate a series of challenges.

Heavy fog blanketed the neighborhood as the plane tried to land at the Montgomery Gibbs executive airport – located two miles from the eventual crash site.

The pilot asked for a visibility update, but the air traffic control tower was closed, per the Fox affiliate KUSI-TV.

He then turned to a Marine Corps base located around eight miles away.

In order to land at the airfield, pilots must have a visibility of at least three miles, as per the Federal Aviation Administration.

An automatic weather report from the airport did not have any data for visibility and wind, as reported by the ABC affiliate KGTV-TV.

Information linked to the airport’s sky condition was also missing.

Audio recordings, heard by the outlet, revealed the pilot said he would try to land the plane despite the poor conditions.

“Doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot said.

Investigators have not revealed a cause behind the smash, but they’re probing several factors – the weather being one of those.

David Soucie, a CNN aviation analyst, believes it’s unlikely that the plane ran out of fuel.

He pointed out the fact that jet fuel was spattered across the streets in Tierrasanta – located around 10 miles from downtown San Diego.

The jet, which can carry up to 10 people, smashed into power lines before colliding into a house, according to investigators.

Fuel ignited, which saw cars torched and turned into shells by the side of the road.

Doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go.

Around 100 people in the neighborhood were evacuated and eight people were injured.

Cars were in a mangled state and debris was strewn across the road.

Locals initially thought an earthquake had struck before they realized what had happened.

“My kids woke up as well, they looked out the window and started screaming,” one local told the CBS affiliate KCAL-TV.

FIERY SCENE

“My whole front area was on fire. We were trapped in our home and couldn’t get out.”

Williams and music titan, Dave Shapiro, are the only two victims that have been named.

Williams was formerly a drummer for the Christian rock band The Devil Wears Prada.

He boasted about being on board the private plane and joked he was at the controls in posts uploaded to his Instagram Stories.

The plane left Teterboro airport in New Jersey on Wednesday night before making a stop in Kansas to refuel.

It spent around an hour on the ground before making its way to California.

Williams’ dad later clarified that his son was goofing around, per TMZ.

But Shapiro had a pilot license and boasted about his accomplishment in an Instagram post from 2020.

And, he shared videos of himself performing maneuvers such as loops and inverted rolls.

“Social distancing 6,000 feet from other people is more effective than 6ft,” the caption of one of his videos stated.

The videos were taken in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14307491/san-diego-plane-crash-pilot-victims-fireball/

External affairs minister S Jaishankar, who is on an official visit to Germany, delivered a strong message to Pakistan asserting that India “will never succumb to nuclear blackmail”, and will deal with Pakistan strictly on a bilateral basis.

Expressing support for India after the Pahalgam attack and making its stance clear on Operation Sindoor, Germany has said, India has every right to defend itself against terrorism.

“Germany will support any fight against terrorism. Terrorism must never have a place in the world, anywhere, and this is why we will support everyone who fights and has to fight terrorism,” Germany’s Foreign affairs Minister, Johann Wadephul said in his remarks on India’s Operation Sindoor during a joint press conference with EAM Jaishankar.”We appreciate that a ceasefire has been reached” he added.

On being asked that the German government did not voice support for India’s Operation Sindoor, Jaishankar said, “I think you are misinformed. In fact, we had a conversation on the 7th of May, which is when we initiated our operations. It was a very understanding and positive conversation. And quite honestly, even before that, the German government had expressed solidarity.”

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/every-right-to-defend-itself-against-terrorism-germany-backs-indias-operation-sindoor-video

ON June 18 2023, five passengers entered the deep sea submersible Titan on a mission to reach the final resting place of the Titanic.

Two miles down beneath the ocean’s surface, it suffered a catastrophic failure and imploded in a split second.

Those on board – which included 19-year-old British teenager Suleman Dawood – were crushed to death instantly.

All around the world, people waited with baited breaths for news of the missing sub, which now lay on the seabed just like the ship it was trying to visit.

It was seen as a devastating accident, a terrible engineering failure.

But new evidence reveals it may have not simply been the result of bad luck.

Instead, a string of safety failures and inaction in the lead up to the implosion made disaster a question of when, not if.

And to many, the blame lies with one man and his ego – that of Stockton Rush, the American businessman who not only created Titan, but would go on to become one of its victims.

Now, shocking new evidence reveals that the sub was already disintegrating long before that fateful day, as revealed in the upcoming BBC documentary Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster.

“We all know who the culprit is,” said Christine Dawood, whose son and husband were killed by the disaster.

“The culprit died with them. So who am I to blame?”

A US coastguard investigation is now underway.

The businessman Stockton Rush since a kid had felt the explorer’s’ urge, harbouring dreams of being the first person to step foot on Mars.

With two ancestors having signed the Declaration of Independence, he was the closest you could get to American Royalty.

And it wasn’t long before he set his sights on the deep ocean.

Experimental danger

Using his status and connections, he was able to convince a handful of other businessmen to invest hundreds of thousands into his plan to regularly send people on trips to view the Titanic with their own eyes with his company OceanGate.

But unlike other subs, which are built out of steel or titanium, Stockton was determined to make his out of carbon fibre, which was lighter and cheaper.

Yet this material – combined with Stockton’s hubris – would prove to be its downfall.

Early in the project, Stockton decided to avoid registering his sub, ensuring that no one was able to regulate the sub or monitor its operations.

To him, the rules and regulations were over the top and unnecessary.

This was despite the fact it was planned to carry five passengers more than two miles beneath the ocean’s surface.

But for Stockton, the risk was part of the fun, as revealed by a question he asked to underwater technician, Petros Mathioudakis.

“I was aware this was extremely risky and Stockton was very clear,” Petros recalled.

“He said: ‘Do you have a wife, do you have kids?’ I said nope. He said, ‘Alright, you’re in.’”

Shockingly, this was far from the only time others noticed serious concerns with Stockton’s callous attitude.

With a second season of dives in the North Atlantic now underway, Antonella Wilby joined the OceanGate team in 2022.

“From the moment I stepped onto the ship, I had to sign a liability waiver,” she said.

I’d be walking around and cables would be loose or unplugged

“Stockton was there in a room full of people, some of whom had paid a lot of money to be there.

“He said, we’re registered in the Bahamas, and they don’t do punitive damages, so don’t even bother trying to sue me.”

“I wasn’t even aware of how ridiculous and unsafe the operation was,” Antonella added.

“Even just the level of attention to detail in inspecting or prediving the sub – I’d be walking around and cables would be loose or unplugged.

“It felt like watching some really bizarre surrealist movie or something and I was the only one going, this is insane, right?”

But Antonella was far from the only person to have serious concerns.

Cracking carbon

Back in 2019, Stockton was testing whether the carbon fibre hull would be able to withstand the pressure of the deep ocean at the depth of the Titanic – equivalent to two and a half tonnes bearing down on every square inch of the hull.

Submersible pilot Karl Stanley was on this trip when he heard a concerning bang.

Then, the lights went out.

“The supposed goal of the trip was to test it to the exact depth of the Titanic. We got 96 per cent of the way there,” he said.

“The cracking sounds were continuing, so we came to a decision to call it a day.

“I’m sure we were within a few percentage points of implosion.”

On the surface, a crack was found – evidence that the carbon fibre hull was ripping itself apart.

Stockton was forced to completely replace the hull.

Yet once again, he chose carbon fibre, convinced that only minor modifications were needed to make the sub safe.

Though further test dives were still plagued by numerous bangs and pops – the sound of the hull gradually breaking apart – Stockton confessed to one documentary maker that he solved this problem by putting in earplugs.

Come 2021, and dives were once again underway.

Anybody who went down in it either knew, or should have known, how risky it was

Businessman and adventurer Alfred Hagen was on board dive 61 when an even more serious incident occurred.

“Anybody who went down in it either knew, or should have known, how risky it was,” he said.

“They were either embracing that reality, or delusional.”

The dive had been abandoned at just seven metres when, as the sub was hauled up the ramp, the end dome came clean off.

Only four out of a possible eighteen bolts had been used to secure it on, and they had all sheared.

Desperate to keep the incident quiet, Stockton tried to get hold of any photos taken of the broken sub.

Yet despite these setbacks, OceanGate were able to celebrate six successful dives to Titanic depths that summer – and returned for a second season the year after.

Then, something would happen that doomed the sub once and for all.

Alfred was once again back on board for Dive 80.

This time, they made it to the Titanic.

Death trap

“We were ascending, and we were fairly close to the surface,” he remembered.

“And then we heard a loud crack. It sounded like the ship breaking apart.”

Stockton again insisted that such bangs were normal, and that every deep diving sub makes a noise like that at least once.

But coastguard analysis of that moment shows that this could not have been further from the truth.

What the sub was in fact going through was a process called delamination – or in layman’s terms, the layers of carbon fibre were ripping themselves apart.

Everybody that stepped on the Titan after dive 80 was risking their life

“Their systems said there had been a fundamental change in the material of your carbon fibre and it was no longer structurally sound,” Lt. Commander Katie Williams of the US Coast Guard told the documentary.

“Delamination at dive 80 was the beginning of the end. And everybody that stepped on the Titan after dive 80 was risking their life.

“After then, every time you were going down to depth, you were further damaging that hull – eventually something was going to happen.”

But when team members tried to raise concerns, they were laughed out the room, as Antonella found.

“I wanted to say something. I went to Amber Bay, the director of the administration, and I told her I was really concerned that they were going to continue diving,” she says.

“Her initial response was: ‘Yes, people are really concerned about you too – you don’t have an explorer’s mindset.’

“I also talked to Phil Brooks, the director of engineering. He said ‘We’ll do the next dive and we’ll visually inspect it.’

“I said, something’s gone really wrong here. They offered to send me home, and I said yes.”

“People wouldn’t even make eye contact with me,” she added.

Amber Bay denies dismissing these safety concerns and claims she told Antonella to report her concerns to Brooks.

Brooks says he has no recollection of Antonella expressing any concerns to him following dive 80.

Stockton, as ever, was undeterred.

Catastrophic implosion

“I think he pinned himself into a corner,” said Karl.

“If he admits defeat and failure, and then has to tell this to people that had given him so much money, what’s the rest of his life going to look like?

“There’s no possible way that Stockton didn’t know how this was going to end,” he added.

“It was just a matter of is it going to fail with me in it, or other people?”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14311485/titan-titanic-sub-bbc-documentary-implosion-disaster/

JOE Biden has been seen in public for the first time since he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that’s spread to his bones.

Biden put on a brave face and smiled at fans despite his health battle raising questions about his fitness to serve as Commander in Chief.

The former president seemed in good spirits at the airport after traveling to see his grandson, Hunter, graduate.

TikTok user Leah Juliett caught a video of Biden shaking people’s hands as they applauded and gave their well-wishes.

“Random moment of humanity,” wrote the TikToker on the viral video that showed Biden grimacing as he tried to speed through the crowd.

Jill Biden reposted the video on her Instagram and wrote, “Thank you for the warm welcome!”

She also shared a family picture featuring Biden as they celebrated his grandson Robert Hunter Biden II, who appeared to be graduating.

Hunter is the son of Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, and is named after his uncle.

Biden got his diagnosis after he went to the doctor for urinary issues, and they discovered a prostate nodule.

His cancer was ranked nine under the Gleason grading system, which means it is one of the most aggressive kinds.

However, his team said the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which means that it could be “effectively managed.”

Biden’s diagnosis sparked a wave of prayers for his recovery, but also raised eyebrows after he was given a clean bill of health while serving as president.

Longterm physician Kevin O’Connor said the 82-year-old president was fully fit to serve as president for another four years, despite insiders claiming there were clear signs of mental decline.

A wave of criticism hit the former president after CNN anchor Jake Tapper published a bombshell book that claims Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney and was “out of it” at an important meeting.

Donald Trump, who wished for a quick recovery, said he was “shocked” the public didn’t know the news sooner.

He spoke of Dr. O’Connor on Monday evening saying, “I think that if you take a look, it’s the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine.

“And that’s proven to be a sad situation.”

‘CANCER TOUCHES EVERYONE’

Biden hadn’t been seen since Monday, when he posted a smiling selfie of himself sitting with his wife Jill.

