Category: World

Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has met Donald Trump in the Oval Office after complaining about Ireland’s “illegal immigration racket”.

The 36-year-old told Mr Trump that his work ethic was “inspiring”, with the two men sharing jovial comments about the fighter’s suit and a map featuring the Gulf of Mexico labelled as the Gulf of America.

In comments made in the White House briefing room before the meeting during the St. Patrick’s Day visit, he said he was visiting the White House to “raise the issues the people of Ireland face”.

“What is going on in Ireland is a travesty,” he said. “Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability.”

McGregor warned “Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness” due to the “illegal immigration racket”.

“Ireland and America, we are siblings. We consider America our big sibling. So it’s important for Ireland to be a peaceful, prosperous country for 40 million Irish Americans to have a place to visit, [to] come back to their home.

“So we wish for our relationship with the United States to continue, and we wish to be taken care of by the big bro. The United States should look after its little bro. And that’s how we feel,” McGregor said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who appeared alongside McGregor in the briefing room, said: “We couldn’t think of a better guest to have with us on St. Patrick’s Day.”

At a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin last week, Mr Trump said McGregor was his favourite Irish person partly because “he’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen”.

But Mr Martin and deputy prime minister Simon Harris have been critical of today’s Trump-McGregor meeting.

In a post on X, Mr Martin said: “McGregor’s remarks are wrong, and do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland.”

Meanwhile, Mr Harris said that McGregor was not in the US to represent Ireland and did not speak for the people of Ireland, and “has no mandate to”.

In exclusive comments made to Sky News’ David Blevins about Mr Martin’s comments, McGregor said: “Shame on him for saying that, speaking down on an Irish man.”

He added: “Every metric available to us has shown that the government of Ireland has failed the people of Ireland.”

Mr Trump is well known for his support of Ultimate Fighting Championship, which McGregor is best known for competing in, and attended bouts during the 2024 presidential campaign.

McGregor is a controversial figure in Ireland after a woman who accused him of raping her won her civil case and was awarded more than £200,000 in damages.

Tesco was among the retailers that stopped selling alcohol brands linked to McGregor after Nikita Hand was awarded €248,603 (£206,000) after a jury found McGregor assaulted her in a hotel in 2018.

McGregor is appealing against the outcome of the civil case.

McGregor also pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in a Dublin pub in 2019 and has been subject to several other allegations of assault and sexual assault.

His social media posts were also linked to the 2023 Dublin riots. Irish police were reportedly investigating McGregor’s posts for alleged incitement to hatred in relation to the riots.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/mcgregor-meets-trump-after-raging-about-immigration-in-ireland-13330939

Chinese nationalist influencers have taken to social media to thank President Donald Trump for terminating media organizations Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), outlets that heavily criticized the Chinese government.

“Thank you, Comrade Chuan Jianguo and Elon Musk, please take care and stay safe,” a Weibo user said on Monday.

Trump signed an executive order to eliminate VOA and RFA, two media outlets accessible to those living under authoritarian regimes and funded by the US government, on Friday. The Chinese government had directed much of its propaganda towards discrediting the outlets due to their constant censure of the government.

One newspaper operated by the Communist Party, The Global Times, celebrated the demise of VOA in an editorial, referring to the outlet as “Washington’s carefully crafted propaganda machine for peaceful evolution.”

“The carefully constructed ‘iron curtain of public opinion’ they have built is also on the verge of collapse under the impact of countless media and self-media showcasing authentic content,” the editorial continued. “As more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multidimensional China, the demonizing narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughingstock of the times.”

The demise of VOA, alongside the 1,300 administrative staff members who have been placed on leave because of it, both have been celebrated by nationalist influencers on Chinese social media.

“Voice of America has been paralyzed! And so has Radio Free Asia, which is just as malicious toward China. How truly gratifying!” wrote Hu Xijin, a former editor-in-chief of the Global Times and prominent nationalist commentator.

“Almost all Chinese people know the Voice of America, as it is a symbolic tool of US ideological infiltration into China,” Hu wrote in a post on microblogging site Weibo. “(I) believe that Chinese people are more than happy to see America’s anti-China ideological stronghold crumble from within, scattering like a flock of startled birds.”

Source :https://www.latintimes.com/china-praises-trump-silencing-voice-america-thank-you-comrade-578602

DONALD Trump has sensationally ended Hunter Biden’s Secret Service protection “effective immediately”.

The President said it was “ridiculous” Joe Biden’s son still had 18 agents protecting him – all of whom are paid for by the taxpayer.

Trump said on Truth Social: “Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer.”

“Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection.”

He added that Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley, who has 13 agents for protection, will also be “taken off the list”.

Trump’s announcement came just hours after a reporter asked him about Hunter’s Secret Service detail.

While touring the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday afternoon, Trump was asked if he would revoke the protection for the former president’s son.

He said: “Well, we have done that with many.

“I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I’ll look at this afternoon.”

He added that this was the first time he heard about the matter.

“I’m going to take a look at that,” the President said.

All former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for their whole lives under federal law – but the protection offered to their immediate families over the age of 16 ends when they leave office.

Both Trump and Biden extended the details for their children for six months before leaving office.

The President slammed Hunter for being on holiday in South Africa whilst using taxpayer money for his protection.

He said: “There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous!

“He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned.

“Because of this, South Africa has been taken off our list of Countries receiving Economic and Financial Assistance.

He added that effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer be entitled to Secret Service protection.

Trump continued: “Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list.”

Hunter Biden has long been a political target of Trump’s.

The Don took aim at Hunter after he was pardoned by his dad at the end of his term – breaking an earlier pledge that he would not interfere with his son’s legal issues.

Trump called the pardon a “miscarriage of justice”.

The development is another chapter in the pair’s bitter rivalry – after President Trump halted Biden’s access to daily intelligence briefings in February as revenge for Biden doing the same four years ago.

Biden barred Trump from receiving intelligence briefings that are usually given to former presidents, justifying his actions by claiming Trump’s behaviour before the Capital attack was concerning.

Trump added his notorious phrase “YOU’RE FIRED” on Truth Social whilst claiming that Biden no longer needed to “continue receiving access to classified information”.

The Republican previously revoked the security clearance of more than two dozen former intelligence officials, who he accused of fiddling with the 2020 election which he branded the “greatest fraud in US history”.

He has also revoked security details of other officials before, including Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state, John Bolton, his former national security adviser, and Brian Hook, a former aide.

It came despite warnings from the Biden administration that the men faced threats from Iran due to actions they carried out on Trump’s behalf, according to The New York Times.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13803907/trump-ends-secret-service-biden-hunter/

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called on Monday (Mar 17) for legal action after six people were killed at the weekend on a highway construction project that has seen several deadly incidents in recent years.

A concrete beam forming part of an under-construction elevated roadway collapsed early on Saturday on Rama II road, an important highway linking Bangkok to the country’s south.

Paetongtarn chaired an urgent meeting with government agencies on Monday to discuss safety after the accident, which also injured dozens of people.

She said contractors could have their licences revoked if they were found to have been negligent and criminal charges could follow.

“We will see if any processes have been ignored, and whether the construction work followed the rules and regulations. There may be criminal responsibility,” she said during the meeting.

Rama II road, which leads southwest from Bangkok, is the primary artery linking the capital to the long narrow stretch of southern Thailand.

Major work has been under way for years to expand the road’s capacity and reduce congestion but the project has been beset by delays and fatalities.

A crane collapse in November last year killed at least three workers, while the Bangkok Post reported two more deadly accidents in May 2023 and January 2024.

Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit said his department would investigate why there have been so many accidents and look at blacklisting those responsible.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-construction-deaths-pm-paetongtarn-shinawatra-legal-action-5005206

The Republican leader issued the warning on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, signing the post with his name.

“Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN,” Trump wrote.

“Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”

The Houthis have led a series of attacks against Israeli vessels and other commercial ships in the Red Sea, in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and its blockade of humanitarian supplies into the Palestinian territory.

Experts widely acknowledge that Iran helps to arm the Houthis, who are considered part of an informal “axis of resistance” backed by Iran.

While Trump has previously pushed Iran to end its support for the Houthis, his remarks on Monday signal a significant escalation — hinting at potential military action against Iran itself.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump wrote in his post.

The comments arrive at a delicate time diplomatically for Trump and his counterparts in Iran.

Trump has been pushing Iran to denuclearise — though in 2018, during his first term in the White House, the president withdrew the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal that would have seen Iran curtail its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.

Earlier this month, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that the US could respond “militarily” if a nuclear deal is not reached.

But Khamenei has rebuffed Trump’s attempts to negotiate, dismissing him as “bullying” and pointing to the fact that Trump scuttled the previous agreement.

Iran has consistently said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, and it has denied pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Simultaneously, Trump has heightened US attacks on the Houthis, after the armed group warned last week it would seek to ban Israeli ships from nearby waterways.

“Any Israeli vessel attempting to violate this ban will be subject to military targeting in the declared operational area,” the Houthis said in a statement.

The rebels signalled the ban arose from a blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza, preventing humanitarian supplies from entering the war-torn territory since March 2.

Israel, however, is a longtime ally of the US, and Trump responded to the Houthis’ threats with one of his own on Saturday.

“Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” Trump wrote over the weekend, ushering in a 24-hour period of intense bombing in Yemen.

From Saturday to Sunday, the US conducted an estimated 47 aerial strikes, hitting seven Yemeni provinces and killing an estimated 53 people. The Yemeni capital of Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis, was among the areas affected.

In announcing the weekend attacks, Trump also warned Iran about its backing for the Houthis.

“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes,” he wrote.

“If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”

The Houthis have attacked nearly 100 vessels in the region since November 2023, sinking two, and Trump is not the first president to carry out attacks against Houthi targets.

Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, likewise ordered multiple rounds of attacks on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.

