Category: World

In Washington, at least 11 incidents involving scientists in areas such as nuclear technology, space research and advanced weapons are under scrutiny.

Something strange is happening to some of the world’s top defence scientists. In China, they are dying in car crashes in the middle of the night. In America, they are vanishing. All of them have worked at the cutting edge of military technology, including artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, nuclear research, and space defence.

These disappearances are fueling conspiracy theories and raising one question: Is it just a mere coincidence or a well-thought-out plot?

In Washington, at least 11 incidents involving scientists in areas such as nuclear technology, space research and advanced weapons are under scrutiny. The issue has reached political circles, with Republican Representative Eric Burlison suggesting a possible “foreign operation”.

“We are in competition with China, Russia, and Iran on nuclear technology, advanced weapons, and space. Meanwhile, our top scientists keep vanishing,” he wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump described the situation as “pretty serious stuff”, while expressing hope that it may be coincidental. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation.

Across the Pacific, reports from Chinese and overseas media point to at least nine deaths of scientists working in similarly sensitive sectors. Most cases have been attributed to accidents, sudden illnesses, or remain unexplained. The scientists were aged between 26 and 68.

One of the most closely watched cases is that of Feng Yanghe, a 38-year-old professor at the National University of Defence Technology, who died in a car crash in Beijing in July 2023.

Feng had been working on simulation models related to potential scenarios involving Taiwan. According to state reports, he was returning from a meeting at around 2.35 am when the accident occurred.

A government-affiliated science platform described him as having been “sacrificed while performing official duties”, a phrase more commonly used for military personnel. He was later buried at Babaoshan cemetery, a site typically reserved for Communist Party elites and state-recognised figures.

A researcher tracking Chinese military developments told Newsweek that aspects of the case appeared unusual, including the timing of the crash and the official description of his death.

“Feng was a mastermind behind AI simulations of potential Taiwan scenarios, and it’s very odd that the accident happened in the middle of the night,” the researcher said.

They also questioned the terminology used in official accounts, noting that a road accident victim would not typically be described as having “sacrificed” his life.

This is not an isolated incident. Several other Chinese scientists in critical domains have died in recent years:

• Chen Shuming, 57, a microelectronics specialist, died in a similar incident in 2018.
• Feng Yanghe, a military AI expert, died in a car crash in July 2023.
• Zhou Guangyuan, a chemist, died in December 2023 of unspecified cause.
• Liu Donghao, a data scientist, died after an unspecified accident in March 2024.
• Zhang Xiaoxin, 62, a space expert, died in a car accident in December 2024.
• Zhang Daibing, 47, a drone expert, died in January 2025. The cause is not disclosed.
• Li Minyong, a biomedical chemist, died following a sudden illness in November 2025.
• Fang Daining, a hypersonics expert, died after a medical episode abroad in February 2026.
• Yan Hong, a hypersonics researcher, reportedly died after an illness in March 2026.

Many of the scientists were working in fields considered strategically significant, particularly in military AI, hypersonics and advanced weapons systems.

“The areas are in hypersonics, in military AI, including swarming technology simulations… these types of tech seem to be overrepresented,” the researcher said, while adding that some cases could still be “complete accidents”.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/20-scientists-2-giants-mysterious-deaths-disappearances-rattle-us-china-11400824?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Over the last quarter century, Elon Musk ​revived space travel, turning cosmic exploration into thriving businesses. For its next act, Musk’s SpaceX is eyeing an even bigger opportunity in something ‌more prosaic: building artificial intelligence for the enterprise.
SpaceX estimates that its total addressable market – a closely watched metric – could be as much as $28.5 trillion, according to a S-1 filing reviewed by Reuters. TAM is the maximum revenue a company could generate if it captured every customer in a particular market.

The S-1 regulatory filing, in which companies disclose their financials and key risks before going ​public, shows that SpaceX expects more than 90% of that market – or $26.5 trillion – could stem from the AI sector. The vast majority of that, $22.7 trillion, could come ​from AI for businesses.
The company is moving ahead with an IPO expected this summer targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion and seeking ⁠to raise about $75 billion, which would make it the largest initial public offering in history.
“We believe we have identified the largest actionable total addressable market in human ​history,” according to the filing.

The new information about where SpaceX sees its biggest market opportunity stands in stark contrast to how the company currently makes its money.
SpaceX did ​not reply to a request for comment.
Although a company’s TAM is neither a forecast or a valuation, it is an important indicator for investors evaluating a high-growth company’s potential.
These figures are often vast and rarely questioned. When Uber went public in 2019, it claimed a $5.7 trillion market opportunity for its ride-sharing business alone.
The eye-popping opportunity identified by SpaceX, tucked into more than 300 ​pages detailing its finances, underscores Musk’s long-held desire to occupy a central role in the advancement of AI technology.
The AI for enterprise market is currently dominated ​by Anthropic and OpenAI, AI industry leaders locked in intense competition, and both of which have indicated intentions to go public as early as this year.

In February, SpaceX acquired xAI, an ‌AI research ⁠company founded by Musk in early 2023. The filing seen by Reuters shows that xAI remains a nascent and deeply loss-making operation.
The AI unit posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion in 2025, sharply wider than the $1.6 billion loss a year earlier.
Those losses eclipsed the $4.4 billion in operating profit generated by Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet business and its largest revenue engine, which brought in $11.4 billion of its $18.7 billion total revenue last year. Overall, SpaceX lost $4.9 billion.
SpaceX’s AI unit is also resource hungry. In 2025, ​SpaceX’s total capex surged to $20.7 billion, with ​AI accounting for $12.7 billion – more than ⁠it spent on its space and connectivity businesses combined.
The company said it could capitalize on some of xAI’s preexisting tools, such as Grok Enterprise and an agentic or autonomous platform it is developing with Tesla called Macrohard.

In the filing, the company ​warned prospective investors of its big spending plans to develop AI and other technologies, including manufacturing the keys to powering artificial ​intelligence called graphics processing ⁠units, or GPUs.
SpaceX also said it would assemble a specialized salesforce and send employees known as forward deployed engineers to embed directly with customers to help their workforces embrace AI.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/spacex-conquered-stars-now-eyes-bigger-opportunity-ai-2026-04-23/

Pope Leo on Thursday firmly condemned the killing of protesters in Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Catholic leader last week for not doing so while speaking out ​against the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, also decried the deaths of “so many” ‌civilians in the war and lamented the collapse of U.S.-Iran peace talks in comments aboard his return flight to Rome after a four-nation Africa tour.

“I condemn all actions that are unjust. I condemn the taking of people’s lives,” the pope said in response to a question ​in a press conference about reports that Iran has killed thousands of protesters.
“When a regime, when a ​country takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that ⁠is something that should be condemned,” he said.
Leo was attacked by Trump on social media as “terrible” on April 12, ​after the pope emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war and the president’s hardline anti-immigration policies.
In a post ​two days later, Trump asked “will someone please tell Pope Leo” about the deaths of Iranian protesters.

Iranian authorities killed thousands of people during anti-government protests in January, Iran’s worst domestic unrest since the era of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rights groups say the government has continued to ​crack down on opponents while war rages, with Tehran carrying out another execution this week.
Leo did not mention Trump ​in his remarks on Thursday. He said that as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church he does not support war.

“As a pastor, ‌I ⁠cannot be in favor of war,” he said, adding that he carries with him a photo of a child killed by Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Leo said the child had been among the crowds that greeted him during his visit to Lebanon in November and December, as part of the pope’s first overseas trip.
“We have seen so ​many innocents killed,” Leo said ​of the war.

Referring to ⁠the recent breakdown in peace talks, the pope said: “One day Iran says yes, the United States says no and vice versa. We don’t know where it will go.”
“It has created ​a situation that is still chaotic … and also there is the whole population of ​Iran, innocent ⁠people, who are suffering because of this war,” he said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-condemns-killing-protesters-iran-reaffirms-stance-against-war-2026-04-23/

Lebanon and Israel extended their ceasefire for three weeks after a ​high-level meeting at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. Nada Moawad in the Oval Office for ‌a second round of U.S.-facilitated talks, a day after Israeli strikes killed at least five people including a journalist.

“The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned armed group that is fighting Israel, was not present at the talks. It says it has “the right to resist” occupying forces.
Trump added that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the near future.
Trump also spoke to reporters ​in the Oval Office alongside the participants in the meeting, saying he hoped the leaders would meet during the three-week cessation of hostilities. He said there was “a great chance” the two countries would reach a peace ​agreement this year.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa also attended the meeting.
The ceasefire, ⁠reached after talks between the two nations’ ambassadors to Washington last week, was set to expire on Sunday. It has yielded a significant reduction in violence, but attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared ​buffer zone.

‘MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN’

Ambassador Moawad, who went into the meeting seeking an extension of the ceasefire, thanked Trump for hosting the talks. “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again,” she said.
A Lebanese official earlier ​said Beirut would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border in a next phase of negotiations.

Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.
Israeli ambassador Leiter said during the meeting that the talks must focus on rooting out Hezbollah rather than on Israel withdrawing its forces. “If Hezbollah and IRGC operatives continue to be treated with ​kid gloves, a real process of achieving our mutual goal will remain unachievable,” Leiter said, according to remarks shared by the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Asked how the U.S. would help Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, Trump did not provide details but ​said the U.S. had “a great relationship with Lebanon.” Trump said Israel had to be able to defend itself against attacks from Hezbollah.
Trump also called for Lebanon to abolish laws against engagement with Israel. “It’s a crime to talk with Israel?” he responded when asked about ‌the statutes ⁠known as anti-normalization laws, which he did not appear to be aware of. “Well, I’m pretty sure that that will be ended very quickly. I’ll make sure of that,” Trump said.

DEADLIEST DAY SINCE CEASEFIRE

The Israeli military said that Hezbollah militants fired a missile at an Israeli military aircraft on Thursday, while also targeting Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon with rockets and a drone, in separate incidents. The militant group also fired rockets toward northern Israel, it said.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
Israel’s military said it carried out a number of strikes in response, killing three Hezbollah militants and targeting the group’s infrastructure that was used to launch the attacks.
Lebanon’s health ministry had earlier said an Israeli air strike had killed ​three people and artillery shelling wounded two others, including a ​child.
Wednesday was Lebanon’s deadliest day since the ceasefire took ⁠effect on April 16.
Those killed by Israeli strikes included Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, according to a senior Lebanese military official and her employer, Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it was reviewing an incident in which it had received reports that two journalists were wounded by strikes it said were aimed at vehicles departing a military structure used by Hezbollah. It ​said Israel does not target journalists.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group wanted the ceasefire to continue but “on the basis of full compliance by the Israeli enemy”. At ​a televised press conference, he reiterated ⁠Hezbollah’s objections to the face-to-face talks and urged the government to cancel all forms of direct contact with Israel.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-seek-ceasefire-extension-us-hosted-talks-with-israel-2026-04-23/

A U.S. Army soldier involved in the capture of Nicolas Maduro has been charged with making $400,000 ‌by betting on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan leader, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
In the weeks leading up to Maduro’s January 3 capture, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a master sergeant with U.S. Army Special Forces, used sensitive classified information to make wagers on prediction market Polymarket that U.S. ​forces would enter Venezuela and that Maduro would be out of power.

A grand jury in Manhattan federal court indicted ​Van Dyke, 38, on charges of unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft ⁠of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
The case appeared to mark the first time ​the department had brought insider trading charges involving a prediction market.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in ​order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

POLYMARKET SAYS IT COOPERATED

Defense attorney information for Van Dyke was not immediately available. He is expected ​to be presented before a judge in North Carolina later on Thursday, the Justice Department said.
The Pentagon deferred comment to the ​Justice Department.

Asked by reporters about the arrest, President Donald Trump said he was not familiar with the case but that it reminded him of Pete ‌Rose, ⁠who was banned from Major League Baseball over a gambling scandal.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said. “If he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I’ll look into it.”
In a post on X, Polymarket said it had referred the matter to the Justice Department. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest ​is proof the system works,” ​the post read.

INVOLVED IN ‘PLANNING AND ⁠EXECUTION’ OF MADURO CAPTURE

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also brought civil charges against Van Dyke.

Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army since 2008 and had most recently ​been stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, according to the indictment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-arrests-soldier-accused-betting-400000-maduro-removal-abc-news-reports-2026-04-23/

A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.

He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.

A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement.

Second complaint filed against the soldier
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.

Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/solider-justice-department-polymarmet-74047663d9ae104127948896fdfb59d9

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line.

On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery said the overwhelming majority of its stakeholders voted in support of selling Paramount for $31 a share. Including debt, the deal is valued at nearly $111 billion based on Warner’s current outstanding shares.

Paramount, which was bought by Skydance just last year, wants all of Warner. That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement that stockholder approval marks “another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction.” Paramount added that it looks forward to closing in the coming months, and “realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company.”

It’s not a done deal quite yet. The acquisition still faces ongoing regulatory reviews. Many critics have decried further consolidation in an industry already controlled by just a few major players, and are calling for the merger to be blocked — if not from the Trump administration, which so far seems unlikely, perhaps at the state level or through other court fights both in the U.S. and abroad.

Meanwhile, Warner shareholders rejected a separate measure Thursday outlining post-merger payments for company executives.

The takeover fight
Paramount’s quest for Warner has been a bumpy road. And Warner leadership wasn’t always eager to enter this particular marriage.

Late last year, Warner rebuffed Paramount’s overtures to instead strike a $72 billion studio and streaming deal with Netflix. Paramount, meanwhile, went directly to shareholders with a hostile bid to take over the whole company, including the cable business that Netflix did not want. All three companies spent months fighting publicly over who had the better offer on the table. Warner’s board repeatedly backed Netflix’s bid. But eventually, Paramount offered more money and Netflix abruptly bowed out of the race.

That corporate drama may now be over, but implications of a potential Warner sale remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the Paramount deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers.

Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment called Thursday’s vote to advance the merger a “serious setback” — but maintained the fight wasn’t over. “A handful of powerful decision-makers should not be allowed to quietly reshape American media, culture, and creative life without accountability,” the advocacy group said in a statement, while pointing to other efforts to challenge consolidation.

Some have called on states, rather than the federal government, to fight the deal. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been particularly vocal about the transaction, and said his state is investigating it.

“State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight,” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a longtime antitrust hawk, wrote on social media Thursday.

What would come under the same roof
The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s five remaining legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms (Paramount+ and HBO Max) and two big names in America’s TV news landscape (CBS and CNN ) — as well as a heap of other brands and entertainment networks.

Company executives argue this will be good news for consumers, who they say will have access to bigger content libraries, particularly if HBO Max and Paramount+ become one streaming service. And Paramount CEO David Ellison has tried to assure filmmakers with a 45-day theatrical window guarantee and goal to release 30 movies a year between Paramount and Warner, which he’s said will remain stand-alone operations under a combined company.

“I love cinema and I love film,” Ellison said at CinemaCon last week. “You can count on our complete commitment.”

But the new owner will also be looking to cut costs. Regulatory filings have already indicated that would include layoffs and downsizing some overlapping operations. And critics are skeptical about consumer benefits — warning of higher prices that could arise when it comes to streaming, and potentially less diversity in content down the road.

Then there’s the news. Since coming under Skydance ownership less than a year ago, CBS has already seen significant editorial shifts, notably with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief. If the Warner takeover goes through, many are expecting similar changes at CNN, a network that has long attracted ire from President Donald Trump.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/warner-brothers-paramount-skydance-netflix-david-ellison-d52e8730ba894adf2ebb9a69646d323b

Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t released an audio or video message since assuming power because his face was badly burned in Israeli airstrikes on Feb, 28, according to a report — as President Trump says peace talks are inhibited by a lack of clear leadership in Tehran.

Khamenei, 56, “does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak,” four Iranian officials told the New York Times, adding that one of the ayatollah’s legs has been “operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic,” while he also has had surgery on one of his hands.

“His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak [and] he will need plastic surgery,” the Times reported.

“Senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him,” added the outlet, which said most decision-making is being delegated to Tehran’s generals rather than civilian political leaders.

“Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.”

Although the report describes Khamenei as difficult to reach, it also cites the Iranian officials as saying the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and health minister, Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, “have both been involved in his care.”

The report supports Trump administration officials’ contention that peace talks are inhibited by slow communication and uncertainty about whether foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are able to speak for their nation.

Trump on Tuesday extended a two-week cease-fire indefinitely as the US awaited a response to the latest American offer, which prioritizes an end to nuclear enrichment and the relinquishment of about 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

“There’s obviously a lot of internal division,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.

“This is a battle between the pragmatists and the hardliners in Iran right now, and the president wants a unified response. And so, as we await that response, there’s a cease-fire.”

The Times reported Thursday that Khamenei has delegated significant authority to the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/04/23/us-news/iran-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khameneis-face-is-so-disfigured-hell-need-plastic-surgery/

AN EX-COP has been busted after intending to carry out a mass shooting at an upcoming music festival.

Christopher Gillum, 45, was arrested on Wednesday and found in possession of roughly 200 rounds of gun ammo.

Gillum was nabbed by the sheriff’s office in Okaloosa County, Florida, roughly 150 miles outside of Tallahassee, after allegedly making threats to carry out a mass shooting at a music festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Before his arrest, Gillum worked as a police officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department in North Carolina from 2004 to 2019, USA Today reported.

He also previously worked as a detention officer and a deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, according to Fox affiliate WVUE.

Gillum was traveling to New Orleans through Florida when police noticed him on the Okaloosa County FLOCK camera system.

“This disturbing case highlights how technology like FLOCK and strong partnerships between agencies can help prevent potential violence and bring wanted fugitives into custody safely before a tragedy could occur,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden.

Gillum is currently awaiting extradition to Louisiana, cops said.

Family members who had reported Gillum missing before his arrest said the ex-cop had a history of self-harm, according to WVUE.

Gillum also had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’” family members told police.

Police did not explicitly say what festival Gillum was planning to attack.

However, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is set to kick off on Friday.

“Jazz Fest is grateful to all law enforcement partners for their dedication and exceptional service in protecting our community,” festival press director Matthew Goldman told USA Today.

“As always, we coordinate closely with the FBI, Louisiana State Police, NOPD (New Orleans Police Department), NOCEM (New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management), and other agencies, and we will continue to do so as we look forward to another safe and joyful Jazz Fest.”

Louisiana State Police will continue investigating Gillum and the incident.

“At this time, there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana,” they said.

“We are constantly working with local, state and federal partners to ensure safety.”

In January 2025, 10 people were killed, and dozens of others were injured after a man drove his car into a New Year’s Eve celebration in New Orleans.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16266775/mass-shooting-music-festival-new-orleans-avoided-cop-arrested/

Cyber criminals hacked into the Sri Lankan finance ministry’s computer system and siphoned off US$2.5 million, the government said on Thursday (Apr 23), the largest amount of cash ever stolen by hackers from a state institution in the debt-saddled country.

The cyberattack is a major blow to Sri Lanka, which is recovering from a crippling economic crisis in 2022 after Colombo defaulted on its US$46 billion external debt.

The money was destined for debt repayment to Australia, finance ministry secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma told reporters in the capital.

Four senior officers at the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) were suspended after the breach, he said.

Authorities were alerted to an attempt to break into the ministry’s e-mail server, and investigations showed that a US$2.5 million payment owed to Australia had disappeared.

“Criminal investigators are looking into this, and we are not in a position to give further details,” Suriyapperuma said, adding that Sri Lankan authorities were seeking help from foreign law enforcement agencies.

Sri Lanka established the PDMO earlier this year in line with an International Monetary Fund-backed US$2.9 billion bailout loan from early 2023, following the island’s economic meltdown.

Australia’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Matthew Duckworth, said Canberra was aware of “irregularities” in payments owed to it.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/hackers-steal-millions-sri-lanka-finance-ministry-australia-6076376

A FORMER bodyguard and close pal of Michael Jackson has claimed the new biopic about the star whitewashes his life by not delving further into the sex abuse claims made against him.

In an exclusive interview, Matt Fiddes claimed Jackson would have wanted any movie to include the allegations and their impact on his life.

Fiddes also revealed he received a “delirious” call from Jackson two days before he died with the star allegedly pumped full of ephedrine and desperately reaching out for his dad.

Speaking ahead of the release of a new biopic on Friday, Fiddes said the star also claimed on the call that bosses were “making him rehearse too much” and that he “never agreed to 50 shows.”

Giving a unique insight into the moments leading up to Jackson’s death, Matt claimed Jackson was forgetting his lyrics and acting erratically – but it was still a complete shock to everyone who knew him as they were convinced he would just pull out of the tour.

The new movie based on the life of the “King of Pop’ is set to hit the big screen later this month with Jackson’s own nephew Jaafar in the title role.

An earlier trailer became the most watched of all time – amassing 150million views when it was released.

Jackson was first accused of abuse in 1993 by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler and his father Evan, who reached a $23million civil settlement with the star a year later.

He was never ultimately charged in connection with these allegeations after a 18-month criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and Santa Barbara Sherriff’s Department found they could not prove the case without Jordan’s testimony.

The movie was forced to undergo expensive reshoots last year after lawyers found an overlooked clause in the settlement with Jordan that barred him from being depicted or mentioned in any movie, according to Variety.

The movie was reportedly supposed to originally open with Jackson in 1993 surrounded by cop cars and its entire third act was dedicated to the allegations before the rewrite.

But Fiddes, 46, claimed the impact of the sex abuse claims played a direct role in Jackson’s death and accused filmmakers of whitewashing the allegations.

Fiddes, who was one of Jacko’s closest confidants for many years, claimed although all the allegations made against him were “proven untrue,” to cut them out of the movie wouldn’t do justice to the impact they had on him.

Jackson was still plagued by further allegations from 1993 on.

He underwent a high-profile criminal trial in 2005 after being hit with felony charges of abuse against 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo – but was found not guilty on all counts.

After his death the FBI confirmed they had found no evidence of criminal conduct to warrant federal charges against Jackson by releasing 300 pages of their decade-long investigation.

And over a decade after his death, Jackson’s estate is still facing lawsuits about his alleged behavior.

Accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck are seeking $400million in a civil lawsuit that will go to a jury trial in November.

Fiddes said the release of the Michael Jackson movie would be “extremely controversial” and although he hasn’t yet seen it, he’s been told what will be in and out of it.

He added: “I’ve heard accounts from people who’ve seen the film. And from my understanding, it doesn’t cover the child abuse allegations and a lot of the struggles that Michael had behind the scenes, which are well publicised and what eventually led to his death.

“I know the fans are disappointed in this. They been contacting me. They want to see the real Michael. They want to see behind the scenes Michael, how he created his genius and how he suffered, how lonely
the man was.