In an emotional statement, he wrote, “Cancer touches us all.

“Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places.

“Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

Presidents aren’t required to share any of their health details with the public, but the White House often chooses to publish physical exams proving they’re in fighting shape.

A long line of presidents kept health battles hidden from the public, including Grover Cleveland, who had a tumor removed on his friend’s yacht to dodge speculation.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14312083/joe-biden-cancer-picture-prostate-diagnosis-update/

A HUGE fire has ripped through a London tower block, with flames engulfing flats and thick smoke pouring into the sky.

Seventy-five firefighters were scrambled to tackle the dramatic blaze.

Ten fire engines were sent to the scene on Rochester Row as the London Fire Brigade (LFB) launched a significant emergency response.

The fire broke out in a seven-storey residential block in Westminster, Central London, shortly before 8pm.

Emergency services were alerted after receiving 23 calls about the incident, which has caused major disruption in the area.

The London Fire Brigade confirmed the fire is located on the sixth floor of the building.

Two of the Brigade’s 32-metre ladders and the specialist Drone Team have been deployed to assist with the response.

In a statement, the Brigade said: “Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters are responding to a fire on Rochester Row, Westminster.

“The fire involves a sixth floor flat, in a residential block of seven floors.

“Two of the Brigade’s 32m ladders have been deployed to the scene, alongside the Drone Team.

“People are advised to avoid the area as crews respond, with local traffic being heavily impacted.

“The Brigade received the first of 23 calls reporting the fire at 1950, with Control Officers mobilising crews from Lambeth, Soho, Paddington and surrounding fire stations to the scene in response.

“Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control by 2132.”

Crews from Lambeth, Soho and Paddington were among those quickly dispatched to the scene.

Roads near the site remain closed as emergency services continue their work.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The blaze is believed to have started at Emanuel House, a residential building in Westminster.

Videos shared on social media appear to show flames and smoke coming from the block, which is understood to be owned freehold by Westminster City Council.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14312826/huge-fire-rips-london-tower-block/

A French court on Friday found the ringleader and seven others guilty in relation to the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian.

Seven of the convicted received prison sentences of between three and eight years, some of which were suspended, while another received a fine. Two other defendants were acquitted.

Chief Judge David De Pas said the court considered the defendants’ ages and health when deciding on their sentences. Six of the defendants are now in their 60s and 70s. The judges described the sentences as “not very severe.”

In October 2016, robbers wearing ski masks and disguised as police tied up the US celebrity in her Paris hotel room, before making off with the ring given to her by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and other jewels, with a total value of $10 million (€8.8 million).

‘The most terrifying experience of my life,’ says Kardashian

Kardashian traveled to Paris to testify earlier this month, telling the court she feared for her life during the ordeal.

The reality TV star said in a statement issued after Friday’s verdict that she was “deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.”

“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family. While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system.”

A different statement from her legal team said that “Kim appreciates the court’s decision. It has been a long journey from that terrible night. She looks forward to putting this tragic episode behind her.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/eight-of-kim-kardashians-robbers-found-guilty-in-paris-court/a-72654773

Just as promised during the election campaign, US President Donald Trump wants to install a new missile defense system to protect the US from threats by air and even outer space.

The “Golden Dome” would cost at least $175 billion (€154 billion) and is to be completed by the end of Trump’s term of office in January 2029, Trump explained earlier this week.

According to the Pentagon, the US faces a growing threat from Russia and China. Critics, however, warn of the enormous costs and an unrealistic timeframe.

Democratic lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the procurement process and the possible involvement of SpaceX, the company owned by Trump’s ally Elon Musk.

The project has already caused international uproar. The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused President Donald Trump of undermining “global strategic balance and stability”.

Canada has shown interest in joining the US in its Golden Dome plan.

How would the Golden Dome function?

The Israeli Iron Dome, which intercepts short and medium-range rockets and artillery shells, is said to be the model for the American Golden Dome. The Israeli system has been in use since March 2011. It comprises a radar unit, a control center and a missile launcher.

In contrast to Trump’s Golden Dome, however, the Iron Dome was designed to protect a small territory. It is a mobile system that can be deployed in many places.

On the other hand, the US version is said to be capable of defending against intercontinental missiles with nuclear weapons.

The defense project builds on US plans from the time of former President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). Reagan had wanted a missile defense shield based on the sci-fi film series “Star Wars”, in which interceptor systems were to be placed in space.

“The Golden Dome will progressively protect our nation from aerial attacks from any foe,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Within the last four decades, our adversaries have developed more advanced and lethal long-range weapons than ever before, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles capable of striking the homeland with either conventional or nuclear warheads,” he added.

Yet, it remains to be seen how the Golden Dome will work.

A Greek “Iron Dome”?

In addition to the US, other countries have adopted the Iron Dome as a model, or at least used it as an effective media catchphrase for their defense systems.

“We need to differentiate between the Iron Dome, which is a short to medium-range range system — it became a brand name like Coca Cola that now everybody uses as it is highly successful,” Shachar Shohat, an Israeli retired Brigade General, told the military news magazine Defense News in February.

In late 2024, Greece for example, announced that it would significantly expand its defense budget and build a protective shield similar to the Israeli Iron Dome against drones and missiles. Athens argued that the progress of the European Sky Shield air defense system was too slow.

However, the Greek “Iron Dome” differs from the Israeli mobile missile defense system as the threat is different, explained Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias. Greece must, above all, defend itself against drone attacks.

Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told the US magazine Newsweek in October 2023 that several countries have shown interest in the Iron Dome system over the past decade. “Romania and Cyprus in 2022; Azerbaijan in 2016; South Korea in 2012; India in 2010; and Singapore in 2009. But India and South Korea ultimately did not go ahead with those plans, and in the other cases, there is no confirmation of actual orders or deliveries,” he said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/is-trumps-new-golden-dome-defense-system-realistic/a-72627607

South Africans voiced disappointment at US President Donald Trump’s treatment of their president, Cyril Ramaphosa, during talks at the White House on Wednesday.

Repeatedly interrupted by Trump, Ramaphosa calmly challenged claims that minority Afrikaners were the targets of a “white genocide.”

A video aired by Trump during the meeting in Washington showed the leader of a fringe, radical opposition party chanting a song from the anti-apartheid struggle about “killing” white farmers.

Trump also repeated allegations that South Africa was expropriating land from the minority white Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers who own more than three-quarters of commercial farmland.

A local man in Cape Town told Deutsche Welle: “I think [Ramaphosa] was treated very disrespectfully. While I may not agree with many of the things that are happening in our country there is no reason to treat our president like that.”

Another woman added: “That was a very immature way to deal with the situation on Donald Trump’s part. He should open himself up to hearing what Ramaphosa has to say about his own country.”

Ramaphosa’s diplomatic approach praised

Ramaphosa, 72, rose to prominence during apartheid as a mining union leader. After helping bring white minority rule to an end, he became a successful businessman before returning to frontline politics and becoming president in 2018.

The manner in which he conducted himself during Trump’s accusations drew the praise of his party, the African National Congress (ANC).

“His conduct was in keeping with the proud diplomatic tradition of President Nelson Mandela,” the ANC said, invoking the legacy of the revered liberation struggle leader and the country’s first Black president.

The current South African president’s extensive network was evident in the Oval Office, where he was accompanied by luxury goods billionaire Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest man, and by champion golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.

The three men and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, all of whom are white, were invited by South African leader to address Trump, who listened to them without interrupting — in contrast to how he treated Ramaphosa.

The South African delegation might have been braced for a hostile reception with Trump having cut aid to South Africa and threatened it with a 30% trade tariff under his “Liberation Day” regime.

Trump has also expelled the South African ambassador and offered refuge to Afrikaners based on claims of persecution Ramaphosa’s government says are unfounded.

“There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are Black people,” said Ramaphosa.

‘Admiration’ for Ramaphosa delegation from South Africans

Ebrahim Rasool, who served as South Africa’s ambassador to the United States until he was expelled earlier in 2025, told DW that Ramaphosa dealt with the televised meeting in Washington with “dignity.”

“On the one hand, there is anger and disappointment [in South Africa] about the way President Donald Trump handled the meeting,” he said. “There is also admiration for the dignity, unity and diversity of the South African delegation. When we couldn’t get our words in, the body language, diversity and dignity of the South African delegation spoke volumes.”

Throughout the meeting, Ramaphosa maintained a calm demeanor, complimenting Trump on his changes to the Oval Office decor and joking about having worked on his own golf so he could take on the US president, who loves the sport.

Even after Trump began his attacks and played a video that falsely purported to show thousands of graves of white farmers in South Africa, Ramaphosa tried to defuse tensions with humor.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trumps-treatment-of-ramaphosa-disappoints-south-africans/a-72639122

The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University’s right to admit international students, affecting thousands, including many from India.

In a significant move, the Donald Trump administration in the US stepped up its clash with Harvard University by stripping the school of its right to admit international students. The decision has left thousands of foreign students — including hundreds from India — in a state of uncertainty.

The international students have been told to either transfer to another institution or risk losing their legal status in the US.

Harvard’s official website says that anywhere between 500 to 800 Indian students and scholars are part of the university every year. Right now, 788 students from India are enrolled at the university.

The move could significantly affect Harvard University, which enrols nearly 6,800 international students, most of them in graduate programmes. Those students may now have to scramble to figure out their next steps.

Why did the Trump administration take this step?

The Department of Homeland Security took this latest step because Harvard University refused to comply with requests to produce records about its foreign students, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter.

Noem accused Harvard of “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies and employs racist diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.’” Harvard said the action is unlawful and undermines the school’s research mission.

Does government have authority over a private college’s enrollment?

The US government has authority over who comes into the country. The department of homeland security oversees which colleges are part of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, and on Thursday it said it would remove Harvard.

The programme gives colleges the ability to issue documentation to foreign students admitted to the schools. Then, the students apply to obtain visas to study in the United States.

Will Harvard’s current international students be allowed to graduate?

Yes, students who completed their degrees this semester will be allowed to graduate. Noem’s letter said the changes would take effect for the 2025-2026 school year. Harvard’s Class of 2025 is expected to graduate next week.

However, Noem said students who have yet to complete their degree need to transfer to another university, or they will lose their legal permission to remain in the US.

Will admitted students be able to enrol at Harvard in the fall?

No, not unless the government changes its decision or a court steps in. For now, Noem said Harvard could restore its status as a host institution for foreign students if it complied with a list of demands within 72 hours. Those demands include requests for a range of records, such as disciplinary records for international students, plus audio and video recordings of protest activity.

Harvard previously declined to provide those records. On Thursday, the university said it was working to provide guidance to affected students.

How else has the Trump administration targeted Harvard?

Harvard University’s tussle with the Trump administration dates to early April. The storied institution became the first elite college to refuse to comply with the government’s demands to limit pro-Palestinian protests and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies. That kicked off a series of escalating actions against Harvard. Various federal agencies, including DHS and the National Institutes of Health, have cut their grant funding to Harvard, significantly impacting research projects conducted by faculty. Harvard has sued the administration, seeking to end the grant freeze.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/donald-trump-vs-harvard-university-what-it-means-for-788-indian-students-and-thousands-more-enrolment-101747958408101.html

THE bones of a long-extinct human ancestor have been dredged up from the seafloor, just off the coast of what is now known as Indonesia.

The discovery reveals a previously unknown Homo erectus population in Southeast Asia who occupied land before it became an ocean.

A cache of bones was pulled from the seafloor as part of a construction project off the island of Java and another smaller island called Madura.

Researchers, who published four separate studies on their findings, say it is the first time fossils have been found in the submerged areas of the Indonesian archipelago.

During the last Ice Age, sea levels were much lower than they are today.

Mountainous glaciers and vast, icy tundras stored water that eventually fed into the ocean over the course of several millennia.

There were areas of the Earth that were not only habitable but occupied by our ancient ancestors, before they were lost to the sea.

These lost lands, called Sundaland, were once vast open plains with flowing rivers around 140,000 years ago.

The newly discovered Homo erectus bones were found among a bounty of more than 6,000 animal fossils.

Fossil remains have revealed the rivers of Sundaland would have been fertile hunting grounds for the Homo erectus.