But Biden and his administration described the attacks as designed to disrupt the Houthis’ military capabilities, and they adamantly denied seeking to escalate the violence. “We don’t want to see a regional war,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in 2024.

Trump, however, dismissed Biden’s efforts against the Houthis as “pathetically weak”. He and Biden were rivals in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have promised to respond to Trump’s attacks. “We will confront escalation with escalation,” their leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Sunday.

Already, the group has claimed to have made a retaliatory strike against a US naval vessel.

On Monday, the US Department of Defence signalled attacks from the Houthis would not be tolerated.

“ If you shoot at American troops, there will be consequences,” spokesperson Sean Parnell said, touting Trump’s “peace through strength” stance. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”

But Parnell was quick to specify that Trump was not seeking war either, despite the US’s new threats. “This is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East. This is about putting American interests first.”

Colin Clarke — the director of research for the Soufan Group, a consultancy firm — told Al Jazeera that Trump’s increasingly heated rhetoric appears to run contrary to some of his campaign-trail rhetoric.

In running for a second term in 2024, Trump pledged to bring peace to the Middle East and withdraw the US from foreign wars.

“ Look, Trump has talked endlessly about withdrawing from the Middle East. He doesn’t want to become entangled in foreign wars,” Clarke said. “So it’s interesting that he’s escalating with these kinetic strikes, really as a signal directly to the leadership in Tehran.”

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/17/trump-warns-iran-will-be-held-responsible-for-houthi-attacks-from-yemen

The fire broke out during a concert by a hip-hop duo called DNK at the Pulse club in the town of Kocani about 3am (02:00 GMT) on Sunday when sparks from flares set the ceiling alight. About 155 people were also injured, triggering an outpouring of grief in the small Balkan country.

Authorities were investigating the flouting of license regulations and allegations of bribery linked to the nightclub, which was crammed with young revellers at double capacity when the fire tore through it.

Authorities have so far arrested and detained about 20 people for questioning in connection with the fire, including government officials and the nightclub’s manager.

One of DNK’s singers, Andrej Gjorgjieski, was killed and the other, Vladimir Blazev, was injured while a guitarist, a drummer and a back-up singer also died.

The death toll may rise because 20 of the injured are in critical condition, Health Minister Arben Taravari said on Monday.

Countries including Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkiye have accepted about 50 patients with the most serious injuries for treatment while several countries are also sending medical teams to North Macedonia, officials said.

“All patients who have been transferred abroad are currently in stable condition. We hope it stays that way and that we will receive positive news from abroad,” Taravari said.

‘We cannot be silent’

In the capital, Skopje, hundreds of people massed at a university in frigid rain for a student-led memorial ceremony, during which people observed several minutes of silence, laid flowers and lit candles at a makeshift shrine.

Emotions ran high for some.

The average annual salary for a female professional soccer player globally is $10,900, says FIFA’s annual report on the women’s game, a figure skewed by a small number of top clubs.
Among the teams FIFA designated as Tier 1, which includes 41 clubs from 16 countries, the average salary was around $24,030, although 16 of those top clubs paid an average gross salary of over $50,000, according to the “Setting the Pace, FIFA Benchmarking Report on Women’s Football” released on Monday.

The highest of those salaries was approximately $120,000.
The average gross salary, however, at Tier 2 and 3 clubs was $4,361 and $2,805, respectively.
“There is a need for players of a certain standard to earn a reliable and sufficient income solely from playing, reducing their dependence on secondary sources of income and allowing them to dedicate the time required to play at a higher level,” the report said.
Tier 1 clubs also featured the longest player contracts, most commonly between one and three years, with salaries highest for contracts of two to three years, while Tier 3 teams were most likely of the tiers to offer contracts under three months.

LEAGUE RECORD

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ordered the release of classified documents related to the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, said on Monday that his administration will make public around 80,000 pages of files related to the former president on Tuesday.
“People have been waiting for decades for this,” Trump told reporters during a visit to The Kennedy Center in Washington.

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to present a plan to release records related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said in early February it had found thousands of new documents related to the assassination of Kennedy.
Trump signed an order during his first week in office related to the release and promised to release also documents concerning the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were killed in 1968.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/around-80000-pages-jfk-files-will-be-released-tuesday-trump-says-2025-03-17/

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday morning about ending the Ukraine war, with territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant likely to feature prominently in the talks.
“What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it,” Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday.

Trump has been trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides traded heavy aerial strikes early on Monday and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
Trump said Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region were “in deep trouble,” surrounded by Russian soldiers.
He said his freeze on military aid to Ukraine earlier this month and his contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may have helped persuade Kyiv.

“A lot of people are being killed over there, and we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing,” he said. “But I think they’re doing the right thing right now.”
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, accused Putin of prolonging the war, saying that when the Russian leader speaks to Trump, he will have been aware of the ceasefire proposal for a week.
“This proposal could have been implemented long ago,” he said. “Every day in wartime means human lives,” he said.
Asked late on Sunday what concessions were being considered in ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: “We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants … We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
He gave no details, but appeared to be referring to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia facility in Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of risking an accident at the plant with their actions.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a regular briefing on Monday that Trump and Putin would discuss a power plant “on the border” of Russia and Ukraine.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Trump’s remarks about land and power plants.
The Kremlin said on Friday Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached to end the three-year conflict.
On Sunday, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasized there were still challenges to be worked out before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much less a final peaceful resolution to the war.

Waltz was asked in an ABC interview whether the U.S. would accept a peace deal in which Russia was allowed to keep Ukrainian territory it has seized, and replied: “We have to ask ourselves, is it in our national interest? Is it realistic? … Are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil?

‘IRONCLAD’ GUARANTEES

Zelenskiy has not responded publicly to Waltz’s remarks.
He has said he sees a good chance to end the war after Kyiv accepted the U.S. ceasefire proposal, but has also consistently said Ukraine’s sovereignty is not negotiable and that Russia must surrender the territory it has seized.
Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions after it invaded the country in 2022.
Russia will seek “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlet Izvestia in remarks published on Monday that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
Moscow has also demanded that it keep control of all Ukrainian territory seized, and that the size of the Ukrainian army be limited. It also wants Western sanctions eased and a presidential election in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is premature while martial law is in force.
Putin says his actions in Ukraine are aimed at protecting Russia’s national security against what he casts as an aggressive and hostile West, in particular NATO’s eastward expansion. Ukraine and its Western partners say Russia is waging an unprovoked war of aggression and an imperial-style land grab.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday the conditions demanded by Russia to agree to a ceasefire showed Moscow does not really want peace.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “a significant number” of nations – including Britain and France – were willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. Defence chiefs will meet this week to firm up plans.
Russia has ruled out peacekeepers until the war has ended.
“If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” Russia’s Grushko said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-will-speak-with-putin-tuesday-about-ending-war-ukraine-2025-03-17/

U.S. President Donald Trump must stop making “disrespectful” comments about Canada before the two countries can start serious talks about future ties, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Trump, who is promising potentially crippling tariffs against imports from Canada, frequently muses about making the country the 51st U.S. state.

“We’ve called out those comments. They’re disrespectful, they’re not helpful, and they … will have to stop before we sit down and have a conversation about our broader partnership with the United States,” Carney told reporters in London.

The remarks by Carney are his toughest yet on Trump since launching his political career in January. Carney, who was sworn in last Friday, has yet to speak to Trump and the U.S. president has remained silent about his appointment.

Carney said Canada wanted a more comprehensive discussion and negotiation of the two neighbors’ overall commercial and security relationship.
“When the United States is ready to have that conversation, we’re more than ready to sit down,” he said.
Canada has retaliated with tariffs against tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. imports. Carney said Ottawa would only take action it thought could affect U.S. behavior.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-carney-says-trump-must-stop-comments-before-bilateral-talks-can-start-2025-03-17/

RUSSIAN spies were behind a bizarre mission to firebomb an IKEA store after bribing a teen with a BMW, according to Lithuanian authorities.

Prosecutors accused the Russian intelligence services of puppetting the attack on Ikea because its logo uses the same colours as the Ukrainian flag.

The Ikea shop in Vilnius targeted in the attackCredit: J. Stacevičius / LRTIt is one of a string of attacks and disasters across Europe linked to Russians recruiting “disposable agents” for sabotage.

The Vilnius plot has been connected to a huge shopping centre blaze in Poland three days later, leading to Lithuania and the Poles to uniting forces in the investigation.

The two arsonists behind the May 2024 attack in Lithuania’s capital were both Ukrainian – and one of them was a minor.

They have both been arrested – one in Lithuania and one in Poland – and are to face terrorism charges at trial.

They were coaxed into the carrying out the attack with €10,000 and a BMW.

The prosecutors said the pair accepted the missions during a secret meeting in Warsaw, Poland’s capital.

A statement from Lithuanian officials said that Russia was attempting to “severely intimidate” EU societies into withdrawing their support for Ukraine.

The menacing attacks were also supposed to “destabilise the most important political, economic and social structures of the state”, prosecutors said.

Poland and the Baltic countries — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — are among the most ardent supports of Ukraine’s war effort.

Russia has denied carrying out the attacks, and says the West is seeking to inflame anti-Russian feeling.

Arturas Urbelis, from the Lithuanian prosecutor general’s office, said the chain of orders had been traced back to the Russians via more than 20 intermediaries.

He said: “The chain includes the organisers, then more organisers for certain goals, then more intermediaries, all down to the perpetrators. It is a multi-stage, very complex system.”

The arsonists on the ground did not know who they were ultimately working for, he said.

Urbelis added that the store was not targeted at random.

He said: “Ikea’s colours are the same as Ukraine’s flag – this has strong symbolic meaning.”

Prosecutors are still hunting for those involved further up the command pole.

The fire was triggered by a timed detonator on May 9, 2024, but quickly contained.

Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, said the pair who set the device travelled between Poland and Lithuania numerous times.

They scouted out the store, took photos and planned escape routes, he said.

Briginas revealed that the detonation device had been hidden among flammable products before the store closed.

The pair is said to have ignited the fire at 4am, filmed the flames, disposed of the kit and clothes and then jumped in an arranged lift back to Warsaw.

There they were given a BMW 530 and the cash as a reward.

A suspect was arrested in Lithuania on May 13, after getting information he was on his way to Riga, Latvia, by bus to carry out another attack.

The prosecutors said he was found with “incendiary-explosive materials” – meaning they successfully foiled another attack.

Three days after the Lithuanian arson attempt, on May 12, an enormous blaze engulfed a shopping centre in Warsaw – almost completely destroying it.

Polish president Donald Tusk said at the time investigators were looking into potential Russian involvement.

And on Monday he welcomed the Lithuanian announcement, saying it had “confirmed [their] suspicions” that the Russians had masterminded the two attacks.

Tusk added: “Good to know before negotiations. Such is the nature of this state.”

Security services around Europe have been on high alert since a spate of mystery fires and attacks spread across the continent last year.

Investigators have alleged potential Russian involvement in a range of crimes including an east London arson attack and antisemitic graffiti in Paris.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13801508/putin-plot-ikea-fire-lithuania-bmw-bribe/

Ferraris are becoming increasingly popular among younger buyers, with the CEO of the luxury automaker revealing that 40% of new buyers are now under the age of 40.

That reflects a significant upswing from just over 18 months ago, when Ferrari’s chief said the figure stood at 30%.

“40% of the new clients are below 40 years,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna told CNBC on the sidelines of CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore.

“I don’t know for other brands, but for us, it is an achievement that is thanks to our team,” he added.

The Maranello, Italy-based manufacturer is well known for keeping a tight rein on the production of its cars, seeking to maintain the brand’s promise of exclusivity. Indeed, as of last year, nearly three-quarters of all Ferraris were sold to existing customers.

Famously, founder Enzo Ferrari once said that the company would “always deliver one less car than the market demands.”

Vigna shared a couple of examples during a fireside chat at CONVERGE LIVE of prospective buyers urging the company to speed up production. He insisted, however, that the more-than-two-year wait time was an integral part of what he described as a “very pleasant” experience.

EV launch

In a bold move, a French politician has called for the return of the Statue of Liberty, claiming America no longer embodies its ideals. What sparked this demand?

A member of the French government requested the return of the Statue of Liberty, claiming America had lost its way and no longer represented what the statue was meant to symbolize.

Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the political party the Place Publique, has been highly critical of President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine’s position within the war, along with Trump’s education department cuts.

“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” Glucksmann said to the local French paper Le Monde.

“We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,” he added.

The crowd cheered after his comments, as European leaders and citizens have taken a stand against Trump, especially after the Zelensky showdown in the White House.

Glucksmann also said the country will welcome anyone fired by the Trump administration’s federal job cuts.

“The second thing we’re going to say to the Americans is: ‘If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who, through their freedom and their sense of innovation, their taste for doubt and research, have made your country the world’s leading power, then we’re going to welcome them,’” he said.

In the year after Russia launched outright war on Ukraine, NATO leaders approved a set of military plans designed to repel an invasion of Europe. It was the biggest shake-up of the alliance’s defense readiness preparations since the Cold War.

Source : https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/166510/french-lawmaker-demands-us-return

Thousands of people gathered on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Sunday in a show of support for former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges of leading a plot to topple the government and undermine the country’s democracy after he lost a 2022 election.
Charges against the former army captain and several key allies will go before a five-judge panel at Brazil’s Supreme Court on March 25. If judges agree to hear the trial, Bolsonaro and others will become defendants.

In Sunday’s demonstration, people demanded a pardon for supporters of the former president, who were accused of ransacking government buildings days after the inauguration of da Silva.
“I was in Brasília on a vigil before January 8 participating in prayers,” said Monica Alves, a Bolsonaro supporter. “I know the people. There are no troublemakers or criminals there.”

Alessandra Mello, another supporter of the former president, said, “Brazil has lost the right to freedom of expression and to demonstrate. There must be amnesty for these people who do not commit crimes.”
Bolsonaro told supporters that a bill proposing a pardon for people who participated in the January 8 riots has enough support to be approved in the lower house.
“We are talking about innocent people who have no idea or power over what they were doing,” he said during his speech, which was interrupted after some people felt sick from the heat. “What democracy is that which arrests the innocent. … Without freedom of expression there is no democracy.”

Paulo Kramer, a political scientist who worked on Bolsonaro’s 2018 presidential campaign, said the former leader’s strategy now relies more than ever on seeking support directly from voters.
“We believe the battle in the Supreme Court is essentially lost, given the majority justices are opposed to Bolsonaro,” Kramer told Reuters, adding: “Taking the streets is a way to reassert his leadership.”
The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/thousands-gather-rio-de-janeiro-demonstrate-support-bolsonaro-2025-03-16/

Mar 16, 2025; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Mirra Andreeva (RUS) with the championship trophy after defeating Aryna Sabalenka (not pictured) in threes set in the women’s final of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Well Tennis Garden. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Purchase Licensing Rights

March 16 (Reuters) – Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva fought back to overcome world number one Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-4 6-3 in the Indian Wells final on Sunday, winning a second WTA 1000-level event in a row to keep her charmed year on track.
The 17-year-old Andreeva, the youngest women’s champion at the tournament since Serena Williams in 1999, found her form midway through the match and crumpled to the ground in celebration after closing it out with a forehand winner.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Top seed Sabalenka pulled herself out of a slump to bring some of her best tennis to the California desert this year and got off to a hot start on Sunday but her form unravelled as the match wore on and she was left to rue missed opportunities.
“I would like to thank myself for fighting until the end and for always believing in me and for never quitting,” Andreeva said at the trophy ceremony.
“I was running like a rabbit today because Aryna, she’s been sending bullets and it was really hard to just keep up.”

Andreeva had lost to Sabalenka twice this year and it looked as though the pattern would continue as the top-seeded Belarusian mixed some nifty drop shots with her usual forehand power to save four break points in the third game.
Sabalenka sent a backhand winner down the line to break in the fourth game and four games later a visibly frustrated Andreeva whacked a ball into the stands after sending a shot into the net as the Russian was broken again.
The teenager got a confidence boost in the second set, however, when she broke Sabalenka with a forehand winner in the third game and fended off two break points in the sixth.

‘MORE AGGRESSIVE’

Fire ripped through a packed and unlicensed nightclub early on Sunday in the North Macedonian town of Kocani, killing 59 people and injuring more than 150, officials said, after sparks ignited the roof as a live band performed.
Hundreds of people scrambled for the small venue’s only exit as the fire spread across the ceiling, leaving many trapped in the country’s deadliest incident in years.

One video from the event, verified by Reuters, showed the moment the fire began: as the band played on stage, two flares spat white sparks into the air, setting a patch of ceiling alight. Seconds later, the panic began.

“Fire broke out, everyone started screaming and shouting: ‘Get out, get out’,” Marija Taseva, 22, told Reuters.
As she tried to escape, Taseva fell to the ground and people trod on her, injuring her face. In the rush, she lost contact with her sister, who did not make it out.
“My sister died,” Taseva said, breaking into tears.
Authorities arrested about 20 people in connection with the fire, including government officials and the manager of the “Pulse” nightclub, which did not have a valid licence, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski told a press conference.

More than 20 of the injured and three of those killed were aged under 18, he said.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the licence was issued illegally by the economy ministry and promised those responsible would face justice.
“Regardless of who they are, from which institution, from what level, from which party and profession,” Mickoski said. He declared seven days of national mourning.
The fire began at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT). About 500 people were in the club at the time, authorities said.
Reuters pictures showed the club’s corrugated iron roof burned through and collapsed in places, its interior wooden beams exposed and blackened.
More than 150 people were hospitalized in Skopje, Kocani and surrounding towns, Health Minister Arben Taravari said, adding that 20 people were critically injured.

People searched for missing loved ones online and at hospitals across the country.
Outside the main hospital in Kocani, relatives and friends of the victims hugged each other and lit candles. Anger and grief spilled over.
“I’m a dead man, I lost everything. They should film me, the whole of Europe should know,” said one man.
“(I knew) 5 or 6, one of those was killed,” said Kocani resident Mihail Gavrilov. “It’s devastating for the entire city and the entire country.”
Simeon Sokolov, 50, found his daughter Anastasija in the emergency ward of the September 8 hospital in the capital Skopje, where she was being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
“I just know that there are many children who have suffered,” he told Reuters. “Doctors are doing their job and the number is big.”
Some patients were transferred to neighbouring Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece for treatment, authorities from those countries said.
Condolences flooded in from global leaders, including EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Pope Francis.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fire-north-macedonia-night-club-leaves-several-dead-media-reports-say-2025-03-16/

The container ship Solong collided with the vessel off the east coast of Yorkshire on Monday.

The crew of a US oil tanker struck by a container ship in the North Sea have been praised as “heroic” for triggering a crucial firefighting system before abandoning the vessel.

A sailor from the Portuguese-registered Solong is missing presumed dead after the collision off the east coast of Yorkshire on Monday morning.

The Stena Immaculate had been carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated tanks, but the maritime company that operates the tanker said only one was damaged thanks to the actions of the crew.

Vice president of the firm Crowley, Cal Hayden, said: “Before being forced to abandon ship, the crew had the dedication and presence of mind to ensure fire monitors were active in order to provide boundary cooling water to the adjacent cargo tanks.

“Their heroic action limited damage to only the cargo tanks impacted due to the allision.”

A fire on the ship burned for three days after the incident and a salvage team has confirmed that 17,515 barrels of the 220,000 being carried have been lost, the company said.