“But I understand how business works. I’m a businessman, and if you’re running the Michael Jackson estate, you are going to want to have it all about the music, which is what Michael would have wanted.

“But Michael, as I knew him, would have wanted his fans and the public to see what it was like to be Michael Jackson. It was not all glitz and glamour. It was anything but.

“We could not go out. He couldn’t do anything. We had to go through the kitchen entrance to go into the hotels. He was manipulated by people he couldn’t trust. Many people. He was paranoid. He struggled to eat sometimes due to being nervous and anxious.”

Matt also said he believes allegations that Jackson was a child abuser were untrue but should still be referenced in the biopic.

He added: “It fascinates me to see still now in 2026 that there’s TV shows and documentaries being made about my friend Michael Jackson, that he’s a child molester, that he’s into young boys.

“Because having known the man personally, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He wanted to keep his life a mystery and would always remind me wanted his life to be the greatest show on earth.

“I said to him, I think you should show how you talk about girls from the back of the car. He had a nickname for a girl he fancied or always attracted to. He’d call them fish.

“He always said, that’s a nice fish there. Well, Matt, try and get that fish to my room.

“I told him ‘Michael, you should show this side to the public. But he always refused and said one thing Motown taught him when he was a young boy, in the Jackson Five, is that he mustn’t ever show that he was straight, that he was gay, or that he was married in a relationship. As this was going to cut off his fan base and it’ll be the end of the Jacksons.

“So all the fans feel that they got a chance to marry him, whether they’re gay, straight or whatsoever.

“I understand there are contracts signed from his girlfriends that can’t be talked about. But from what I’m hearing, there’s going to be a Michael movie part two of this franchise.

“What I will say is that everything Michael Jackson touches turns to gold. And I predict that Michael the movie will be the biggest movie ever of all time, not only the biggest biopic. I think it will be the biggest movie of all time. And we’ll go past a billion dollars turnover in no time whatsoever.”

Fiddes, who now runs the largest martial arts and dance chain in the world, worked with Jackson for a decade and recalls meeting him through a friend.

He added: “He called me up in the middle of the night and said, you have to come to my house now. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. It took me a good three hours to get there, but he would not tell me who I was going to meet.

“I walked in the living room and this man walks up to me. He bows to me due to the fact that we’re both martial artists. And he said, nice to meet you, Matt. For this. My name is Michael Jackson. I’m thinking, I know who you are.”

Fiddes said they quickly became friends and hang out and do normal stuff together.

He added: “He was a very shrewd character. I always say you got two sides to Michael. You got the very shy, quiet, humble person of his mother, Mrs. Jackson. Katherine, who’s a lovely lady. And then you’ve got the toughness, brutal, ruthless businessman of his father, Joe Jackson.

“And Michael had both sides of them. But aside from that being around him, he was the the most gentle soul and would do anything for anybody. And he was just extremely clever. He loved being Michael Jackson, but he was the nicest guy in the world, most misunderstood man in the world.”

Fiddes also gave a unique insight into the state of mind of the star when he died and revealed he had desperately tried to reach out to his dad Joseph Jackson to help, but could only reach his voicemail.

Fiddes, who believes the movie would become the most watched of all time, said: “You can’t talk about Michael Jackson without talking about the bad times and the negative times and none of us were expecting that he was going to die.

“I didn’t think he was going to do the 50 show concerts. We were getting reports all the time that he was not well, that he was underweight.

“He was not remembering his lyrics. I spoke to him two nights before he passed away, and I remember that conversation vividly.

“My ex-wife answered the phone and handed me the phone and said, It’s Michael, you need to speak to him urgently. He was unhappy. He said, Matt, I need to speak to Joe, meaning his father, Joseph Jackson.

“Do you know where he is? I thought, if he’s asking for his dad, then there must be something wrong. He said ‘I need him to come and sort this situation out here. Only Joseph can do it.

“He said ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. They’re making me rehearse too much. And I never agreed to 50 shows.’”

Fiddes, who runs a martial arts business and lives in England, said Jackson sounded erratic and he asked if he had taken anything.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/16261352/michael-jackson-biopic-whitewashed-bodyguard-slams/

The teenager who Los Angeles prosecutors allege was killed by musician D4vd and found inside the trunk of a car in Hollywood died from “multiple penetrating injuries” from objects, a medical examiner’s report released on Wednesday (Apr 22) said.

The dismembered body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was discovered in September in the trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, police and prosecutors have said.

Authorities had kept details about the manner of death secret while they launched an investigation.

D4vd pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges on Monday, the same day the judge in the case ordered that the autopsy report be made public.

In the report, Los Angeles medical examiners said they found two “penetrating wounds to the torso” and “dismemberment of the upper and lower extremities”.

The report said the torso wounds may have been “sharp force injuries” but did not specify what objects may have caused them. The autopsy was limited by “extensive postmortem changes”, the report added.

The time of death was listed as unknown.

Prosecutors say that Celeste, who was 14 at the time, went to D4vd’s Hollywood Hills home in April 2025 and then disappeared.

D4vd gained fame in 2022 after songs he recorded ​on his phone for his Fortnite gaming videos went viral on TikTok, with the hit Romantic Homicide helping him sign a deal with Interscope Records. He ​performed at the Coachella music festival in 2025.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-dv4d-teen-murder-cause-death-6074861

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticised the former leadership of the International Olympic Committee as “shameful” and “cowardly” and said he hoped for a new approach from those now in charge of the Olympic movement.

Putin made the remarks during a Kremlin ceremony honouring Russian boxers, according to Russian news agencies. He did not name individuals but appeared to be referring to policies adopted under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach, who stepped down in 2025 and was succeeded by Zimbabwean former Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry.

Under Bach’s leadership, the IOC banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at the Olympics under their national flags following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, part of which was launched from Belarus.

Bach’s tenure as president also included the 2014 Sochi Games’ Russian state-backed doping scandal, which led to Russian athletes participating as neutrals in several editions of the Games.

“The shameful, I would say cowardly, politically motivated behaviour of the previous leadership of the International Olympic Committee has caused enormous damage to the Olympic movement and to the very principles of Olympism,” Putin was quoted as saying in the Kremlin ceremony.

“I hope that the new leadership of the International Olympic Committee and the international sports federations will overcome this difficult and, as I said, shameful legacy of their predecessors, as soon as possible.”

The IOC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

While a small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes were permitted to take part in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games as neutral participants, with no national flags or anthems, a contingent of athletes from the two countries was allowed to use both flags and anthems at the subsequent Paralympic Games.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/putin-criticises-previous-ioc-leadership-shameful-cowardly-6074981

Judges ruled the court has authority to try the former Philippine leader despite the Philippines’ exit from the ICC.

The judges dismissed a bid to drop the case over the killings of thousands of people during Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, carried out while he was mayor and later president.

The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2018. Duterte’s lawyers had argued the court has no authority over the case because the country is no longer a member.

What did the ICC judges say in Duterte’s appeal?

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, 81, faces three counts of crimes against humanity at the ICC. The charges relate to killings during his so-called war on drugs, when he was mayor of Davao, between 2013 and 2016, and subsequently president until March 2019 when the ICC withdrawal took effect.

Prosecutors said the alleged crimes took place while the Philippines was still part of the ICC, meaning the court can still investigate and try the case.

In October, a lower ICC chamber agreed with prosecutors and allowed the case to move forward.

Appeals judges have now upheld that decision. They confirmed the court has jurisdiction and rejected the defence request to immediately release Duterte.

“Having rejected the entire appeal, the chamber considers the request for Mr Duterte’s immediate and unconditional release to be moot,” presiding judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza said.

Why is Duterte facing trial at the ICC?

Judges are now considering whether to confirm the charges against Duterte, the final step before a full trial. If confirmed, it would mark the first ICC case against a former head of state from Asia.

Prosecutors say Duterte created, funded and armed death squads to target and kill suspected drug dealers and users while he was in power between ⁠2016 and 2022.

Duterte has been in ICC custody in The Hague since his arrest at Manila airport in March 2025. The court allowed him to skip a February hearing after his lawyers said he was not mentally fit to attend.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/icc-blocks-ex-philippine-president-duterte-release-says-it-can-try-him/a-76894601

Courtesy of last night’s Truth Social post from US President Donald Trump, the ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel which was due to expire on Wednesday does at least persist.

Instead of fighting, we have a “war of blockades” over the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides using force to intercept and seize commercial vessels.

The mood out in one of the world’s most important waterways is combustible. It would be unwise to bet against events spiralling out of control.

In the meantime, Islamabad still waits for Iranian and American representatives to arrive for peace talks.

Parts of the city remain sealed off, the signs are still up and the hotel where talks were expected to take place is empty, ready for the hoped-for return of high-level delegations.

But after several days of fevered anticipation, the atmosphere has changed.

Gone is the talk of press pools in faraway Washington being told to head for the airport, or speculation about the contents of the giant C-17 Globemaster transport planes that landed at a nearby military airbase earlier in the week.

In its place is the gloomy realisation that an opportunity for Pakistan to prove itself on the international stage, to broker a deal – any kind of deal – between mortal enemies may have slipped out of Islamabad’s grasp. For now.

Pakistan has not given up. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has invested considerable diplomatic capital in getting the two parties together, posted on social media that Pakistan would “continue its earnest efforts for negotiated settlement of the conflict”.

Donald Trump has told at least one journalist that a deal is still possible in the next few days.

It’s hard to know if this is reality speaking, or the voice of an impatient man, anxious to remove Iran from his most urgent to-do list before King Charles arrives in Washington for a state visit next Monday – and Trump’s much anticipated visit to China not long afterwards.

Iran dismissed the president’s suggestion that he was giving Tehran time to come up with a “unified position”, but it seems unlikely that the regime, already bruised and battered by the war, will break the ceasefire, thus inviting more punishment from the air.

In the meantime, what are we to make of the Iranian delegation’s reluctance to get on a plane for the short ride to Islamabad?

Iran accuses the US of a “breach of commitments” and cites what it called Washington’s “contradictory behaviour”.

Iran accuses the US of a “breach of commitments” and cites what it called Washington’s “contradictory behaviour”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q9xq7knq2o

Artificial intelligence (AI) is flattening the jobs market for young people and governments should eliminate National Insurance to make hiring workers more attractive, former prime minister Rishi Sunak has told the BBC.

Sunak, now an adviser to AI firm Anthropic and Microsoft, said while he is an enthusiast for the transformative impact of AI, he said concerns from graduates looking for entry level jobs were justified.

He said company bosses were privately acknowledging to him that recruitment of young people is flattening because of the technology.

“There are reasons to be worried and think about the future. But we are able to do something about this,” he said.

Sunak suggested rebalancing the tax system by abolishing National Insurance “over time” and replacing with it with taxes on corporate profits.

These, he said, would be boosted by productivity and efficiencies in deploying AI.

Sunak said it is becoming tougher for young people to get jobs in service sectors such as law, accountancy and the creative industries.

Meanwhile, he said chief executives are telling him that “flat is the new up”.

“They’re talking about this concept that they think they can continue to grow their businesses without having to significantly increase employment because they’re starting to see how they can deploy AI,” said Sunak.

“That’s why I think we do have to look at this issue very seriously and with purpose.”

The former chancellor told BBC Newsnight: “We should be thinking about, well, how do we tip the balance in favour of AI being used in that positive way… to help people do their jobs better [rather than replacing them].”

Sunak said that lots of countries will have to examine how to rebalance their systems as they face raising less revenue from employment taxes and have to find that money elsewhere.

He said the impact on employment by AI “may be different to previous technology cycles, and we want to do what we can to tip the scales in a more positive direction”.

Sunak was appointed as an advisor to both Anthropic and tech giant Microsoft last year.

During his time as prime minister, he made tech regulation a significant priority, setting up an AI safety summit in 2023.

Earlier this month, Anthropic announced its new AI model, called Claude Mythos.

The company said it found that the tool can outperform humans at some hacking and cyber-security tasks, prompting discussions by regulators, legislators and financial institutions about the dangers it could pose to digital services.

Sunak, who is also a senior adviser at investment bank Goldman Sachs, said concerns about the development of Mythos showed “we shouldn’t rely on companies to mark their own homework”.

He said it was to Anthropic’s credit and to the UK’s benefit, that Britain’s AI Security Institute, established under his premiership, had become the first to test Mythos’ capabilities.

The Conservative MP also revealed that he had joined forces with Labour’s deputy prime minister David Lammy to promote investment in the UK tech sector at a recent AI summit.

Sunak said he was a “big believer” in “Londonmaxxing” and “Britmaxxing” which was how some in the tech industry are describing a wave of recent multi-billion pound investments in the sector.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg07x4rejdo

President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women after he pleaded Tuesday for their freedom — calling it “very good news” in a social media post.

“I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed. Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”

The announcement came hours after Trump extended a two-week cease-fire with Iran as US negotiators await Tehran’s reply to the latest American offer to end the nearly two-month conflict.

Iran’s judiciary denied that the eight women were ever set for execution, claiming that “Trump was misled once again by fake news” and that “some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”

Iran’s claim is contested. One of the women, Bita Hemmati, was sentenced to death for allegedly being part of a group that threw objects onto Iranian forces during protests in January, human rights groups said.

Her case was reported last week by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.

Hemmati and four men were convicted of “participation in protest gatherings on January 8 and 9, 2026,” including “chanting protest slogans,” “throwing objects including bottles, concrete blocks, and incendiary materials from rooftops,” and “destruction of public property,” the activist news agency said.

However, two of the eight — Golnaz Naraghi, 37, and Venus Hosseininejad, 28, — have been out on bail since late March, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization.

Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad, who lives in the US, publicized the cases of the eight women, tweeting their names and photos and specifying which four were believed to be sentenced to death.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/22/us-news/trump-says-iran-wont-execute-8-women-after-he-pleaded-for-their-release/

Khalil’s death has been condemned by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam as a war crime, highlighting a troubling pattern of targeting media professionals in conflict zones.

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to local officials and her employer, as violence continued despite a recent ceasefire. Khalil, 43, who worked for the newspaper Al-Akhbar, died after coming under fire while reporting near the town of al-Tayri. A freelance photographer accompanying her, Zeinab Faraj, was wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Khalil’s death. Earlier, it said it had received reports that two journalists were injured as a result of its strikes.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, a senior Lebanese military official and press advocates, Khalil and Faraj were covering developments in the area when an Israeli strike hit a vehicle in front of them. The pair ran into a nearby house for shelter, but the building was also struck, the same sources said. Faraj was later rescued with a head wound, according to Elsy Moufarrej, who heads the Union of Journalists in Lebanon.

Rescuers initially struggled to reach Khalil. Moufarrej and a senior military official said Israeli forces dropped a sound grenade when emergency teams attempted to access the damaged building, blocking their efforts.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned the killing of journalist Amal Khalil, calling her targeting and preventing rescuers from reaching her a “blatant war crime”.

“Israel’s targeting of media professionals in the South while they are performing their professional duties can no longer be viewed as a series of isolated incidents. Rather, it has become a proven pattern – one that we condemn and reject, just as it is condemned and rejected by all international laws and norms,” Salam said on X.

The health ministry said Israel’s military “prevented the completion of the humanitarian mission by firing a sound grenade and live ammunition at the ambulance”.

The Israeli military has denied preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.

Rescuers were eventually able to return about four hours after the initial strike. After a further three hours searching through rubble, they recovered Khalil’s body, the military official said. Her death was later confirmed by Al-Akhbar on its website.

The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in ‌Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.
Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran’s trade by sea while Iran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle ​East Gulf. Nearly two months after the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran, there is little sign of peace ​talks resuming during an uneasy ceasefire.

The closure of the strait has disrupted supply of a fifth of the ⁠world’s oil and gas supplies, and caused a global energy crisis. U.S. forces have seized an Iranian cargo ship and an oil tanker in ​recent days. Iran said it had captured two container ships seeking to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after firing ​on them and another vessel, its first seizures since the war began.
The U.S. has diverted at least three more Iranian-flagged oil tankers in recent days, according to two US and Indian shipping sources and two separate Western maritime security source who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a ​request for comment on the interceptions.
One of the vessels was the Iranian-flagged Deep Sea supertanker, which was part loaded with crude and last ​seen on its public tracking transponder off Malaysia’s coast a week ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The smaller Iranian-flagged Sevin, which ‌had a ⁠maximum capacity of 1 million barrels and was carrying 65% of its load, was also intercepted. The vessel was last seen off Malaysia’s coast a month ago, ship tracking data showed.
The Iranian-flagged supertanker Dorena was also intercepted, fully loaded with 2 million barrels of crude, and last seen off the coast of southern India three days ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.

The U.S. Central ​Command said on Wednesday in a post ​on X, that the Dorena ⁠has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after attempting to violate the blockade.
U.S. forces may have intercepted the Iranian-flagged Derya tanker, shipping sources said. The vessel failed to discharge ​its cargo of Iranian oil in India before a U.S. waiver on Iranian crude purchases expired on ​Sunday. That vessel was ⁠last seen off India’s western coast on Friday, according to MarineTraffic data.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-intercepts-three-iranian-oil-tankers-asian-waters-sources-say-2026-04-22/

Traders placed a series of bets worth $430 million on a drop in crude prices just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump ​said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday.
It is the third ‌time this month, and the fourth in total, that large, well-timed directional bets on the oil price have been made shortly before major announcements on the Iran war. One combined wager in ​March was worth $500 million, while April’s bets have together totalled some $2.1 billion.

• Between 1954 ​and 1956 GMT on Tuesday, 4,260 lots of selling hit the oil ⁠market, worth a combined $430 million, based on the prevailing Brent futures price , according ​to LSEG data. Trump said he would extend the ceasefire indefinitely at 2010 GMT.
• The Brent ​market settles at 1830 GMT, meaning these trades took place in what is known as post-settlement hours, when volumes are usually extremely limited.
• The trades did not have much impact on the price, which ​edged down to $100.66 a barrel, from $100.91 before they took place. After Trump’s announcement, Brent ​crude futures fell to a low of $96.83 in the minute that followed. They were last trading at $99.2 ‌a ⁠barrel at 1200 GMT on Wednesday.
• On March 23, 15 minutes before Trump announced a delay to threatened attacks on Iranian power infrastructure, anonymous traders placed $500 million on a drop in the oil price. Similarly, on April 7, bets worth $950 million went through just ​hours before Trump’s announcement ​of a two-week ceasefire.
• On ⁠April 17, some 20 minutes prior to the Iranian foreign minister posting on social media that the Strait of Hormuz would ​be open to commercial shipping, traders placed $760 million in bets on ​a falling ⁠oil price.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/traders-place-430-million-bet-lower-oil-price-before-trump-ceasefire-extension-2026-04-22/

Tesla (TSLA.O), sharply raised its spending plan to more ​than $25 billion for the year as CEO Elon Musk pours money into artificial intelligence, robotics and chips – moves he said were “well justified” to build big future revenue streams.
The EV maker’s ‌investors took a more skeptical view, pushing its stock down 2.4% after these remarks on a post-earnings call with analysts on Wednesday. The shares had risen as much as 4% after the bell as Tesla reported positive free cash flow in the first quarter.

“We are going to be substantially increasing our investment in the future,” Musk said. “You should expect to see very significant increase in capital expenditures that are I think well justified for a substantially increased future revenue stream.”
“Tesla is not alone in ​this,” he added, noting big capex plans at top tech companies.
Tesla is in the middle of one of the most expensive bets in its history. Musk pivoted the electric vehicle maker’s focus ​to building artificial-intelligence-powered self-driving cabs and humanoid robots, and much of Tesla’s $1.45 trillion market cap rests on that vision.

The company in January had forecast more than $20 billion ⁠in capital expenses for 2026. Last year, it spent $9 billion.
“We are in a very big capital-investment phase, which is going to start now and would last a couple of years,” Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said, ​adding that the company will record negative free cash flow for the rest of 2026.

TESLA RECORDS UNEXPECTED CASH SURPLUS

In the first quarter, Tesla recorded positive free cash flow of $1.44 billion, compared with estimates for a cash ​burn of $1.43 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
First-quarter profit topped Wall Street targets in a sign that the electric vehicle maker was holding the line on costs in a difficult global environment. Tesla’s capital expenditures in the quarter were about 40% below what analysts on average were expecting.
The Austin, Texas-based automaker reported revenue of $22.39 billion for the three months ended March 31, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $22.6 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

ROBOTAXI AND CYBERCAB

Investors have increasingly turned their ​attention to Musk’s push into self-driving technology and robotics, seeking clearer evidence that the autonomy narrative is shifting from promise to commercial reality.
Tesla said it was gearing up to start volume production of its Cybercab – a ​fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals – this year. The company had in January said production ramp would start in the first half.
Musk said on Wednesday that initial production of Cybercab would be slow, but he expected ‌that to gather ⁠pace toward the end of this year.
Tesla started rolling out its Model Y robotaxis in Dallas and Houston, it said on Saturday, marking further expansion of its nascent service in the United States since its Austin launch last year.
Preparations are under way to expand the service to five other cities in Arizona, Florida and Nevada, and Musk said on Wednesday he expects the service in a dozen or so states by the end of this year. That expansion was to take place in the first half of the year, according to plans laid out in January, though the company has previously missed similar timelines.
Dutch vehicle authority RDW has notified the European ​Commission of its plan to seek European Union-wide approval ​for the Full Self-Driving software system, the regulator ⁠said earlier this month.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-revenue-misses-estimates-demand-weakens-2026-04-22/

Over 30 nations meet in London to plan reopening the Strait of Hormuz, led by the UK and France, aiming to protect shipping once a ceasefire allows safe maritime operations.

Military planners from more than 30 countries are holding two days of talks in London starting Wednesday to advance plans for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restoring safe maritime movement.

The initiative, led by the UK Ministry of Defence, aims to convert diplomatic consensus into a coordinated military strategy to safeguard shipping routes once conditions stabilise.

More than a dozen nations have already signalled willingness to join the proposed mission, spearheaded by United Kingdom and France, to protect vessels transiting the crucial waterway.

The push gained momentum after around 50 countries from Europe, Asia and the Middle East participated in a virtual conference last week, seen as a signal of collective intent following remarks by US President Donald Trump that Washington did not require allied support.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the focus of the London meeting is to translate that consensus into concrete action.

“The task… is to translate the diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Strait and support a lasting ceasefire,” he said, expressing confidence that “real progress” could be achieved during the discussions.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/military-planners-from-over-30-nations-to-meet-in-london-on-reopening-strait-of-hormuz-ws-l-10048914.html

US-Iran war depletes key US missiles, nearly half of Patriot and THAAD used, experts warn years needed to rebuild stockpiles, raising risk if another major conflict erupts.