The rivers were teeming with fish, turtles, river sharks, hippos and other marine life, according to the new fossils.

While land-walking giants such as elephants, the elephant-like Stegodon and water buffalo also populated the plains, according to the studies, published in the journal Quaternary Environments and Human.

There was once a valley between Java and Madura, which is now a body of seawater called the Madura Strait.

Cut marks found on some of the fossils suggest our ancient ancestors once hunted turtles on the land beneath the Madura Strait – which is the earliest evidence of this, according to researchers.

Although larger game was also on the table.

These hominins were targeting cow-like bovids in their prime, according to researchers, which the Indonesian Homo erectus isn’t known for.

The different hunting strategy is associated with more modern humans on the Asian mainland, suggesting the Homo erectus may have interacted with more modern humans.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/14301216/mysterious-human-ancestor-bone-found-lost-land-sundaland-indonesia/

VICE President JD Vance has defied his newly elected Holy Father with a staunch stance on immigration, and said Americans can’t follow the Pontiff on every issue.

Vance continues to drive a wedge between himself and Pope Leo after the newly elected church leader fired off tweets criticizing the VP’s political views.

In a conversation with the New York Times’ Ross Douthat, Vance opened up about how he’s balanced his position as VP with his Catholic faith.

He said that, while Pope Leo is indeed a “shepherd” for the global church, he still has a duty to maintain law and order in America.

Vance ripped into the newly elected pontiff’s more liberal immigration views, explaining that he’s trying to create a country where Americans are more united.

He fears that unfettered immigration can divide communities and limit access to jobs and benefits offered to citizens.

“The point that I’ve tried to make is I think a lot about this question of social cohesion in the United States,” he explained.

“And I do think that those who care about what might be called the common good, they sometimes underweigh how destructive immigration at the levels and at the pace that we’ve seen over the last few years is to the common good.

“I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly.”

Vance went on to praise President Donald Trump’s border crackdown and said that the administration is working overtime to stop the flow of illegal immigration.

He stressed that he respects everyone who flocks to American soil after fleeing violence or poverty, but maintained his responsibility to US citizens.

“I have a very sacred obligation, I think, to enforce the laws and to promote the common good of my own country, defined as the people with the legal right to be here,” he said.

Vance’s thinly veiled hit came after faithfuls across the globe were shocked when scrolling through Pope Leo’s X feed when he was first elected.

The Holy Father, who is the first American Pope in the history of the church, kept up an active internet presence and appeared to share his truth thoughts on Donald Trump’s presidency.

One of his latest reposts on X was a critique of Trump’s immigration crackdown from Catholic commentator Rocco Palmo.

In the post, the writer quoted, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”

A few posts before this, Pope Leo, whose birth name is Robert Prevost, shared a series of articles questioning some of Vance’s political statements.

One headline published in the National Catholic Reporter read, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for other.”

The article was penned after Vance told Fox News, “We should love our family first, then our neighbors, then love our community, then our country, and only then consider the interests of the rest of the world.”

FRANCIS’ PROTEGE

Though Pope Leo made history by being the first American to ever hold the powerful post, his election wasn’t surprising to those working in the Vatican.

In 2023, Prevost had been asked to move to the church’s headquarters and work in an elite position where he vetted potential cardinals.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14300022/jd-vance-pope-leo-immigration-meeting/

THE former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada was killed in a plane crash hours after sharing an eerie post in the cockpit.

Ex-drummer Daniel Williams and talent agent Dave Shapiro died in a fireball crash in a San Diego neighborhood on Thursday morning.

The private Cessna plane crashed around 4 am Pacific after Williams shared a picture of himself at the plane’s controls.

An Instagram post showed him at the plane’s controls, and he had written a caption, “Here we gooooo.”

Shortly before the flight took off, he also posted a picture tagging Shapiro, 42, who owned the plane and used to work with the Christian metal band Williams drummed in for years.

Williams also posted a picture of the plane controls and wrote, “Hey. Hey … you … look at me … I’m the (co)pilot now.”

The Devil Wears Prada confirmed the deaths by posting a montage of pictures of both Williams and Shapiro on their Instagram late this afternoon.

They wrote, “No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.”

Williams was seen boarding a Cessna 550 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey late Wednesday night.

Tracking data showed that the aircraft, with a tail number of N666DS, took off from the airport at 11:15 pm.

The Cessna then stopped for fuel in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to California.

Shapiro’s death was confirmed by his talent agency, Sound Talent Group.

“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues, and friends,” said a spokesperson for STG.

“Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.”

At least two other STG employees died in the crash, Billboard reported.

Aside from being a music agent, Shapiro was an avid pilot and flying instructor with 15 years of experience.

Terrance Coughlin, a music executive, also paid tribute, saying on X, “Rest in Peace Dave Shapiro, Daniel Williams, and everyone on that flight.

“Some of my very first shows were booked through Dave.

“I had a handful of shows with Daniel, always a pleasure to see him play. Gone way too soon.”

The plane plummeted about two miles from its intended destination at San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive airport.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14302727/daniel-williams-san-diego-plane-crash-cessna-post/

PRESIDENT Donald Trump was astonished to meet a giant 7-foot-9 college basketball player on Wednesday at the White House.

The Florida Gators visited Donald Trump at the Oval Office to celebrate their national championship title.

A video of Trump and Rioux meeting each other was captured at the White House.

Trump was shocked to see Florida’s Olivier Rioux, who’s three inches away from being an astounding 8 feet tall.

Rioux hovered over Trump, who noted the 19-year-old’s height.

“To be that tall, I think it’s great,” Trump said, as seen in a clip from White House communications advisor Margo Martin.

The pair shook hands and then posed for a photo.

Then in the clip, Trump asked if Roux was a good player, and someone could be heard off-camera saying that he was “getting there.”

Roux didn’t play in the Gators’ national championship game victory over the Houston Cougars last month.

“Boy, what a big advantage, huh?” Trump then said of Roux’s stature.

Rioux didn’t appear on the court during the season.

He redshirted for the 2024-25 season.

The Canadian native supposedly stood at 6-foot-1 at the age of eight.

Rioux was on the bench as he saw Florida narrowly beat Houston 65-63 on April 7.

Trump was later speaking in the East Room with the Gators players behind him.

The commander-in-chief and coach Todd Golden held up a “Trump 47” Florida jersey for a photo.

Trump has gotten to meet numerous sports champions since he returned to office in January.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/14299638/donald-trump-olivier-rioux-florida-gators-white-house/

U.S. President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.
The post did not caption the image but identified it as a “YouTube screen grab” with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had “misidentified the image.”
She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government”, had “pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.”
The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.

“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in … I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,” Al Katanty said. “Only Reuters has video.”

Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.

“In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,” Al Katanty said.
Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa’s land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/trumps-image-dead-white-farmers-came-reuters-footage-congo-not-south-africa-2025-05-22/

Gigi Hadid’s sister Marielle Hadid revealed she put in a good word for Travis Kelce with Taylor Swift before they started dating.

During an appearance on the “Nice Girls Don’t Win” podcast, Marielle recalled doing a tarot card reading for Swift before the pop star’s Eras Tour show in Santa Clara, Calif., in summer 2023.

“I did pull a card for her because I had seen something where [Travis Kelce] had said that he wanted to date her,” Marielle, 44, told hosts Amy Bean and Parvati Shallow on Wednesday’s episode.

Following the NFL star’s public declaration, Marielle said she told Gigi, 30, and Swift, 35, that the singer “should date” Kelce.

“So I told Gigi and I told her, I was like, ‘Come on, even if it’s just for fun,’” she recalled, noting this took place before the future lovebirds had actually met.

“So I pulled this card for her, and I don’t exactly remember which deck it was, but I remember that it was in regards to this, and the word ‘swiftly’ was in the reading.”

“She said she had never had a tarot card reading before, which I thought was interesting,” Marielle added, joking, “So I take all responsibility for [the relationship]!”

Bean then asked Marielle whether she told Swift that Kelce, 35, would be a “good lay.”

“I did!” Marielle confirmed. “I was like, ‘Come on.’ … She deserves it.”

A rep for Swift did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

The Grammy winner confirmed her relationship with Kelce at a Kansas City Chiefs game in September 2023, just two months after he expressed romantic interest in the “Cruel Summer” songstress on his “New Heights” podcast.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/22/celebrity-news/gigi-hadids-sister-joked-with-taylor-swift-about-good-lay-travis-kelce/

Joe Jonas was scared to catch the “lovebug” again after his divorce from Sophie Turner.

The singer admitted getting back into dating was “scary and intimidating” as he reflected on creating his new song “Only Love.”

“I was seeing somebody at the time and I was kind of having this idea of dating again. It was really scary and intimidating,” he said during a TalkShopLive stream Wednesday.

“Love takes different shapes and forms and I was rediscovering what that was,” he added.

However, the unidentified person he was dating at the time quickly dismissed his fears by telling him, “Well, it’s only love.”

“I was like, ‘Well, when you put it that way…’ So we wrote a song about it,” Jonas, 35, shared.

“Like, it was not a big deal, but it was a big deal to me, and a big deal to them, too. But it’s OK to take a leap of faith and just try again and put yourself out there.”

“Only Love” will appear on the musician’s new album, “Music for People Who Believe in Love,” dropping Friday.

Jonas and Turner finalized their divorce in September 2024 after a messy custody battle over their two daughters, Willa, 4, and Delphine, 2.

The “Game of Thrones” alum, 29, had previously launched a lawsuit against the DNCE singer, accusing him of withholding their daughters’ passports and preventing them from returning to England, her home country.

In a statement from his rep, the Jonas Brothers band member denied his ex’s allegations, calling the lawsuit a “harsh legal position” that went against the “amicable co-parenting setup” he believed they were working toward.

Turner eventually dropped the filing after they reached a co-parenting agreement.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/22/celebrity-news/joe-jonas-confesses-scary-and-intimidating-part-of-sophie-turner-divorce/

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused unnamed European officials on Thursday (May 22) of “toxic antisemitic incitement” he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place.

Israel has faced a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late as it has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid supplies has left the Palestinian enclave on the brink of famine.

Saar did not name any countries or officials but said the climate of hostility towards Israel was behind the shooting of the embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.

Saar, at a news conference in Jerusalem, said the attack was a direct outcome of “toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world” since Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on Israel in October 2023.

“There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder,” he said. “This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe.”

Saar declined to identify which leader or officials he had in mind. But his remarks came after increasingly tough words from Western allies of Israel including France and Britain, which joined Canada this week in warning of possible “concrete action” against Israel over its war in Gaza.

US officials said a suspect who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans was in custody. President Donald Trump and a wide range of European and other foreign leaders condemned the attack.

Saar said the “global atmosphere” against Israel had worsened sharply since the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage back into the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Israel’s air and ground campaign has killed over 53,000 Palestinians and laid waste to the densely populated territory, drawing mass protests across the world ranging from US university campuses to the streets of European cities.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-accuses-europe-antisemitic-incitement-after-washington-shooting-5147051

Muhammad Yunus, the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, threatened to resign if all the parties didn’t offer him their full support. This came a day after Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman called for elections to be held by December and the BNP sought a road map for polls. Yunus’ resignation buzz is being seen as a ploy to launch a fresh agitation in Dhaka.

In a desperate bid to garner support after being cornered, the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, threatened to resign. This came after protests by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Thursday and a stern warning by Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman a day earlier. Student leaders are meanwhile rallying youths and Islamists to protest in Dhaka and march to the Army Cantonment, especially after the Friday prayers, according to sources in government departments and posts on social media.

The buzz around Yunus’ resignation is being seen as a ploy to launch an agitation against the Army chief who wants elections to be held. Elections, whenever held, will end Yunus’ term as the de facto prime minister of Bangladesh.

From getting the Awami League banned to stalling women’s reforms to gutting Mujibur Rahman’s Dhanmondi 32 residence, mobs of students and Islamists have had their way in Bangladesh. In every case, Yunus was complicit in silence if not in the planning.

Yunus’ threat to resign comes as dramatically as he assumed the office of the Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh after a students-led agitation against job reservation turned into an anti-Sheikh Hasina movement, forcing the Prime Minister to flee Dhaka on August 5, 2024.

