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  • 4 min

Rubio demands Panama ‘reduce China influence’ over canal

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has demanded that Panama make “immediate changes” to what he calls the “influence and control” of China over the Panama Canal. America’s top diplomat said Panama must act or the US would take necessary measures to protect its rights under a treaty between the two countries. The warning follows President Donald…
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  • 2 min

Thousands flee homes as floods hit Australia

A woman has died in Australia and thousands have been forced to flee their homes after torrential rainfall caused flooding in northern Queensland. Authorities say waters will continue to rise and have warned of a “dangerous and life-threatening” situation, with parts of the region recording almost 1.3m (4.2ft) of rain since Saturday. “Record” downpours are set to…
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  • 4 min

U.S. wants Ukraine to hold elections following a ceasefire, says Trump envoy

The United States wants Ukraine to hold elections, potentially by the end of the year, especially if Kyiv can agree a truce with Russia in the coming months, President Donald Trump’s top Ukraine official told Reuters. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said in an interview that Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections, suspended during…
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  • 2 min

Musk’s team given access to U.S. government payment system, New York Times says

Billionaire Elon Musk and his government efficiency team have been given access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system, resolving a days-long standoff, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Musk, who chairs the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, has been tasked by President Donald Trump to identify fraud and waste in the government and had sought…
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  • 3 min

Canada and Mexico hit back with retaliatory tariffs on US as Donald Trump risks trade war

Canada and Mexico have hit back with retaliatory tariffs on President Donald Trump’s steep tax on goods imported from its neighbours. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum both announced the counter-tariffs on Saturday night. Mr Trudeau said Canada would impose 25% tariffs on $155bn Canadian dollars (£85.9bn) of US goods in response to…
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  • 4 min

Is Elon Musk aiding a British right-wing extremist?

The British government is intentionally “replacing the British nation with hostile, violent, aggressive migrants” who will vote for them, according to right-wing extremist Tommy Robinson, who also believes that Islam is “a mental health issue rather than a religion of peace.” Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been in a British jail cell since October…
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  • 2 min

Trump Fires Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Who Sued Nation’s Biggest Banks

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), was abruptly fired by President Donald Trump Saturday morning. “Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better,” Chopra said in…
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  • 3 min

A medical plane carrying a child patient and 5 others crashes in Philadelphia, setting homes ablaze

A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff Friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the Learjet 55, said in a statement: “We cannot confirm any survivors.” There was no immediate word whether anyone…
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  • 3 min

Health data, entire pages wiped from federal websites as Trump officials target ‘gender ideology’

Public health data disappeared from websites, entire webpages went blank and employees erased pronouns from email signatures Friday as federal agencies scrambled to comply with a directive tied to President Donald Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people. The Office of Personnel Management directed agency heads to strip “gender ideology” from websites, contracts and emails in…
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  • 10 min

Sam Altman’s Stargate is science fiction

Stargate is a staggering power grab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the past year seeking an absurd amount of computing power to train the company’s AI models — one report says Japanese officials literally laughed at the amount of electricity he demanded. The stakes were clear: without massive computing resources, OpenAI risked losing ground to tech…
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  • 5 min

AI is ‘an energy hog,’ but DeepSeek could change that

DeepSeek startled everyone last month with the claim that its AI model uses roughly one-tenth the amount of computing power as Meta’s Llama 3.1 model, upending an entire worldview of how much energy and resources it’ll take to develop artificial intelligence. Taken at face value, that claim could have tremendous implications for the environmental impact of AI.…
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  • 5 min

Grammys 2025: Who will win and how to watch

The Grammys are music’s biggest night, both literally and figuratively. The ceremony, which takes place in LA on Sunday night, runs for a staggering eight hours, attracting the biggest stars in pop, rock, country and hip-hop. Organisers will hand out 94 awards, recognising everything from best pop album to best choral performance. Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have…
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  • 2 min

Norway releases cargo ship in Baltic cable sabotage probe

Tromso police say they seized and then released a vessel sailing between two Russian ports. Swedish and Latvian investigators are looking into the severing of an underwater cable under the Baltic Sea. Police in Norway said on Friday that they had released a Russian-crewed ship after intercepting the vessel off the northern coast in connection with damage…
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  • 2 min

Colombians working illegally in US should return home, country’s president Gustavo Petro says