It appears that President Donald Trump needs to secure a deal with Iran more than Tehran itself, as prolonged fighting has significantly depleted key missile stockpiles. A fragile pause in fighting between the United States and Iran has been extended, even as doubts remain over the next round of negotiations. The move comes at a time when questions are being raised about the state of US military resources. Recent developments suggest that the pressure of a prolonged conflict is beginning to show, particularly in terms of missile reserves.

Heavy use of key missiles

A CNN report said that the US has used a large portion of its missile stockpile during the war with Iran. According to assessments, nearly half of the Patriot air defence interceptors have already been spent. Other systems have also seen heavy use.

The findings, based on analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, show that more than half of THAAD interceptors have been used. At least 45 per cent of Precision Strike Missiles have also been expended. These numbers closely match internal Pentagon assessments shared by sources familiar with the situation.

• Patriot Missiles: almost 50% of the total stockpile depleted
• THAAD Interceptors: Over half of the inventory expended
• Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs): Over 45% of the stockpile used

Arsenal depletion

The impact is not limited to a few systems. Around 30 per cent of Tomahawk missiles have been used, along with more than 20 per cent of long-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. Stocks of SM-3 and SM-6 missiles have also dropped by about 20 per cent.

Experts warn that this level of usage has created serious gaps in US military readiness. While the country may still have enough weapons to continue operations in the short term, the overall reserve is no longer strong enough for a major conflict elsewhere.

Risk if another war breaks out

Military experts say the situation creates a “near-term risk” if another conflict breaks out. The concern is particularly strong when it comes to facing a near-peer rival such as China. Rebuilding stockpiles to earlier levels could take years.

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and one of the authors of the study, said the heavy use of munitions has opened a period of vulnerability, especially in the western Pacific. He added that it could take between one and four years to refill current stocks, and even longer to reach desired levels.

Missile production and delays

The Pentagon has already signed contracts to increase missile production. However, the timeline for delivery remains slow. Even with expanded manufacturing, replacing key systems could take three to five years.

The report notes that past under-ordering has made the situation worse. Current agreements with private companies are expected to help, but immediate relief is unlikely due to low short-term output.

US official response

Despite these concerns, US officials have maintained that the military remains fully capable. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the armed forces have what they need to carry out operations whenever required. He stressed that multiple missions have already been completed successfully under the current administration.

However, this stance contrasts with recent funding requests. President Trump has sought additional resources for munitions, citing the strain caused by the Iran conflict. While he has said the US is not running short, he also acknowledged the need to preserve high-end weapons.

Warnings before the war

Concerns about stockpiles were raised even before the conflict began. Senior military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, had warned that a long campaign could affect supplies, especially those supporting allies like Israel and Ukraine.

Since the war started, lawmakers have also voiced worry about the pace of usage. Some have pointed out that Iran still has significant missile and drone capabilities, which could prolong the strain on US resources.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/us-missile-stockpiles-heavily-depleted-nearly-50-per-cent-of-patriot-thaad-missiles-used-in-iran-war-ws-l-10048953.html

A 22-year-old Indian student created “Emily Hart,” an AI influencer, and earned thousands targeting a MAGA audience. Using tailored political posts and viral “rage bait,” the account gained millions of views before being banned.

A 22-year-old medical student from northern India has revealed how he made thousands of dollars by creating and operating “Emily Hart,” an AI-generated Instagram model designed to target a specific audience. The fictional persona, launched in January, was portrayed as a conservative twenty-something inspired by Jennifer Lawrence and Sydney Sweeney, with interests in The Bible, fishing, and beer.

The creator, identified only as Sam, said his earlier attempts to earn money, including YouTube content creation and selling study notes, failed. His approach changed when he turned to AI-generated content, eventually building a character that quickly gained traction online. Within a month, the account had amassed 10,000 followers, with videos reaching millions of views.

“Every Reel I posted was getting 3 million views, 5 million views,” he said. “I haven’t seen any easier way to make money online.” He later monetized the account using Fanvue and merchandise sales. While Instagram initially failed to label the posts as AI-generated, the account was eventually banned for “fraudulent” activity. However, the Facebook page remains active.

A 31-year-old Brazilian beauty queen died of a sudden heart attack, highlighting the rising heart-related issues in young women, hidden factors, subtle symptoms, and the importance.

A 31-year-old Brazilian beauty queen, Maiara Cristina de Lima Fiel, died after reportedly suffering a sudden heart attack, sparking grief and shock among her community and followers. The young mother’s untimely death has once again raised concerns over unexpected cardiac events in seemingly healthy individuals.

According to news reports, Maiara has no known health issues, but suffered a fatal heart attack days before a major beauty pageant. Her passing raises a pressing concern: why are heart attacks occurring in young, seemingly healthy women?

Recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least five Palestinians amidst escalating violence, despite a ceasefire established last October. Since the ceasefire, over 750 Palestinians have died, while four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip on Monday (April 20), Palestinian health officials said, even as clashes broke out between Hamas fighters and gunmen from a militia operating in Israeli-controlled areas, according to witnesses. The violence marks the latest escalation despite a ceasefire deal brokered last October after two years of war.

Medics reported one death in an airstrike in Bureij camp and another in Gaza City, while a later strike in western Khan Younis killed at least three people, according to officials at Nasser Hospital. Residents also reported armed confrontations east of Khan Younis after militia members entered a Hamas-run area, triggering exchanges of fire, reported Reuters.

The latest incidents come amid continued strain on the ceasefire, with more than 750 Palestinians reported killed since the truce took effect, according to local medics. Israel has said militants have killed four of its soldiers during the same period, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

The two years of Israel-Gaza conflict has had a broader humanitarian impact, with over 1.2 million people reported displaced and thousands killed, and over 200 journalists killed, underscoring what is being described as one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recent years. Arrest warrants issued on November 21, 2024, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant list charges including starvation as a method of warfare, wilful killing of civilians, extermination, persecution and other inhumane acts. All 125 ICC member states, including France and the UK, are required to arrest them if they enter their territory.

The impact on civilians has been marked by severe shortages of basic necessities. Food, water and electricity were cut off, with less than five litres of water available per person per day in Gaza, below the WHO minimum of 15 litres.

By January 2024, around 71,000 child diarrhoea cases per month were reported, compared to 2,000 before October 7. Healthcare systems have come under sustained pressure, with over 660 attacks on healthcare facilities recorded by January 2024 and described as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

The conflict has also been described as the deadliest for journalists in recorded history, with more than 200 media personnel killed.

In October 2023, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired shells at a clearly identified group of journalists, with investigations by AFP, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reuters terming it a deliberate attack. On October 25, 2024, three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Hasbaya, Lebanon, while on April 8, 2026, Al Jazeera journalist Mohammad Weshah was killed in a drone strike in Gaza City.

Further allegations include the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas and violence in detention. Euro-Med Monitor recorded 300 white phosphorus strikes in under 40 minutes in Beit Lahia in November 2023, while Human Rights Watch verified unlawful use in June 2024 and Amnesty International reported its use in Lebanon in October 2023, where at least nine civilians were injured.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/1-2-million-displaced-200-journalists-killed-gaza-wars-staggering-human-toll-article-154129224

A draft law in the UK to create a “smoke-free generation” by banning smoking for anybody born after 2008 has cleared both houses of parliament. Only the king’s signature remains for it to become law.

Children who do not reach the age of 18 before January 1, 2027 will never be permitted to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in the UK, once a new law that has now completely cleared parliament gets royal assent from King Charles III.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill cleared its final parliamentary hurdle on Monday, when the House of Lords signed off on the last minor amendments to a bill in the pipeline since 2024, early in the current Labour government’s tenure.

Only one other country, the Maldives, currently has a similar “generational smoking ban” in place.

The very first country to do so, New Zealand, swiftly overturned the law following a change in government in 2023.

What are the new rules for smoking and vaping and where will they apply?

The rules will apply in all four of the UK’s constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They were developed in conjunction with the devolved parliaments in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

A selection of the core changes and provisions follow:

• Technically, the new law will raise the legal age requirement in the UK for buying cigarettes, cigars or tobacco, which is currently 18, by one year in every subsequent year, starting on January 1, 2027
• This will effectively mean that people born on or after January 1, 2009 will never be eligible to buy them
• Retailers will face financial penalties for selling the products to those not entitled to them
• The government will also be empowered to impose a new registration system for smoking and vaping products entering the country, seeking to improve oversight
• The bill will expand the UK’s indoor smoking ban to a series of outdoor public spaces, for instance in children’s playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals
• Most indoor spaces that are designated smoke-free will become vape-free as well
• Smoking in designated areas outside pubs and bars and other hospitality settings will remain permissible
• Smoking and vaping will remain legal in people’s homes
• Vaping will become illegal in cars if someone under the age of 18 is inside, to match existing rules on smoking
• Advertising for smoking and vaping products will be banned
• People aged 18 or older will remain eligible to purchase vaping products, but some items targeted at younger consumers like disposable vapes have already been outlawed as part of the program

Lebanon’s healthcare system is under severe strain despite a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Thousands of displaced pregnant women are struggling to access medical services.

When 32-year-old Nour fled her home in Beirut, she focused on one thing: staying calm.

“I was breathing slowly and holding my belly the whole time,” she told DW, describing the night she escaped intense shelling in her neighborhood while four months pregnant — just days before the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect on April 17.

“Being pregnant makes everything heavier — not just physically, but emotionally,” Nour said, asking for her last name not to published. “I keep asking myself if my baby is safe inside me.”

Nour now lives in a collective shelter, one of hundreds set up across the country. Conditions are difficult: a lack of privacy and inadequate sanitation all increase health risks, particularly for expectant mothers.

Public shelters reached maximum capacity when Lebanonwas drawn into the wider Middle East conflict in early March after the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia attacked Israel following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as part of the wider US-Israel war in Iran.

Lebanese health authorities say Israeli airstrikes and a limited ground invasion have killed around 2,300 people, injured more than 7,000 and displaced approximately 1.2 million since March. The majority of those displaced have yet to return home, with uncertainly looming as the ceasefire is set to expire in a few days.

Healthcare system on the brink

Nour’s situation is far from unique. Among the displaced are thousands of women facing pregnancy under extreme conditions. Aid agencies warn the impact on women is especially severe.

“The situation for women and girls in Lebanon is catastrophic,” said Anandita Philipose, the Lebanon representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). She noted that the UNFPA estimates that of the 1.2 million people displaced since March 2, “over 13,500 are pregnant women and 1,500 are expected to give birth within the next month.”

Access to maternal care is deteriorating rapidly, with facilities damaged and resources stretched thin.

“Lebanon’s already fragile health system is now on the brink of collapse,” Philipose said, pointing to growing barriers to obtaining obstetric services.

The World Health Organization reported this week that at least 51 primary healthcare centers have closed amid the fighting, which has also killed dozens of medical workers.

Hospitals that remain operational are struggling to cope.

“We cannot bring in enough supplies and have to ration medication in case the conflict lasts more than three months,” Zeina Khouri Stevens, vice president for health services at Beirut’s LAU Medical Center, a central hospital in the capital, said. “This instability further weakens the health system.”

Thousands isolated in southern Lebanon

Conditions are even more precarious in the south of the country, where access to medical facilities is severely restricted.

UNFPA estimates that around 1,700 pregnant women are among the roughly 150,000 people are cut off from the rest of the country. “These women are at grave risk,” Philipose said.

Aid efforts are ongoing but limited by both insecurity and funding shortages. Where possible, Philipose said, mobile medical units have been deployed, along with reproductive health kits. Local midwives and doctors who have stayed behind continue to provide support.

Still, the response is falling short of what is needed. Philipose said the agency’s emergency appeal for March to May sought $12 million (€10.2 million) to reach 225, 000 people, but only a fraction of that has been received so far. Continued escalation has already outpaced those plans.

Years of strain and uncertainty

Lebanon’s once strong health system was already under severe pressure before the latest escalation.

“The system first became strained by the massive influx of Syrian refugees beginning in 2013,” said Jade Khalife, a Beirut-based public health physician and epidemiologist. “The more acute shock to the system followed in late 2019 with the economic collapse.”

Four years into an economic crisis, deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the August 2020 Beirut port blast and a prolonged political vacuum, Lebanon launched its national health strategy, ‘Vision 2030,’ in January 2023. Former minister of public health Firass Abiad said at the time that the plan aimed to modernize the country’s health sector.

“Despite considerable efforts by health professionals and institutions across the country, and increased investment by various organizations, the system still remains highly vulnerable,” Khalife said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/lebanon-war-puts-pregnant-women-at-risk/a-76884533

The US-Israel war on Iran has taught Tehran a valuable lesson – it may not have a nuclear weapon, but it controls the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route that gives it strategic leverage akin to a nuclear deterrent.

Nuclear weapons. Specifically, an estimated 440kg of 60 per cent enriched uranium, short of the 90 per cent weaponisation threshold but enough to make eight to 12 bombs, if needed. That was the target the United States painted on the map of Iran likely hanging in Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office, and in the Pentagon war room, before this war began.

For decades the US, Europe, and Israel have feared Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

The argument has always been that a nuke for Tehran might prompt other regional powers – like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Turkey – into a nuclear arms race in a volatile part of the world, one that supplies it with a third of all oil and gas, and vast amounts of fertilisers and other raw materials.

The not-so-public concern has always been loss of strategic control over West Asia, i.e., fears that a nuclear-capable Iran rewrites regional power equations and weakens Western ties with other Arab states, costing it a key trade and military hub connecting Europe and the rest of Asia.

And for decades – most of which it laboured through under debilitating economic sanctions and threats of war – Iran felt it needed nuclear weapons to protect its national security.

But, as it turns out, Iran never really needed a nuclear deterrent.

It had the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran’s throttling of tanker traffic revealed the channel – which handles 20-25 per cent of the world’s seaborne crude oil and gas trade – to be the geographical equivalent of a nuke.

Some of the women, who were claimed to be on the verge of execution, have been released, Iran said.

Iran’s judiciary denied on Tuesday that eight women arrested over protests that shook the Islamic republic this year were at risk of execution, after US President Donald Trump urged Tehran to release them to help negotiations.

Rights groups have said at least one woman arrested over the January protests has been sentenced to death while at least one more is facing charges that carry the death penalty and could see her executed.

“Trump was misled once again by fake news,” the judiciary’s official Mizan Online website said. “The women who were claimed to be on the verge of execution, some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”

Trump had earlier said on social media that the women’s release could work in Iran’s favour in negotiations, re-posting an activist’s claim that eight women were facing death by hanging. That claim did not give names but included photographs of the women.

“I would greatly appreciate the release of these women,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

US-based Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad however posted the names of all eight women on her X account. They had all been arrested in connection with the January protests, which activists say were put down in a crackdown that left thousands dead.

“Say their names,” Alinejad said, alleging that one of those held was as young as 16.

One of the women identified, Bita Hemmati, was sentenced to death along with three men, including her husband, in a case where they are accused of throwing concrete blocks from a residential building onto security forces in Tehran, several rights groups reported earlier this month.

The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center rights group said it also believed that Hemmati was the woman who appeared in a video broadcast on state television in January being personally interrogated by judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.

Another woman in the pictures reposted by Trump is Mahboubeh Shabani, 32, who according to the Norway-based Hengaw rights group, has been charged with the capital offence of “waging war against God” after being accused of using her motorcycle to transport wounded protesters in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

She is currently being held in the women’s ward of Vakilabad prison in Mashhad, according to Hengaw, which expressed “deep concern over the risk of a death sentence in this case”.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-denies-execution-of-women-after-donald-trump-seeks-clemency-misled-once-again-by-fake-news-11390158?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will be extending the ceasefire until Iran comes up with a unified proposal.

Pakistan, which has positioned itself as the lead negotiator in talks between Iran and the US, seems to have played a significant role in changing US President Donald Trump’s mind about extending the ceasefire that was due to expire in hours.

The Republican announced on Wednesday that he will be extending the ceasefire until Iran comes up with a unified proposal. The decision, he said, was taken after a “request” from Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir to hold off attacks on Iran until the Tehran leadership comes with a proposal.

Despite Trump continuing to issue threats against what he described as a “seriously fractured” Iran, his decision to extend the ceasefire is being seen as a significant development amid growing fears of further escalation.

What made Trump walk back on ‘no extension’ vow?

Donald Trump’s ceasefire extension announcement came as a big surprise, given how he had said hours before that he was in no mood to do so. “I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time,” Trump told CNBC in an interview when asked about the possibility of extending the ceasefire.

He had even issued fresh threats to Iran, saying he expected to be “bombing” if a deal with Iran is not reached and the ceasefire ends without any resolution. So what made him change his mind?

While the US President didn’t specify what swayed him in favour of extending the ceasefire that was due to end soon, he did mention two factors in his Truth Social post: a “seriously fractured” Iran government, and a “request” from Munir and Sharif to let Tehran come up with a proposal and hold off attacks until then.

Sharif thanks Trump for accepting request

After Trump’s announcement, Shehbaz Sharif thanked the US President for accepting Pakistan’s request to “extend the ceasefire to allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course”.

“With the trust and confidence reposed in, Pakistan shall continue its earnest efforts for negotiated settlement of conflict,” Sharif said, and also formally confirmed that a second round of talks was scheduled in Pakistan, without specifying a date.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-iran-ceasefire-extension-how-asim-munir-pakistan-pm-shehbaz-sharif-islamabad-request-changed-donald-trump-mind-101776805771920.html

A warning by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has crystallised fears among Gulf states that reopening the Strait of Hormuz may be the most Iran-U.S. talks can achieve, falling short of the broader de-escalation they regard as vital.
Officials and ​analysts expect the next round of negotiations, due in Islamabad, will focus increasingly not on Iran’s missiles or regional proxies but on uranium enrichment limits and how to handle Iran’s leverage over the Strait, the world’s most critical ‌oil shipping route.

Gulf officials warn the approach risks entrenching Iran’s grip on Middle East energy supplies by managing rather than dismantling its leverage, prioritising global economic stability even while leaving the countries most exposed to the energy and security consequences outside formal decision-making.
Gulf sources say U.S.–Iran diplomacy is now centered less on rolling back Iran’s missile programme and more on enrichment levels and tacitly accepting Tehran’s leverage over Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of global oil supplies.
Although negotiations remain stalled over enrichment, with Iran rejecting both zero enrichment and demands to ship its stockpiles abroad, Gulf officials say the shift in priorities itself is troubling.

“At the end ​of the day, Hormuz will be the red line,” one Gulf source close to government circles said. “It wasn’t an issue before. It is now. The goal posts have moved.”
There was no immediate response from Gulf Arab governments to requests for comment ​on the issues raised in this article.
Iran’s threats to Gulf shipping during the war have broken long‑standing taboos around the Strait, making its disruption a realistic lever in negotiations for the first time.
Hormuz’s central ⁠role was bluntly articulated by Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, in a post on X on April 8.
“It’s not clear how the truce between Washington and Tehran will play out,” Medvedev said. “But one thing is certain — Iran has tested its nuclear weapons. ​It is called the Strait of Hormuz. Its potential is inexhaustible.”

HORMUZ IS A ‘GOLDEN ASSET’, SAYS IRANIAN SECURITY SOURCE

Iranian security officials privately echo that view, describing the Strait not ​as a contingency but as a long‑prepared instrument of deterrence.
“Iran prepared for years for a scenario involving the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, planning every step,” said a senior Iranian security source. “Today it is one of Iran’s most effective tools — a form of geographic leverage that serves as a powerful deterrent.”
The source described the Strait as a “golden, invaluable asset rooted in Iran’s geography — one the world cannot take away precisely because it flows from Iran’s location.”
A second Iranian source, close to the Revolutionary Guards, went further, suggesting that a long‑standing taboo surrounding the use of Hormuz had now been broken.

This source described Hormuz ​as a sword “drawn from its sheath” that the U.S. and regional states could not ignore, providing the region with leverage against external powers.
What alarms Gulf Arab states most, analysts say, is that while Iranian missiles, drones and proxies have repeatedly attacked their region, negotiations are ​increasingly framed almost exclusively around Hormuz because of its global economic impact, marginalising Gulf security concerns.
At its core, the Hormuz dispute is less about who controls the Strait than about who sets the rules of passage, Gulf sources say, reflecting a broader shift away from fixed international norms toward ‌power‑based arrangements.
That, said ⁠Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, president of the Emirates Policy Center, exposes an imbalance between those who define the rules and those who bear the consequences when rules are broken.
“What is taking shape today is not a historic settlement,” Al‑Ketbi told Reuters, “but a deliberate engineering of sustainable conflict.”
“Who’s suffering from missiles and proxies?” she added. “Israel, and specifically the Gulf states. What would be a good deal for us is (addressing) missiles, proxies — and Hormuz. And it seems they don’t care about the missiles or the proxies.”

CAUTION ON SANCTIONS RELIEF

Analysts warn such an approach in the talks would not so much resolve tensions as stabilise them at manageable levels, an outcome that may suit Washington and Tehran but risks entrenching instability for Gulf states living under the threat of missiles.
The U.S.–Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, has already left Gulf ​economies absorbing the fallout, from attacks on energy infrastructure to rising ​export and insurance costs. Alternative trade export routes raise costs ⁠and remain exposed to the same Iranian missile threats.
Diplomats say Gulf officials have urged Washington against full sanctions relief, advocating a phased approach to test Iran’s behaviour. They say core threats remain unaddressed, notably missiles able to hit Gulf capitals and Iran’s armed proxies used as extensions of the Iranian state.
Across the Arab Gulf, sentiment toward Washington now ranges from quiet resentment to growing frustration and confusion over ​unilateral U.S. decision‑making.
Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center, said dealing with the Iran issue required “a different approach.”
“The U.S. is part and parcel of regional security…” he added. “But that does ​not mean acting unilaterally — going full-fledged without ⁠involving the region.”
While Gulf leaders bristle at being sidelined, they privately and publicly concede that U.S. military capabilities continue to shape outcomes through their unmatched superiority.
UAE academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said that Gulf Arab states had survived the war in large part due to their own defences and sophisticated U.S.-supplied weapons such as the THAAD and Patriot air defence systems.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gulf-worries-us-iran-talks-may-cement-tehrans-golden-grip-hormuz-2026-04-20/

Federal Reserve chief nominee Kevin Warsh said on Tuesday he had made no promises to President Donald Trump about cutting interest rates, as he tried to assure U.S. senators mulling his confirmation to lead the U.S. central bank that he ​would act independently of the White House while pursuing broad reforms.
In a hearing that ranged from Warsh’s calls for “regime change” at the Fed to contentious exchanges over his personal finances, the 56-year-old lawyer and financier said that ‌in his conversations with Trump about the job, “the president never asked me to commit to interest rate cuts … he did not demand it … the president never asked me to commit to any such thing nor would I do so.”