Nahid Islam, one of the leaders of last year’s agitation and Convenor of the National Citizen Party (NCP) floated by the students, told BBC Bangla that Muhammad Yunus had threatened he would resign as he was unable to carry on with his work amid the current political environment and protests.

“I am being held hostage… I can’t work like this. Can’t all the political parties reach a common ground?” Nahid Islam quoted Yunus as saying.

Nahid resigned from Yunus’ Cabinet in February to head the newly floated NCP.

Another top NCP leader, Ariful Islam Adeeb, who was present during the meeting with Yunus on Thursday evening at Jamuna, the state guest house, told AFP that Nahid urged him to continue in office.

Nahid told BBC Bangla that he met Yunus after the buzz that the chief adviser was planning to resign.

Yunus asked the student leaders to form another interim government as he didn’t want to continue, Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo reported, quoting sources.

Not just Nahid Islam, some other members of Yunus Cabinet like Information and Broadcasting Adviser Mahfuj Alam and Adviser for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Asif Mahmud also met him.

“He [Yunus] wanted to tender his resignation, but his Cabinet members persuaded him not to,” a source told AFP.

YUNUS CORNERED BY ARMY CHIEF AND BNP ON ELECTIONS

Muhammad Yunus’ threat to resign if parties didn’t offer him full support came after a day of protests by the BNP and the demand for a clear road map for elections.

“The highest priority should be placed on announcing a clear road map for the election,” BNP leader Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said on Thursday.

This was the BNP’s first large-scale protest against the interim government. Other than the demand to declare its candidate mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation, the party also pressed for the resignation of two members of Yunus Cabinet members seen close to the NCP and that of the National Security Adviser, Khalilur Rahman.

With the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League banned from political activities, the BNP, the only other major party in Bangladesh sees it as its clear chance to win the election and assume power.

There is already a King’s Party in the form of Nahid Islam’s NCP, and the BNP has genuine fears that further delays could be used to deny it the opportunity to form the government.

There is a feeling among Bangladesh watchers that Yunus is using the students and Islamist mobs as his foot soldiers and trying to cling on to power without holding elections.

Though Yunus has said elections will be held by June 2026, there is a growing impatience among political parties, including the BNP.

Even Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman issued a stern warning on Wednesday that the Yunus-led interim government would have to hold elections by December.

During a show of unity in the armed forces, General Zaman also lashed out against the Yunus government for trying to take a unilateral decision on the “bloody” Rakhine corridor and interfering in military matters.

YUNUS, BANGLADESH STUDENT LEADERS AND ISLAMISTS

Experts and commentators have expressed fear that Yunus might try to use the July Proclamation to cling on to power by declaring a new Republic, repealing the 1972 Constitution and removing General Zaman.

There are suspicions that Yunus might try to use Islamist mobs and his NSA in a bid to remove General Zaman, a rare Bangladeshi General who is the beacon of democracy in a country where all other institutions have failed.

Knowing fully well that students and Islamists might try to take to mob violence to make Yunus’ and their demands heard, General Zaman said the military would take a tough stance on public disorder.

“Violence and chaos in the name of mass mobilisation will no longer be tolerated,” he was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.

Students and Islamists are trying to mobilise protesters to march to the Dhaka Cantonment and Bangladesh Secretariat, among other areas, after Friday prayers, sources in Bangladesh departments told India Today Digital late on Thursday evening.

They said the student leaders were busy planning massive agitations.

Videos of torch marches in Dhaka have also been circulating on social media on Thursday evening.

Some social media posts, meanwhile, appealed to people to not join in the Friday street protests called by “traitors”, claiming the Yunus had “limited time only”.

Dhaka, which has seen incessant street protests since July 2024, might become witness to yet another bout of agitation.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/muhammad-yunus-threatens-to-resign-students-islamists-protests-dhaka-agitation-bangladesh-army-chief-election-2729116-2025-05-23

A major accident occurred at a launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported on Thursday (May 22), with leader Kim Jong Un saying the mishap was a “criminal act”.

At a ceremony to launch a new 5,000-ton destroyer in the eastern port city of Chongjin on Wednesday, “a serious accident occurred”, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

South Korea’s military said North Korea also fired “multiple unidentified cruise missiles” on Thursday, which were detected near the North’s South Hamgyong province after being “fired toward the East Sea”, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Blaming “inexperienced command and operational carelessness” during the launch, which was being observed by Kim, KCNA said there was a mishap which left “some sections of the warship’s bottom crushed”.

It said the accident managed to “destroy the balance of the warship”.

The report did not mention whether there were any casualties.

Kim watched the entire incident and declared it a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness”, warning it “could not be tolerated”.

He said the “irresponsible errors” of officials responsible would be “dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month”.

South Korea’s military said US and Seoul intelligence authorities assess that North Korea’s “side-launch attempt” of the ship failed.

“The side-launch method used in this case is no longer employed by South Korea’s military,” Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

The vessel is currently listing in the water, Lee said, and based on its size and scale, it is believed to be similarly equipped to the 5,000-ton destroyer-class warship Choe Hyon, which North Korea unveiled last month.

Last month, Pyongyang’s state media ran images of Kim attending a launching ceremony of Choe Hyon with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor.

North Korea claimed the vessel was equipped with the “most powerful weapons”, and that it would “enter into operation early next year”.

Some analysts said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads – although North Korea has not proven it has the ability to miniaturise its atomic arsenal.

RUSSIAN CONNECTION?

The South Korean military has said the Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian help, possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said the warship involved in Wednesday’s accident may have also been constructed with Russian assistance.

Chongjin, the North Korean city where the launch ceremony was held, is close to Russia’s Vladivostok port, he noted.

“It’s also likely that the projected timeline for the vessel – including when assembly would be completed and the ship launched – was shared with the Russian side,” he told AFP.

“It appears the dock was hastily constructed, and multiple issues may have arisen during the shipbuilding process.

“With today’s announcement, Pyongyang seems to be signalling not only to its own people, but also to the Russian side.”

STRENGTHENING THE NAVY

North Korea confirmed in April for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow in the Ukraine war.

Moscow and Pyongyang recently announced that they had started building the first road bridge linking the two countries.

North Korea also launched a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in violation of UN sanctions.

In March, Kim inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, asserting that “radically” boosting the navy was a key part of Pyongyang’s defensive strategy.

Kim called at the time for the modernisation of the country’s surface and underwater naval forces, including the development of warships.

Pyongyang has previously claimed to be developing underwater nuclear attack drones, which could unleash a “radioactive tsunami”, but analysts have questioned whether it actually has such a weapon.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-warship-launch-serious-accident-5145951

A Chicago-born man arrested as the lone suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington was charged on Thursday (May 22) in federal court with two counts of first-degree murder in a killing widely condemned as an act of antisemitism.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, is accused of opening fire on a group of people on Wednesday night as they left an event for young professionals and diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.

Rodriguez told police on the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza”, according to the charging documents. Witnesses recounted hearing him chant, “Free Palestine” after he was taken into custody.

The two victims struck by gunfire and killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a young couple about to become engaged to be married.

Friends and members of advocacy groups they belonged to said the pair were committed to building bridges between Arabs and Jews in hopes of ending bloodshed in the Middle East.

After the shooting, Israeli embassies around the world immediately stepped up security.

In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, Rodriguez was charged in a six-page criminal complaint with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

Interim US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, newly appointed by President Donald Trump as the top federal prosecutor in Washington, said at a news briefing that the complaint against Rodriguez constitutes a “death penalty-eligible case”.

“We are going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and as a crime of terrorism,” Pirro told reporters.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier that the suspect was believed to have acted alone.

At his first appearance in court on Thursday, the suspect waived his right to a detention hearing, and a preliminary hearing in the case was set for Jun 18.

Rodriguez said little during the proceeding except to answer, “I do” to questions from a federal magistrate judge about whether he understood his rights.

The charges were filed as FBI and police investigators pored over apparent writings and political affiliations of the suspect.

POSSIBLE MANIFESTO?

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted on social media that investigators were “aware of certain writings allegedly authored by the suspect” and hoped to soon have updates regarding their authenticity.

Bongino’s statement appeared to refer to a manifesto signed with Rodriguez’s name that was posted to an anonymous X account on Wednesday night shortly before the shooting.

Posted with the title “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home”, it condemned Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians since the October 2023 Hamas attacks, and discussed the morality of “armed” action.

“In the wake of an act people look for a text to fix its meaning so here’s an attempt,” the document read. “The atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification.”

Israel has faced sustained international condemnation for its escalating Gaza military offensive, while Jewish advocacy groups have warned of a rise in antisemitic incidents globally.Investigators also delved into apparent political affiliations of the suspect.

SUSPECT’S BACKGROUND

Rodriguez was once involved with a far-left group in Chicago, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, according to a post from the group on X. The group said Rodriguez had a brief association with a PSL branch that ended in 2017 and was unaware of any further contact with him in more than seven years.

“We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it,” the organisation said.

Rodriguez was also identified in a 2018 local news report as a member of the Chicago branch of a national group called ANSWER, an acronym for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, which has organised demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians. ANSWER did not immediately respond to email and phone messages.

At the time of his arrest, Rodriguez worked at the healthcare nonprofit American Osteopathic Information Association, the organisation confirmed in a statement expressing sympathy for the victims.

He had also worked as an oral history researcher at The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving African American stories, according to a now-deleted biography on the group’s website, and was a content writer for technology firms.

Rodriguez was born and reared in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

According to the FBI affidavit, the suspect flew to the Washington area from Chicago on Tuesday. On Wednesday night, he was seen pacing outside the museum, little more than 2km from the White House, shortly before the shooting, police said.

Surveillance video footage showed Rodriguez firing several times at Lischinsky and Milgrim, then leaning over them to fire several more rounds after they fell to the ground and after Milgrim tried to crawl away and sat up, according to an FBI affidavit in the criminal complaint. The gunman paused to reload, then resumed firing, it said.

He then tossed away his gun, retreated into the museum and was arrested there after calling attention to himself as the suspect, pulling out a red Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf and declaring that he “did it”, the affidavit said.

Investigators recovered a 9mm handgun that he had purchased in Illinois five years ago, 21 spent shell casings and a firearm magazine at the scene, according to the complaint.

Trump condemned the shooting.

“These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he said in a message on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart ached for the families of the victims, “whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-washington-israel-embassy-shooting-suspect-charged-murder-5148351

Four people have died and several were missing as major flooding in New South Wales (NSW) left about 50,000 people isolated by floodwaters.

The record rainfall, now declared a natural disaster, has been caused by a slow-moving area of low pressure and is greater than any in living memory for some residents, according to local authorities.

Heavy rains moved south overnight affecting Sydney and Newcastle, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing weather warnings for southern parts of the state.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit the flood-affected areas on Friday morning with NSW Premier Chris Minns, who earlier said the state was “far from out of the woods”.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said it had responded to more than 535 flood rescues in the 24 hours to 05:00 local time (19:00 GMT) – and more than 670 rescues since the flooding began.

There are more than 150 flood warnings in place with 40 of those at emergency level and authorities have re-issued earlier advice for people not to drive or enter floodwaters.

More than 100 schools have been closed because of the floods, which have left thousands of homes and businesses without power. Evacuation centres have been opened for those fleeing the flooding.

Taree, a city on the Mid North Coast, has been among the worst affected. On Wednesday, flooding at a major river in the area surpassed 6.3m (20.6ft), beating an almost century old record for its highest level.

Authorities have confirmed the fourth death due to the floods after they recovered the body of a man in his late 70s in the early hours of Friday after it appeared he drove into floodwaters near Coffs Harbour.

Earlier, the body of a 63-year-old man was recovered on Wednesday afternoon at a property in Moto, near Taree. The fatality was later identified in an ABC News report as David Knowles. Local police have started an investigation into the incident.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sent his condolences to the man’s family in a post in X, calling his death “devastating”.

On Thursday morning, the body of a man in his 30s was found in floodwaters near Rosewood on the Mid North Coast. It followed earlier reports of a man stuck in floodwaters while driving in the area.