It follows a spat with Donald Trump, during which the US president threatened a trade war after Colombia refused to accept deported migrants. “Undocumented” Colombians working in the United States should “return as soon as possible”, the country’s president has said. Gustavo Petro also said his government would provide loans to those who take up his offer…
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  • 3 min

Reacting to DeepSeek, US Senate bill would separate US and China efforts to develop AI

The Chinese start-up’s low-cost AI models have shaken the tech sector and Washington, with US Congress weighing actions in a ‘Sputnik moment’ As the global tech industry reels from the emergence of Chinese start-up DeepSeek, the US Congress is reacting quickly with proposals to separate US AI development from China and strengthen its competitive edge. One of…
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  • 2 min

‘The Purge’: Trump Fires FBI Agents Who Worked on Cases Against Him — Including 20 Heads of Field Offices

Dozens of FBI agents who worked to investigate the Jan.6, 2021, US Capitol attack and the now-dismissed classified documents case against President Donald Trump could lose their jobs as early as Friday, according to a CNN report. That report coincides with other reporting of a “purge” underway to cull the heads of FBI field offices across the…
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  • 2 min

Washington DC plane crash: Army withholding name of female soldier killed as helicopter black box recovered

Forty-one bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River as of Friday afternoon, including 28 that had been positively identified. The name of one of the three soldiers killed in the plane crash in Washington is not being released. The army identified two of the soldiers killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided…
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  • 1 min

Meet Lucy Guo, she is the second richest self-made woman after Kyle Jenner. The 27 year old cracked the male-dominated world of tech and co-founded Scale AI with world’s youngest billionaire Alexandr Wang.

Alexandr Wang holds the distinction of being the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 25. His US$1 billion net worth is derived mainly from Scale AI, the start-up he co-founded in 2016. The tech platform is currently valued at US$7.3 billion. But Wang isn’t the only one who’s making waves in the tech scene. His former co-founder, Lucy Guo, is…
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  • 1 min

Chinese video sites remove Keanu Reeves’ films

Chinese streaming platforms have pulled down the films and video content starring Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves. At least 19 films starring Reeves were removed from the Chinese Video platform, Tencent, according to Los Angeles Times. Among the 19 deleted films, “The Matrix” trilogy, “Speed,” “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” and romances including “Something’s Gotta Give” and “The…
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  • 2 min

‘Three ‘rats’ looting Pakistan for last 30 years’: Top quotes from Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s power show in Islamabad

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, the 69-year-old former cricketer, is heading a coalition government in Pakistan. On March 8, the Opposition parties submitted a no-confidence motion before the National Assembly Secretariat, alleging that the government was responsible for the economic crisis and the spiralling inflation in the country. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday attacked the opposition parties at…
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  • 1 min

Ukraine war: Zelenskyy admits it’s ‘impossible’ to completely force Russia out of country – amid fears of Korea-style split

In its latest intelligence update, the MoD said local counterattacks have hampered Russian attempts to reorganise its forces, amid fears Chernihiv could become the next Mariupol. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted it would be “impossible” to completely force Russian forces out of Ukraine, amid fears Vladimir Putin is seeking a Korea-style split. The head of military intelligence…
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  • 1 min

Azerbaijan expresses outrage after Russia says it violated ceasefire

Over the weekend, Azerbaijani forces crossed a ceasefire line in Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking skirmishes with Armenian forces. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry expressed outrage on Saturday after Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Azerbaijani armed forces had violated the ceasefire that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war by crossing the line of contact. On Thursday, Azerbaijani forces crossed the line of contact near the…
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  • 2 min

‘Pimps’ are stalking Poland’s railway stations and border crossings targeting vulnerable women and children refugees fleeing Ukraine, charity groups warn

Women and children fleeing Ukraine are being preyed upon by traffickers in neighboring countries, charity groups have warned. Karolina Wierzbińska, a coordinator at Homo Faber, a human rights organization based in Lublin, Poland, told The Guardian that charity workers had witnessed refugees being targeted as they arrived in the country. “We’ve registered the first cases of [suspected] pimps preying on Ukrainian…
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  • 1 min

Birbhum Violence: CBI Starts Probe; Fleeing Bogtui Residents Scared to Return Amid Fear of Violence

Amid an eerie calm prevailing over the Bogtui village near Rampurhat town in West Bengal’s Birbhum district after eight people were killed in arson earlier this week, a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached the village on Saturday and started its investigation into the violence. Unidentified people had on March 21 set 10 houses on fire in the…
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  • 1 min