Crowley said the remaining cargo and bunkers are secure and the salvage operation is ongoing.

“The Coastguard position remains that there continues to be no cause for concern for pollution from the tanker,” a statement said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/heroic-oil-tanker-crew-praised-after-north-sea-ship-crash-13330632

THE nightclub in North Macedonia that erupted into flames reportedly had a fire exit padlocked and walled up with no handle on the inside, the prosecutor has revealed.

Club Pulse turned into inferno during a concert overnight on Saturday, leaving at least 59 young partygoers dead and another 155 injured – 22 of whom are in critical condition.

The club erupted into flames at around 2:35am on Sunday after pyrotechnics set light to the roof of the busy club, according to interior minister Panche Toshkovski.

As investigations into the blaze continue, State Prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski revealed disturbing details of the decimated building’s lack of fire protections, PlusInfo reports.

He reportedly said the club was covered in flammable materials with no hydrant network and a seemingly extreme lack of fire extinguishers.

There was also only one improvised metal exit door at the back of the building – but it was padlocked and with no handle on the inside.

The building also had no door braking system or a fire notification system with a loud sound signal.

Kocevski added that the club was coated with illegal soundproofing materials along with visual accessories that were made out of easily flammable materials.

There was also no access for emergency fire services from both sides of the building in accordance with the country’s Fire Protection Regulation.

Meanwhile a heartbroken survivor of the nightclub fire has revealed her sister was trampled in the frantic surge for the exit.

One survivor said she was forced to push through charred bodies to save herself as the flames tore through the old warehouse.

Local hip-hop duo, DNK, were performing at the time as harrowing footage shows flames starting to burn directly above the stage.

Officials so far have 20 suspects, including around 15 people in the police station, some who died in the blaze or have been hospitalised, Toshkovski revealed.

Video posted on social media shows how the building was quickly engulfed in flames as clouds of smoke billow into the sky.

Terrifying sparks can be seen bursting through the roof in a separate clip.

Those trapped inside the burning building were said to have frantically ran for the exit as smoke filled the venue.

Recalling the harrowing moment, she told Sky News: “The fire broke out suddenly and everyone started running for the exit.

“There were charred bodies. I don’t know… everyone is stressed.”

Around 500 people were partying in the concert hall at the time, according to local media, but only 250 were sold.

She was rushed to hospital to receive treatment before she started a frantic search for her missing sister who was also in the club.

The local woman said: “She is injured. Running outside she fell and people stomped over her.”

A father of one of the victims of the fire also revealed the pain he has been forced to endure across the last 12 hours.

Dragi Stojanov’s son Tomce, 21, was inside the packed nightclub.

He said this morning: “It’s my only child and he died. What is left for me in life? I don’t need my life anymore.”

As he searched for his son, Stojanov said he saw many of the victims “burnt beyond recognition”.

It comes as the public prosecutor’s office has said the exact number of victims and those injured is still being determined.

Only 39 of the fatalities have been identified so far, interior minister Toshkovski said.

Officials confirmed the youngest victim was a 14-year-old with the oldest being aged 24.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13789879/fire-dead-nightclub-north-macedonia

A 46-year-old woman has suffered life-threatening injuries after a man poured a flammable liquid on her and set her alight in the eastern city of Gera. The attacker, who police say may be her husband, managed to escape.

German police in the eastern city of Gera are investigating a case of attempted murder after a man doused a woman in a tram in a combustible liquid on Sunday morning and set it alight, inflicting life-threatening injuries.

Police in the state of Thuringia, where Gera is situated, say the suspected attacker is believed to be the 46-year-old husband of the woman.

A police spokeswoman said the 46-year-old woman had been flown to a hospital by helicopter after the attack, whose motivation remains unclear.

An investigation was ongoing, she said.

No one else was injured in the attack, which occurred around 10 a.m. local time (0900 UTC).

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-woman-set-alight-in-gera-tram-and-critically-injured/a-71936277

A senior Houthi leader stated U.S. strikes against Yemen on Saturday were “unjustified”

Yemen’s Houthi militia has vowed retaliation against the U.S. after an airstrike on behalf of Israel killed 31 and injured more than 100 people on Saturday, most of whom were women and children.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi leader, called the U.S.’ attack “unjustified,” adding that it “will result in a response.”

“The Zionist entity has not adhered to the ceasefire agreement, so our naval operations target it alone with the aim of lifting the siege on Gaza,” al-Bukhaiti wrote in an X post shared Saturday.

“This is a moral and humanitarian position. America’s involvement in the aggression against Yemen is unjustified and will result in a response. We will meet escalation with escalation, and the one who starts it is the most unjust,” he added.

The U.S. airstrikes, which marked the Trump administration’s second largest military campaign, were in response to Yemen’s Iran-backed militia resuming “the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships” in defense of Gaza, the New York Times reported.

On March 7, the Houthi rebels warned Israel had four days to resume aid, including food, water and shelter, to Gaza, which Israeli forces had been blocking since March 2 in hopes of pressuring Hamas to release the rest of the hostages, circumventing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration.

The March 12 deadline came and went with no movement from Israel, prompting the Houthis to resume their attacks on Israeli ships.

On Saturday, the White House shared an X post celebrating the airstrikes.

“President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,” the post stated.

“For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency,” it continued. The Houthis, however, have never directly targeted the U.S.

U.S. Central Command also shared photos and videos on X of its air strikes leveling buildings in Yemen.

Many social media users expressed outrage at the strikes, especially in light of Trump campaigning on a terrorism- and war-free presidency.

“Houthis are defending Palestinians from genocidal terrorists. They’re morally righteous, and you’re a compromised Israel-firster soiling the US’s moral reputation,” @SithDubh stated in an X post.

Source: https://www.latintimes.com/yemen-vows-retaliate-against-us-strikes-behalf-israel-kill-31-people-women-children-578494

The live-action version of the classic fairy-tale animation sounded like a surefire hit. But even before it’s reached cinemas, the response to it has been loud and often hostile.

You wouldn’t think that the war in Gaza would have much impact on a Disney remake. But the live-action Snow White, a revamped version of the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has become a flashpoint for social and political divisions, even before its global release next week.

There was some backlash to the casting of Rachel Zegler, of Colombian descent, as the heroine. More recently, there has been blowback both about Zegler’s pro-Palestinian comments and about pro-Israel comments by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who plays Snow White’s stepmother, the Evil Queen. And there is an ongoing debate about whether there should have been dwarfs at all, live or CGI. The film’s director, Marc Webb, said in Disney’s official production notes, “I think all good stories evolve over time. They become reflections of the world that we live in”. He has likely got more than he bargained for, as reactions to Snow White inadvertently reflect the most polarised aspects of the world today. Like political rhetoric in countries around the world, responses to the film’s production have been loud, irate and sometimes ugly.

Michael Faraday’s illustrated notes that show how radical scientist began his theories at London’s Royal Institution to go online

He was a self-educated genius whose groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of physics and chemistry electrified the world of science and laid the foundations for Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity nearly a century later.

Now, the little-known notebooks of the Victorian scientist Michael Faraday have been unearthed from the archive of the Royal Institution and are to be digitised and made permanently accessible online for the first time.

The notebooks include Faraday’s handwritten notes on a series of lectures given by the electrochemical pioneer Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution in 1812. “None of these notebooks have been looked at or analysed in any great depth,” said Charlotte New, head of heritage for the Royal Institution. “They’re little known to the public.”

Faraday, the son of a blacksmith, left school at 13 and was working as an apprentice bookbinder when he attended the lectures. He penned very careful notes and presented one of his notebooks to Davy, hoping for a job at the Royal Institution despite his working-class background and rudimentary education.

The notebooks shed light on the workings of Faraday’s mind and reveal he made intricate drawings to visualise the scientific experiments and principles he was learning about at the lectures. “He’s taking the time to make his own publication and grounding what’s being taught to him in his own understanding,” said New. “He’s heavily illustrating his notes to understand the principle that’s been taught to him.” He even wrote an index for each notebook, she said, just for his own use and personal research. “This is at a time when paper is taxed. It shows how he’s really trying to understand the science within.”

When Faraday gave Davy the notebook, he expressed his “desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and enter into the service of Science”.

Although Davy initially declined to help him, the notebooks – and Faraday himself – seemed to make a good impression. Davy wrote to Faraday soon afterwards to say that he was “far from displeased with the proof you have given me of your confidence, which displays great zeal, power of memory and attention”.

When a lab assistant at the Institution got into a brawl and was fired in February 1813, Davy remembered the 22-year-old Faraday and offered him the job – which involved taking a pay cut, but gave the young man access to the laboratory, free coal, candles and two attic rooms.

Faraday later gave an account of this job offer: “At the same time that he [Davy] gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he advised me to remain a bookbinder, telling me that Science was a harsh mistress… poorly rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service.”

Despite Davy’s advice, Faraday accepted the job. It was a decision that would prove to be seminal for science. Over the next 55 years, while working for the Royal Institution, Faraday discovered several fundamental laws of physics and chemistry – including his law of electromagnetic induction in 1831, which illuminated the relative motion of charged particles.

It was thanks to Faraday’s trailblazing experiments at the institution that he discovered electromagnetic rotation in 1821, a breakthrough that led to the development of the electric motor and benzene, a hydrocarbon derived from benzoic acid, in 1825. He became the first scientist to liquefy gas in 1823, invented the electric generator in 1831 and discovered the laws of electrolysis in the early 1830s, helping to coin terms such as electrode, cathode and ion. In 1845, after finding the first experimental evidence that a magnetic field could influence polarised light – a phenomenon that became known as the Faraday effect – he proved light and electromagnetism are interconnected.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/15/notebooks-michael-faraday-victorian-scientist-einstein

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday put journalists at Voice of America and other US-funded broadcasters on leave, abruptly freezing outlets long seen as critical to countering a Russian and Chinese information offensive.