Trump, who nominated Warsh for the top Fed job, has repeatedly expressed his confidence that his pick will deliver lower rates if confirmed, and said in a CNBC interview just prior to the hearing on Tuesday that he would be disappointed if it didn’t happen.
Warsh is considered likely to be confirmed, but the timing of any Senate approval remains unclear. Republican Senator Thom Tillis, in an unusual turn, used ​his time during the hearing not to ask questions of Warsh, but to detail why he would delay the confirmation until the Trump administration drops an ongoing criminal probe of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell over a renovation ​of the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.

Tillis’ hold on the nomination could leave Warsh unconfirmed and Powell remaining as Fed chief even after his tenure in the top job ends on May 15.

NO ⁠COMMENT ON POWELL, COOK CASE, 2020 ELECTION

In response to a series of questions from Democratic committee members trying to highlight potential distance between the nominee and Trump, Warsh declined to comment about the administration’s various efforts to put pressure on the Fed, including the probe ​of Powell and the attempt to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, a matter that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He also refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election, or to comment on whether the Republican president’s call for interest rates to be ​cut as low as 1%, a level typically not seen outside of efforts to fight an economic downturn, made economic sense at a time when the economy is still growing and unemployment remains relatively low.

Warsh also said that while he would stick with plans to sell more than $100 million in assets if confirmed for the Fed job, under an agreement with ethics officials, he would not detail what those assets are or how and to whom they would be sold. The proceeds, he said, would go into “plain vanilla” assets.
But Warsh did give some rough details on ​what he means by his call for “robust reform” at the U.S. central bank.
He blamed the central bank under Powell for an inflation surge in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to hurt U.S. households. Coupled with the implications of ​artificial intelligence for jobs and prices, he said he would move quickly to see if new data tools could provide better insight on inflation, and also to discourage policymakers from saying too much about where interest rates might be heading.

“What the Fed needs are reforms ‌to its frameworks ⁠and reforms to its communications,” the former Fed governor said, adding that he would rather have “messier” policy meetings with more disagreements to hash out around the table and less public commentary ahead of time.
“Too many Fed officials opine about where interest rates should be. … That is quite unhelpful,” he said, an issue that could put him at odds with the presidents of the Fed’s 12 regional banks who see public communications and frequent appearances now as an integral part of their job.
“The fatal policy errors going back four or five years” are a legacy that families are still working through, Warsh said, arguing that the Fed needed “a new and different inflation framework” that, for example, might exploit advances in large data collection to better gauge inflation trends.

‘MONETARY POLICY INDEPENDENCE ​IS ESSENTIAL’

Much of the hearing focused on Warsh’s relationship with ​Trump, and why the president’s comments that his Fed ⁠chief nominee would cut rates were not an indication of an agreement already struck.
“Presidents tend to be for cutting rates. … President Trump expresses it quite publicly,” said Warsh, who served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. But “I do not believe the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials – presidents, senators, or members of the House (of Representatives) – state their ​views.”
“Monetary policy independence is essential,” Warsh had said in a public statement to the committee, which will decide whether to recommend he be confirmed for a seat on the ​Fed’s Board of Governors as ⁠well as a four-year term as head of the central bank.
“Congress tasked the Fed with the mission to ensure price stability, without excuse or equivocation, argument or anguish. Inflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it. Low inflation is the Fed’s plot armor,” he added.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/warshs-path-top-fed-job-entangled-ahead-senate-confirmation-hearing-2026-04-21/

Meta (META.O), is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and ​keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, the company told staffers in ‌internal memos seen by Reuters.
The tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees’ screens, according to one of the memos, posted by a staff AI research scientist on Tuesday in a channel for the company’s model-building Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team.

The purpose, according to the memo, was to improve the company’s AI models in areas where they struggle to replicate how humans interact with computers, like choosing from dropdown menus ​and using keyboard shortcuts.
“This is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work,” it said.
The Facebook and Instagram owner has been moving aggressively to ​integrate AI into its workflows and reshape its workforce around the technology, arguing it will make the company operate more efficiently.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told employees ⁠in a separate memo shared on Monday that the company would step up internal data collection as part of those “AI for Work” efforts, now re-branded as Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA).

“The vision we are building towards is ​one where our agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review and help them improve,” Bosworth said. The aim, he added, was for agents to “automatically see where we felt the need to intervene ​so they can be better next time.”
Bosworth did not explicitly spell out how those agents would be trained, but said Meta would be “rigorous” about “building up data and evals for all the types of interactions we have as we go about our work.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged that the MCI data would be among the inputs.

AI WORKFORCE OVERHAUL

Stone said the data gathered via MCI would not be used for performance assessments or any other purpose besides model training and that safeguards were in ​place to protect “sensitive content,” without elaborating on which types of data would be excluded from collection.

“If we’re building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people ​actually use them — things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus,” said Stone.
The push to automate functions previously performed by human staffers reflects a broad pattern among major U.S. companies this year, especially in the tech sector.
AI ‌tools have captivated ⁠Silicon Valley with their ability to handle complex tasks like creating apps and organizing large volumes of data with limited human oversight, sparking a selloff in stocks of traditional software companies and inspiring some executives to plan extensive job cuts.
Meta is planning to lay off 10% of its workforce globally starting on May 20 and is eyeing additional large cuts later this year.

Amazon.com (AMZN.O), similarly has trimmed 30,000 corporate employees in recent months, representing nearly 10% of its white-collar workers, while in February the fintech company Block (XYZ.N), chopped nearly half of its staff.
Internally, Meta has been exhorting staffers to use AI agents for coding and other tasks, even if it slows them down in ​the short term. It has also been wiping ​out distinctions between certain job functions in favor ⁠of a new general-purpose job title called “AI builder.”
Last month, it created a new Applied AI (AAI) engineering team aimed at improving the coding capabilities of Meta’s AI models and using them to craft AI agents that can perform the bulk of the work to build, test and ship future products and infrastructure at Meta.
Meta started transferring “strong” ​software engineers into AAI earlier this month.

WHITE-COLLAR SURVEILLANCE CONCERNS

Computer logging and screenshotting technology have historically been used by companies to hunt for employee misconduct or non-work-related ​activities, said Ifeoma Ajunwa, a ⁠law professor at Yale University.
The move to log employees’ keystrokes takes the data-gathering goals a step further, she said, subjecting white-collar employees to a degree of real-time surveillance previously experienced only by delivery drivers and gig workers.
“On the U.S. side, federally, there is no limit on worker surveillance,” Ajunwa said, adding that state-level laws require at most that workers be broadly informed when employers are monitoring them.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/meta-start-capturing-employee-mouse-movements-keystrokes-ai-training-data-2026-04-21/

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said on Tuesday the state was launching a criminal probe into OpenAI and its ​artificial intelligence app ChatGPT over a deadly shooting last year that ‌killed two people at Florida State University.
A gunman killed two people and wounded six others at Florida State University in April last year before he was shot by ​officers and hospitalized. The suspect was charged with multiple counts of ​murder and attempted murder.

“The chatbot advised the shooter on what ⁠type of gun to use, on which ammo went with which gun, ​on whether or not a gun would be useful at short range,” ​Uthmeier said in a press briefing.

“If it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder.”
Uthmeier’s office said the investigation will determine ​whether “OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting.”
The Office ​of Statewide Prosecution subpoenaed OpenAI for some information and records, it added.
The rise of AI has ‌fed ⁠a host of concerns ranging from worries that electricity demand by data centers could raise power prices for consumers, to fears that the technology could cost workers their jobs or be used to disrupt the democratic ​process, turbocharge fraud or ​help people ⁠plan criminal activities.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-launches-criminal-probe-into-openai-chatgpt-over-deadly-shooting-2026-04-21/

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday he had cancelled ​his trip to Eswatini this week, after his government accused China of pressing three other African countries to revoke ‌permission for his aircraft to fly over their territories.
The small southern African nation of Eswatini is one of only 12 countries to retain formal ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan. Lai was due to leave on Wednesday for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession.

Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Meng-an said the Seychelles, Mauritius, and ​Madagascar unilaterally revoked flight permits for the presidential aircraft to cross their countries on his journey without prior warning.
“The actual reason ​was intense pressure exerted by Chinese authorities, including economic coercion,” he told a hastily called news conference in ⁠Taipei.

MADAGASCAR SAYS OVERFLIGHT DENIED

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China, which has deep economic and political ​ties with Africa, says Taiwan is one of its provinces with no right to call itself a country.
Speaking to Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo ​in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged support for the continent and its development needs, according to a state media read-out that did not mention Lai’s cancelled visit to Eswatini.

Lai, in a post on his Facebook page, said China’s “suppressive actions” demonstrate the threat that authoritarian states pose to the international order, ​peace, and stability.
“No threat or suppression can change Taiwan’s determination to engage with the world, nor can it negate Taiwan’s ability to contribute ​to the international community,” he added.
Seychelles’ foreign affairs ministry told Reuters that the Taiwanese president’s plane had not been granted clearance for overflight or landing, in ‌line with ⁠the government’s longstanding policy of not recognising Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“The decision was taken independently and in accordance with established procedures,” Aline Morel, senior protocol officer at the ministry, said in an email.
A Madagascar foreign ministry official also confirmed having denied an overflight request. “Malagasy diplomacy recognises only one China. The decision was made in full respect of Madagascar’s sovereignty over its airspace,” the official said.

CONGRESS will be looking into the eerie disappearances or deaths of 11 scientists with ties to US nuclear and space research programs as national security concerns grow.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer warned on Sunday that “something sinister could be happening” as details of the mysterious events continue to emerge.

Comer, a republican representative from Kentucky, told Fox & Friends Weekend that when he first heard about a potential link between the disappearances, it sounded like “some kind of crazy conspiracy theory.”

Eleven people who have worked close to US space programs have died or gone missing in recent years, with Amy Eskridge, 34, being the latest person to be connected to the possible link.

Eskridge allegedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head on June 11, 2022, in Huntsville, Alabama.

However, the lawmaker has since changed his mind and alerted several government agencies, demanding answers.

“We’ve put a notice out to the Department of War, to the FBI, to NASA, to the Department of Energy, that we want to know everything that they know about what happened with these scientists, because those four agencies were predominantly the agencies that those 11 individuals were affiliated with. And we want to try to piece this together,” he said.

Comer has plans to bring the leaders of the offices mentioned before Congress, but sent them letters in advance to ensure their testimony wouldn’t compromise any potential classified investigations.

“We know there are many countries around the world that would love to have our knowledge and nuclear capabilities. And these are the people that were at the forefront of it, and they’re either dead or missing,” he said.

Eskridge, despite only being identified recently as a possible link, appears to be the earliest death in the ongoing mystery.

Conspiracy theories surrounding her death came about after a 2020 interview resurfaced where she said, “My life is in danger.”

Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science with her retired NASA engineer father.

Jason Thomas, 45, was most recently found floating dead in Lake Quannapowitt in Massachusetts on March 17, 2026, after he was reported missing on December 12, 2025.

Thomas was the assistant director of chemical biology at Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis.

Authorities did not suspect any foul play at the time he was found.

Nine other figures have been tied to the potential case, including retired Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland, 68, who vanished on February 27 with nothing but a gun and a pair of boots in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

McCasland helped lead an infamous military site, which is known for its association with UFO sightings.

His wife, Susan Wilkerson, told a 911 dispatcher she believed he “had planned not to be found” after she found crucial items, including his phone, inside their home.

His disappearance came just months after his former colleague, Monica Reza, 60, disappeared on a hiking trip.

Reza, who went missing in June 2025, worked on a rocket project overseen by McCasland.

She was last seen hiking in a Californian forest with a colleague, but after months of searching, officials have yet to find her.

Nuno Loureiro, a 47-year-old MIT physics professor who was shot dead in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, was also named as one of the eleven mysterious cases.

He was assassinated on December 16, 2025 where officials blamed his death on a former classmate from Portugal, Claudio Neves Valente.

Valente, who died by suicide a day later, was accused of carrying out a school shooting at Brown University just two days prior to Loureiro’s death.

Loureiro began leading MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, where he worked on advancements in clean energy technology.

He was previously a researcher in Lisbon where he studied nuclear fusion before moving to MIT.

Carl Grillmair, 67, a Caltech astrophysicist was similarly gunned down outside of his California home on February 16, 2026 in an unprovoked attack.

Grillmair notably discovered water on a planet outside of our solar system, with conditions potentially pointing to alien life.

Police arrested 29-year-old Freddy Snyder in connection with Grillmair’s death, charging him with murder.

Steven Garcia, 48, who was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico home in August 2025, has also been linked to the mysteriousness.

Surveillance footage captured the man on foot, carrying a handgun. He also left behind his wallet, phone, keys and cards.

The 48-year-old government contractor allegedly had ties to the Kansas City National Security Campus, which makes non-nuclear material components used for national defense systems.

Anthony Chavez, a 78-year-old who retired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was reported missing in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in May 2025.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16249915/missing-dead-space-scientists-national-security-comer/

NEW details have emerged after police said a ninth child made a harrowing escape from the Louisiana massacre that left eight children dead.

The boy survived by jumping from the roof as gunfire tore through the house, though police said he suffered broken bones in the fall.

In Shreveport, Louisiana, cops said a woman also escaped through a roof window above the garage and called 911, while a third attempt to get out ended with a child being shot on the roof.

Police said the bloodshed unfolded before 6 am Sunday in a domestic attack across two homes.

By the time it ended, eight children were dead and two women had been shot and critically hurt.

Cops say the suspect was 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, the father of seven of the children killed.

Authorities said he acted alone and later died after fleeing the area and triggering a police chase.

Police said the first shooting happened on Harrison Street, where Elkins’ wife was shot.

He then went to a second home on West 79th Street, where the children and another woman were shot.

Most of the children were in the house when the gunman opened fire.

Police have said many of them were asleep when the shooting began.

Officers said all eight children who died were found at the same house.

One child was found dead on the roof after trying to escape.

The surviving boy was 13, police said.

He was not shot, but was hurt when he jumped from the roof to get away and later taken to a hospital.

Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said the first 911 call came in at 5:55am.

The caller told dispatch they were on the roof and that someone inside the house had a gun and was shooting.

A few minutes later, another call said the woman and her children had made it off the roof and were now in the backyard.

The children killed were identified as Jayla Elkins, 3, Shayla Elkins, 5, Kayla Pugh, 6, Layla Pugh, 7, Markaydon Pugh, 10, Sariahh Snow, 11, Khedarrion Snow, 6, and Braylon Snow, 5.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16249853/shreveport-louisiana-shooting-ninth-victim-harrowing-escape/

Officials in Japan have warned of an increased risk of a “huge” earthquake in the next week after a 7.7 magnitude quake struck off the north-east coast, triggering an evacuation order and warnings of 3m (10ft) tsunami waves.

Thousands of people were told to leave coastal areas for higher ground after the quake in waters off Iwate prefecture, 530km (330 miles) north of the capital Tokyo.

The biggest tsunami waves measured 80cm. Tsunami warnings and advisories were lifted hours after the quake on Monday.

But Japan’s meteorological agency has warned that quakes “causing even stronger shaking” could occur in the next week, producing bigger waves.

Authorities said the risk of a quake measuring 8.0 magnitude or higher was “relatively higher than during normal times”.

People in Japan are still scarred by memories of a huge quake in 2011 that triggered a tsunami which killed more than 18,000 people and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

After Monday’s undersea quake, recorded at a depth of 10km, warnings of possible bigger waves were issued to residents in areas nearest the epicentre – in Japan’s main island, Honshu, and the northern region of Hokkaido.

Tremors were felt as far away as Tokyo.

In Hokkaido tsunami alerts remained in place hours after the quake struck at 16:52 local time (08:52 BST).

“As soon as we heard the earthquake alert, everyone ran downstairs,” Chaw Su Thwe, a Myanmar national living in Hokkaido, told the BBC. “However, this time the shaking was relatively mild.

“Right now, local authorities are using loudspeakers in the neighbourhood to warn people about a possible tsunami and to stay alert,” she added. “Office workers have been allowed to leave work early.”

A number of bullet trains were affected, and 100 homes were without power, Japan’s Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters. He said there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

Train services resumed on Monday night.

More than 170,000 people across several prefectures were ordered to evacuate after tsunami warnings were issued across parts of Japan’s east coast.

The warning was the second-highest of three levels of alert, with people being told to leave coastal and riverside areas and move to higher ground or an evacuation building.

“Tsunami waves are expected to hit repeatedly. Do not leave safe ground until the warning is lifted,” Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) told reporters in the hours after the quake – a plea echoed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who urged people to get to “higher, safer places”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czd7m7d699do

As large language models take over more and more cognitive tasks, researchers are warning this mental outsourcing comes with a cost.

When research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna was looking for interns, she noticed that cover letters she received were suspiciously similar. They were long, polished and after introductions would often jump to an abstract and arbitrary connection to her work.

It was obvious to her that applicants were using large language models (LLMs) – a form of artificial intelligence that powers chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude – to write the letters.

At the same time, during lessons on campus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Kosmyna, who studies the interaction between humans and computers, noticed that numerous students were forgetting content more easily compared to a few years ago.

With the increasing reliance on LLMs, she had a hunch that this could be affecting her students’ cognition and sought to understand more.

The concern that researchers like Kosmyna have is that if we become too reliant on AI, it could affect the language we use and even our ability to do basic cognitive tasks. There is now a growing body of research suggesting that this “cognitive offloading” to AI can have a corrosive effect on our mental abilities. The consequences could be alarming and may even contribute to cognitive decline.

It’s well known that the tools we use can change how we think. With the advent of the internet for instance, tasks that once required deep research could be found by plugging a simple query into a search box. As the use of search engines increased, research found we became less likely to remember details, something dubbed “the Google effect”. (Some argue, however, the internet also serves as an external memory system that frees up our brain to do other tasks.)

But there is now growing alarm that as we offload even more of our thinking to LLMs and other forms of AI, the effects on our memories and ability to solve problems could get worse. Artificial intelligence tools can write convincing poetry, give financial advice and provide companionship. Students are increasingly outsourcing their own work to AI tools as well.

Studies have already shown that young people might be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects that using AI can have on key cognitive skills like critical thinking. Kosmyna, however, wanted to dig deeper into the potential effects.

Reduced mental effort

She and her colleagues at MIT Media Lab recruited 54 students to write short essays and split them into three groups. One was instructed to use ChatGPT. A second could use Google search, with AI-generated summaries turned off. The third didn’t use technology. Each student’s brainwaves were measured while they worked.

The essay topics were deliberately open-ended, meaning little research was needed for the task, with prompts including questions around loyalty, happiness or our daily life choices.

The results haven’t been published in a scientific journal yet, but they were none-the-less eye-opening, according to Kosmyna. Those who used their own minds had a brain that was “on fire”, showing widespread activity across many parts of the brain, she says. The search engine-only group still showed strong activity in the visual parts of the brain, but the ChatGPT group showed notably less brain activity – it was reduced by up to 55%.

“The brain didn’t fall asleep, but there was much less activation in the areas corresponding to creativity and to processing information,” says Kosmyna.

ChatGPT also affected people’s memories. After submitting their essays, people in the AI group were unable to quote from their essays, and several felt they had no ownership over the work. Other studies have also shown that people become less able to retain and recall information when they use AI tools such as ChatGPT.

While the findings are still undergoing peer review, they echo those from other studies. One study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that some people undergo something they term “cognitive surrender” when using generative AI chatbots. This means they tend to accept what the AI tells them with minimal scrutiny and even allow it to override their own intuition.

Similar effects can be found outside the world of AI chatbots too – even in life-or-death situations. A recent multinational study team found that medical professionals who used an AI tool to screen for colon cancer for three months were subsequently worse at spotting the tumours without it.

Outsourcing work to AI also risks losing much of the creativity that produces original work, warns Kosmyna. The essays that students in her study wrote with ChatGPT looked very similar and were described by the teachers marking them as “soulless”, lacking originality and depth, Kosmyna says. “One of the teachers asked if students were sitting next to each other because the essays were so similar.”

While studies such as these illustrate the short-term effects LLMs can have on the brain, the long-term impacts are far less clear. The study by Kosmyna and her colleagues provides a glimpse. Four months after the initial study they asked the students to write another essay, but this time those who had used ChatGPT were told to work without LLM support. The neural connectivity in their brains was lower than those who switched the opposite way, perhaps indicating that they had not engaged with the topics properly in the first place.

Cognitive decline

Yet, LLMs can be a positive tool to aid thinking, but only if we don’t rely on them by outsourcing our mental tasks in the process, says computational neuroscientist Vivienne Ming, author of Robot Proof. She’s concerned though that this is not how most people interact with this technology.

Her reasoning comes from research she conducted for her book, during which Ming asked a group of students at the University of Berkeley to predict real-world outcomes, such as the price of oil. She found that the majority of participants simply asked AI and copied the answer.

She measured their brains’ gamma wave activity – a marker of cognitive effort – finding it showed very little activation. Again her research is yet to published, but Ming worries that if her findings are borne out in further studies it could have long-term implications. Other research, for example, has linked weak gamma wave activity to cognitive decline later in life.

“That’s really worrying,” Ming says. “If that is a natural mode for people to interact with these systems – and these are smart kids – that’s bad.” Deep thinking, she says, is our superpower. “If we don’t use it, the long-term implications for cognitive health are pretty strong.”

That’s because when we rely on LLMs it requires very little cognitive effort, Ming adds, which is exactly what’s needed for a healthy brain.

A small subset of participants though – less than 10% – worked differently and used AI as a tool to gather data that they then analysed themselves. These individuals made more accurate predictions than others participants and showed stronger brain activation too.

Almost two decades ago, Ming predicted that within 20 to 30 years we would see a statistically meaningful rise in dementia rates directly related to our overreliance on Google Maps. “I meant it to be provocative,” Ming says. “If you don’t have to think about navigating then there’ll be some detectable effect.”

While we don’t have data on this exact prediction, the increased use of GPS has been linked to worse spatial memory over time, according to one study of 13 people conducted over three years. And poor spatial navigation may be a potential predictor of Alzheimer’s Disease, accordng to another study.

It’s clear that the more active our brain is, the more protected it is from cognitive decline. LLMs then, Ming says, could not only reduce creativity but could harm cognition and potentially increase the risk of dementia.