50 ministers from Imran Khan’s party go missing as Pakistan PM fights for survival

Over 50 of the federal and provincial ministers were not seen in the public space, The Express Tribune reported. Out of those missing ministers, 25 were federal and provincial advisers and special assistants, while four of them are the ministers of the state, four are advisors and 19 are the special assistants. Islamabad: As the no-confidence motion against Pakistan Prime…
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  • 2 min

CHINA HAS HONED ITS JUSTIFICATIONS FOR TAKING RUSSIA’S SIDE

A MONTH AFTER Vladimir Putin plunged Europe into war, China is ready to explain why it sees no urgent need to stop Russia—its closest strategic partner—from killing Ukrainians. After fine-tuning arguments and propaganda lines for weeks, China’s Communist Party bosses and their envoys now have talking points for every audience. The most common argument is built on deflection…
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  • 2 min

Biden says Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ in fiery speech on Ukraine war

U.S. President Joe Biden said that Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” in Poland Saturday, remarks a White House official said later were meant to prepare the world’s democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back regime change in Russia. Biden’s comments on Saturday, including a statement earlier in the day calling Putin a “butcher,”…
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  • 2 min

Missiles shatter Lviv calm, and an opera

The first of the blasts hit around 4.45 pm, minutes after a public opera performance on in front of the Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and featuring a singer from Kharkiv – the city that has been at the receiving end of Russian invasion – was cut short by air sirens. A safe haven providing…
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  • 2 min

What do we know about North Korea’s ‘monster missile’?

North Korea’s first ICBM test in five years was a missile capable of flying farther with a larger payload than earlier ones. But, experts say the weapon is unlikely to move the needle on any negotiations with the US. North Korea continues to advance its military technology in the face of international pressure and sanctions that have been unable…
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  • 1 min

Putin will soon have ‘no choice’ but to stop his invasion of Ukraine, former US general says

Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely be forced to bring his failing monthlong war against Ukraine to a halt, a retired US general and Russia specialist told Insider — a scenario that may happen within weeks after Russian forces have sustained heavy losses and subjected Ukraine’s cities to indiscriminate attacks. Retired US Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan said he believed this…
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  • 1 min

North Korea goes Hollywood with dramatic missile launch footage

Seoul (AFP) – Leather jacket, sunglasses and a gigantic missile: North Korean state media announced the launch of Pyongyang’s largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile with an attempt at old school Hollywood flair on Friday. Leader Kim Jong Un walks towards the camera, flanked by generals, as they prepare to fire the giant Hwasong-17 missile — Pyongyang’s first ICBM test…
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  • 1 min

A sanctioned Russian billionaire is house-hunting on a luxury island in Dubai, where there aren’t any sanctions, a report says

Sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is looking for a house in Dubai, according to a report by Bloomberg. This comes after one of Abramovich’s private jets landed in the city earlier this month, according to flight-tracking sites. The tycoon, who owns Chelsea Football Club and whom Bloomberg estimates is worth about $13.5 billion, has close ties to the Kremlin. His name…
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  • 1 min

Inside Doval-Yi Meeting: China Promises Complete Disengagement, Says Present Situation Not in Mutual Interest

In a major development in Indo-China relations amid the border stand-off, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, in his hour-long meeting with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, on Friday promised “early and complete disengagement” as the “present situation was not in mutual interest”, top sources told CNN-News18. Sources quoted above told CNN-News18 that the NSA wanted disengagement…
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  • 1 min

Russian journalist Oksana Baulina killed in Kyiv shelling

Oksana Baulina, who previously also worked for Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption group, “died under fire in Kyiv” while “filming the destruction” caused by Russian shelling, The Insider said on its website. A Russian journalist for the investigative news outlet The Insider was killed when Russian troops shelled a residential neighbourhood in the Ukrainian capital, the…
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  • 2 min

Project Veritas says feds secretly accessed its emails

Lawyer for hidden-camera-sting producer says prosecutors misled court, improperly prolonged gag orders. A group that has singled out journalists and Democrats in undercover operations contends that prosecutors misled a federal court and sought unwarranted gag orders during a federal investigation of the group’s ties to the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley. In…
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  • 1 min

GOLD-PLATED MONSTER Inside Putin’s £500m superyacht with pool that becomes dance floor, huge home cinema and even a GOLD toilet roll holder