Hundreds of reporters and other staff at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes, office-issued telephones and other equipment.

Trump, who has already eviscerated the US aid agency and Education Department, on Friday issued an executive order listing the US Agency for Global Media as among “elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary.”

Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter and former Arizona news anchor who was put in charge of the media agency after she lost a US Senate bid, wrote — in an email to media outlets she supervises — that federal grant money “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

A White House press official, Harrison Fields, took a much less legalistic tone in a post on X, simply writing “goodbye” in 20 languages, a sarcastic jab at VOA’s multilingual coverage.

The head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which started broadcasting into the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, called the cancellation of funding “a massive gift to America’s enemies.”

Source : https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2980950/trump-freezes-voa-radio-free-asia-radio-free-europe

In the world of billionaires and the similarly wealthy teams they own, designing a state-of-the-art stadium goes beyond the visual.

In the offices of architecture firm Arup, there is a downstairs soundproof room with premium grade surround-sound speakers and a large screen. It looks like a small theatre.

“We can put a client in there and say, ‘when your team scores, this is what it will sound like if your stadium roof is shaped this way,'” says Chris Dite, who is responsible for the firm’s sports projects.

“But, if we change the roof shape to this, then this is what it will sound like.”

The way the pitch and intensity of the crowd noise changes in the aftermath of a goal is based on data from stadium projects the firm have completed over the last 25 years.

Dite’s previous work includes the Allianz Arena used by German football giants Bayern Munich and the Gtech Community Stadium where Brentford play.

“If you can sit the client in those front rows and make them feel like they’re in it, that’s where you start to really invoke an emotional response,” Dite tells BBC News.

What a goal might sound like in the new Manchester United stadium was not part of the presentation given by the club earlier this week, but the design of the new £2bn ground certainly invoked emotional responses.

Some questioned how realistic it was to build such tall pillars from which a glass panelled canvas drapes over the new stands and surrounding grounds.

The three pillars in the artist’s impression, unveiled by the firm Foster and Partners, are a nod to the trident on the Red Devil’s crest.

“Gravity still exists, unfortunately for us,” remarks Dite. He says he “can’t comment on other architectural businesses” but that Arup doesn’t issue any public designs that haven’t been approved by structural engineers.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewkzk5qv0lo

United Nations aid agencies have been sent questionnaires by the US asking them to state if they have “anti-American” beliefs or affiliations.

Among the 36 questions on the form, sent by the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and seen by the BBC, is one asking if they have any links to communism.

Some of the world’s biggest humanitarian organisations have received the questionnaire, including the UN Refugee Agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Trump administration has launched a cost-cutting drive across the US government, led by billionaire Elon Musk, and has closed down much of its foreign aid.

The UN groups fear the move by the OMB is a sign the US is planning to abandon humanitarian work – or even the UN itself – altogether.

The US pulled out of the World Health Organization on the first day of US President Donald Trump’s second term.

And this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the vast majority of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes had been terminated.

Surveys indicate that most Americans believe the country overspends on foreign aid.

The US spends a lower percentage of its GDP on aid than European countries but, because of its huge economy, still supplies 40% of global humanitarian funding

Many of the UN aid agencies who were sent the form receive funding, not just from USAID, but directly from the US government.

One question asks: ”Can you confirm that your organisation does not work with entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs?”

Another asks agencies to confirm they don’t receive any funding from China, Russia, Cuba or Iran – these countries may not be Washington’s best friends but, like all 193 UN member states, they fund the big humanitarian agencies.

Other questions ask aid agencies to ensure no project includes any elements of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) or anything related to climate change.

This could be awkward for agencies like Unicef, which supports equal access to education for girls, or the World Food Programme, which tries to prevent famine by supporting drought affected communities to transition to more climate resilient crops.

Professor Karl Blanchet, of Geneva University’s Centre for Humanitarian Studies, believes the aid agencies are being set up to fail: “The decision has already been made. It’s highly likely the US is going to stop its involvement in any UN system.

“It’s multilateralism versus America first – these are two ends of a spectrum.”

Aid agencies working on complex humanitarian operations are more blunt.

“It’s like being asked ‘have you stopped beating your child, yes or no?'” said one frustrated aid worker.

The UN aid agencies believe the questionnaire misunderstands their core principles of neutrality and impartiality – that people suffering because of war or natural disaster should be helped regardless of political beliefs, and that aid should not be used as a tool to strengthen one particular nation.

UN Human Rights has already chosen not to fill out the form.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70enzddxywo

South Koreans gathered in huge numbers in the capital Seoul on Saturday to support or oppose impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol before a court decides whether his short-lived declaration of martial law disqualifies him from office.
The Constitutional Court is expected to decide in the coming days whether to oust Yoon in a case that ignited South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades and rattled markets.

In central Seoul, anti-Yoon protesters filled a large square, chanting for his immediate removal, and were joined by opposition politicians.
A few blocks away, conservative Yoon supporters crammed an entire avenue, calling for his return and waving South Korean and American flags.
The major opposition Democratic Party said a million people had attended the anti-Yoon rally, while police put the number at each demonstration at 43,000, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Yoon is also on trial on a criminal charge of insurrection, although he was freed from detention last week.

His martial law imposition and its fallout have widened deep social rifts between conservatives and liberals and put pressure on institutions and the military, which had found itself in a quandary over whether to enforce martial law.
Pro- and anti-Yoon demonstrators have been taking to the streets in their hundreds of thousands, week after week, since the crisis.
“Last week, I thought that the Constitutional Court would rule, but it didn’t. Then Yoon was released, making me incredibly frustrated,” said Song Young-sun, a 48-year-old protester. “So this week I came here, hoping that the Constitutional Court will rule on the impeachment case next week.”
In a Gallup Korea poll published on Friday, 58% supported Yoon’s impeachment, while 37% opposed it.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/massive-rallies-across-south-korea-ahead-key-ruling-impeachment-yoon-2025-03-15/

France have won the Six Nations after beating Scotland 35-16 in Paris.

England pushed the championship battle to the final game after earlier destroying Wales with a record 68-14 win in Cardiff.

But Les Bleus sealed victory in front of a home crowd in a packed Stade de France to lift their first title since 2022 and only their second since 2010.

Scotland briefly threatened to spoil the party and were unlucky to go into halftime 16-13 behind after a Tom Jordan try was disallowed.

The match remained tight until France threw on their forward replacements and Scotland’s defence tired under the onslaught.

Yoram Moefana grabbed the bonus-point securing fourth try and the celebrations in Paris began.

France had bounced back emphatically from their defeat away to England on matchday two to crush Ireland and Italy and put themselves in pole position entering the final day.

The hosts only needed a win against Scotland, with both England and Ireland also in with a chance, but only if other results went their way.

Last year’s champions Ireland kept their hopes of retaining the title alive with an unconvincing 22-17 bonus-point win over Italy in the early game in Rome.

A week on from having their Grand Slam dream crushed by a 42-27 drubbing in Dublin at the hands of France, Ireland moved top of the table ahead of the other matches.

But they needed both of their championship rivals to slip up, and England’s 10-try demolition of Wales pushed Ireland back into second place, while France’s win meant they finished the competition in third.

The Prince of Wales, who is the patron of the Welsh Rugby Union and his wife the Princess of Wales, the patron of the Rugby Football Union, cheered on opposing sides from the stands.

England’s emphatic bonus-point victory still left them relying on Scotland to beat the favourites to finish in the top spot.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/france-win-six-nations-with-victory-over-scotland-13329671

Vice President JD Vance admitted that Elon Musk has made “mistakes” while carrying out his mass firings of government employees under the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Elon himself has said that sometimes you do something, you make a mistake, and then you undo the mistake,” Vance told NBC News on Friday. “I’m accepting of mistakes.”

“I also think you have to quickly correct those mistakes,” he added, acknowledging that “there are a lot of good people who work in the government—a lot of people who are doing a very good job.”

Vance did not specify what exactly those mistakes were or how they had been corrected.

Vance struck a comparatively mellow tone about the cuts in comparison to Musk, who has alleged widespread fraud and waste as a justification for DOGE’s purge of the federal workforce. In February, Musk waved a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference to symbolize his efforts to scale back the federal government.

Pressed about Musk’s claims, Vance questioned the extent of the fraud that Musk has said is widespread.

“I think some people clearly are collecting a check and not doing a job,” he told NBC. “Now, how many people is that? I don’t know, in a 3 million-strong federal workforce, whether it’s a few thousand or much larger than that.”

Vance’s words also seem to undercut the scathing account President Donald Trump gave of workers last week after the Department of Education cut nearly half its staff.

“I feel very badly, but many of them don’t work at all,” Trump said, referring to the tens of thousands of workers he and Musk have laid off across the government.

”Many of them never showed up to work,” he said, without offering support for the claim.

In his interview, Vance made it clear, however, that he does agree with Trump and Musk’s push in principle.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-admits-that-musks-doge-has-made-mistakes-while-blowing-up-government/

Kanye West took to X on Saturday to reveal two new songs, including one, “Lonely Roads Still Go To Sunshine,” featuring contributions from Diddy; North West, West’s eldest daughter with Kim Kardashian; and King Combs, Diddy’s son.

TMZ reports that when Kardashian learned of the song’s existence, she sent out cease and desist letters, resulting in an emergency hearing with a mediator and a judge. TMZ’s sources claim that Kanye promised not to release the song.

The song opens with a message from what sounds like Diddy telling West that he appreciates West taking care of his children and reaching out, because nobody has called him or reached out. West responds by telling Diddy, “Absolutely, I love you so much man, you raised me, even when I didn’t know you.” North can be heard later on in the song rapping the bridge, including, “Doing everything I wanted / That’s the key to life /When you see me shining / Then you see the light.”