On Thursday afternoon, NSW police said its officers had recovered the body of a 60-year-old woman who got into trouble in her car in floodwaters at Brooklana, about 30km (18 miles) from the city of Coffs Harbour.

Police said there were a number of people missing with searches continuing for a 49-year-old man from Nymbodia who did not return home several nights ago and was last seen crossing a flooded area.

Nearly 10,000 homes are at risk of flooding in the state’s Mid North Coast.

“We are bracing for more bad news,” Minns told reporters at a press conference yesterday.

“It’s very difficult to get supplies into some of these isolated communities,” Minns said, adding that the prime minister has pledged his support for any help needed from the federal government.

Minns also urged those who are in “prepare to evacuate” areas to leave if they can, while acknowledging some won’t be able to.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c861gqdd8x0o

In 2010, Indian filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan made a striking debut at Cannes with Masaan – a poignant tale of love, loss, and the oppressive grip of the caste system, set against the holy city of Varanasi.

The main lead in the film (Vicky Kaushal) performed a job assigned to one of the lowest castes in the rigid Hindu caste hierarchy – cremating dead bodies along the Ganges. Masaan played in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the festival, which looks at films with unusual styles and or that tells non-traditional stories. It won the FIPRESCI and the Avenir – also known as the Promising Future Prize – prizes.

Since then, Ghaywan was in search of a story about India’s marginalised communities. Five years ago in the middle of the pandemic, a friend, Somen Mishra – the head of creative development at Dharma Productions in Mumbai – recommended an opinion piece called Taking Amrit Home, published in The New York Times. It was written by the journalist Basharat Peer.

What drew Ghaywan to Peer’s article was that it tracked the journeys – sometimes of hundreds or even thousands of miles – taken by millions of Indians who travelled on foot to get home during the nation’s strict lockdown during the pandemic. But he was also drawn to the core of the story, which focused on the childhood friendship between two men – one Muslim and the other Dalit (formerly known as the untouchables).

Ghaywan’s new film Homebound, inspired by Peer’s article, premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” section this week, ending with a nine-minute long standing ovation.

Many in the audience were seen wiping away tears. Ghaywan gave the lead producer Karan Johar a tight hug, while he and his young lead actors – Ishan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor – came together in a larger group hug later.

Since this was the biggest South Asian event at Cannes 2025, other film luminaries showed up to support the screening. India’s Mira Nair (who won the Camera d’Or in 1988 for Salaam Bombay) leaned across two rows of seats to reach out to Johar. Pakistan’s Siam Sadiq (who won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2022 for Joyland) was seen making a reel of the mood inside the theatre that he later posted on Instagram.

The film also received backing from a rather unexpected quarter. Its main producer is Johar, the leading Indian commercial filmmaker (known for blockbuster films like Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham and the recent Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani). But last month Martin Scorsese stepped in as the executive producer after he was introduced to the film by the French producer Mélita Toscan du Plantier.

This is the first time Scorsese has stepped in to support a contemporary Indian film. Until now he has only backed restored classic Indian films.

“I have seen Neeraj’s first film Masaan in 2015 and I loved it, so when Mélita Toscan du Plantier sent me the project of his second film, I was curious,” Scorsese said in a statement last month.

“I loved the story, the culture and was willing to help. Neeraj has made a beautifully crafted film that’s a significant contribution to Indian cinema.”

According to Ghaywan, Scorsese helped nurture the film by mentoring the team through a number of rounds of edits. But he also tried to understand the cultural context which helped the exchange of ideas.

The context was important to Ghaywan, since he had been trying to capture the right spirit of the subject he was tackling.

The film’s two lead characters – Mohammed Shoaib Ali (Khatter) and Chandan Kumar (Jethwa) have shared histories – the weight of centuries of discrimination at the hand of upper caste Hindus, but also similar goals to rise above the barriers imposed on them – in this case by joining their state’s police force.

Ghaywan has openly shared that he was born into a Dalit family – a reality that has cast a long shadow over his life, haunting him since childhood.

As an adult, he went on to study business administration and then worked in a corporate job in Gurgaon outside the capital, Delhi. He said he never faced discrimination but was acutely aware of his position in the caste hierarchy and still lives with the weight of where he was born.

“I am the only acknowledged person from the community who is there behind and in the front of camera in all of Hindi cinema history. That is the kind of gap we are living with,” he says.

A majority of India lives in its villages, but Hindi filmmakers rarely talk about bringing the villages to their stories, says Ghaywan. What also offends him is that marginalised communities are only talked about as statistics.

“What if we pick one person out of that statistic and see what happened in their lives?” he says. “How did they get to this point? I felt it was worth narrating a story.”

When he sat down to write the script, he tried to fictionalise the backstories of the two protagonists until the point that they took the journey during Covid – which is the beginning of Peer’s article.

As a child in Hyderabad, Ghaywan had a close Muslim friend, Asghar, so he felt deeply connected to Ali and Kumar’s lived experiences in the film.

“What appealed to me more was the humanity behind it, the interpersonal, the interiority of the relationship,” he says, that took him back to his childhood in Hyderabad.

In Ghaywan’s hands, Homebound has the wonderful glow and warmth of the winter sun. It is gorgeously shot in India’s rural North, capturing simple joys and the daily struggles of its Muslim and Dalit protagonists. The two men, the woman one of them loves (Kapoor and Jethwa both portray Dalit characters), and their interactions offer much to reflect on and understand.

For the most part, Ghaywan’s script keeps viewers on the edge. Back in 2019, none of us truly grasped the scale of the coming pandemic – but the film subtly foreshadows a shift, reminding us that a crisis can cut across class, caste, and ethnicity, touching everyone.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czelypr8jdlo

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its aid programs worldwide have been “devastating.”
Speaking beside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House visit, Trump was asked about his cutting most foreign aid by a reporter who said the decision had significant impacts in Africa.

“It’s devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“I’ve talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and we’ve spent a lot. And it’s a big – it’s a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.”

The State Department, which manages USAID, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration has repeatedly defended the cuts, saying they were focused on wasted funds. The gutting of the agency, largely overseen by South Africa-born businessman Elon Musk, is the subject of several federal lawsuits.
The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data

The U.S. spent half a billion dollars on South African aid in 2023, mostly on healthcare, the most recent data shows. Most of that funding has been withdrawn, though it is unclear exactly how much.
The cuts have had an effect on the country’s response to the HIV epidemic. South Africa has the world’s highest burden of HIV, with about 8 million people – one in five adults – living with the virus.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-calls-his-own-foreign-aid-cuts-usaid-devastating-2025-05-21/

U.S. President Donald Trump picked a design for his Golden Dome missile defense system and named a leader of the ambitious $175 billion defense program. Here are details on Golden Dome, where the idea comes from and how it will work.

HOW WILL IT WORK?

The aim is for Golden Dome to leverage a network of hundreds of satellites circling the globe with sophisticated sensors and interceptors to knock out incoming enemy missiles after they lift off from countries like China, Iran, North Korea or Russia.

“I promised the American people that I would build a cutting edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack,” Trump said when he made the announcement on Tuesday.
In April the Pentagon asked defense contractors how they would design and build a network to knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles during the “boost phase” just after lift-off – the slow and predictable climb of an enemy missile through the Earth’s atmosphere. Existing defenses target enemy missiles while they travel through space.
Once the missile has been detected, Golden Dome will either shoot it down before it enters space with an interceptor or a laser, or further along its path of travel in space with an existing missile defense system that uses land-based interceptors stationed in California and Alaska.

Beneath the space intercept layer, the system will have another defensive layer based in or around the U.S. This is something the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency looked into during the first Trump administration.

IS GOLDEN DOME LIKE ISRAEL’S IRON DOME?

“We helped Israel with theirs, and [it] was very successful, and now we have technology that’s even far advanced from that,” Trump said referring to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built to intercept the kinds of rockets fired by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing, it became operational in 2011. Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats like rockets, mortars and drones in mid-air.
The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area; if not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.

Iron Dome was originally billed as providing city-sized coverage against rockets with ranges of between 4 and 70 km (2.5 to 43 miles), but experts say this has since been expanded.

HOW IS IT SIMILAR TO THEN-PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S STAR WARS INITIATIVE?

“We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The idea of strapping rocket launchers, or lasers, to satellites so they can shoot down enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is not new. It was part of the Star Wars initiative devised during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But it represents a huge and expensive technological leap from current capabilities.
Reagan’s “Strategic Defense Initiative,” as it was called, was announced in 1983 as groundbreaking research into a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete.

The heart of the SDI program was a plan to develop a space-based missile defense program that could protect the U.S. from a large-scale nuclear attack. The proposal involved many layers of technology that would enable the United States to identify and destroy automatically a large number of incoming ballistic missiles as they were launched, as they flew, and as they approached their targets. SDI failed because it was too expensive, too ambitious from a technology perspective, could not be easily tested and appeared to violate an existing anti-ballistic missile treaty.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/what-is-golden-dome-missile-defense-shield-2025-05-21/

Intensified Israeli ground operations and new evacuation orders are stretching Gaza’s health system beyond breaking point, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals in the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Jabalia were inside an evacuation zone announced on Tuesday. Another two hospitals are within 1km (0.6 miles) of it.

Kamal Adwan was out of service due to hostilities nearby and the Indonesian hospital was inaccessible because of the presence of Israeli forces around it, he added.

Al-Awda hospital is still functioning, but its director told the BBC on Wednesday that it was “totally under siege”.

“Nobody can move out and we can’t receive any cases from outside the hospital,” Dr Mohammed Salha said.

He added that there was a quadcopter drone “shooting in the surroundings of the hospital and the outdoor area of the hospital”.

“We also hear shooting from the tanks… maybe 400 or 500 metres [away].”

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was “operating in the area against terror targets”, but that it was “not aware of any siege on the hospital itself”.

Dr Tedros said: “Even if health facilities are not attacked or forced to evacuate, hostilities and military presence obstruct patients and staff from accessing care, and WHO from resupplying hospitals, which can quickly make them non-functional.”

“We’ve seen this too many times – it must not be allowed to happen again.”

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also said that at least 20 medical facilities across Gaza had been damaged, or forced partially or completely out of service, in the past week by Israeli ground operations, air strikes and evacuation orders.

The charity demanded that Israeli authorities stop what it called the “deliberate asphyxiation of Gaza and the annihilation of its healthcare system”.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining 58 hostages, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

After several days of intense bombardment, the IDF launched an expanded offensive on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see ground forces “take control of all areas” of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

More than 600 people have been killed and 2,000 injured across Gaza over the past week, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The UN says tens of thousands of people have been newly displaced.

Netanyahu also said Israel would allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine. But the UN has so far been unable to collect the dozens of lorry loads of supplies allowed in since Monday.

MSF said the volume of aid allowed in so far was not nearly enough, describing it as “a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”.

On Tuesday, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories said he had recently returned from Gaza and witnessed how the health system was facing attacks and acute shortages of supplies.

“Every time you get into Gaza you always think it cannot get worse. But it gets worse,” Dr Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva.

He described how al-Awda hospital was “overwhelmed with injuries” and running low on supplies. Hostilities had damaged the facility, disrupted access and deterred people from seeking healthcare, he added.

He said the Indonesian hospital was barely functioning, almost inaccessible, and that most patients had left last week after a staff member was killed, one patient was injured and the facility was damaged during intensified hostilities.

Only 15 people, including patients and staff, were still inside the hospital as of Tuesday, urgently in need of food and water, he added.

The hospital’s generator was also struck by an Israeli quadcopter on Monday night, causing a large fire and a blackout, according to MER-C Indonesia, the NGO that built the facility.

On Wednesday, a woman inside the hospital told the BBC by telephone that two of the patients were in a “serious condition”.

In the background of the call, crashes could be heard.

“Five minutes ago, there was intense shooting in the surroundings of the hospital,” she said, adding that she could see tanks.

The woman also said that they still had supplies of food inside the hospital, but were “facing a water crisis”.

The IDF told the BBC it was operating in the area around the hospital and targeting “terrorist infrastructure sites”, but that it was not targeting the hospital itself.

In another incident on Tuesday, a paramedic said his ambulance was shot at by an Israeli drone while he was transporting staff and food between al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.