As AI tool use increases, we need to work with it in a way that benefits us rather than harms us. Ming suggests that ultimately, the goal could be a form of “hybrid intelligence” where humans and machines “do the hard stuff” together. By this she means we need to think first and use tools to challenge us later, rather than simply letting them answer questions for us. Kosmyna agrees and suggests learning subjects without AI tools first to build a foundation and then think about using LLMs.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260417-ai-chatbots-could-be-making-you-stupider

Russian authorities said one man was killed in a Ukrainian drone raid on city of Tuapse. Meanwhile, Russia arrested a German woman in an alleged bomb plot.

Sudan’s war has displaced millions, leaving parts of the country facing famine. Aid agencies warn children are bearing the brunt as food shortages worsen and humanitarian funding declines.

“The reality for children in Sudan is growing darker hour by hour,” Eva Hinds, spokeswoman for the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF), said last week as the country’s civil war entered its fourth year.

The conflict broke out in April 2023 between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) following the collapse of a fragile transition to civilian rule after Sudan’s 2019 uprising.

Fighting has since spread across much of the country, devastating cities and displacing more than 13 million people, the World Health Organization reported.

More than 4,300 children have been killed or maimed since the war began, according to UNICEF, with Darfur and Kordofan states accounting for the highest numbers.

Ashan Abeywardena, emergency response manager at War Child, an organization working to ensure a safer future for every child caught up in war, said the conflict had had a severe impact on minors.

“Going through three years of conflict has had a massive impact on these children and women. Children’s daily lives are shaped by news of death and destruction,” Abeywardena told DW.

Many of the deaths and injuries have been caused by indiscriminate drone attacks — a weapon that is increasingly used by both sides in the conflict.

“Drones are killing and wounding girls and boys in their homes, in markets, on the roads, near schools and health facilities — all places that should never be targets,” UNICEF’s Hinds told reporters.

“In the first three months of this year, nearly 700 civilians were reportedly killed in drone strikes,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.

Both the RSF and SAF have used drones to attack civilian infrastructure in a bid to slow the advance of their opponents. The effect is that hospitals, roads, and schools have been destroyed, further worsening the plight of the civilian population.

Humanitarian crisis spills over into East Africa

The effects of the war are being felt throughout East Africa.

DW Kenya correspondent Andrew Wasike said the conflict is no longer seen as contained within Sudan.

“In East Africa, the war is not just a distant conflict. It’s both a humanitarian catastrophe and a regional security problem,” Wasike said, adding that displacement, disrupted trade routes and political tensions are weighing on neighboring countries.

“The conversation is no longer only about Khartoum or Darfur. We are all feeling the impact,” he added.

Despite the scale of suffering, Sudan has struggled to remain a global priority. The United Nations’ top official in the country, Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said the crisis-ridden country has effectively been abandoned. She described widespread atrocities documented by the UN, including systematic sexual violence, sieges that have left whole communities facing famine, and mass killings.

She pointed to a particularly deadly episode last year, when thousands were reportedly killed within days during fighting in the city of el-Fasher.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-war-enters-fourth-year-as-child-hunger-crisis-deepens/a-76837481

News outlets in the US and around the world extensively cover the second administration of Donald Trump. Amid this flood of information on current events, film directors Demid Sheronkin and Can Dündar take a step back to assess the state of free speech and democracy in the US with their new DW documentary, “Democracy Under Attack: Can Dündar and Trump’s America,” which premiered on April 14 at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin.

Dündar, a Turkish journalist and writer now living in exile in Berlin, pointed out at the film’s premiere that as they developed the project, they faced the challenge of finding an angle that could withstand Trump’s turbocharged news cycle.

“We decided to focus on the situation of the academics, as a kind of microcosm reflecting the attacks on democracy,” he explained.

Scholar faced death threats, doxxing and airport interrogations

Mark Bray, one of the university professors interviewed in the documentary, is among the most high-profile cases of academics targeted by the far right.

As the author of the book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” the Rutgers University history professor was added to an online list of academics known as the “Professor Watchlist,” launched in 2016 by the far-right organization Turning Point USA.

After the assassination of the organization’s founder Charlie Kirk in September 2025, Trump signed an executive order designating the antifa movement as a “domestic terrorist organization.” From then on, death threats intensified against Bray, as students from the Turning Point USA chapter of his university denounced him for promoting political violence.

When Bray’s home address started circulating in his harassers’ emails, the scholar — who does not define himself as a member of the highly decentralized antifa movement — decided to uproot his family and relocate to Spain.

In the documentary, Bray and his wife describe the disturbing obstacles they faced before being finally able to leave the country — including their flight reservations to Spain being mysteriously canceled without them being informed.

AmericaFest: A surreal ideological battleground

The most intense scenes in the documentary were shot at AmericaFest 2025, the first of Turning Point USA’s annual conventions to be held after Kirk’s death. The 30,000 attendees celebrated him like a martyr.

DW filmmaker Demid Sheronkin was unsettled by the event’s surreal atmosphere. “It felt like a blend of political rally and Christian service — a battleground and a festival.”

The documentary shows conservative speakers stirring up the MAGA crowd with one fiery speech after the other. “We are at war,” said former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. “We are in a political and ideological war.”

Ava Kwan, the Rutgers University student who petitioned to have Bray removed from his position, was also celebrated on stage like a star. Interviewed in the DW documentary, she said her initiative aimed to ensure the students’ safety. While she said she felt sorry Bray had to face death threats, she didn’t feel responsible for them, adding that she too ended up having her private information doxxed online.

But beyond the loaded atmosphere at the AmericaFest convention, the ideological divide can be felt everywhere in the country. Even though research shows that academics generally have more liberal leanings than the general public, the film offers a reminder that voices representing the far-right extreme of the political spectrum also exist among scholars.

Amy Wax, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, shares her white supremacist views in an interview in the documentary. Due to controversial statements, Wax was suspended at half pay and removed from teaching for the 2025-26 school year, but she did not lose her tenure.

Drawing lessons from firsthand oppression experience in Turkey

As the host of the film, Can Dündar draws lessons from the oppression he has experienced firsthand in his home country.

The Turkish investigative journalist became a global symbol of press freedom after being imprisoned for his reporting. He survived an assassination attempt and was ultimately forced into exile from his home country, landing in Berlin in 2016.

Considered a fugitive by Turkish authorities, Dündar did not travel to the US for the documentary project, following the advice of his lawyers. “I didn’t want to become a good gift of Trump to Erdogan,” he noted.

But Dündar did travel to Canada for another interview. Even there, authorities interrogated him for several hours upon his arrival, due to his “terrorist” label. In Toronto, he met another expert on fascism who decided to flee Trump’s America, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley.

Stanley, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, is very pessimistic in his assessment of the situation: “The US is not in a temporary crisis. The US is over as a project.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/attacks-on-us-academics-a-microcosm-of-a-larger-threat-to-democracy/a-76777273

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she would demand explanations over what U.S. and Mexican officials were doing in northern Chihuahua when they died in an accident over the weekend, noting that any joint collaborations between the local government and the U.S. without federal permission would be a violation of Mexican law.

The crash, following an operation to destroy a clandestine drug lab in a rural area, has reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexican security operations. Speculation was only fueled by Sheinbaum, local officials and the U.S. Embassy appearing to contradict each other and at times themselves, and offering sparse details about the U.S. officials who died.

“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.”

It comes at a key moment for the relationship between the two neighboring nations as Mexico faces escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump crack down on cartels and Sheinbaum underscores Mexico’s sovereignty.

Sheinbaum said her government would investigate the incident to ensure no laws were broken after the deaths on Sunday, adding that state governments must have authorization from Mexico’s federal government to collaborate with U.S. and other foreign entities “as established by the Constitution.”

A mountainside car crash

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday the officials died while returning from the operation to destroy labs of criminal groups. They were driving in the middle of the night through rugged mountain territory connecting Chihuahua to the state of Sinaloa, when the truck “appears to have skidded at some point and fell into a ravine, exploding.”

He said the four who died were two local Mexican investigative officials and two U.S. Embassy instructors who were participating in routine “training work.”

The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify who the U.S. officials were or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.” U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson expressed his condolences on social media but he and other officials provided few details of the incident.

Jáuregui said that the operation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico’s federal military, indicating there was at least some level of involvement in the operation from Sheinbaum’s security forces. Hours later, the Mexican Security Cabinet confirmed that the army and state prosecutor’s office carried out a joint operation over the weekend in Chihuahua dismantling drug labs in the same location, Morelos.

After locating the labs using drones, officials found tons of material to manufacture drugs but no people, who were likely alerted beforehand and fled, the prosecutor added.

The local official later backtracked and clarified to press that there “were no U.S. agents in the operation to secure the narco-lab,” and said the embassy officials joined the group after the operation and were several hours away from where the action took place.

A resurfaced debate

Sheinbaum said her government would provide more information when it has more details, but insisted Monday that “there are no joint operations on land or in the air” in Mexico. She said there is only sharing of information between her government and the U.S., carried out within a “well-established” legal framework.

While U.S. officials’ training of Mexican security forces is common, their presence on Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, intervention which Sheinbaum has said was “unnecessary. ” The Trump administration has already launched joint military operations in Ecuador, a country that has been roiled by violence by drug gangs in recent years.

Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico’s request after a series of conflicting public statements on the issue, also sparking alarm among observers.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/mexico-sheinbaum-chihuahua-us-officials-deaths-646664d05452ddbad7b39b9d480fd46e

An armed man standing atop one of the historic Teotihuacan pyramids opened fire on tourists Monday, killing one Canadian and leaving at least 13 people injured at the archaeological site north of Mexico’s capital, authorities said.

The shooter was identified as 27-year-old Julio Cesar Jasso of Mexico, a state official told the AP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the case. Jasso later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said, and security officials found a gun, a knife and ammunition. Jasso was the sole assailant in the attack, the State of Mexico government confirmed on Monday night.

The local government said seven people were wounded by gunshots. How the other people were injured was not disclosed, but a number of people fell when shooting started, some while climbing on the pyramids.

Those taken to hospitals for treatment were six Americans, three Colombians, one Russian, two Brazilians and one Canadian, the local government said. The youngest person who was injured was 6; the oldest was 61, Mexican authorities said.

Video and photos published by local media showed a man, later identified as Jasso, standing with a gun on top of a pyramid while people ducked for cover. A number of gunshots rang out in the videos.

The Teotihuacan pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are a series of massive structures on the outskirts of Mexico City built by three different ancient civilizations. As one of Mexico’s most important touristic destinations, the site drew more than 1.8 million international visitors last year, according to government figures.

The shooting took place shortly after 11:30 a.m. when dozens of tourists were at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. The standing on the structure’s platform began firing upward, according to a tour guide who was at the scene and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“Some people, because they were scared … threw themselves face down on the ground, and the rest of us started to go down,” the guide said, recounting how the shooter, upon seeing the tourists descending the pyramid’s steps, began firing.

Another group of visitors lay motionless on the pyramid’s platform to avoid being targeted by the shooter, who authorities have not yet identified.

Brenda Lee, of Vancouver, British Columbia, said she was waiting to buy a souvenir when she and others in her group thought they heard firecrackers.

“Before we knew it, someone said, ‘No, that’s gunfire, run,’ and we saw people coming off the top,” she told CTV News, one of Canada’s national television broadcasters.

“There were thousands of people there and there were a lot of gunshots that just kept coming,” Lee said.

The scene quickly turned chaotic as people tried to escape, Lee said.

“And then a fellow jumped,” she said. “It was someone trying to get away, and he dropped to the next level, but he fell on his back, and it was … it just was awful.”

In past years, staff at the archaeological site carried out security scans before people entered the area but have since stopped, one local guide noted.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/shooting-teotihuacuan-pyramid-canadian-killed-cfb0ee81bf45ab5df335a17363631296

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, the White House said Monday, after multiple allegations of abusing her position’s power, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump Cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month.

In a statement posted on social media, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump and wrote, “I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.”

Unlike other recent Cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer’s exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his social media account.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said on the social media site X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”

He said Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary, would become acting labor secretary in her place. The news outlet NOTUS was the first to report Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation.

Labor chief, family members faced multiple allegations

Chavez-DeRemer’s departure follows reports that began surfacing in January that she was under a series of investigations.

A New York Times report last Wednesday revealed that the Labor Department’s inspector general was reviewing material showing Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members.

Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members, according to the newspaper. Some of the staffers were instructed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to “pay attention” to her family, people familiar with the investigation told the Times.

Those messages were uncovered as part of a broader investigation of Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership that began after the New York Post reported in January that a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of a relationship with the subordinate.

She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job and that she tasked aides to plan official trips for primarily personal reasons.

Late Monday, on her personal X account, Chavez-DeRemer posted, “The allegations against me, my family, and my team have been peddled by high-ranked deep state actors who have been coordinating with the one-sided news media and continue to undermine President Trump’s mission.”

Both the White House and the Labor Department initially said the reports of wrongdoing were baseless. But the official denials got less full-throated as more allegations emerged — and when Chavez-DeRemer might be out of a job became something of an open question in Washington.

At least four Labor Department officials have already been forced from their jobs as the investigation progressed, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security detail, with whom she was accused of having the affair, The New York Times reported.

“I think the secretary demonstrated a lot of wisdom in resigning,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday after her departure was made public.

She enjoyed union support — rare for a Republican

Confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on a 67-32 vote in March 2025, Chavez-DeRemer is a former House GOP lawmaker who had represented a swing district in Oregon. She enjoyed unusual support from unions as a Republican but lost reelection in November 2024.

In her single term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer backed legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level, as well as a separate bill aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for public-sector employees.

Some prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, backed Chavez-DeRemer, who is a daughter of a Teamster, for Labor Secretary. Trump’s decision to pick her was viewed by some political observers as a way to appeal to voters who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations.

But other powerful labor leaders were skeptical when she was tapped for the job, unconvinced that Chavez-DeRemer would pursue a union-friendly agenda as a part of the incoming GOP administration. In her Senate confirmation hearing, some senators questioned whether she would be able to uphold that reputation in an administration that fired thousands of federal employees.

She was a key figure in Trump’s deregulatory push

Aside from reports of wrongdoing in recent months, Chavez-DeRemer had been one of Trump’s more lower-profile Cabinet picks, but took key steps to advance the administration’s deregulatory agenda during her tenure.

For instance, the Labor Department last year moved to rewrite or repeal more than 60 workplace regulations it saw as obsolete. The rollbacks included minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities, and rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures at mines. The effort drew condemnation from union leaders and workplace safety experts.

The proposed changes also included eliminating a requirement that employers provide adequate lighting for construction sites and seat belts for agriculture workers in most employer-provided transportation.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/lori-chavez-deremer-resigns-trump-cabinet-926a5d655890fe5ec348cbf959233481

Japan on Tuesday scrapped a ban on lethal weapons exports, a major change in its postwar pacifist policy as the country seeks to build up its arms industry amid worries over Chinese and North Korean aggression.

The approval by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet of the new guideline clears a final set of hurdles for many arms sales, including of a next-generation fighter jet and combat drones.

China criticized the change in policy, but it has been largely welcomed by Japanese defense partners like Australia and attracted interest from Southeast Asia and Europe.

Opponents say the change violates Japan’s pacifist constitution and will increase global tensions and threaten the safety of the Japanese people.

The new policy will “ensure safety for Japan and further contribute to the peace and stability in the region and the international society as the security environment around our country rapidly changes,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters. “The government will strategically promote defense equipment transfers to create a security environment that is desirable for Japan and to build up the industrial base that can support fighting resilience.”

Japan could start selling weapons like fighter jets, missiles and destroyers

Japan has long prohibited most arms exports under its post-World War II pacifist constitution. It has made recent changes because of rising global and regional tensions, but exports were limited to five areas: rescue, transport, alerts, surveillance and minesweeping.

The new guidelines scrap those limits and allows the export of equipment such as fighter jets, missiles and destroyers. That’s a major change from existing exports such as flak jackets, gas masks and civilian-use vehicles that Japan has sent to Ukraine and intelligence radars sold to the Philippines.

For now, such exports will be limited to 17 countries that have signed defense equipment and technology transfer agreements with Japan. They also must be approved by the National Security Council, and the government will monitor how the weapons are managed afterward.

In principle, Japan still will not export lethal weapons to countries that are at war.

Japan began to export some non-lethal military supplies in 2014, and in December 2023 it approved a change that would allow sales of dozens of lethal weapons and components that it manufactures under licenses from other countries back to the licensors, clearing the way for Japan to sell U.S.-designed Patriot missiles to America to make up for munitions that Washington sent to Ukraine.

The 2023 revision also paved the way for Japan to jointly develop a sixth-generation fighter jet with Britain and Italy, and for Japan’s biggest arms deal ever, which was formalized last week with Australia. It calls for Japan to deliver the first three of a $6.5 billion fleet of Japanese-designed frigates for the Australian navy and jointly build eight others in that country.

Japan aims to build up its arms industry

Japan’s domestic defense industry was long seen as a bad investment, limited to catering to only the Self-Defense Force and Defense Ministry. Dozens of former defense contractors have withdrawn from the market.

That is changing as Japan accelerates a buildup of its military and defense industry to play more offensive roles in the face of threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

The defense industry is one of 17 strategic areas targeted for growth under the Takaichi government. A growing number of major companies and startups are showing interest, especially in dual-use goods and drones.

The government also has increased funding for startups and academic research.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-lethal-weapons-export-takaichi-767250e58084ea3d585ab736372deeac

Iran has rejected negotiations “under the shadow of threats,” with Ghalibaf accusing Trump of turning peace talks into a “table of surrender” amid US blockade.

Iran’s top negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has accused US President Donald Trump of attempting to pressure Tehran into submission, warning that Iran is prepared to escalate if negotiations are conducted “under the shadow of threats.”

His remarks, posted on X, come as uncertainty surrounds possible US-Iran peace talks expected to take place in Pakistan before the expiration of a fragile two-week ceasefire.

“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table, in his own imagination, into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

He added, “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

According to Reuters, Iran is considering attending the proposed talks in Pakistan, though no final decision has been made.

A senior Iranian official was quoted as saying that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation, marking a shift from earlier positions that ruled out negotiations amid escalating tensions.

CEASEFIRE UNDER PRESSURE

The potential talks come as a two-week ceasefire in a conflict that has “killed thousands and roiled the global economy” approaches its expiry.

The truce, announced by Trump on April 7, is expected to end this week, with a Pakistani source indicating the deadline would fall at 8 pm ET on Wednesday, corresponding to midnight GMT or 3.30 am Thursday in Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said “continued violations of the ceasefire” by the United States pose a major obstacle to diplomacy, the report mentioned.

Araqchi conveyed Tehran’s position in a telephone call with Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, stressing that Iran has yet to determine its next steps.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also criticised Washington’s stance, saying “unconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials carry a bitter message. They seek Iran’s surrender.”

He added, “Iranians do not submit to force.”

BLOCKADE DISPUTE COMPLICATES DIPLOMACY

Reuters reported that a key sticking point in the negotiations is the US blockade of Iranian ports, which Tehran views as a violation of the ceasefire framework.

A Pakistani security source said mediator Field Marshal Asim Munir had conveyed to Trump that the blockade posed an obstacle to talks, with Trump promising to consider ending the measure.

Iran has meanwhile used its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route that handles roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply, as part of its negotiating position.

Shipping activity through the channel slowed significantly, with data showing only three crossings in a 12-hour period, contributing to a roughly 5 per cent increase in oil prices.

US SEIZURE OF IRANIAN VESSEL HEIGHTENS TENSIONS

Tensions escalated further after the US military said it had fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel heading toward Bandar Abbas following a standoff.

Reuters reported that the US Central Command released a video showing Marines descending from helicopters onto the ship.

Maritime security sources cited by Reuters said the vessel was believed to be carrying “dual-use items” that could potentially be used for military purposes.

Iran’s military condemned the interception as “armed piracy,” according to state media, and warned it was prepared to confront US forces but was constrained by the presence of civilians on board.

China, identified by Reuters as the main buyer of Iranian crude, expressed concern over the interception, with President Xi Jinping calling for ships to resume passage through the strait and urging a political and diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iran-rejects-talks-under-threat-ghalibaf-trump-ceasefire-blockade-pakistan-peace-talks-strait-of-hormuz-tensions-ws-l-10046378.html

In the CENTCOM video, a US soldier is seen pointing a heavy-calibre machinegun at a vessel as the Americans give warnings on radio

The US Central Command, or CENTCOM, has shared a video showing a machine-gunner in a helicopter warning a cargo vessel to turn back from leaving or entering Iran’s ports, in a demonstration of how American forces have been enforcing the blockade amid the war with Iran.

Iran has also blocked the Strait of Hormuz after a brief window of calm, reigniting concerns over its immediate implications on global oil trade.

In the CENTCOM video, a US soldier is seen pointing a heavy-calibre machinegun at a vessel as the Americans give warnings on radio.

“This is United States Warship 115. You are entering an area of a military blockade. This blockade of Iranian ports will be enforced and applies to all vessels regardless of flag,” the video on the radio said.

“Any vessel with further intent to enter or exit an Iranian port will be subject to the right of visit and search in accordance with international law. If you attempt to run [from] the blockade we will compel compliance with force. Over.”

CENTCOM said US forces have made 27 vessels to turn around or return to an Iranian port as part of its military blockade of the waterway.

“Since the commencement of the blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, US forces have directed 27 vessels to turn around or return to an Iranian port,” CENTCOM said.

Iran is also banking on the Strait of Hormuz as its main card in any peace negotiations with the US, but using the waterway as leverage is not without risk for the Islamic republic.

While causing global economic pain gives Iran negotiating leverage, it can’t escape the blowback entirely, with the US blockade halting oil exports worth tens of millions of dollars each day.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/video-us-chopper-points-machinegun-at-ship-near-iran-sends-warning-on-radio-11385197?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Donald Trump clarified that he is not under any “pressure” on making a deal with Iran, further adding to the uncertainty over the future of the war.

US President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at the Democrats, alleging attempts to hurt Washington’s position amid the ongoing war with Iran. The Republican clarified in a Truth Social post that he is not under any “pressure” with respect to making a deal with Iran, even as the two-week ceasefire is set to expire soon.

In another post, he asserted that he was “winning the war by a lot” as he listed the big losses for Iran in the war. The US President also said that the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would continue until the a deal is finalised, which he said would happen “relatively quickly”.

“I read the Fake News saying that I am under “pressure” to make a Deal. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, further adding that time was not his adversary in this case.

He also said that the new deal being negotiated with Iran would be better than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the international Iran nuclear deal agreed upon earlier.

Trump lashes out at Democrats, ‘fake news’ media

Donald Trump defended his timeline of six weeks for the US conflict with Iran, saying it was “far faster” than other conflicts like World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, that lasted years.