TMZ also shared screenshots of a now-deleted Kanye tweet showing a conversation between the rapper and Kardashian which, while it appeared to be about North’s appearance on the song, seemed to focus almost entirely on trademarks. West responded by telling Kardashian, “Amend it or I’m going to war. And neither of us will recover from the public fallout. You’re going to have to kill me.”

West followed the two songs, the second of which is appropriately called “World War 3,″ up with posts revealing his new album cover—a red swastika on a black background—and a new logo for his Sunday Service: the Schutzstaffel (SS) logo.

West is currently dealing with divorce rumors surrounding his marriage to second wife Bianca Censori, who he married in 2022. Amidst speculation, he was recently spotted with a Censori look-alike in Los Angeles, just one month after the couple’s controversial stunt that saw West’s wife walk the Grammy Awards red carpet while nearly naked.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/kim-tried-to-get-court-order-against-new-kanye-song-featuring-diddy-and-north/

A DOCTOR claims Gene Hackman’s wife called him 24 hours after officers said she died – casting more mystery over the couple’s deaths.

Betsy Arakawa was found to have passed on February 11 from a rare rodent disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome – a week before her Oscar-winning husband passed.

But former emergency care specialist and runner of Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe, Dr Josiah Child, claims that Betsy couldn’t have died on February 11 because “she called my clinic on February 12”.

He told the Mail that Betsy called him a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband.

Child said Bets was not a patient of his, but one of his patients had recommended Cloudberry to her.

He said: “She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”

And just two days before she was due to see him, Betsy canceled her appointment because her husband wasn’t well, Dr Child claims.

“The appointment wasn’t for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”

Hantavirus spreads when exposed to rodents’ urine, droppings, and saliva, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr Child has raised questions over her cause of death, linking to the mysterious call to the doctor’s office and how she sounded on the phone.

Child said he is not a hantavirus expert but most patients who have that diagnosis die in hospital.

He said: “It is surprising that Mrs Hackman spoke to my office on the phone on February 10 and again on February 12 and didn’t appear in respiratory distress.”

But Dr Child isn’t the only one confused over Betsy’s hantavirus diagnosis.

Betsy’s Oscar-winning husband Hackman, who was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, was alone in the house for days following his wife’s death.

It is possible that he did not know of Betsy’s body in the bathroom.

He died on February 18 when the last signal from the actor’s pacemaker was recorded.

YOUTUBER P2istheName has been found dead in a mailroom at the age of 26 – as pals pay touching tributes to the “kind creator”.

The star, whose real name was Philip Enewally, was discovered on Friday, according the Los Angeles County Coroner.

A cause of death has not yet been revealed, as investigations continue into the shock event.

The Youtuber’s mom confirmed her son’s passing to TMZ – and requested privacy on behalf of the family.

She also encouraged fans to visit his channel, which has around four million subscribers, to honour his memory.

Tributes have flooded in for the star, who was known for his gaming videos, comedy skits and vlogs.

Taking to Instagram, fellow YouTuber Coletheman wrote: “My good friend @P2istheName has passed away… wow.

“I’m honestly at a loss for words. He was always so kind to me and gave me so much content creation advice.

“May he rest in peace. This breaks my heart.”

Other fans shared their support, with one writing: “This man was my childhood, I still can’t believe it’s is real. May he rest in peace.”

Another wrote: “Never been touched by a celebrity’s death like this one.”

P2istheName lasted posted two weeks ago, and had previously spoken of plans to move to Atlanta from his hometown of LA.

He rose to fame with videos of himself playing NBA 2K and Fortnite, before expanding to general explainers of popular video games, dubbed “Let’s Plays”.

He also had his own streetwear brand DontMindUs.

Aside from gaming, P2istheName gave fans a glimpse into his personal life with vlogs showing “a day in the life of a young black millionaire” in L.A.

In his most recent Instagram post on February 19, he was seen loading DontMindUs parcels into a van – while posing in a red and black jersey from the brand.

In another slide in the same post, he appeared to be in a mailroom or shipping facility, surrounded by inventory.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13788614/youtuber-p2isthename-dead-mailroom/

THIS is the concerning moment missing Sudiksha Konanki appears to be sick at a bar shortly before vanishing from her holiday resort.

The 20-year-old student was last seen on March 6, in the Dominican Republic with sources close to the police now claiming the last person to see her has changed his official story several times.

New CCTV footage, obtained by CDN TV, from inside a bar at the Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana shows the young woman hanging out with a group of people.

The University of Pittsburgh student can be seen leaving her drink at a table before going up to a grassy area and appearing to vomit, according to local reports.

The clip is said to have been taken at around 4:05am.

An unknown woman can be seen helping Konanki as she quickly walks back towards the bar area.

The video also shows American man Joshua Riibe, 24, who claims the pair shared a kiss on the beach before Konanki went missing.

Riibe is considered to be the last person to have seen the student after separate CCTV showed them together.

The Iowa resident, who has been interviewed by cops but not named as a suspect in this case, is believed to be in the background of the bar CCTV.

He is stood with two men and also appears to be sick in the short clip.

Riibe and Konanki were stood only around 10ft apart in the footage but did not communicate at any point with each other.

As police continue to look for any signs of Konanki, a number of details have emerged.

Konanki was last seen in the early hours of March 6 near to the Punta Cana resort where she and Riibe were both staying.

The final sighting of her was when surveillance cameras captured five women and one man heading towards the beach at around 4:55am.

This is the same beach where Riibe told cops he kissed Konanki shortly after they first met, according to a transcript of his interview from Noticias SIN.

Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, told police: “We were in waist-deep water. We talked and kissed a bit.”

He also claimed he saved Konanki from drowning while in the water while explaining he was previously a lifeguard.

Riibe said: “It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult.”

He told cops he was able to pull Konanki until she was “knee-deep and walking at an angle out of the water”.

The senior said he called out to ask if the student was okay but didn’t hear a response before he was sick on the beach.

He added: “After vomiting, I looked around. I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left.”

Riibe then claimed he passed out on a beach chair.

Shirtless and shoeless he was seen leaving the beach and returning to the resort at around 8:55am the morning after.

A police source close to the investigation has now claimed he gave differing accounts to police over the course of four meetings, according to a People report.

It is still unclear which elements were changed.

Hundreds of Greenlanders took to the streets on Saturday to protest against US President Donald Trump’s stated goal of taking control of their island.

Video footage showed crowds gathered in the capital, Nuuk, waving Greenland’s flag and holding signs with messages such as “Respect Greenland’s sovereignty,” “We are not for sale” and “Make America Go Away” — a play on Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Rallies were also taking place in other towns on the island.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the center-right Demokraatit party that won this week’s parliamentary election, was joined by outgoing Prime Minister Mute B. Egede to lead protesters toward the US consulate on Nuuk’s outskirts.

“We want to be ourselves, and our autonomy and freedom will never be put up for debate,” Nielsen told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation during the rally.

“There is not the slightest chance that I will talk to Trump about Greenland becoming part of the US. Greenland will be Greenland,” he said.

Speaking to Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Saturday, Egede called the US president’s approach “completely unacceptable.”

What has Trump said about Greenland?

Over the past few months, Trump has repeatedly voiced his interest in taking control of Greenland.

The US president raised the idea again on Thursday during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte at the White House.

When asked by a reporter about a possible annexation, Trump said: “I think it will happen.”

He went on to say that the territory was fundamental to US national security, stressing that the US already has military bases there.

The strategically important Arctic island is home to just 57,000 inhabitants and is a self-governing territory of Denmark.

What has Greenland’s response been?

Lawmakers in Greenland have vehemently opposed Trump’s plans to make the island part of the US.

On Friday, the leaders of the five parties in Greenland’s parliament issued a joint statement rejecting Trump’s comments.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/greenland-hundreds-protest-against-trumps-takeover-plans/a-71933403

At least 107,000 people turned out in Belgrade on Saturday, the interior minister reported.

Near-daily student protests began in December after the deaths of 15 people when a roof at a railway station collapsed on November 1 in the northern city of Novi Sad, which critics blame on corruption under Vucic.

Sporadic clashes occurred overnight before Saturday’s rally, in front of the National Assembly, from which protesters were to march to Slavija Square. Police deployed hundreds of officers in full riot gear in and around Pionirski Park and across the street.

Thousands of veterans from elite military brigades in maroon berets and bikers who support the students also stood for 15 minutes of silence beginning at 11:52am (10:52 GMT) to honour the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy at the time of the roof collapse.

Some protesters carried banners that read, “He’s Finished,” referring to Vucic. Others chanted, “Pump it up,” a slogan adopted during the four months of student-led protests.

“We came for justice. I hope that after this protest, things will change,” Milica Stojanovic, a biology student in Belgrade, told the AFP news agency before the demonstration.

While Saturday’s gathering is expected to be largely peaceful, on Friday night in the Zarkovo suburb, a car rammed a column of protesters, injuring three people, and police said they apprehended the driver.

In central Belgrade, a student and a university lecturer were injured in an attack by a group of men early on Saturday, police said.

Three people were also detained after an overnight attack on tractors stationed around Pionirski Park, they said.

In statements issued on social media on Saturday, students urged those attending the rally to act “in a calm and responsible manner”.

“The purpose of this movement is not an incursion into institutions, nor to attack those who do not think as we do,” one statement read. “This movement must not be misused.”

In a bid to avert tensions, students also said they had moved a stage at the centre of the planned protest from the front of the National Assembly building to Slavija Square, about 1km (0.6 miles) away.

So far, Serbian prosecutors have charged at least 13 people over the Novi Sad collapse, and the government has announced an anticorruption campaign. Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and two ministers have also resigned.