Khaled Sadeh said he was with another ambulance when bullets hit both vehicles’ windshields. Nobody was injured.

Dr Salha shared photos of the ambulances and confirmed that Mr Sadeh was unable to return to al-Awda because of the threat of Israeli fire.

The BBC supplied details of the allegations and photos to the IDF, but it said it “could not confirm” the reports.

Hospitals and medical personnel are specially protected under international humanitarian law.

Hospitals only lose that protection in certain circumstances. They include being used as a base from which to launch an attack, as a weapons depot, or to hide healthy fighters.

The IDF has insisted that its forces operate in accordance with international law. In most instances where it has attacked hospitals, it has said they were being used improperly by Hamas – an allegation the group has denied.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the European hospital – the only facility providing neurosurgery, cardiac care and cancer treatment in Gaza – has been out of service since 13 May.

That day, the hospital’s courtyard and surrounding area was hit by a series of Israeli air strikes that Israel’s defence minister said targeted an underground bunker where the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Sinwar, was hiding. Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said the attack killed at least 28 people, but it is not clear yet whether Sinwar died.

The facility has also been inside an Israeli-designated evacuation zone covering almost the entire eastern half of Khan Younis since Monday.

Dr Tedros said Nasser, al-Amal and al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as one field hospital, were within 1km of the zone.

Dr Victoria Rose, a British surgeon working at Nasser hospital, said in a video posted on social media on Wednesday that she was very worried about the facility being evacuated or cut off by an Israeli troops advance from al-Aqsa, which in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

“If we get cut off from the Middle Area, there really are no other hospitals around us that could cope with the evacuation of Nasser,” she explained.

“We have some amazing field hospitals… but none of them are capable of doing the type of surgery that we’re doing here. And none of them have ICU capacity or generated oxygen. So, even all of them together couldn’t cope with the amount of patients that we have.”

She warned: “If Nasser is evacuated, we really are looking at the imminent death of hundreds of patients because we won’t be able to take them anywhere.”

Nasser was also hit by an Israeli strike on 13 May, killing two people including a Palestinian journalist who was being treated for injuries he sustained in a previous strike on a tented camp at the complex. The attack also destroyed 18 beds in a burns unit, according to the WHO.

The IDF accused the journalist of being a Hamas operative and alleged that the hospital was being used by the group to “carry out terrorist plots”.

Another strike on Monday severely damaged Nasser’s medical warehouse and destroyed critical WHO supplies, according to the hospital’s director.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj933kj17n0o

A FLIGHT from Honolulu to Los Angeles has been forced to turn around after a possible threat was found in a bathroom on board.

Flight radar shows the plane making an abrupt U-turn just an hour and a half into the flight to return to Daniel K. Inouye International in Honolulu on Tuesday night.

The flight, UA1169, left at 9:40 pm on May 20 but abruptly turned back around.

A United Airlines spokesperson reported a “potential security threat” was found on board.

The airline confirmed that the security threat was written on the bathroom mirror, KTLA reported.

No further information was provided as to what the threat said.

The spokesperson confirmed that law enforcement searched the plane after it landed.

“We are rebooking customers on another flight to Los Angeles that departs later this evening,” the spokesperson told KTLA on Wednesday morning.

The possible security threat came hours after a passenger was arrested on a Hawaiian Airlines flight departing from San Diego and heading to Honolulu.

Flight HA 15 was diverted off the tarmac as a passenger made a bomb threat.

The 283 passengers on board were forced to deplane around 10:30 am.

“During pushback from the gate, a guest was overheard making a threat to the safety of our aircraft,” a spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines said.

“As a precaution, the captain immediately taxied the Airbus A330 to a safe location on the airfield, where it was met with local and federal law enforcement and guests were safely deplaned.”

A passenger on board filmed armed cops on board as they searched the aircraft for explosives.

“Bomb threat was called on the plane,” the passenger captioned the video.

The flight was reportedly moved to a secure location and was checked by K-9 units.

After searching the plane, authorities discovered “nothing suspicious” on board, KTLA reported.

Navy sailor Isai Solorzano told the outlet what he saw happen on the tumultuous flight.

“One guy stood up, they immediately told him to turn around and put him in handcuffs,” Solorzano said.

“They took him away.”

The arrest happened after law enforcement came on board and asked about the owner of certain containers.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14293573/united-airlines-honolulu-flight-security-concern/

FAST food restaurant workers can no longer afford to eat the food they’re making, a shocking new study has revealed.

A recent survey found that employees who work at restaurants like McDonald’s and Taco Bell have to work twice as long as the average US worker to afford a typical fast food meal.

Using labor statistics, financial platform Lending Tree compared the wages of fast food and counter workers to the average money people make in every other career field.

The study found that the recent skyrocketing prices of fast food are coinciding with a growing gap between the wages of an average US worker and restaurant staff.

The average fast food employee has to work for 46 minutes to purchase a typical combo meal nationwide, which averages out to $11.56, according to Lending Tree.

Meanwhile, the average American worker only needs to work for 21.2 minutes to be able to afford the same meal.

However, it depends on where you live, as the study also revealed the cities with the most expensive fast food meals.

FAST FOOD WORKERS SQUEEZED

San Francisco, California, was revealed to be the city with the highest average cost for fast food meals at $12.73.

In San Francisco, the average fast food worker makes $20.67 per hour since California has the highest minimum wage in the country.

This means they have to work 36.9 minutes to afford the typical fast food meals in their city, whether it be In-N-Out or Jack in the Box.

Other non-fast food workers in the city make about $48.15 on average, meaning they only need to work 15.9 minutes to be able to afford the average meal.

After San Francisco, the most expensive place to buy a typical fast food meal combo is in New York City.

Then, Los Angeles is ranked with the average fast food meal costing $12.24, just a cent less than New York’s meal.

However, there’s only a difference of 19.2 minutes between the time that counter workers have to be on the clock versus how long other Americans have to work to afford the same meal.

In fourth place is Seattle, Washington, where the average fast food meal combo costs $12.22.

The lowest fast food prices were recorded in Indianapolis, Indiana, at just $9.19.

That means the average fast food worker has to work 39.4 minutes to afford a meal at a fast food joint.

Meanwhile, workers earning the average city wage of $30.25 would only have to work 18.2 minutes to get a burger and French fry combo.

Plus, fast food meal prices might get even higher now after President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs kicked in last month.

From beef to palm oil and coffee, fast food giants are dealing with rising costs, and many could pass those costs on to customers.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/money/14290986/fast-food-workers-meal-price-wage-cost-expensive/

Tens of thousands of Hungarians took to the streets over the weekend after the Hungarian government tabled new legislation to monitor foreign funding for NGOs and media outlets or anyone deemed a threat to what it sees as Hungarian sovereign interest.

The bill is labeled “Transparency of Public Life” and the government says it is aimed at protecting Hungary’s sovereignty from outside interference. But activists say it mimics Russia’s foreign agent law and would similarly offer the Hungarian government sweeping powers to crack down on the press and critical voices in civil society.

The protests are the latest cry for help from Hungarians looking at the European Union to reign in their government.

Some of the protesters in front of the parliament in the Hungarian capital Budapest held a big flag of the European Union imprinted with the English word HELP.

What is Hungary’s new “transparency law?”

If the draft bill were to turn into law, activists say, the government could control media outlets and NGOs or even dissolve them.

In December 2023, Hungary passed a national law on the “Defence of Sovereignty” and established what it called a Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) to investigate organizations that use foreign funds to influence voters.

With the new law, that agency will be responsible for investigating all kinds of organizations and authorized to blacklist those who receive foreign funding without prior government approval.

If blacklisted, organizations will also lose access to donations through Hungary’s annual 1% income tax contribution scheme, potentially pay a fine of 25 times these funds, and their owners will be made to declare their assets.

Reports suggest that the country’s secret services have been authorized to assist SPO in any investigations.

Tineke Strik, Hungary rapporteur of the European Parliament, told DW that Hungary’s transparency bill was aimed at “dissolving all organizations, all media outlets, even punishing all individuals, that criticize the government. That is exactly what the Russian law does.”

Russia’s foreign agent law was adopted in mid-2022, in what human right organizations described as a smearing campaign to discredit legitimate Russian civic activism.

“The law expands the definition of foreign agent to a point at which almost any person or entity, regardless of nationality or location, who engages in civic activism or even expresses opinions about Russian policies or officials’ conduct could be designated a foreign agent, so long as the authorities claim they are under ‘foreign influence,'” the NGO Human Rights Watch said.

Hungary’s “transparency” bill “authoritarian”

Peter Magyar, the leader of Hungary’s opposition Tisza party and the only Hungarian politician seen to be a credible challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 14-year grip on power, also accused the government of adopting Russian-style legislation to strip funding for activists and journalists, including through EU grants. He said it was “copying its master, [Russian President ] Vladimir Putin.”

A statement signed by 300 international organizations including the human rights organization Amnesty International described the bill as an “authoritarian attempt to retain power” that “aims to silence all critical voices and to eliminate what remains of Hungarian democracy.”

The non-profit group Transparency International said the new bill threatened to “end civil society” and, if passed, would empower the government to “persecute with impunity.”

It said the law would apply to EU grants and foreign donations as small as €5 ($5.70), and that “vague language” adopted in the bill left “wide room for political misuse, threatening a broad swathe of civil society — including independent media, watchdog organizations, and ordinary citizens engaged in public life.”

Last year, Georgia adopted a similar law amidst much uproar at home and in Brussels. The move is suspected to have scuttled the country’s chances of joining the EU.

But while Georgia is an EU candidate nation, Hungary is a full-fledged member of the bloc.

What could the EU do to ensure Hungary aligns with the EU’s value system?

Zsuzsanna Vegh, a program officer at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said that theoretically the EU could move ahead with the Article 7 procedure it first initiated in 2018.

The Treaty on the European Union outlines a procedure for addressing serious and persistent breaches of EU values by member states underArticle 7. It allows for the suspension of certain rights, including voting rights in the Council of the European Union, if a member is determined to be in repeated violations of the EU’s fundamental principles, such as weakening rule of law, democracy and freedoms.

“The EU could declare that there is indeed systematic violation of democracy and rule of law in Hungary and suspend its voting rights” in the Council of the European Union, where the bloc debates and decides its policies, Vegh said.

“But that is still a political decision and it is unlikely.”

Some European parliamentarians have advocated that the EU slash Hungary’s funding to force it to reduce corruption that has an adverse impact on the EU’s financial interests. But experts say the same method could also be effective in encouraging Hungary to stick to the EU’s value system.

“We urge the European Commission to increase pressure on Viktor Orban’s government to cease violating EU values and EU Laws by immediately suspending all EU funding for Hungary in line with the applicable legislation to protect the Union’s financial interest,” more than two dozen EU parliamentarians wrote in a letter to the European Commission on May 20.

Vegh said that while some funds for Hungary had already been cut there was no precedent of the EU cutting all funding marked for a member state.

However, Teona Lavrelashvili, a visiting fellow with the Wilfried Martens Center in Brussels, said this could be done.

“Yes, the European Union can suspend funds to Hungary if its new transparency bill — or any law — undermines the rule of law or threatens the EU’s financial interests. This power comes from the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism.”

She contended that a law that weakens civil society also undermines the EU’s overall economic interests.

What is the EU’s most likely next step?

The EU also has other options that it can resort to before cutting funds intended to aid economic development in Hungary and thus to benefit the general population.

Back in 2017, it managed to dissuade Hungary from introducing a similar transparency law by initiating an infringement procedure, a multilayered process through which the EU expressed its displeasure to Hungary. Upon no change in Budapest’s attitudes, Brussels eventually took Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU)

The court concluded that Hungary had “introduced discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organizations.”

Since the new bill was tabled last week, the EU has refrained from scolding Hungary and merely said it is waiting to see whether it is enacted into law.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/eu-mulls-options-as-hungary-announces-russian-style-foreign-agent-law/a-72623228

From its origins in China, tea has spread across trade routes over centuries, becoming a daily ritual for half of the world’s population.