He accused the Democrats of trying to “hurt the very strong position” the US currently holds in the ongoing war and said that he won’t be rushed into securing a deal that may not be so good.

He also hit out at Presidents before him for lacking the “Courage or Foresight” to do the needful with respect to Iran and said: “We’re in it, and it will be done RIGHT, and we won’t let the Weak and Pathetic Democrats, TRAITORS ALL, who for years have been talking about the Dangers of Iran, and that something has to be done, but now, since I’m the one doing it, belittle the accomplishments of our Military and the Trump Administration.”

Not just the Democrats, Trump also launched attacks on what he termed “anti-America fake news” media that were “rooting for Iran to win”. He listed some leading US publications and alleged that their reporting suggested that the US was losing.

“I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well, our Military has been amazing,” Trump wrote, contradicting such reports.

Uncertainty as ceasefire deadline approaches

The future of the ongoing war remains uncertain, with the two-week ceasefire deadline set to end on Wednesday, April 22, and a lack of clarity on the fresh round of negotiations in Pakistan’s Islamabad.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/donald-trump-under-no-pressure-iran-us-deal-pakistan-talks-democrats-ceasefire-deadline-end-date-101776707447713.html

Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, ​a significant obstacle to Tehran rejoining peace efforts as the end of a two-week ceasefire approaches.
However, the official stressed that no decision had been made and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that “continued violations of ‌the ceasefire” by the U.S. are a major obstacle to continuing the diplomatic process.

Araqchi told his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in a telephone call that Iran, while taking all aspects of the matter into account, had yet to decide how to proceed further.
On Monday night, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused U.S. President Donald Trump on X of increasing pressure on Tehran through the blockade and ceasefire violations, saying Iran rejects negotiations under threat.
The two-week ceasefire in a conflict that has killed thousands and roiled the global economy, particularly energy markets, is set to expire this week.
It had appeared ​to be in jeopardy after the U.S. said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Tehran vowed to retaliate.

In the Islamabad talks, Trump is eager for a deal that would ​help avoid another surge in oil prices and plunge in stock markets. Iran hopes to leverage its control of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping channel for global energy supplies, ⁠to get an agreement that prevents a resumption of the war, and allows financial relief from long-running sanctions and some breathing room for its nuclear program.
Adding to the uncertainty, Vice President JD Vance remained in the United States on Monday, a separate ​source told Reuters, denying reports he was already on his way to Pakistan for talks.
The unnamed senior Iranian official said Tehran was “positively reviewing” its participation, a shift from earlier statements ruling out attendance and pledging to retaliate for U.S. aggression.
The official said mediator ​Pakistan was making positive efforts to end the U.S. blockade and ensure Iran’s participation.

Trump announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran on April 7, and has not specified when precisely it ends.
A Pakistani source involved in the talks said it would expire at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, which would be midnight GMT or 3:30 a.m. Thursday in Iran.
Trump said on social media that he believed his administration’s nuclear deal with Iran would be better than a 2015 international agreement reached after years of negotiations under then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
Trump withdrew from that agreement – which had been ​vehemently opposed by congressional Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – in 2018, during his first term as president.
It was unclear what kind of agreement could be reached in just a few days of talks, but the Republican U.S. president predicted a ​quick result.
“I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

BLOCKADE POSES A PROBLEM

A Pakistani security source said Pakistani mediator Field Marshal Asim Munir had told Trump the blockade was an obstacle to talks, and ‌that Trump had ⁠promised to consider ending it.
The U.S. was hoping to start negotiations in Pakistan shortly before the ceasefire expires.
However, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that “unconstructive & contradictory signals from American officials carry a bitter message; they seek Iran’s surrender.”
“Iranians do not submit to force,” he added on X.
The U.S. has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran lifted and then reimposed its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply.
Oil prices rose around 5% as traders remained fearful that the ceasefire would collapse. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was at a virtual standstill with just three crossings in the space of 12 hours, according to shipping data.

U.S. MARINES BOARD IRANIAN VESSEL

The U.S. military said it had fired ​on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship headed towards Iran’s Bandar Abbas ​port on Sunday after a standoff. U.S. Central Command ⁠released video showing Marines descending ropes from helicopters onto the vessel.
The vessel is likely to have been carrying what Washington deems dual-use items that could be used by the military, maritime security sources said on Monday.
Iran’s military said the ship had been travelling from China and accused the U.S. of “armed piracy”, according to state media. They said they were ready to confront U.S. ​forces over the “blatant aggression”, but were constrained by the presence of crew members’ families on board.
China, the main buyer of Iranian crude, expressed concern over the “forced interception”, and Chinese President ​Xi Jinping called for ships to ⁠resume passage through the strait as normal and for the conflict to be resolved through political and diplomatic channels, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Trump warned on Sunday that the U.S. would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if it rejected his terms, continuing a recent pattern of such threats.
Iran has said that if the United States were to attack its civilian infrastructure, it would strike power stations and desalination plants in its Gulf Arab neighbours.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/world-weighs-fate-mideast-ceasefire-after-us-seizes-iranian-cargo-ship-2026-04-20/

The U.S. ​Air Force secretary extended the life of the A-10 “Warthog” attack plane until 2030, ‌sparing the aging but beloved close air support aircraft that has played an important role in Iran from an earlier retirement deadline of 2026.
“We will EXTEND the A-10 ‘Warthog’ platform to 2030,” Air Force Secretary Troy ​Meink posted on social media, adding the move “preserves combat power as the Defense Industrial ​Base works to increase combat aircraft production.”

The decision is the latest chapter in ⁠a long-running battle over the fate of the plane, which first flew in 1976 ​and has been on the Pentagon’s chopping block for more than two decades. The A-10 has ​been used in the current conflict with Iran, according to U.S. Central Command. Its powerful nose-mounted guns have been used against Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports.
Some in the Air Force have ​long argued that the Warthog is too old, too slow and too expensive to maintain, ​and that retiring it would free up money for modernization priorities like development of hypersonic weapons. Critics have ‌warned ⁠that cutting the fleet without a suitable replacement would leave ground troops without adequate air support.

But the A-10 has proven almost impossible to kill, in large part because of its political staying power. The largest concentration of the fleet is based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in ​Tucson, Arizona, contributing to ​the local economy. The ⁠Air Force ranks among the region’s top employers. Arizona is a battleground state that has become increasingly influential in deciding U.S. presidential races.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-air-force-says-key-iran-warplane-a-10-warthog-will-live-2030-2026-04-20/

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by parents to sue a public school district in Massachusetts over actions by teachers and officials to support the gender ​identity of students by not disclosing name or pronoun changes to parents without the child’s consent.
The justices turned away an appeal by ‌the parents of a student who had self-identified as “genderqueer” while attending a middle school in the Massachusetts town of Ludlow after a lower court threw out their lawsuit.

The plaintiffs claimed officials treated their child as nonbinary and hid this information from them in violation of their fundamental parental rights as protected by the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of due process.
The case ​comes in the wake of a significant decision by the court on March 2 to block similar measures in California that could limit the sharing ​of information with parents about the gender identity of transgender public school students without the child’s permission.
Disputes over efforts to ⁠support and protect the privacy of transgender and gender non-conforming students are playing out across the United States. The court in 2024 turned away similar challenges ​in Wisconsin and Maryland.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is also confronting escalating efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration and Republican-led states to restrict the rights of transgender ​people. In June 2025, the court upheld a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. In January, the court also appeared ready to uphold state laws banning transgender athletes from female sports teams, with a ruling still pending on that matter.
The Massachusetts parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, said in court papers that teachers and officials at Baird Middle School ​in Ludlow pushed “gender ideology” on children without the knowledge of parents. As a result, the plaintiffs said, their 11-year-old child, known as “B.F.,” began to question the ​student’s gender identity.

After asking teachers and staff to use a new name and pronoun, the student also asked school officials to continue to use the child’s original name and female ‌pronouns when ⁠communicating with the parents, according to court filings.
The child identified as genderqueer, meaning a person who does not follow binary gender male-female norms.
The parents sued the town, the Ludlow School Committee and certain officials, saying their actions undermined their 14th Amendment due process rights, which the Supreme Court has long held protects the fundamental right of parents to direct the care and upbringing of their children.
The parents said that “so-called gender transition” is harmful and that theirs is a moral objection, not a ​religious one. They are being represented ​at the Supreme Court by the ⁠Alliance Defending Freedom conservative Christian legal group.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-rejects-massachusetts-school-gender-identity-policy-challenge-2026-04-20/

MALICIOUS actors plotting to bring down governments and wreak havoc on the world need only a petri dish to spark devastation, experts fear.

The threat of an apocalyptic bioterrorism attack is growing – with insiders warning we are edging closer to a nightmare scenario where extremists could unleash “unnatural” pandemics.

This refers to disease outbreaks caused by the deliberate release of deadly pathogens – from weaponised strains of Ebola to the reintroduction of smallpox.

High-tech labs have given militant groups unprecedented power to open the floodgates of disease, insiders say.

Professor Richard Sullivan, a biosecurity expert and adviser to the World Health Organisation, warned that weak lab security and oversight makes infiltration the likeliest route for hostile agents.

He told The Sun: “There are two real possibilities for them. One is they steal material from a biological facility. And the other option is using human beings as a dispersal mechanism.

“Take somebody who has Ebola, they are a walking infected agent.

“Think about how easy transmission is. You could easily see terrorists taking somebody with an infection like this and marching them around an airport, for example.”

Such an outbreak would spark mass panic, shut borders and could even cripple economies within days.

Sullivan said: “It’s a hardcore terror tactic. There’s a reason the Russians use Polonium and Novichok. They could have just shot the person, but those agents create much more fear.

“The psychological, social, and economic impact of using a biological weapon over a conventional weapon is orders of magnitude greater.

“It’s much more frightening. You’ll get people’s attention. It has a wider impact.”

Members of the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult cultivated this fear to great effect with a deadly chemical terror attack on the Tokyo metro in 1995.

Ten perpetrators released sarin, a deadly nerve agent, on three trains and left 14 people dead and over 1,000 injured.

American Anthrax attacks in the early 2000s led to a wave of mass-hysteria.

These were particularly terrifying – as “dormant” spores contained within letters reactivated when they were inhaled, killing the recipient.

And while bioterrorism is the most chilling scenario, experts warn that a biocatastrophe of some kind is almost certainly on the cards in the near future.

Sullivan said there are three ways a devastating pandemic could begin – with natural outbreaks still the most likely.

He said: “The most likely would be a natural outbreak, what we call a zoonotic spillover.

“Because of conflict, massive movement of people, and the way humans are interacting, we are creating the conditions for those spillovers.”

Scientists refer to the unknown next threat as Disease X – a mystery virus potentially 20 times deadlier than Covid that is capable of spreading rapidly across the globe.

“We’ve seen it with SARS and coronaviruses, but there are others like Ebola or hemorrhagic fever, pretty nasty things,” Sullivan said.

The second major danger is an accidental leak from one of the thousands of high-security laboratories studying deadly diseases.

Sullivan warned: “There are laboratories all over the world and they are proliferating. Unless the governance and standard operating procedures are good, there could be an accidental leak.”

Multiple incidents have already been recorded.

Sullivan said: “If you just Google accidental laboratory leaks, you’ll see all over the place things have come out.

“They’ve turned into pretty nasty outbreaks.”

Meanwhile, the global expansion of high-risk laboratories is raising fresh concerns.

There are thousands of facilities handling dangerous pathogens – with the some studying viruses with high fatality rates and in some cases, no known cure.

These include Ebola, Nipah, Lassa fever and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever – all of which have the potential to be far deadlier than Covid.

While these labs are essential for developing vaccines and treatments, gaps in regulation remain a serious concern.

McIntyre warned that hidden accidents could allow outbreaks to spiral into global crises.

She said: “Enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential are a concern as they can easily cross international boundaries and cause epidemics or pandemics.”

Last January, the CIA claimed that the Covid outbreak was “more likely” to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals.

The agency said that based on available information it is “more likely than a natural origin”.

The assessment came almost immediately after the CIA’s new director John Ratcliffe, appointed by Donald Trump, took charge.

Ratcliffe has been outspoken about his stance on the pandemic’s origins, favouring the lab leak theory and claiming Covid most likely came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The lab is a 40-minute drive from Huanan Market where the first infections were reported.

In 2023, former FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that the bureau’s assessment was that the pandemic’s origins are “most likely a potential lab incident.”

He added: “You are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing.”

Epidemiologist Dr Raina McIntyre warned poor oversight makes it harder to determine whether bioleaks are natural or man-made, which only increases the danger of an outbreak.

She said: “A pathogen with a fatality rate of 30 to 50 per cent could massively depopulate the world with cascading effects on critical infrastructure and the ability of society to function.

“We saw a glimpse of this during Covid, with supermarket shelves empty and impacts on transport networks.

“We should be concerned, as high consequence pathogens may be an existential threat.”

Rapid advances in synthetic biology and genetic engineering are adding fuel to the fire.

To put the threat into context, the variola virus, which causes smallpox and has now been eradicated, could be recreated in a lab.

In the 20th century, smallpox killed around 500 million people, with roughly one in three infected individuals dying.

Although vaccines exist, experts fear hostile agents could engineer strains capable of evading immunity.

Sullivan said the threat of antimicrobial resistance – where antibiotics lose their effectiveness against bacteria – is the “big problem”.

“It’s super scary stuff and it’s only getting worse,” he added.

Known as “the silent pandemic”, around 40 million deaths are projected for drug-resistant infections.

It could prove to be an existential threat to the human race if paired with the deliberate release of a lethal pathogen.

Bioterrorists also have the potential to strike in more clandestine ways.

An example of this is the Rajneesh attack in 1984, where hundreds of people in Oregon fell ill with salmonella.

It was later discovered that members of the Rajneesh cult had sprinkled bacteria on salad bars in 10 restaurants across the region.

Their motive was to make the towns people sick so that they could control a local election.

Some 751 people were struck with stomach aches – with 45 hospitalised.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16243424/terrorists-weaponise-viruses-smallpox-ebola-biolabs-arms-race/

Meanwhile, Desmond Tan clinched both Best Actor and his 10th Top 10 popularity award, and Carrie Wong and Romeo Tan took home All-time Favourite Artiste trophies.

Emerald Hill, the follow-up to 2009’s The Little Nyonya and the hit drama of 2025, unsurprisingly won big at the Star Awards this year, taking six main awards including Best Drama and Best Original Song.

Leading lady Jesseca Liu took home her first Best Actress award for her role as the long-suffering Second Young Mistress in the drama, while other Emerald Hill actors Tyler Ten and Chen Liping were named Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Child actress Ivory Chia also took home the Young Talent Award for her work in the show.

A tearful Liu likened her 22-year acting career to “riding a unicycle”, with falls and injuries along the way. In the end, she said, “I know this is not through my effort alone”.

In the Best Actor category, Desmond Tan beat out hot favourite Chen Hanwei, clinching the trophy for his work as troubled twin brothers in Devil Behind The Gate. Tan’s last Best Actor win was for 2018’s When Duty Calls.

Held on Sunday night (Apr 19) at the Mediacorp TV Theatre, the Star Awards 2026 took the theme “Born to Glow”, with a total of 19 awards given out.

Hosted by Guo Liang, Zhang Zetong and Cheryl Chou, the awards ceremony was graced by international guests including Hong Kong’s Bowie Lam, Julian Cheung and Ada Choi; Taiwan’s Kevin Tsai, Jasper Liu and Hsieh Ying-xuan; and Chinese actor Luo Yunxi, who performed a song on stage.

Guo Liang had his hands full as he also took home the Best Programme Host award for his on-stage skills at last year’s Star Awards ceremony, celebrating his second win in the category after being nominated “20 times, I think”. In his speech, he acknowledged the rise of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, telling his fellow artistes to “believe in yourselves. Even if AI comes for us, we have real vitality”.

It was a good night for the veteran host as he also clinched his 10th Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes award. He was joined by Ya Hui, Paige Chua and Desmond Tan, who also got their 10th popularity trophies, confirming their All-time Favourite Artiste status at next year’s awards ceremony.

Two All-time Favourite Artistes, Carrie Wong and Romeo Tan, were minted this year.

Wong, 32, became the youngest in Star Awards history to take home the All-time Favourite Artiste trophy, having won 10 Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes awards since she broke into showbiz at the age of 19. In her acceptance speech, she spoke about coming to an understanding of “real growth” and the importance of pressing on when she felt like giving up.

Tan, meanwhile, recalled his days of waiting in the wings for his big break. Because of that, simple affirmations like meeting “uncles who tell me I acted well” mean a lot to him, he said, adding: “I’d like to tell chubby little six-year-old me, who loved watching television, to go ahead and dream big.”

Young performers also received encouragement at the ceremony, with the Best Rising Star award going to Gladys Bay for her work in Under the Net, and Tyler Ten, Juin Teh and Zhang Zetong named Most Popular Rising Stars.

In the Top 10 Most Popular Artistes categories, first-time award winners were Hazelle Teo, who went on stage brandishing a hongbao from her mum; and a teary Nick Teo, who thanked his equally teary wife, Hong Ling. In addition, Ayden Sng, nominated for a popularity award for the first time, also clinched his first trophy.

Other award winners included The Breakfast Quartet for Best Radio Programme, Dennis Chew for Best Audio Personality and YES 933 Comedy Series for Best Short-form Entertainment Programme. And, in newly introduced category Best Microdrama, Woke Up In The 60s In My Grandma’s Apron starring Regine Lim and Raynold Tan took the top spot.

STAR AWARDS 2026 WINNERS LIST

Best Drama Serial: Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story

Best Actor: Desmond Tan (Devil Behind The Gate)

Best Actress: Jesseca Liu (Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story)

The US extended it’s waive on Russian oil sanctions as conflict in the Middle East has caused oil prices to rise world wide.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday (Apr 19) condemned the easing of sanctions on Russian oil after the United States extended a waiver meant to soften surging energy prices driven by the Middle East war.

“Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war” and the billions of dollars involved are used for devastating strikes on Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

He did not mention the United States, but President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea.

The action was intended to bring down soaring energy prices. But the US Treasury Department extension came two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.

Zelenskyy said there were more than 110 tankers carrying Russian oil in breach of international sanctions currently at sea, carrying more than 12 million tonnes of crude “which, due to the easing of sanctions, can once again be sold without consequences.

“That is US$10 billion – a resource that is directly converted into new strikes against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukraine leader said that in the past week alone, Russia had launched more than 2,360 attack drones, more than 1,320 guided aerial bombs “and nearly 60 missiles of various types at our cities and communities”.

A 16-year-old boy was killed and four people wounded in one overnight attack on the northern city of Chernihiv, the head of the local administration said Sunday.

Zelenskyy said: “It is important that Russian tankers are stopped, not allowed to deliver oil to ports. The aggressor’s oil exports must decrease, and Ukraine’s long-range sanctions continue to work toward that goal.”

DEMOCRATS SLAM “SHAMEFUL” MOVE

Zelenskyy has a delicate relationship with Trump, who had a memorable blow-up with him in the Oval Office last year.

Ukraine needs US backing to fight off Russia, but has faced pressure from the Trump administration to sign off on a deal to end the more than four-year-old war triggered by Moscow’s invasion.

The US sanctions waiver allows for the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01 am local time (0401 GMT) on May 16.

It extends an earlier easing of sanctions that expired on April 11.

Trump is keen to contain surging petrol prices ahead of key midterm elections this year.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/zelenskyy-slams-oil-sanctions-relief-russia-6066691

The fire ripped through makeshift homes in a “water village” in Malaysia’s Sabah ‌state ⁠on ⁠Borneo island. The area is home to some of the country’s poorest residents, including indigenous and stateless communities.

A massive fire destroyed some 1,000 makeshift homes in a coastal village in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island on Sunday, displacing their residents.

The fire erupted early on Sunday in a “water village” in Sandakan district in the northeast of Sabah.

The area is home to some of Malaysia’s poorest residents, including indigenous and stateless communities. They live in wooden stilt houses packed tightly next to each other.

What do we know about the fire?

Authorities were notified of the fire at around 01:32 a.m. (1732 GMT), according to the district’s fire and rescue chief Jimmy Lagung. Some 37 personnel were deployed from two stations to battle the blaze, the Sabah Fire and Rescue department said.

“Strong ​winds ‌and the close proximity of the houses caused the fire to spread rapidly, while low tide ‌conditions also made it difficult to obtain an ‌open ​water source,” Lagung said in a statement.

Sandakan police chief George Abd Rakman described the fire as a “very large-scale and heartbreaking incident” in statements carried by the local English daily The Star. He said it affected 9,007 residents.

Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim orders assistance to victims

The fire department estimated that a total of 10 acres were affected by the fire, as fire engines struggled to reach the impacted areas in time to put out the flames due to narrow access routes.

No injuries or deaths were reported, the fire department said, adding that there was “no more danger.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/malaysia-fire-in-impoverished-village-destroys-1000-homes/a-76847720

Bayern Munich are German league champions for a record-extending 35th time after beating Stuttgart 4-2. They have now won 13 of the past 14 Bundesliga titles.

Bayern Munich secured yet another Bundesliga title after beating Stuttgart 4-2 at home on Sunday.

Top scorer Harry Kane scored his 32nd goal of the season after coming on as a second-half substitute as the Bavarians won their 35th German league trophy.

“To finish the league off in ​the way we have with the goals we scored… credit to the lads… we still have a lot to ​play for… but all the hard work, this makes it all worth it,” said Kane.

Bayern Munich cruise to title

The win moved the Bavarian giants an unassailable 15 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund with four games to spare.

Germany captain Joshua Kimmich, who won his 10th league title with Bayern, called the victory “very special.”

“The way we did it, we were very consistent…and we haven’t achieved that form so often. I hope 10 more titles come on top of this,” he said.

The “Meisterschale” (“champions’ shield” in English) trophy is expected to be handed out after Bayern’s final game of the season at home to Cologne on May 16.

Another dominant campaign

Bayern have only suffered one defeat in the league this season, at home to fellow Bavarians Augsburg in January, and a league-low of four ties so far.

They have also scored 109 goals so far this season — another record.

Bayern already clinched the Super Cup in August, also against Stuttgart, and will take on Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final on Wednesday.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/bayern-munich-clinch-35th-bundesliga-title/a-76849660

Five people were wounded in a mass shooting near the University of Iowa campus after a large brawl that broke out early Sunday, police confirmed — as they shared a photo of five “persons of interest” in the carnage.

“One victim is in critical condition and the other four victims are in stable condition,” Iowa City Public Safety wrote in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon.

The posting includes a picture of five young men, and cops are asking for the public’s help in finding and identifying them.