But pressure has been mounting in the days leading up to Saturday’s rally.

Government-backed media have broadcast increasingly harsh accusations, saying the students are planning to launch a “coup”. Earlier, Vucic himself accused the demonstrators of organising “large-scale violence”.

Vucic has warned of a “final” showdown on Saturday while some student protesters said they would continue to rally until their demands for greater accountability are met.

On Friday, Vucic took to the airwaves with a defiant message to demonstrators, promising to not back down in the face of mass protests.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/15/thousands-join-antigovernment-protest-in-serbias-capital-belgrade

Gaza’s civil defence agency said nine people including journalists were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, attacks which could further endanger the fragile truce in the Palestinian territory.

Following the reported strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire took hold on January 19, Hamas accused Israel of a “blatant violation” of the truce which largely halted more than 15 months of fighting.

The first phase of the truce ended on March 1 without agreement on the next steps, but both Israel and Hamas have refrained from returning to all-out war.

A senior Hamas official said on Tuesday fresh talks had begun in Doha, with Israel also sending negotiators.

On Saturday, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that “nine martyrs have been transferred (to hospital), including several journalists and a number of workers from the Al-Khair Charitable Organisation”.

He said the killings were “as a result of the occupation (Israel) targeting a vehicle with a drone in the town of Beit Lahia, coinciding with artillery shelling on the same area”.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said “nine martyrs and several injured, including critical cases” were taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it hit “two terrorists… operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area of Beit Lahia”.

“Later, a number of additional terrorists collected the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle. The IDF struck the terrorists,” it added.

Israel has carried out near-daily air strikes in Gaza since early March, often targeting what the military said were militants planting explosive devices.

“The occupation has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

A separate Hamas statement said the attack was “a dangerous escalation”, adding that it “reaffirms (Israel’s) intent to backtrack on the ceasefire agreement and intentionally obstruct any opportunity to complete the agreement and carry out the prisoner swap”.

During the truce’s initial six-week phase, militants released 33 hostages, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.

Hamas said Saturday that “the ball is in Israel’s court” after offering to release an Israeli-US hostage and return the bodies of four others as part of the truce talks.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that among the nine killed were at least three photo journalists, one a drone photography specialist, and a driver.

It said two of the photographers worked for the Oman-based Ayn television channel.

Two members of the Al-Khair charitable organisation were killed, including a spokesperson, the civil defence agency said.

“This heinous crime comes in the context of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, who pay with their lives to convey the truth and expose the crimes of the occupation to the world,” a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate statement said.

“The continuation of these brutal attacks against journalists constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international laws, especially the Geneva Convention, which guarantees the protection of journalists during conflicts.”

The director of Hamas-affiliated media in Gaza, Ismail Thawabteh, told AFP that local photo journalists were killed while “using a drone to capture images of a Ramadan dining table in Beit Lahia”.

He said they were “directly targeted by the occupation in two air strikes, despite their work being clear”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in February that a total of 85 journalists had died in the Israeli-Hamas war, “all at the hands of the Israeli military”, adding that 82 of them were Palestinians.

In November, Reporters without Borders said that more than 140 journalists had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza killed more than 48,543, according to figures from the two sides.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/deadly-israeli-strikes-mar-fragile-gaza-truce-3766391

Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the U.S., wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that has killed at least 32 people as more severe weather was expected late Saturday.

The number of fatalities increased after the Kansas Highway Patrol reported eight people died in a highway pileup caused by a dust storm in Sherman County on Friday. At least 50 vehicles were involved.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that six people died in three counties and three more people were missing. There were 29 injuries across the state, he added in a nighttime post on the social platform X.

Missouri recorded more fatalities than any other state as scattered twisters overnight killed at least 12, authorities said. The deaths included a man whose home was ripped apart by a tornado.

“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”

Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing people trapped in their homes Friday night found five bodies scattered in the debris outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County, Missouri.

“It was a very rough deal last night,” he said the following day, surrounded by uprooted trees and splintered homes. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.”

Henderson said they rescued his aunt from a bedroom that was the only one left standing, taking her out through a window. They also carried out a man who had a broken arm and leg.

Officials in Arkansas said three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties.

“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.

She, Reeves and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency. Kemp said he was doing so in anticipation of severe weather moving in later in the day.

On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.

Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people

The deaths came as the massive storm system unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

Extreme weather conditions were forecast to affect an area that is home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.

Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.

Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state, and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) burned in the state.

The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.

Experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.

Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak

Significant tornadoes continued to hit Saturday, with the region at highest risk stretching from from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.

Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched a massive twister from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, away as it struck an area about half a mile (0.8 km) near Paradise Ranch RV Park.

They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded video of snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.

“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over — everything was destroyed.”

Paradise Ranch said via Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the RV park itself.

“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”

Some imagery from the extreme weather went viral online.

Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-wildfires-deaths-eb53f6b2463a96b18a08ca9e2db266ab

In recent years, the 3D printing boom has shown us that anything is possible. From toys and tools to medical devices, you can basically print anything—even 2,000-square-foot homes.

Hello, Vulcan. At the Wolf’s Ranch community in Georgetown, a city about 30 minutes away from the Texas capital, most of the home builders aren’t human. In fact, they’re actually robots—3D-printing robots, to be exact. One of them, the Vulcan, is more than 45 feet wide and weighs 4.75 tons.

It makes sense. The Vulcan isn’t building small-scale projects, but rather 3D printing homes. According to Reuters, the Vulcan takes a base mix of concrete powder, water, and sand and prints out a home through its nozzle as if it were toothpaste.

“It brings a lot of efficiency to the trade market,” Conner Jenkins, a senior project manager at Icon, the company behind the Vulcan, said. “So, where there were maybe five different crews coming in to build a wall system, we now have one crew and one robot.”

The world’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood. Icon is an AI and robotics company that uses 3D printing to build homes quickly and at a lower cost. Two years ago, Icon partnered with Lennar, the second-largest homebuilder in the country, to construct 100 3D-printed homes. The project, Wolf’s Ranch, is now the world’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood.

While the initial costs to build the community were slightly higher than expected, Lennar says it’s seen its costs decrease dramatically. Unlike human workers, Icon’s machines operate 24 hours a day. Each printer can do the work of more than 12 construction workers.

There has been flooding and landslides in parts of northern Italy as red alerts cover cities including Florence and Pisa.

Torrential rain prompted the alerts for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with heavy and persistent rainfall expected into the afternoon on Friday.

Tuscany’s president said local rescue and health services were on high alert and advised residents to exercise “the utmost attention and caution”.

Almost a month’s worth of rain fell in Florence on Friday morning while landslides and mudslides were reported in Bologna, where some residents were evacuated on Thursday evening ahead of heavy rain overnight.

No casualties have so far been reported, and the city said the worst of the flooding had passed by mid-morning on Friday.

A family of four was rescued from a landslide in Badia Prataglia, Tuscany on Thursday evening, according to local media.

The national fire brigade said it had received dozens of calls after the Rimaggio flooded and flowed through the Sesto Fiorentino area on Florence’s northern outskirts.

In Pisa, flood defences were being erected along the Arno river as local authorities warned it had surpassed the first flood-risk level.

Roads were also affected by flooding and fallen trees, with residents in Florence advised against all travel after the A1 motorway was partially closed.

Schools were shut in more than 60 municipalities in Tuscany, local media reported, as were several campuses of the University of Florence.

Florence has seen more than double its average March rainfall of 61mm in the past three days.

It saw more than 53mm of rain in just six hours on Friday morning, after a further 36mm had fallen overnight.

The red weather alerts – indicating serious risk of extreme and widespread flooding – were set to continue throughout the day.

Further heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to move across the northern half of Italy into Saturday, before drier weather begins to move in.

An area of high pressure in the north-east Atlantic has in recent days blocked the path of low pressure systems which normally pass to the north-west of the UK, sending them through the Mediterranean instead.

Some rivers in Emilia-Romagna were already swollen after previous downpours.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the north-eastern region in September 2024 after it was battered by Storm Boris.

The previous year, 13 people died in the region after six months’ worth of rainfall fell in a day and a half. Twenty rivers burst their banks and there were some 280 landslides.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2jr7nr60ro

The boss of online clothing brand Snag has told the BBC it gets more than 100 complaints a day that the models in its adverts are “too fat”.

Chief executive Brigitte Read says models of her size 4-38 clothing are frequently the target of “hateful” posts about their weight.

The brand was cited in an online debate over whether adverts showing “unhealthily fat” models should be banned after a Next advert, in which a model appeared “unhealthily thin”, was banned.

The UK’s advertising watchdog says it has banned ads using models who appear unhealthily underweight rather than overweight due to society’s aspiration towards thinness.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 61 complaints about models’ weight in 2024, with the vast majority being about models who appeared to be too thin.

But it only had grounds to investigate eight complaints and none were about Snag.

Catherine Thom read the BBC report about the Next advert ban and got in touch to say she found it “hypocritical to ban adverts where models appear too thin for being socially irresponsible, however when models are clearly obese we’re saying it’s body positivity”.

The 36-year-old from Edinburgh was one of several people who contacted the BBC with this view, while a Reddit thread had more than 1,000 comments with many along the same theme.

Mrs Thom says she was “bombarded with images of obese girls in tights” after buying from Snag when she was pregnant.

“I see Snag tights plastering these morbidly obese people all over social media,” she says.

“How is that allowed when the photo of the Next model isn’t? There should be fairness, not politically correct body positivity. Adverts normalising an unhealthy weight, be it obese or severely underweight, are equally as harmful.”

‘Fat phobia’
But Snag founder Ms Read says: “Shaming fat people does not help them to lose weight and actually it really impacts mental health and therefore their physical health.”

She thinks the idea of banning adverts showing models with bigger bodies is a symptom of society’s “fat phobia”.