Recently, Kenyan President William Ruto met with one of China’s top three tea producers, Fuzhou Benny Tea Industries, to explore opportunities for increasing the presence of Kenyan orthodox and specialty teas in China. Additionally, Kenya aims to strengthen its bilateral trade relationships with China by expanding its exports of other important commodities, such as coffee, avocados, and macadamia nuts, according to a statement published on a Kenyan government website.

The high-level meeting brought together key stakeholders from Kenya’s tea sector, including representatives from Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, the KenyaTea Development Agency, and the Kenya Tea Board. “We will soon be allowing tea factories, to sell their teas directly to the international markets without intermediaries,” Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s Minister of Agriculture, told local reporters after the meeting.

The East African country is the world’s biggest exporter of black tea.

In 2024, Kenya’s tea industry accounted for nearly 158 billion Ksh ($1.22 billion, €1.065 billion) in annual revenues and supported over 750,000 farmers, according to the country’s tea trade regulating body, Kenya Tea Board (KTB).

“Benny Tea Industries will be making $100 million worth of investments in Kenya,” Willy Mutai, CEO of the Kenya Tea Board, told DW. “According to Mutai, the agreement would allow Chinese firms, such as Benny Tea, to export tea packaging material from China to Kenya tax-free.

However, for Kenyan tea farmer Samuel Kariuki, such an agreement could disrupt the local industry. ” There could be an interruption when it comes to our supply chains, Kariuki, who is a manager at Sensory Garden Kenya, told DW.

“Tax-free packaging materials from China might sort of undercut the local packaging suppliers.”

Search for more tea markets

Challenges such as fluctuating prices, competition from other tea-producing nations, and the need for value addition have forced Kenya to seek strategic partnerships in its tea trade. “Internationally, we face a lot of stringent certification requirements which are very costly and complex for us as farmers,” Kariuki said.

“Meeting standards like [those of ] the Rainforest Alliance and the likes of fair trade requires some amount of investment that we as farmers are possibly not able to have. Either way, even if we had that kind of investment, the investment is not guaranteed that, you know, there’s going to be a return,” Kariuki added.

Moreover, US President Donald Trump’s tariffshave sent shockwaves through the global markets.

Kenya hopes that its new partnership with China will improve the production of high-quality Kenyan tea, diversify the country’s tea exports, and align its tea industry with international market demands.

In addition, it will facilitate setting up modern factories in Kenya for technological transfer and bringing equipment to the country that can be used to produce teas that match the quality standards of the Chinese market.

Kenya hopes to establish standard user packaging facilities, enabling tea farmers to add value at the source. Mutai explained that Kenya is changing its policies to accommodate international buyers, allowing them to buy raw material or branded teas directly from factories in Kenya.

The Trump tariffs’ effect

Trump’s tariffs on China have forced the world’s second-largest economy to seek and solidify trade partnerships with countries such as Kenya. Although Trump gave the world a 90-day relief, Kenya is already grappling with the 10% universal tariff that the US president left intact.

“We are currently doing 10% tariffs on the US,” Mutai noted, emphasizing that the US trade barriers offer a significant opportunity for Chinese investors in tea. “They can come and pack here in Kenya.”

Kenya’s tea industry stands to benefit significantly from two major trade frameworksThe African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Kenya’s two crucial trade deals

Under the AfCFTA, Kenya gains preferential access to a vast African market by eliminating tariffs and reducing trade barriers among member states. This agreement facilitates smoother intra-African trade, allowing Kenyan tea to reach new and growing markets across the continent more competitively.

It also encourages regional value chains, enabling Kenya to process and package tea locally before exporting, thereby increasing earnings and creating jobs. The agreement has already shown promise, with Kenya exporting tea to Ghana under AfCFTA protocols.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/tea-for-two-as-kenya-seeks-to-boost-exports-to-china/a-72620827

A suspected suicide bomber targeted a school bus in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least four children and two adults on Wednesday (May 21), in an attack the government accused India of backing.

The bus driver and his assistant were among those killed in the attack in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, on the way to a school that caters to the children of army personnel and civilians living in the area.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif accused arch-rival India of backing the militants that carried out the attack, coming almost two weeks after the two sides settled a ceasefire to end their most serious conflict in decades.

“Terrorists operating under Indian patronage attacking innocent children on a school bus is clear evidence of their hostility,” his statement added.

The military also said in a statement that the attack was “planned and orchestrated” by India.

The nuclear-armed neighbours regularly trade accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.

The four-day conflict earlier this month was sparked by an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that India accused Pakistan of backing, for which it took revenge.

Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack.

“PROBE SUGGESTS SUICIDE BOMBING”

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing.

Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan province, said four children, the bus driver and his assistant were killed.

“A bus carrying children of the (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,” Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district, told AFP.

“The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,” he added.

New Delhi’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that “India rejects the baseless allegations”, adding that it was “second nature” for Pakistan to blame India.

A senior police official confirmed the death toll to AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding that more than two dozen people were wounded.

The military earlier put the death toll at five, including three children, in a statement to media.

Images shared on social media showed the shattered remains of a school bus and a pile of school bags nearby.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active militant group in the region where there has been a sharp rise in attacks, mostly targeting security forces or people from outside the region.

In March, dozens of militants and off-duty security force members died when the BLA took control of a train with hundreds of passengers on board.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/children-killed-school-bus-attack-pakistan-suspected-suicide-bombing-5143926

A Vietnamese court on Wednesday (May 21) jailed 23 officials and business people over the illegal exploitation and export of rare earths.

The trial comes after the US Geological Survey (USGS) this year significantly revised down its estimate of rare earth deposits in Vietnam, which it once considered the world’s second largest.

The nine-day trial in Hanoi saw verdicts handed down to 27 defendants, including former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Linh Ngoc, who was given three years in jail for “violating state regulations causing wastefulness”.

Others were given a range of prison sentences – with 16 years being the highest – for a number of offences, including violation of regulations on natural resources exploitation and causing environmental pollution.

Four people were given suspended sentences.

According to the court, the case concerning the exploitation, trade and export of mineral resources was “especially serious”.

The court said that a firm called Thai Duong Company was unlawfully granted a mining licence for rare earth exploitation in Yen Phu mine in northern mountainous Yen Bai province between 2019 and 2023.

Defendants involved – including environment officials as well as chief accountants and executives at various companies – sold the rare earths and iron ore from the mine for close to US$30 million, much of it to China.

USGS slashed this year its estimate of Vietnam’s rare earth reserves from an estimated 22 million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes, threatening its ambitions to compete with Beijing in a sector crucial to high-tech devices.

The revision meant the country dropped from the world’s second largest reserve holder to the sixth, behind China, Brazil, India, Australia and Russia.

USGS describes mineral reserves data as “dynamic”.

Reserves may be reduced as ore is mined or the feasibility of extraction diminishes, or they may continue to increase as additional deposits are developed, USGS says.

Rare earths are a group of 17 heavy metals that are abundant in the Earth’s crust across the globe.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/vietnam-jails-23-people-rare-earths-exploitation-5144626

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted the Boeing 747 that the Gulf emirate of Qatar offered to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday (May 21).

Qatar’s offer of the jet – which is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars – has raised huge constitutional and ethical questions, as well as security concerns about using an aircraft donated by a foreign power for use as the ultra-sensitive presidential plane.

“The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

“The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the President of the United States,” Parnell said, referring questions to the US Air Force.

The US Constitution prohibits government officials from accepting gifts “from any King, Prince or foreign State”, in a section known as the Emoluments Clause.

But Trump has denied there are any ethical issues involved with accepting the plane, saying it would be “stupid” for the US government not to take the aircraft.

“It’s a great gesture,” the 78-year-old billionaire told reporters at the White House last week when asked if the oil-rich Gulf state would expect anything in exchange.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person (and) say ‘no we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.'”

The leader of the Democratic minority in the US Senate introduced legislation earlier this week that would block Trump from using the aircraft.

Chuck Schumer’s Presidential Airlift Security Act would prohibit the Pentagon from using taxpayer funds to retrofit any plane previously owned by a foreign government for use as the presidential plane.

“Donald Trump has shown time and again he will sell out the American people and the presidency if it means filling his own pockets,” Schumer said in a statement.

“Not only would it take billions of taxpayer dollars to even attempt to retrofit and secure this plane, but there’s absolutely no amount of modifications that can guarantee it will be secure.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-accepts-qatar-boeing-747-jet-trump-air-force-one-5145311

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Wednesday (May 21) that Singapore rejects attempts by foreign embassies to incite domestic reactions to international issues involving third countries, adding that complex issues are best resolved through appropriate channels for diplomacy to be effective.

The ministry’s comments came a day after the US embassy in Singapore published a video on Facebook criticising China’s position on the South China Sea.

The post drew a response from the Chinese embassy in Singapore on Wednesday, saying that the US embassy “deliberately distorts the ins and outs” of the South China Sea issue.

In its video on Tuesday, the US embassy made use of visual and verbal references to HDB flats and Singapore town councils to illustrate its point.

It likened China’s claim of nearly the entire South China Sea to an inconsiderate neighbour claiming common spaces in HDB corridors and lift landings as their own.

It also drew an analogy between the United Nations International Court of Justice and the local town councils, depicting China as the neighbour who would ignore the town council’s rulings.

“China says it ‘owns’ nearly the entire South China Sea. International law says otherwise,” said the US embassy in the Facebook post.

“In 2016, the Hague tribunal ruled Beijing’s sweeping claims have no legal basis – yet construction, patrols, and coercion continue. From militarised reefs to “grey zone” tactics, this isn’t just a maritime dispute – it’s a test of international order, stability, and peace.”

China claims most of the South China Sea despite a 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal that found Beijing’s claims have no basis under international law. China does not recognise the decision.

On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in Singapore said that the US embassy “deliberately distorts the ins and outs of the South China Sea issue”.

“By putting its own priorities over international rules, habitually withdrawing from international conventions and organisations, bullying and coercing other countries on issues like tariffs, and publicly declaring seizing the control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, the US wants to reimpose the law of the jungle where might makes right upon the rest of the world,” the Chinese embassy said in a Facebook post.

“What the US has done is a body blow to the existing international order and rules, and that is why it is universally recognised that the US is the least qualified to even talk about international law.”

The post went on to say that the US somehow believes that, as a country that refuses to join the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it has the privilege of “microscoping other countries’ compliance with the Convention”.

It also added that the US has even deployed intermediate-range missile system in the region to stoke division and confrontation, which the Chinese embassy called “the most destructive force to peace in the South China Sea”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mfa-united-states-chinese-embassy-south-china-sea-5144911

Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce living together in the Sunshine State?

Fans are convinced the Kansas City Chiefs tight end let it slip that he and the pop star are playing house during a telling moment in his “New Heights” podcast.

Plus, Swifties are wildly divided over the long-awaited first song from “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” that finally dropped Monday, a “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” that debuted on the Season 6 premiere of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Caitlin Clark plays coy about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s plans amid couple’s ‘break’ from spotlight

Caitlin Clark subtly addressed what pals Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have been up to amid their “break” from the spotlight.

The WNBA star confirmed the couple’s current mindset when asked whether they would be attending an Indiana Fever basketball game this season.

“Oh gosh, I don’t know,” Clark told USA Today in an interview published Wednesday. “I mean, I hope so.”

“I feel like they’re also living — they’re in vacation mode right now,” the athlete, 23, continued.

Taylor Swift has chance to buy original recordings back — and one unlikely person is ‘encouraging’ the deal: sources

It may not be such a “Cruel Summer” this year.

Taylor Swift will finally have the chance to buy back the original recordings of her first six albums, sources tell Page Six, after their original sale prompted one of the bitterest fallouts of her career.

Swift had “Bad Blood” with music impresario Scooter Braun in 2019 after he bought the master recordings of her first albums for $300 million, prompting her to re-record them all as “Taylor’s versions.”

At the time Swift accused Braun — who managed Justin Bieber and, at one time, Kanye West but not Swift — of being a “bully” and “the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry.”

Braun sold the recordings on a year later to investment firm Shamrock Capital for a profit, but the company is now interested in selling them back to Swift.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/20/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-live-updates-5-20-2025/

Congratulations are in order for Kim Kardashian.