“Anyone with information on the people pictured here are asked to contact Detective Cade Burma at cburma@iowa-city.org or 319-356-5275.”

Police were responding to a fight at the Pedestrian Mall in Iowa City around 1:45 a.m. involving as many as 100 people when gunshots rang out.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/19/us-news/5-victims-confirmed-in-university-of-iowa-mass-shooting-as-cops-picture-persons-of-interest/

They weren’t taking any chances this time.

Back in 2023, Page Six reported that private club Casa Cipriani booted some members who snapped pictures of Taylor Swift on a date with then-beau Matty Healy at the Financial District spot.

But we’re told that when Swift came by on Friday, the club made sure there was no such problem with snap-happy members.

We hear that before the “Shake It Off” superstar arrived with fiancé Travis Kelce last week, some guests who were hanging out on the club’s terrace were told, without explanation, to put their phones in their pockets.

“They couldn’t even use them to check email,” said a spy. “No one knew why, though.”

But it all came into focus when Swift, Kelce and a group of friends arrived. And after all that, they didn’t even stay.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/04/19/entertainment/casa-cipriani-went-all-out-to-protect-taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce/?_gl=1*1vzps1a*_ga*MTg2NjYyMzM1MC4xNzczODEwMTg2*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*czE3NzY2NTEyNTkkbzczJGcxJHQxNzc2NjUyMzgzJGoyJGwwJGgw

US President Donald Trump said there will be “no more Mr Nice Guy” if Iran doesn’t take the “very fair and reasonable deal”

US President Donald Trump has issued yet another threat today as Iran continued its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US naval blockade of the Islamic nation’s ports.

This time, Trump said there will be “no more Mr Nice Guy” if Iran doesn’t take the “very fair and reasonable deal”.

US and Iranian officials are scheduled to meet in Pakistan again tomorrow.

“Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz – A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement! Many of them were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice, was it? My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan – They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing. In fact, many Ships are headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load up, compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be ‘the tough guy!’

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!” Trump said in a long post on the platform owned by him.

The strategic Strait of Hormuz remained closed today with Iran’s parliament speaker signalling a final peace deal remained “far” off despite some movement in negotiations. As mediation efforts continued following high-level talks in Pakistan that failed to reach a deal, Iran said it will not allow the crucial maritime trade chokepoint to re-open until the US ends a blockade of Iranian ports.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a televised address on Saturday night that there had been “progress” with Washington “but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain”. “We are still far from the final discussion,” said Ghalibaf, one of Tehran’s negotiators in the talks aimed at ending the war launched by Israel and the US against the Islamic republic.

A two-week ceasefire is set to end on Wednesday unless it is renewed.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/no-more-mr-nice-guy-time-for-iran-killing-machine-to-end-trumps-latest-threat-11379455?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Shamim Mafi, 44, was charged by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California with conducting arms transactions without legal authorisation

A permanent US resident of Iranian origin was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night on charges of brokering weapons deals on behalf of the Iranian government, according to a report by New York Post.

It said the deals allegedly included armed drones, bomb fuses, and ammunition destined for Sudan’s ongoing civil war.

Shamim Mafi, 44, was charged by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California with conducting arms transactions without legal authorisation. The charges allege she used an Oman-registered front company called Atlas International Business to facilitate the deals as recently as 2025.

Among the transactions prosecutors cited is a contract worth over $70 million for Mohajer-6 armed drones, which are Iranian military-grade unmanned aircraft sourced from the Islamic nation’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics. The same network allegedly moved 55,000 bomb fuses to Sudan’s Ministry of Defence, which has been engaged in a civil war since 2023.

Prosecutors said she held no legal permission to oversee arms brokering of this kind.

Court filings stated that phone records showed Mafi was in direct contact with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security between December 2022 and June 2025.

Mafi left Iran in 2013 and got permanent US residency in 2016. She has denied to investigators that she was ever tasked by Tehran to conduct activities in the US on the regime’s behalf.

Prosecutors alleged that in 2020, Iranian authorities seized properties that Mafi had inherited from her father, after which Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence then told her to open a business in the US ostensibly to buy back those properties from the government. Tehran offered to cover the start-up costs, the prosecutors said.

Mafi allegedly told Iranian intelligence contacts that she considered herself more valuable to them operating outside Iran than within it.

The Mohajer-6 drone platform has appeared in multiple active conflict theatres in recent years, including in battles between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The arrest comes as US Vice President JD Vance will again lead a delegation for talks with Iran in Pakistan, news agency AFP reported.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iranian-origin-businesswoman-shamim-mafi-allegedly-made-arms-deal-for-tehran-arrested-in-us-11380136?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Kinahan, 48, is expected to face charges in Ireland connected to a long-running feud between the Kinahan cartel and the Hutch gang.

For years, he moved across borders, shifting base from Europe to the Gulf, staying a step ahead of investigators tracking one of Europe’s most powerful criminal networks. That run ended this week in Dubai.

Daniel Kinahan, widely described as the leader of the Kinahan cartel, was arrested on Wednesday in a joint operation involving Irish and United Arab Emirates authorities after a prolonged international manhunt.

Dubai Police confirmed the arrest of “an Irish fugitive” linked to organised crime, without naming him. Irish media later identified the individual as Daniel Kinahan.

Ireland’s police force, the Garda Siochana, said a man in his 40s had been detained under a warrant issued by Irish courts.

“An Garda Siochana has been steadfast in our determination that we would pursue those allegedly involved in serious Organised Criminal activity, wherever they go,” the force said in a statement.

Kinahan, 48, is expected to face charges in Ireland connected to a long-running feud between the Kinahan cartel and the Hutch gang, a conflict that has led to 18 killings since 2015.

Kinahan’s ability to avoid arrest for years was shaped by constant movement. He left Ireland following an attempted assassination at a boxing weigh-in event at Dublin’s Regency Hotel, where associate David Byrne was shot dead.

After that incident, Kinahan relocated first to Spain and later to the United Arab Emirates.

Authorities across multiple countries continued to track his activities, building cases linked to organised crime and international drug trafficking.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/years-on-the-run-how-europes-most-wanted-gang-leader-was-finally-tracked-11380512?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The Israeli army said on Sunday that it was looking into the authenticity of an image circulating on social media that appears to show a soldier in south Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ with a hammer.

The Israeli army said on Sunday that it was looking into the authenticity of an image circulating on social media that appears to show a soldier in south Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ with a hammer.

Spokesman Nadav Shoshani said on X that the army “is currently examining the reliability of the photograph”.

“If this is indeed a real, recent picture, these actions do not align with the IDF’s values and the behavior expected of IDF soldiers. The incident will be investigated thoroughly and in depth, and if necessary, steps will be taken in accordance with the findings,” he added.

The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off of a cross.

Arab media reports indicated that the statue was in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

The Debl municipality told AFP that the statue was located in the village, but could not confirm whether it had been damaged.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israeli-army-probes-image-of-soldier-hitting-jesus-statue-in-lebanon-11380595?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Iran has denied reports of fresh talks with the US in Islamabad, blaming Washington’s “unreasonable and unrealistic demands” and naval blockade for stalling progress.

Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, has rejected reports of a second round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington in Islamabad, stating that current conditions do not support meaningful diplomatic engagement and accusing the United States of pursuing a pressure campaign.

“The reports circulating about a second round of negotiations in Islamabad are false,” IRNA said, adding that Washington’s approach has complicated the prospects of dialogue.

“US excessive demands, unreasonable and unrealistic expectations, frequent shifts in positions, continuous contradictions, and the so-called naval blockade, which violates the ceasefire understanding along with threatening rhetoric, have so far hindered progress in the negotiations,” the agency reported.

It further said that “under these conditions, the outlook for constructive talks remains bleak,” while describing news published by the US as part of a “propaganda campaign” and a “blame game” aimed at pressuring Iran.

This comes just days before the expiry of a ceasefire linked to the ongoing Middle East conflict.

State broadcaster IRIB cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”, while the Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive”, noting that lifting the US blockade remains a precondition for negotiations.

Only one round of discussions has taken place so far, a 21-hour session held in Islamabad on April 11, which ended without agreement, though groundwork for further talks continued afterwards.

BLOCKADE AND MARITIME INCIDENT ESCALATE TENSIONS

The impasse comes amid heightened tensions over the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

According to AFP, the issue intensified after a US destroyer fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that attempted to evade the blockade.

US President Donald Trump said the vessel, Touska, was forced to stop after the destroyer acted “by blowing a hole in the engineroom,” adding that “Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.” He said the ship was under US Treasury sanctions “because of prior history of illegal activity.”

Iran strongly criticised the incident.

The ISNA news agency quoted a spokesperson for Iran’s central command centre as saying the armed forces of the Islamic Republic “will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military.”

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the blockade as “a violation” of the ceasefire and “illegal collective punishment of the Iranian people.”

FRAMEWORK NEEDED BEFORE FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS

Reuters reported on April 18 that Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date has been set for the next round of talks, emphasising that both sides must first finalise a framework of understanding.

“We are now focusing on finalising the framework of understanding between two sides. We don’t want to enter into any negotiation or meeting which is doomed to fail and which can be a pretext for another round of escalation,” Khatibzadeh said on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum in Antalya.

He said there had been “significant progress” in earlier discussions but criticised what he described as a “maximalist approach” from the US side regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.

“I have to be very crystal clear that Iran would not accept being an exception from international law. Anything that we are going to be committed to will be within the international regulations and international law,” he said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iran-denies-islamabad-talks-blames-us-unreasonable-demands-naval-blockade-for-deadlock-ws-l-10044485.html

UAE debate grows over US military bases after alleged Iranian strikes, commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdulla urges closing bases and focusing on advanced weapons and self defense.

Is this a US-UAE fallout after the Iran war? Following recent tensions in West Asia involving the United States, Israel and Iran, a debate has emerged in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the presence of American military bases in the Gulf nation. The discussion gathered momentum after Iranian attacks on sites linked to the US in the UAE. UAE commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdulla has argued that American military facilities are no longer “strategic assets” for the country.

UAE Commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said, “Now the time has come to consider closing US military bases, these bases are no longer strategic assets, but have become a burden.”

In a post on X, he said the UAE has shown it can defend itself during recent Iranian aggression. He added that the country does not need the US for protection in the way it once did.

“This is what I told Reuters today: The UAE no longer needs America to defend it, as it has proven during the Iranian aggression that it is capable of defending itself with distinction,” he said. He also noted that while the UAE may still seek advanced weapons from the US, the presence of military bases is no longer necessary.

Abdulla stressed that the UAE’s priority should be acquiring modern and advanced military equipment rather than hosting foreign bases. He said the country should focus on strengthening its own defence systems using the best technology available. According to him, this approach would better serve national security needs.

Iran attacks US-linked sites in UAE

The debate comes after Iran claimed it had carried out strikes on US-linked military sites in the UAE during the recent escalation in the region. According to these claims, a US command site near Al Minhad was targeted, and Iran also alleged heavy casualties among US personnel. However, these claims have not been independently confirmed by the United States.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/uae-no-longer-needs-america-uae-commenter-calls-to-close-us-bases-in-the-gulf-country-ws-l-10044493.html

Iran and US resume Islamabad talks to end war, Iran says they are far from a final deal, disputes persist over uranium stockpiles, enrichment limits and Strait of Hormuz reopening.

A day ahead of the peace talks in Islamabad, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said that Washington and Tehran “are far from a final agreement”.

On Monday, the US and Iran will hold a second round of talks to work out a way to end the war. However, a confusion remains on whether US Vice President JD Vance would be part of the delegation.

The first round of talks, held on April 11-12 in Islamabad, had failed after over 20 hours of talks.

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament speaker has cast doubts over the result of Monday’s talks. “On some issues, conclusions have been reached in the negotiations, and on others not; we are still far from a final agreement,” Ghalibaf said.

On Saturday, Iran announced that it would close the Strait of Hormuz again citing “repeated breaches of trust” as the US maintained a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Previously, Iran had pushed for ships to pay a fee for secure transfer across the waterway. “We have not destroyed the enemy—they still possess money and weapons—but strategically, they have been defeated in the face of us,” he said.

Three Key Issues Between US And Iran

Fate of Iran’s uranium stockpiles: The US President had suggested that Iran has agreed to ship its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the US. However, a senior Iranian official rejected the claim and said the demand was a “non-starter”.

According to CNN, Iran has about 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium and Tehran has asked for major sanctions relief and unfreezing of assets north of $20 billion.

Concerns grew on Monday that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran might not hold after the U.S. said ​it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Iran vowed to retaliate.
Efforts to build a more lasting peace ‌in the region likewise appeared to be on shaky ground, as Iran said it would not participate in a second round of negotiations that the U.S. had hoped to kick off before the ceasefire expires on Tuesday.

The U.S. has maintained a blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then reimposed its own blockade on marine traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles ​roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
The U.S. military said Sunday it fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship as the vessel sailed toward Iran’s Bandar ​Abbas port. “We have full custody of their ship, and are seeing what’s on board!” President Trump wrote on social media.
Iran’s military said ⁠the ship had been traveling from China. “We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by ​the U.S. military,” a military spokesperson said, according to state media.

Oil prices jumped and stock markets wobbled, as traders pondered the prospect that traffic in and out of the Gulf ​would remain at a bare minimum.

IRAN REJECTS PEACE TALKS

Iranian state media reported that Tehran had rejected new peace talks, citing the ongoing blockade, threatening rhetoric, and Washington’s shifting positions and “excessive demands.”
“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” Iran’s First Vice President Mohammadreza Aref wrote on social media. “The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of ​significant costs for everyone.”
Trump earlier warned Iran that the U.S. would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if Tehran rejected his terms, continuing a recent pattern ​of such threats.

Iran has said that if the United States were to attack its civilian infrastructure it would hit power stations and desalination plants of Gulf Arab neighbors.

PREPARING FOR TALKS THAT MIGHT ‌NOT HAPPEN

Trump ⁠said his envoys would arrive in Islamabad on Monday evening, one day before a two-week ceasefire ends.
A White House official told Reuters the U.S. delegation would be headed by Vice President JD Vance, who led the war’s first peace talks a week ago, and also include Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. But Trump told ABC News and MS Now that Vance would not go.
Pakistan, which has served as the main mediator, appeared to be preparing for the talks. Two giant U.S. C-17 cargo planes landed at ​an air base on Sunday afternoon, carrying ​security equipment and vehicles in preparation for ⁠the U.S. delegation’s arrival, two Pakistani security sources said.
Municipal authorities in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad halted public transport and heavy-goods traffic through the city. Barbed wire was rolled out near the Serena Hotel, where last week’s talks were held. The hotel told ​all guests to leave.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/world-weighs-fate-mideast-ceasefire-after-us-seizes-iranian-cargo-ship-2026-04-20/

Europe must have its own defense system against ballistic weapons, and Ukraine is already holding talks ​with several countries on its creation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr ‌Zelenskiy said on Sunday.
Defense against ballistic missiles is one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges in the war with Russia, since only certain ​types of missiles used by the American Patriot system ​are capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.

Russia uses ⁠ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, destroying thermal ​power generation and electricity transmission systems.
“I believe, and my idea ​is that we should have a European anti-ballistic missile defense system. We are in talks with several countries and are working in ​this direction,” Zelenskiy told the national TV channel, Marathon.
“We ​need to build our own anti-ballistic missile defense system within a year,” ‌he ⁠added.
Zelenskiy said the task is extremely difficult but realistic, and added that he had already discussed it with key European countries, though he did not name them.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-pushes-europe-build-defense-system-against-ballistic-weapons-2026-04-19/

A gunman killed seven of his ‌children and an eighth minor in a domestic violence incident on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, before police fatally shot him during a vehicle chase, authorities said.
Seven bodies were found inside the house where the shooting occurred, while the eighth youth died attempting a rooftop escape, Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Christopher ​Bordelon told TV station KTBS. One crime scene was “incredibly gruesome”, Bordelon told KTBS.

Preliminary information indicated the suspect first shot a woman and ​then went to a nearby home where he killed the children, according to a Facebook post ⁠from the Shreveport police. The children’s ages ranged from about 1 to 14, police said.
Two women were being treated at a ​hospital for serious injuries, the post said.
The suspect and one woman who was shot were the parents of seven of the children, ​Bordelon told TV station KSLA. One woman sustained life-threatening injuries, and multiple families were affected, he told KSLA. The shooting started after 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Sunday, he told reporters.

Police identified the suspect as Shamar Elkins, according to Leigh Anne Evensky, director of communications for the Shreveport mayor’s office.
The suspect carjacked a ​vehicle after the shootings and was killed when police fired at the vehicle during a chase that went into neighboring Bossier ​Parish, Bordelon said. Louisiana State Police are investigating the shooting of the suspect, spokesperson Kate Stegall said.
“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic ‌situation we’ve ⁠ever had,” Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said.

A comprehensive domestic violence center is being established by the Caddo Parish sheriff, which the mayor’s office is working to support, Arceneaux later told Reuters.

SHOOTER’S MOTIVE UNCLEAR

At a news conference, Louisiana state Senator Sam Jenkins, whose district includes much of Shreveport, said the shooting underscores the need for more resources to combat domestic violence.

“If we have someone with a history ​of domestic violence, let’s make ​sure that those resources, that ⁠intervention is there on a continuous and consistent basis, hopefully to avoid what we’ve seen here today,” Jenkins said.
Reuters was unable to immediately determine whether Elkins had such a history. Police were working to ​determine the motive, Bordelon told KSLA.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/eight-children-killed-louisiana-mass-shooting-media-reports-say-2026-04-19/

Tesla is rolling out its robotaxis in Dallas and Houston, the electric vehicle maker said on Saturday, marking further expansion of its nascent service in the United States since its Austin, Texas, launch last year.

Tesla’s official robotaxi account on X announced the launch and posted two videos showing its best-selling Model Y SUVs running in the two cities with no human driver or monitor in the front seats.

It posted two map images outlining service boundaries, but did not disclose further details such as fleet size or pricing.

“Try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston!” CEO Elon Musk said reposting the X post.

Tesla’s move comes as the robotaxi business has regained momentum with Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox speeding up expansion.

Expanding the robotaxi service and wider adoption of its full self-driving software, a version of which underpins the technology, is key to Tesla’s growth strategy as Musk has pivoted the company’s focus to artificial intelligence and robotics from EVs.

Much of the company’s $1.3 trillion valuation hinges on that bet.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/tesla-expands-robotaxi-service-dallas-houston-6065716

President Donald Trump has warned Iran not to “blackmail” the US by shutting the Strait of Hormuz once again. Meanwhile, Tehran has slammed Washington’s “maximalist” positions.

Iran’s sudden Hormuz reversal: What it signals now

Tehran has reimposed its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, just a day after saying it would reopen the critical waterway.

DW asked Middle East expert Simon Mabon what this says about Iran’s strategic calculations.

A new film about Michael Jackson’s extraordinary but troubled life is set to open in cinemas. It’s tracking to be very popular – but will it tell the full story?

Bohemian Rhapsody was a troubled production, to put it mildly. The original star, Sacha Baron Cohen, departed and the original director Bryan Singer was fired. But the biopic of Freddie Mercury and Queen went on to make more than $900m (£660m) at the box office and win four Oscars.

Given that success, it seemed logical when the producer of Bohemian Rhapsody, Graham King, revealed in 2019 that he would be making another biopic of a music megastar: Michael Jackson. In short, King was following Queen with the King of Pop.

His new venture, Michael, had one obvious difficulty: Jackson had been accused of child abuse. In 1994, he reached an out-of-court settlement with one of his accusers, Jordan Chandler, and he was acquitted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in a criminal trial in 2005.

Lawyers for the estate of Jackson and its executors, who are among the producers of the biopic, tell the BBC that they “firmly and unequivocally believe in Michael Jackson’s innocence, which was unanimously adjudicated by a jury and supported by extensive evidence”.

All the same, the allegations remain a part of Jackson’s life story, complicating the attempt to turn his life into a nine-figure Hollywood blockbuster. But given current demand for the pop star, it’s likely to be a big hit, too. Industry analysts are predicting that Michael will be even bigger than Bohemian Rhapsody.

If King had any initial doubts about the wisdom of giving Jackson the Bohemian Rhapsody treatment, they may have been allayed by the rise in his popularity since his death of a prescription drug overdose, aged 50, in 2009.

On Spotify, he currently has 64.8 million monthly listeners and 40.5 million followers, making him the streaming service’s 27th biggest artist in the world. His life and music are also the basis of a Cirque du Soleil spectacular, Michael Jackson ONE, which has been running in Las Vegas since 2013, and a Tony-winning jukebox show, MJ The Musical, which has been on Broadway since 2022. The biopic would just be the latest addition to the glittering Michael Jackson industry.

It was announced in January 2023 that Michael would be written by John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). It was later confirmed that the starry cast would include Colman Domingo, Miles Teller and Nia Long, and that the lead role would be played by Jackson’s own nephew, Jaafar Jackson. And, as mentioned, its producer knows a thing or two about exultant pop biopics. In 2024, a spokesperson for the new film told the BBC in a statement: “From the beginning the Michael Jackson estate put their trust in Graham King, stepping out of the creative process.”

A complicated legacy

So why is Jackson such a hot property, despite the accusations that once tainted his image? “There are several things at work here,” Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, pop critic at the Financial Times, tells the BBC. “One is the lack of definitive legal proof [that Jackson committed any crimes]. Another is the branch of public relations dedicated to reputation management or rehabilitation. Jackson is now seen as a victim himself, bullied by his father, warped by fame, dying too young. And finally, most importantly, there’s the fact that he’s the ultimate pop star – a brilliant vocal stylist, a dancer to rival Fred Astaire, an entertainer with an indelible sense of his own sound and look.”

“Another factor,” adds Ed Potton, culture commissioning editor at The Times, “is whether you’ve seen the Leaving Neverland documentary.”

This Emmy-winning four-hour documentary features the testimonies of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who allege that Jackson had sexually abused them when they were children. It was broadcast in two parts on HBO in 2019, just a few months before the announcement that King would be making his biopic.

In a letter to the BBC, lawyers representing the Jackson estate call Leaving Neverland and its 2025 sequel “one-sided hit-pieces attacking Michael Jackson”.

The documentary’s director, Dan Reed, tells the BBC that he had read an early draft of the Michael screenplay that “contained many falsehoods, a great many inaccuracies and also just outright lies about the facts of his relationship with Jordan Chandler and Jordan Chandler’s parents”. Lawyers representing Jackson’s estate tell the BBC that because Reed had not seen the finished film, his comments were “irrelevant and misguided”. They added: “As the film was years away from completion at the time statements were made, they were false and defamatory speculative assertions”.