THE sickening luxury enjoyed by Vladimir Putin on board his £500million superyacht is today revealed by The Sun — including tasteless gold loo roll holders. Mad Vlad, whose forces are bombing women and children in Ukraine, spared no expense on the six-deck Scheherazade. Pressure is mounting on Italy, where the yacht is anchored, to seize and sell it to…
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  • 1 min

6 teenage students killed in Oklahoma car crash

Six teenage girls were killed when the vehicle they were in collided with a semi-truck in Oklahoma on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The deadly crash occurred about 12:30 p.m. in the rural town of Tishomingo, 45 miles north of the Texas border, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The identities of the victims or additional details on the collision…
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  • 2 min

Meet the Woman Who Made Van Gogh Famous

2021 seems to be Vincent van Gogh’s year. There are at least five different traveling interactive exhibits in nearly 40 U.S. cities where people flock to literally immerse themselves in his words and works. Some attribute this current van Gogh craze to a scene in the Netflix show “Emily in Paris” which takes place in a “Starry Night” light show. Others think…
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  • 2 min

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny sentenced to 9 years in jail by Russian court

Moscow: A Russian court on Tuesday found jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny guilty of additional charges and extended his sentence to nine years in a higher security prison as Moscow seeks to wipe out remaining pockets of dissent. The sentencing came on the 27th day of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in pro-Western Ukraine, with thousands killed and some 10 million…
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  • 2 min

William and Kate: Protesters demand apology and reparations for Britain’s slaving past as royal couple arrives in Jamaica

The Caribbean nation is hosting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for two days – however, the plans have angered some who say they are still waiting for an apology and slavery reparations. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been accused of benefitting from the “blood, tears and sweat” of slaves as they arrived in Jamaica…
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  • 2 min

Indian experts point to Biden’s silence on Chinese aggression

US president Joe Biden’s description of India’s response to Russia vis-a-vis Ukraine as “shaky” received pushback from Indian analysts, some of whom have been pointing out that the US and its European allies continue energy purchases from Russia (by one account, up to $600 million per day), while bearing down on India. Others pointed to lack of US concern over China’s…
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  • 1 min

Ukraine war: Russian billionaire’s yacht detained by authorities in Gibraltar

The West has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting an exodus of luxury yachts from Europe. Authorities in Gibraltar have seized a superyacht linked to the owner of Russia’s biggest steel pipe manufacturer. Footage showed the Axioma, believed to belong to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, owner of steel group TMK,…
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  • 1 min

Ukraine: At least 117 children killed in war, Zelensky tells Italian lawmakers, calls on Pope Francis to mediate

At least 117 children have been killed so far in Russia’s war on Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Italian lawmakers. “But 117 will not be the final number,” he warned in a video link to both chambers of parliament in Rome. “They keep killing,” he said according to the Italian translation. According to the office…
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  • 2 min

Must not allow Ukraine to shift focus from Indo-Pacific: India, Australia

While Australian PM Scott Morrison called for holding Russia to account for its Ukraine offensive in the virtual summit with PM Narendra Modi, Australia also expressed understanding of India’s position on Ukraine, as foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said after the meeting. However, even as Modi and Morrison expressed serious concern over the conflict and the humanitarian situation…
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  • 2 min

Ukraine rejects ultimatums as conflict intensifies

Ukraine said on Monday it would not obey ultimatums from Russia after Moscow demanded it stop defending besieged Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are suffering through Russian bombardments laying waste to their city. Mariupol has become a focal point of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, but attacks were also reported to have intensified on the country’s…
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  • 2 min

A Guide To The Private Jets And Helicopters Owned By Sanctioned Russian Billionaires

The aircraft are registered in offshore jurisdictions like the Isle of Man and Bermuda that are attempting to make it harder for the oligarchs to keep flying. More than three weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries are tightening sanctions on Russian oligarchs and billionaires. The latest salvo came on Wednesday, when the British crown dependency of…
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  • 1 min

Russia-Ukraine War: Biden Calls India ‘Shaky’ in Ukraine Crisis; Russia Bans Instagram, Facebook for ‘Extremist Activities’

US President Joe Biden said Monday that India was an exception among Washington’s allies with its “shaky” response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden lauded the US-led alliance, including NATO, the European Union and key Asian partners, for its united front against President Vladimir Putin. This includes unprecedented sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s currency, international trade…
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