The Skims founder took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday to celebrate her graduation from law school after six years

“All of you guys have been on this journey with me,” she said in her speech during a private commencement ceremony hosted by family and friends.

Kardashian, 44, explained that her desire to study law began after feeling “dumbfounded” watching a video on Twitter.

The reality star dolled up in a gray sweater, leather skirt, black stockings and white pumps for the special occasion.

Another video showed her putting on a tan graduation cap.

She beamed as one of her mentors called her law journey “the most inspiring.”

“Six years ago, Kim Kardashian walked into this program with nothing but a fierce desire to fight for justice. No law school lectures, no ivory tower shortcuts, just determination,” her mentor said.

She went on to say that Kardashian dedicated “18 hours a week, 48 weeks a year for six straight years.”

“That’s a total of 5,184 hours of legal study,” she said. “That’s time she carved out while raising four children, running businesses, filming television shows and showing up in courtrooms to advocate for others.”

Another clip showed the “Kardashians” star hugging her mentors and holding her diploma.

A sneak peek of the celebratory luncheon revealed that Kardashian’s study flashcards had been turned into placemats.

The mom of four also shared a photo of her son Psalm West wearing a tan suit and tie inspired by his late grandfather, attorney Robert Kardashian Sr.

Another photo showed the 5-year-old carrying a briefcase, while Kardashian’s 7-year-old daughter, Chicago West, wore a black pinstripe suit inspired by her mom’s 2023 look at Harvard Business School.

An insider told Us Weekly that Kardashian’s graduation ceremony was a surprise.

The businesswoman was reportedly told she would be attending a “regular family brunch” when her loved ones surprised her.

“They are all excited and proud of her and wanted to surprise her to celebrate this accomplishment,” the insider said. “Her law mentors are also surprising her, and she has no clue they will be there.”

The outlet reported that Kardashian has passed the multistate professional responsibility exam and can now move on to the bar exam, which will allow her to practice law in California.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/05/21/celebrity-news/kim-kardashian-celebrates-finally-earning-law-degree-at-surprise-graduation/

He’s a traitor to the cause, an infidel and a “slave” who “groveled” before US President Donald Trump. In the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, the extremist group known as the “Islamic State,” or IS, didn’t hold back how it really felt about Syria’s new interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and his meeting with Trump last week.

In fact, this sort of enmity between the IS group and the rebel group al-Sharaa once led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is not new.

Between 2012 and 2013, HTS was part of the IS group before switching to ally itself with al-Qaeda. Then after cutting ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, HTS spent almost a decade fighting IS in parts of the country it controlled. So the criticism of al-Sharaa’s more moderate, expedient political courseis not unexpected.

But there is another aspect to the al-Naba text, in which IS also calls on foreign fighters inSyria to defect from the current government led by al-Sharaa. Foreign fighters upset at al-Sharaa’s diplomacy with the US should join IS, the group exhorted.

The al-Naba text and al-Sharaa’s meeting with Trump has refocused attention on one of the interim government of Syria’s toughest problems: What to do about the presence of foreign fighters in the country.

During last week’s meeting, the US president pressed al-Sharaa to “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” making it one of the conditions for sanctions relief.French and German envoys have made similar statements and in general, the fear is that Syria could become a haven for groups with extremist ideologies that then become active internationally.

Who are Syria’s foreign fighters?

It’s hard to know exactly how many foreigners were fighting alongside HTS. There could be anywhere between 1,500 and 6,000, with many experts suggesting it’s most likely a number in the middle of that range.

The largest group is comprised of Uyghurs, who many Syrians refer to as “Turkistanis,” from central and East Asia, including China.

Other fighters are from Russia and other former Soviet states, the Balkans, Turkey, and various Arab countries.

Most came to Syria early during the country’s civil war in response to calls from the IS group, which was trying to establish a caliphate at the time. After it broke ties with both IS and al-Qaeda, some foreigners left HTS, while others stayed.

Late last year, during the HTS-led campaign that ousted Syrian dictator Bashar Assad several groups of foreigners, including Uyghurs and Chechens, apparently played an integral part in the campaign’s success.

Al-Sharaa has said they should be rewarded for their help and in January, a number of foreign fighters were appointed to senior positions in the new Syrian military, a decision that caused some controversy.

It’s hard to say how important the foreign fighters are to Syrian security forces now, Aaron Zelin, an expert on HTS and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute told DW, “because there are obviously a lot more Syrians than foreigners.”

But some are more important than others, he noted. For example, fighters from the Uyghur contingent now act as something of a personal security force for al-Sharaa. “They’re essentially the ones protecting him because he trusts them, they’re viewed as brothers in arms from the fight against Assad,” Zelin said.

A Syrian refugee now living in Germany told DW he had met a number of foreign fighters while combatting Assad regime forces in the Syrian city of Aleppo. “Some were good, some not so good,” he said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. “They were very focused on fighting and a lot of them had a Salafist mindset,” he noted, referring to the conservative, fundamentalist Sunni Muslim movement. “They wanted to go where the battles were.”

But, added the former fighter, “the ones that stayed now have families in Syria. So personally, I’d give them a chance — especially because if we expel them, we also expel the women and the children. Anyway, don’t forget, there are also a lot of Syrians who would share at least some of that [religious] mindset.”

How dangerous are the foreign fighters?

Foreign fighters with a more hardline religious bent have been accused of taking part in recent violence against Syrian minorities. They have also been blamed for policing female dress and social customs in Syria’s bigger cities.

Until very recently HTS was still positioning itself as a “defender of Sunni Islam,” Orwa Ajjoub, a research analyst and expert on Syria, explained in a text for the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in March. But after the fall of the Assad regime, the group set a more liberal course, he wrote.

“This abrupt change in narrative presents a significant adjustment for the rank-and-file,” Ajjoub explained. “This transition may be challenging for fighters used to a narrower, sectarian viewpoint. Many HTS fighters, having never left the conservative environment of Idlib, are now encountering less conservative communities in Damascus.”

Joining the ‘Islamic State’

“If HTS continues its trend toward relative moderation — such as tolerating unveiled women, alcohol sales and participation in a Western-style political process … hardline elements within HTS, particularly foreign jihadis, could break away, defect to, or cooperate with ISIS or al-Qaeda,” Mohammed Salih, a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, warned in January.

But Zelin said he was skeptical about foreign fighters in Syria posing “any large-scale threat.”

The ones who felt HTS was no longer hardcore enough for them have most likely already left, he noted, and many of the less radical foreign fighters who stayed are highly disciplined. For years now, al-Sharaa has also tried to sideline, arrest or expel any foreign fighters who resisted the group’s new course.

Of course, individual foreign fighters could still commit crimes or cause problems, he said. “But the larger threat comes from foreign fighters already inside the “Islamic State,” the ones continuing to fight a low-level insurgency in eastern Syria, as well as those detained in northeast Syria by the SDF,” he explained, referring to detention camps run by Syrian Kurds.

Source :https://www.dw.com/en/how-dangerous-are-syrias-foreign-fighters-really/a-72613223

JOE Biden’s cancer diagnosis has shocked the nation as questions swirl over when he fell ill – especially after President Donald Trump accused his administration of “not telling the facts.”

But Biden is far from the first president to experience serious health issues around the time they were in office – and some leaders left the public in the dark entirely.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump questioned how Biden’s cancer wasn’t caught sooner.

“I’m surprised the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump said while addressing Biden’s prostate cancer.

“To get to stage nine, that’s a long time.

“When you take tests, as a male, that test is very standard.”

The president, 78, said he had undergone a full physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center just last month, adding that a prostate exam is typically included.

“This is dangerous for our country,” Trump warned, slamming Biden’s administration for “not telling the facts.”

Trump called the diagnosis “very very sad,” and blasted former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who previously declared Biden to be in good health.

O’Connor had issued Biden a nearly clean bill of health in February 2024, saying he “identified no new concerns” during the former president’s last physical.

That exam did not include a prostate check though Biden had a colonoscopy in 2021.

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously defended skipping a cognitive test, telling reporters, “The president doesn’t need a cognitive test.”

“That is not my assessment, that is the assessment of the president’s doctor, that is also the assessment of his neurologist,” she said in 2022.

But Trump countered on Monday, “If it’s the same doctor that said there’s nothing wrong there, and that’s being proven to be a very sad situation.

“I think someone is going to have to speak to his doctor.”

SECRET ILLNESSES

Secret illnesses among presidents aren’t new as several past leaders went to extreme lengths to keep serious conditions under wraps.

According to a study conducted by the University of Arizona, five US presidents hid health issues and illnesses from the American public during their presidencies.

Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st US president, was diagnosed with Bright’s disease, a fatal kidney illness, less than a year after taking office.

Arthur received his diagnosis of Bright’s Disease in the 1880s.

But biographer Zachary Karabell stated a more accurate diagnosis for the former president would have been “glomerulonephritis,” which would have made it very difficult for Arthur’s body to expel any toxins.

“His blood and body were slowly being poisoned by his own digestion,” Karabell noted.

Arthur’s health rapidly declined and he died two years after leaving office in 1886.

Grover Cleveland, who became president in 1893, secretly had a tumor removed from the roof of his mouth aboard a friend’s yacht to avoid alarming the public or spooking markets.

A sample of the lesion was sent by presidential doctor Major Robert O’Reilly anonymously to the Army Medical Museum and Johns Hopkins for evaluation and the results came back for carcinoma.

Cleveland’s health concern coincided with a national financial depression and his surgery would come a few months before he was expected to address Congress.

The president worried reports of his surgery risked unsettling the markets and the public, so it was done in secret on his friend Commodore Elias Benedict’s yacht, the Oneida.

Cleveland’s surgery was performed in secret on July 1, 1893 to remove the tumor in his mouth and White House aides told the public he simply had a tooth removed.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was almost always confined to a wheelchair due to polio but used braces and aides to simulate walking and appear mobile during public events.

With the support of reporters, Roosevelt was able to keep his use of a wheelchair under wraps over the four terms of his presidency.

According to the University of Arizona, the media helped downplay the president’s disability and he was largely photographed above the waist, with very few photos existing of him using his wheelchair.

John F. Kennedy suffered from numerous illnesses throughout his life, reportedly showing symptoms of Addison’s disease, though the diagnosis was never officially confirmed.

As a child, Kennedy dealt with stomach problems, scarlet fever, and a mysterious illness during his private school years that left him completely debilitated.

While his private school illness was unknown, it has been described by scholars as a blood condition, either jaundice or hepatitis.

Kennedy’s health problems, including severe back pain, followed him into adulthood, with his father John Kennedy Sr. even pulling strings to get his health record overlooked so he could join the Navy.

When Kennedy ran for the presidency in 1960, he was asked about having Addison’s Disease, but his camp categorically denied the story, only conceding at the time that Kennedy had “some mild adrenal insufficiency.”

Woodrow Wilson, meanwhile, had multiple strokes before and during his presidency, including one so severe that his wife and doctor hid the truth even from him.

A stroke in 1919 left Wilson incapacitated for the rest of his term.

A cover-up followed, led by his second wife Edith and his physician, Dr Grayson.

“They thought that it would be best if Wilson was not informed of just how serious his condition truly was,” the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library noted in an exhibit on presidential illnesses.

The voters were unaware of Wilson’s hidden medical issues that could have drastically affected decision-making.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14280432/biden-prostate-cancer-hidden-illness-health-us-presidents/

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has congratulated Asim Munir for his promotion as field marshal and called it “Well-deserved.” On microblogging website X he said, “On behalf of the entire nation, I extend my heartfelt felicitations to General Syed Asim Munir, NI (M) on his well-deserved promotion to the rank of Field Marshal.”

“His exemplary leadership during Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos crushed enemy’s nefarious designs and brought great honor to our Motherland,” he added.

He further said, “Under his command, our valiant Armed Forces staunchly defended Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity with unity, courage and the highest standards of military professionalism.”

The federal government in Pakistan on Tuesday promoted Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal, the highest military rank in the country. The rank is extremely rare—last awarded in 1959 to General Ayub Khan. The decision was made during a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/well-deserved-pakistan-pm-shehbaz-sharif-congratulates-asim-munir-for-promotion-as-field-marshal

Jennifer Lopez showed a little too much skin last night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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