The film’s revisions and reshoots

The film did indeed take years to complete. The production was delayed by the Sag-Aftra strike in 2023, but things got underway in the early months of 2024. King suggested at the time that the film would address some of the controversy relating to its subject. “Behind the unrelenting scrutiny and the accusations and the grinding media spotlight, [Jackson] was simply a man,” the producer said at Las Vegas’s CinemaCon in April 2024. “A man who lived a very complicated life. The movie will get into all of it…”

“The film charts Jackson’s rise from family-band member to solo superstar, climaxing with a triumphal concert from the Bad tour in 1988. Nothing controversial is featured

Pope Leo says he was not seeking to debate Donald Trump when he criticised “tyrants” for spending billions on wars in a speech earlier this week.

The pontiff said the remarks, delivered days after a high-profile spat with the US president, had been written a fortnight earlier – “well before the president ever commented on myself”.

“And yet as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate, again, the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he told reporters aboard a flight to Angola on Saturday.

On Monday, Trump launched a scathing attack on the first American Pope – who has been a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran – as “terrible for foreign policy”.

The Pope, who is on a tour of Africa, said a “certain narrative that has not been accurate” had developed, citing “the political situation created” by Trump’s comments.

During a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, he had criticised leaders who “turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found”.

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” he said.

The Pope also condemned “an endless cycle of destabilisation and death” in a “bloodstained” region of Cameroon that had been gripped by insurgency for nearly a decade.

The remarks were interpreted by some as a reference to Trump – who later told reporters: “The Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree.”

He had initially posted his lengthy criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church after the pontiff had voiced concern about Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

The president said he was “not a big fan” of the Pope and called him “WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”. Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which he later removed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce84j261kj1o

At least six people have been killed and others injured after a person opened fire in Kyiv on Saturday, Ukrainian officials say.

The incident happened in the southern Holosiivskyi district. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the man, who lived locally, began shooting at people on the street and then took others hostage in a nearby supermarket.

Klymenko said the attacker was killed in the supermarket following a shoot-out with police. His motive is currently unclear.

The exact number of victims also remains unclear, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 14 people were known to have been injured, including a 12-year-old boy.

He said four people had been killed on the street while a woman, thought to be around 30 years old, died later in hospital. The attacker also killed a hostage.

Police negotiators spoke to the shooter for around 40 minutes while he was in the supermarket, Klymenko said. He described the man as “acting chaotically”.

“We tried to persuade him, realising that there was an injured person there,” he explained, adding that the attacker had not made any demands.

“We offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding and so on. But he did not respond, so the order was given to eliminate him, especially after he killed one of the hostages.”

Four hostages were then freed, officials said.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, identified the shooter as a 58-year-old man from the Russian capital, Moscow, and said he had used an automatic weapon to carry out the fatal shooting.

The weapon used by the attacker was officially registered, officials said. The circumstances surrounding the issuing of the permit, as well as the shooting itself, are now being investigated.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm25r1vkx4lo

Zohran Mamdani’s “city-run groceries” gambit was always mostly symbolic — even he doesn’t pretend one-store-per-borough will be more than proof of concept — but it’s fast becoming a symbol and sign of how hollow his whole mayoralty could prove.

Last week he at long last unveiled the plan for the first store: He says it will cost $30 million and take nearly three years to build.

That’s 40% of what the mayor had said five groceries would cost — and many times what the private sector spends to build a grocery store in just a few months.

As Anthony Pena, president of the National Supermarket Association, told The Post: “Even a high end, gourmet store in the middle of Manhattan wouldn’t cost that much to build.”

(It’ll get worse, too: New York public projects never cost less or finish faster than the initial estimate — they’re almost always over-budget and long-delayed: Don’t bet the store opens before Mamdani’s running for re-election in 2029.)

Worse yet, Mamdani’s already tossed the main point of the exercise — offering food at affordable prices — into the dumpster: Only a core basket of goods will be particularly cheap.

Actually, two main points: Rather than boost food access in under-served areas, this stores going up in a ’hood with at least five others.

A “Potemkin village” is a fake-front display slapped over a grim reality; the grocery debacle suggests Mamdani is offering his fans Potemkin socialism.

That is: “Achievements” posed for TikTok or Instagram so the mayor can wow his affluent, transplant-heavy voter base — while completely failing to make good on his inaugural-speech vow to deliver “safety, affordability, and abundance.”

It’s already a pattern:

• His tax-the-rich vows of income- and corporate-tax hikes have dwindled down to a surtax on pieds-a-terre — a loser for the city overall, but also not the mass-redistribution of a proper socialist.

• His Department of Community Safety will no longer displace the NYPD on many calls; it’s just handing high-paying jobs to a couple of comrades.

• Even his rent freeze will disappoint his base, since it covers only rent-stabilized units — and will likely push up market-rate rents.

• He’s dropped his push to decommission the NYPD gang database and switched sides on expanding “free housing” vouchers.

He’s even cut public-library funding as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations.

Yes, we’re pleased by some of this, especially his retreats from undermining public safety — but Mamdani didn’t run for mayor to make the New York Post happy.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/18/opinion/will-mamdani-only-offer-four-years-of-potemkin-socialism-like-his-grocery-fiasco/

A parachuter slammed into Virginia Tech’s scoreboard, leaving the stuntman dangling high above a shocked crowd and delaying the school’s spring game Saturday afternoon.

Terrifying footage shows two parachuters with American flags attached to them, gliding across Virginia Tech’s home football stadium, Lane Stadium.

The two dare devils appeared to be on the same flight trajectory — with the first parachuter, carrying a smaller flag, flying over the video board safely.

The second parachuter, however, appeared to have caught some wind on their descent, causing a dramatic collision right into the massive C of “Tech.”

The game, slated for 3 p.m. kick-off, was delayed for over an hour as emergency personnel deployed a crane to rescue the stuck parachuter.

The jumper’s parachute appeared to get stuck between the letters ‘C’ and ‘H’ — ripping off the covering and exposing the lights beneath.

The parachuter dropped their American flag, along with a smaller parachute, into the stands below as they were suspended mid-air on the sign.

The parachuter was successfully rescued 45 minutes later, On3 reported.

Kick-off began an hour later than scheduled, shortly after 4 p.m.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/04/18/sports/parachuter-slams-into-virginia-tech-scoreboard-jarring-crowd-and-delaying-football-game/

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has asserted the navy’s readiness to deliver significant defeats to adversaries during a fragile ceasefire with Israel.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has issued a warning that the country’s navy is prepared to inflict further “bitter defeats” on its enemies, in remarks published on Saturday amid a fragile truce with US and Israel. In a message marking Iran’s Armed Forces Day, posted on his Telegram account, he said: “Just as Iran’s drones strike like lightning against the US and Zionist criminals, Israel, the brave navy is also prepared to inflict new bitter defeat on enemies.”

The comments come during a 10-day ceasefire between Iran and Israel, which is due to expire on April 22.

Iran said it was tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, warning mariners the vital energy route was again closed, but President Donald Trump said Tehran could not blackmail the United ​States by shutting the waterway.
Tehran said it was responding to a continued U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, calling it a violation of their ceasefire, while Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran’s navy ‌was ready to inflict “new bitter defeats” on its enemies.

Shipping sources said at least two vessels reported coming under fire and being hit while trying to transit the waterway. India later said the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi had been summoned and that it had expressed deep concern to him that two Indian-flagged ships had come under fire in the strait.
State media in Iran quoted the Supreme National Security Council as saying Iranian control over the strait included demanding the payment of costs related to security, safety and environmental protection services.
State television also quoted ​the Supreme National Security Council as saying the U.S. had put forward new proposals after talks mediated by Pakistan in recent days. Tehran was considering them but had not yet responded, it said.

There was no ​immediate sign of direct U.S.-Iran talks taking place at the weekend, despite Trump saying on Friday that negotiations would take place.

UNCERTAINTY AROUND IRAN CONFLICT

Tehran’s renewed tough messaging caused fresh ⁠uncertainty around the Iran conflict, raising the risk that oil and gas shipments through the strait could remain disrupted just as Washington weighs whether to extend the fragile ceasefire.
Trump said the U.S. was having “very good conversations” with Iran but ​that Tehran wanted to close the strait again. Iran could not blackmail the U.S., he said.
Maritime security and shipping sources said some merchant vessels had received radio messages from Iran’s navy saying no ships were allowed through the waterway, reversing ​Friday’s signs that traffic might resume.
Maritime trackers had earlier shown a convoy of eight tankers transiting the narrow passage in the first major movement of ships since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began seven weeks ago.

Hours earlier, Trump had cited “some pretty good news” about Iran, declining to elaborate. But he also said fighting might resume without a peace deal by Wednesday, when the two-week ceasefire expires.
Iran had announced its temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz following a separate U.S.-brokered 10-day ceasefire agreement on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon. Israel invaded parts of ​southern Lebanon after the Iran-allied Hezbollah militant group joined the fighting in early March.
But on Saturday Iran’s armed forces command said transit through the strait had reverted to a state of strict Iranian military control, citing what it described ​as repeated U.S. violations and acts of “piracy” under the guise of a blockade.

The spokesperson said Iran had earlier agreed, “in good faith,” to the managed passage of a limited number of oil tankers and commercial vessels following negotiations, but said continued U.S. actions had ‌forced Tehran ⁠to restore tighter controls on shipping through the strategic chokepoint.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that American forces were enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran, but did not comment on the latest Iranian actions.

NO DATE FOR DIRECT TALKS

The war with Iran began on February 28 with a U.S.-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic. It has killed thousands, spread to Israeli attacks in Lebanon and sent oil prices surging because of the de facto closure of the strait.
Despite the initial movement of ships, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations, adding that a framework of understanding must be agreed first.
Pressure for a way out of the war has mounted as Trump’s ​fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November ​midterm elections with U.S. gasoline prices high, inflation ⁠rising and his own approval ratings down.
“The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and that supersedes everything else,” Trump said on Friday.
Trump also said he might end the ceasefire with Iran unless a long-term deal to end the war was agreed before it expires on Wednesday, adding that ​a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would continue.
There were no signs of preparations early on Saturday for talks in the Pakistani capital, where the highest-level U.S.-Iran negotiations ​since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended ⁠without agreement last weekend.
A Pakistani source aware of mediation efforts had said a meeting between Iran and the U.S. could produce an initial memorandum of understanding, followed by a comprehensive peace agreement within 60 days.
Separately, a senior Iranian official said Tehran hoped a preliminary agreement could be reached in the coming days.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-he-has-good-news-iran-no-clarity-peace-deal-2026-04-18/

U.S. President ​Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic ‌drugs.
The order instructs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expedite the review of drugs such as ibogaine, which U.S. military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed the idea of using drugs such as ibogaine as an alternative treatment for mental health conditions such as depression.

At an event ​in the Oval Office, U.S. federal officials said the reforms would pave the way for the drugs, which can cause hallucinations and are largely ​illegal, to be reclassified after successful clinical trials. Trump also said the U.S. would dedicate $50 million to federal research ⁠into ibogaine.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said decisions on the drugs could come as soon as this summer.

MEXICO HAS IBOGAINE TREATMENT CENTERS

Ibogaine, ​derived from a shrub native to Africa, is a Schedule I substance in the United States, meaning it is deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use ​and a high potential for abuse,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Globally, ibogaine is sometimes used to treat mental health conditions in nations where it is legal or faces fewer restrictions. Mexico has ibogaine treatment centers that often attract U.S. veterans.

Flanked by U.S. military veterans such as Marcus Luttrell and Representative Morgan Luttrell, a Texas Republican, and with podcaster ​Joe Rogan standing directly behind him, Trump said ibogaine had come to his attention partly through the efforts of Rogan, who devoted an episode of ​his show to advocates for the drug’s use in treating veterans.
Officials on Saturday said there is now enough scientific evidence to justify the potential use of ibogaine as ‌a mental ⁠health treatment.
“I’ve been hearing about it a little bit over the last year,” Trump said. “I never heard anything about it in the past. It was almost like, taboo. It’s not taboo anymore.”

Trump has often signed executive orders where legislation with a more durable legal impact has failed. In December, Trump signed an executive order backing research into marijuana and cannabidiol, also substances classified as illegal.
The December order instructed the U.S. attorney general to move ahead with reclassifying marijuana, a ​decision that would represent one of the ​most significant federal changes to ⁠marijuana policy in decades. The Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration has not yet reclassified the drug.
During Saturday’s signing ceremony, Morgan Luttrell said he and others had unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation in Congress. In a statement after the signing, ​Luttrell and Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who formerly chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said they ​would also push for ⁠legislation on ibogaine.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-announces-reforms-accelerate-access-psychedelic-drug-treatments-2026-04-18/

Republicans and Democrats vehemently disagree over whether Virginia should adopt a new congressional map for the November midterms, but they’re leaning on the same person to sway ​voters to their side: former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Ahead of Virginia’s statewide special election on Tuesday, Obama has become an omnipresent voice of an expensive, high-stakes campaign that ‌could be critical in determining which party controls the House of Representatives after November’s elections.

The former president – once an opponent of gerrymandering – has endorsed efforts by Virginia’s Democratic Party to allow the state’s legislature to create new congressional districts that could give Democrats four additional seats in Congress, offsetting similar Republican efforts undertaken at President Donald Trump’s behest in Texas and several other states.
His position shows how far Democrats have shifted on the issue in the wake of unprecedented Republican-led mid-decade efforts ​to redraw state congressional maps to help their party maintain control of Congress. But Republicans are hoping Virginia’s voters are more swayed by what Obama has said in the past.

Television and radio ​ads sponsored by two Republican groups use 2017 footage of Obama that blames gerrymandering for political polarization that’s made it “harder and harder to find common ground.” ⁠They urge Virginians to vote no.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said the Obama-centric messaging from Republicans shows their desperation.
“They wouldn’t be lying about Obama’s position if they weren’t desperate and worried,” Kaine said.
Recent ​surveys of likely voters show the yes campaign narrowly leading. More than 1 million people have voted early, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Should the amendment pass, the new congressional districts would remain in place ​until after the 2030 census.

ALL OBAMA, ALL THE TIME

Obama has appeared in mailers, radio spots and TV ads for both sides of the issue, potentially confusing voters with mixed messaging led by groups with anodyne names.

But Obama endorsed the referendum, appearing in a TV ad where he says: “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years, but you can stop them by voting yes by April 21.”
Meanwhile, Virginians for ​Fair Maps, a Republican-led committee that has raised nearly $20 million, and Justice for Democracy PAC, a group funded by nearly $9 million from the conservative nonprofit Per Aspera Policy Incorporated, have led the opposition with Obama ​ads.
Both groups’ ads resurface Obama’s April 2017 comments made at the University of Chicago.
“Our president, Barack Obama, knows that partisan gerrymandering is wrong for our democracy. Listen to his words,” a woman says in a Justice for Democracy ‌radio ad.
Republican Representative ⁠Jen Kiggans of Virginia said the strategy to leverage Democrats’ past comments is one the Democratic Party would use if the tables were turned.

“When you put those words in the public sphere, as a politician, they still exist,” she said. “They don’t go away just because you’ve changed your viewpoint.”

REDISTRICTING WARS

Currently, six Democrats and five Republicans compose Virginia’s congressional delegation. A new map would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in a Democratic-leaning state at the federal level.
The additional four seats in Virginia would be enough to hand Democrats control of the House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s administration, following a flurry of moves by other ​states.
The redistricting wars started last year in Texas, ​when – at Trump’s direction – Republicans drew new maps ⁠designed to give their party as many as five additional congressional seats. California responded with a similar referendum that could garner Democrats a similar number of seats in that state.
Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina also changed their maps to further favor Republicans, with Florida poised to take up a new map as soon ​as next week.
“If this does not pass, Republicans could gerrymander in all the red states and hang on to the majority and continue to rubber-stamp ​President Trump,” said Virginia Democratic ⁠Representative Suhas Subramanyam.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/virginia-gerrymandering-fight-republicans-claim-obamas-with-them-he-isnt-2026-04-18/

The world has lost over $50 billion ​worth of crude oil that has not been produced since the Iran war began nearly 50 days ago and ‌the aftershock of the crisis will be felt for months and even years to come, according to analysts and Reuters calculations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday the Strait of Hormuz was open following a ceasefire accord agreed in Lebanon, while U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed a deal to end the ​Iran war would come “soon”, though the timing remains unclear.

Ukraine has penetrated Russian airspace with unprecedented numbers of drones, denying Russia windfall oil profits.

The warning came after Ukraine reached a new series of agreements with European defence companies this week.

“We consider this decision to be a deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military and political situation on the entire European continent and creeping transformation of these countries into a strategic rear for Ukraine,” said a statement from the Russian defence ministry on Wednesday this week.

Russia warned of “unpredictable consequences” and said that “the moves of European leaders are increasingly dragging these countries into the war with Russia.”

It published a list of addresses of European companies involved in joint weapons production with Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and deputy head of its National Security Council, later clarified that this amounted to “a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces”.

The previous day, Germany agreed to invest 300 million euros ($355m) in Ukraine’s long-range strike capability and would separately invest in 5,000 mid-range attack drones to be used against Russian battlefield supply lines.

Norway also signed an agreement with Ukraine that will lead to joint production of drones, and donated 560 million euros ($661.5m) to support the Ukrainian front lines with drones.

The Netherlands announced 248 million euros ($293m) in drone support, and Belgium pledged 85 million euros ($100m).

Putin’s missing millions

According to reports, the world’s 100 biggest oil companies, including Russia’s Gazprom, have made a $23bn windfall profit in March as a result of the Iran war, which has triggered a global oil supply crisis.

But Russia has seen much of that windfall evaporate as a result of Ukraine’s strikes targeting its oil export terminals and inland infrastructure.

Reuters reported that Russia had missed out on 40 percent of its potential bonanza because Ukraine had destroyed its ability to export at least 2 million barrels of oil a day.

Those Ukrainian strikes have hit a range of targets, from drilling platforms to pipelines and their pumping stations, offloading terminals and refineries.

In the past week alone, Ukraine struck two drilling platforms in the northern Caspian Sea and two oil pumping stations in Volgograd and Krasnodar Krai; an oil depot in the city of Tver northwest of Moscow; the Cherepovets Azot ammonia plant in the Volga region; the Sterlitamak Petrochemical Plant in the Republic of Bashkortostan; and the oil export terminal and refinery at Tuapse on the Black Sea.

These strikes have all been confirmed by geolocated video footage or by Russian officials.

“Today, our deep strikes are no longer a sensation,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, articulating how routine its ability to reach deep inside Russia had become.

His deputy defence minister, Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, pointed out that Russia could not produce enough air defence systems to protect its vast territory, and posted photographs of Russian improvised air defences, including truck-mounted R-77-1 air-to-air missiles.

“Russia does not appear to have fully developed or deployed mobile fire teams, drone interceptors, or other low-cost distributable systems to defend against repeated massed Ukrainian drone strikes,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Ukraine, on the other hand, has since last year built up its domestic arms industry to be able to strike Russia without Western-supplied kit – and permission.

Zelenskyy released a video on Tuesday this week, now named Arms Makers’ Day, showcasing 56 types of Ukrainian-built weapons, including 31 types of drones.

“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the capabilities of the Ukrainian defence industry have increased by more than 50 times,” said former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who was instrumental in building up drone production during 2025.

Ukraine’s devastating toll

Ukraine’s most devastating damage on Russian oil infrastructure came in the last 10 days of March and the first 10 days of April, with Russia’s oil terminals at the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga particularly hard-hit since March 22.

Satellite photography suggested that Primorsk had lost 40 percent of its storage facilities and Ust-Luga, 30 percent. Market ⁠sources also said Russian energy company Novatek had suspended gas condensate processing and exports at Ust-Luga.

The two ports were still unable to handle oil shipments on April 3, industry sources told Reuters. Finnish maritime ⁠officials told the agency in early April that shipments from the two ports were sharply down to “individual vessels” instead of a weekly average of 40 to 50.

When an Aframax tanker did dock at Ust-Luga on April 5 – the first ship to attempt loading crude oil there in many days – Ukraine struck the port again the same night, setting alight three 20,000-cubic-metre (706,300cu-foot) storage tanks.

That same day, Ukraine also struck Primorsk and oil loading facilities at the Sheskharis oil terminal on the Black Sea, which is operated by Russian oil major Transneft. Geolocated footage showed fires at oil tanker berths there.

Satellite photography suggested offloadings had still not resumed on April 14.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/17/ukraines-long-range-strikes-prompt-new-russian-threat-against-europe

Transportation costs for World Cup fans traveling to US stadiums could be more than 10 times higher than regular fares. Local officials and FIFA bosses are trading blame for the increased prices while fans feel fleeced.

Football fans trying to get to MetLife Stadium from New York City for the World Cup matches this summer will have to pay $150 (€127) for a round-trip, according to local transportation officials.

The price is almost 12 times higher than the usual $12.90 fare for the 15-minute trip from Penn Station in Manhattan to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“We are going to charge $150 for our roundtrip ticket on our system. So from New York to MetLife, MetLife back to New York,” said Kris Kolluri, the president and CEO of NJ Transit.

NJ Transit officials said they planned to spend $62 million on transportation for fans traveling to and from the stadium during the tournament. However, only $14 million of those anticipated expenses had been defrayed by outside grants.

A fare increase was needed to cover the rest, according to Kolluri.

“This isn’t price gouging,” he told reporters. “We’re literally trying to recoup our costs.”

Driving to the stadium will be even more expensive. According to the Just Park site, limited parking options will be available at the stadium for fans with disabilities and at an adjacent mall for other supporters. Prices start at $225 per parking space.

US politicians and FIFA trade blame

New Jersey’s recently sworn-in governor, Mikie Sherrill, defended the state transit organization’s policies on X, saying that “FIFA put zero dollars towards transporting World Cup fans.”

She called on the international football’s governing body to cover the transportation costs. “If it won’t, we will not be subsidizing World Cup ticket holders on the backs of New Jerseyans who rely on NJ TRANSIT every day,” Sherrill said in a statement.

On Tuesday, as initial reports emerged, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also wrote on social media that FIFA should foot the bill for transport costs to World Cup venues.

However, FIFA’s World Cup chief operating officer Heimo Schirgi said the move to “arbitrarily set elevated prices and demand FIFA absorb these costs is unprecedented.”

FIFA also pointed out that other US host cities, including Los Angeles, Dallas, and Houston, are maintaining their transit rates.

Boston is one notable exception. Officials announced this week that express buses from various locations to Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, will cost $95.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/world-cup-2026-fans-to-pay-150-for-train-ticket-to-stadium/a-76839579