Of her 100 staff, 12 are dedicated “just to remove negative comments and big up those promoting body positivity”.

“Fat people exist, they’re equally as valid as thin people, they buy clothes and they need to see what they look like on people that look like them,” she says.

“You are not worth less the bigger you are. Models of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities and abilities are valid and should be represented.”

Sophie Scott is a 27-year-old salon owner from Lossiemouth in Scotland who has modelled for Snag, and received positive and negative comments about her size on social media.

“I get either ‘you’re so beautiful’ or ‘you need to lose weight’. When I started modelling I was a size 30. Having lost weight since then I’m still on the receiving end of hate comments because it will never be enough for some people.”

Sophie is used to online comments telling her she is “unhealthy”, but says, “fitness is not measured by the way you look. They are making assumptions, they don’t know me or my activity levels.

“People say ‘you’re glorifying obesity’ but I don’t think anyone is looking at me and saying ‘I want to look like that’. Perhaps some people are looking at me and saying ‘she has a similar body type to me’.

“When I get a message from someone saying ‘we are the same size and you’ve inspired me to wear what I want’, it takes away from every hate comment I get.

“If I’ve helped one person accept their body then the hate comments don’t really bother me.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xjd41g33o

In some of his strongest rhetoric yet amid worsening cross-strait ties, Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te has labelled China a “foreign hostile force”.

He said Taiwan had “no choice but to take even more proactive measures” as a result, as he announced a raft of new national security measures, including reinstating a military court system and tightening the residency criteria for those from China, Hong Kong and Macau.

In response to Lai’s remarks, Chinese authorities called him a “destroyer of cross-straits peace” and a “creator of crisis”.

China claims the self-ruled Taiwan as its territory but Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland.

China was quick to respond to Lai’s statement, with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua said China would have “no choice but to take decisive measures… [if] ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces dare to cross the red line”.

“Those who play with fire will surely be burned.”

This is not the first time Lai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is seen as pro-independence, has incurred Beijing’s wrath. He was previously labelled a “troublemaker” ahead of the polls, and Chinese state media even suggested he should be prosecuted for secession.

Speaking to reporters after a high-level national security meeting on Thursday, Lai also warned of China’s growing espionage efforts.

President Lai said China had “taken advantage of Taiwan’s freedom” to recruit different members of society, including current and former armed force members, organised crime groups and the media to “divide, destroy and subvert us from within”.

Taiwanese authorities charged 64 people with spying for China last year – a three-fold increase from 2021 – Lai claimed, adding that the majority of them were current or former military officials.

To counter China’s attempts to infiltrate and spy on the military, Lai said he planned to restore the military court system to “allow military judges to return to the frontline… to handle criminal cases involving active-duty military personnel”.

Taiwan had in 2013 abolished the military court system after it came under fire for its opaque handling of the death of an army conscript.

Lai also called on authorities to “provide entertainers with guidelines on conduct while working in China”, adding that this would prevent China from pressuring stars to behave in ways that “endanger national dignity”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e4dg3e2z4o

The CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD have reached an agreement with the Greens on a massive increase in government borrowing.

The conservative CDU/CSU bloc of German election winner Friedrich Merz and the Social Democrats (SPD) have agreed in principle with the Greens on plans for a massive increase in state borrowing ahead of a parliamentary vote next week.

The debt reform plan, put forward jointly by the conservatives and the SPD, would exempt defense spending from the country’s constitutionally enshrined debt brake and create a special €500 billion ($545 billion) fund for infrastructure investment.

The compromise includes the allocation of €100 billion for the climate and economic transformation fund.

Support from the Greens means Merz should get the two-thirds parliamentary majority the planned constitutional amendments require in a vote scheduled for next week.

Merz, whose conservative bloc is in negotiations with the SPD to form a new government following last month’s elections, wants to secure the funds before a new parliament convenes on March 25 — at which point the CDU/CSU tie up wtih the SPD and Greens would no longer have the majority necessary to pass the measure.

What did German politicians say?
“Germany is back,” said Merz, announcing the agreement on debt reform.

“It is a clear message to our partners and friends, but also to our opponents, to the enemies of our freedom: we are capable of defending ourselves and we are now fully prepared to defend ourselves,” he said.

Merz also said he expects the country to release €3 billion ($3.27 billion) in military aid to Ukraine once the upper house passes the debt reform.

“There will be no shortage of financial resources to defend freedom and peace on our continent,” Merz stressed. “Germany is making its major contribution to the defense of freedom and peace in Europe.”

Meanwhile, Social Democrat co-leader Lars Klingbeil said a major government borrowing and investment push was a “powerful boost” for Europe’s largest economy.

“We have laid the foundation for Germany to get back on its feet and protect itself,” Klingbeil said after his SPD agreed with conservatives and Greens on the historic debt package.

Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge said the €100 billion, which must be spent on new measures rather than to fill budgetary holes, “will make a difference” as the money would be “channelled in the right direction.” Though the Green will not be part of the next government, she said negotiations to reach Friday’s compromise would allow ministers in the future government to “do the right thing.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-parties-agree-on-historic-debt-deal/a-71922888

Presenters Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Martine Croxall launched an employment tribunal against the BBC, but it is understood a settlement has been reached with no admission of liability and a three-week tribunal to hear the presenters’ claims will now not go ahead.

The BBC has agreed a settlement with four of its female news presenters over employment tribunal claims including age and sex discrimination, Sky News understands.

Presenters Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Martine Croxall launched an employment tribunal against the BBC, which was due to start next week.

Ms McVeigh, Ms Croxall and Ms Madera alleged discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, being a union member and wages, while Ms Giannone alleged discrimination based on age, sex and wages.

It is understood the settlement has been reached with no admission of liability, and a three-week tribunal to hear the presenters’ claims will now not go ahead.

In a statement, the presenters said: “We can confirm that we have reached a resolution with BBC management that avoids the need for a tribunal hearing in respect of our employment-related claims.

“A protracted process lasting almost three years is now over. We’ve been deeply moved by the support we’ve received.

“We look forward to contributing further to the success of BBC News, especially to live programming and the growing streaming services that are so important to our audiences.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “After careful consideration we have a reached a resolution which brings to an end protracted legal proceedings with four members of staff and avoids further costs for the BBC.

“In doing so we have not accepted any liability or any of the arguments made against the BBC. We are simply bringing to a close all of the actions brought against us so that all involved can move forward.

“The BBC successfully launched a single BBC News channel in 2023, bringing the best live and breaking news on TV and online both here and around the world.

“We welcome this opportunity to now look to the future, and to work together on delivering for our audiences – which is our first priority.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/four-female-news-presenters-settle-age-and-sex-discrimination-tribunal-claims-with-bbc-13328598

President Donald Trump has made repeated threats to make the US neighbour to the north its 51st state.

Mark Carney has been formally sworn in as the new prime minister of Canada, following the resignation of predecessor Justin Trudeau.

Mr Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, will try to steer his country through a trade war brought by Donald Trump.

Mr Trump has also made repeated threats to make the US neighbour to the north its 51st state.

Speaking at a news conference after the swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa, Mr Carney said such talk was “crazy” and Canada will “never ever be part of the US”.

The American president has slapped 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products from 2 April.

Mr Carney has already said he is ready to meet Mr Trump if he shows “respect for Canadian sovereignty” and is willing to take “a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade”.

The prime minister also said he would keep in place retaliatory tariffs on US goods until the US showed Canada some respect.

Canada, which is the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the US, this week announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on those metals along with computers, sports equipment and other products worth $20bn in total.

Canada already imposed tariffs on 4 March worth a similar amount on US goods in response to broader tariffs by Mr Trump.

Mr Carney also said he respects what Mr Trump is looking to accomplish and hopes to have a call with the president.

In the presence of governor general Mary Simon, the personal representative of King Charles, who is Canada’s head of state, the new prime minister took the oath of office.

He plans to visit France and the UK, as Canada seeks to shore up alliances in Europe, with its relations with the US sinking to unprecedented lows.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/canada-will-never-ever-be-part-of-us-and-talk-of-nation-becoming-51st-state-crazy-says-new-pm-13328652

Sam Jones says she is “truly sorry” for snatching a baby wombat from its distressed mother – and has left Australia.

The American influencer who snatched a baby wombat from its distressed mother has said “thousands threatened” her life, and that she is “truly sorry” in an Instagram post.

Sam Jones, who describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter”, wrote a lengthy statement on social media, saying she was “extremely concerned” about the wombat’s health, so she ran away from the joey’s mother out of fear of attack.

She says she “immediately” returned it to its mother.

“I have done a great deal of reflection on this situation and have realised that I did not handle this situation as best as I should have (…) I have learnt from this situation, and am truly sorry for the distress I have caused.”

In the now-deleted video posted to her 92,000 followers on Instagram, Jones said: “I caught a baby wombat”, as a man filming her laughs.

In the video, the wombat could be seen struggling and heard hissing as its mother followed on the road behind.

She returned the baby wombat to the roadside after several seconds.

Jones left the country on Friday after the Australian government said it was reviewing her visa.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticised the influencer, who sparked outrage across the country, telling reporters: “To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress to the mother, is just an outrage.

“And, you know, I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals.

“Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.

“Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother – see how you go there.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/truly-sorry-us-influencer-who-snatched-baby-wombat-reveals-shes-had-death-threats-13328858

Ex-central banker Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister of Canada on Friday and immediately said he could work with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is promising tariffs that could devastate the Canadian economy.
Carney succeeds Justin Trudeau, who had a combative and often cold relationship with Trump. Carney, 59, made clear his approach would be different.

“We respect President Trump – President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,” he told reporters after being sworn in, noting he had worked with Trump at international meetings.

Carney said he would visit London and Paris next week. Canada has sought to shore up alliances in Europe as relations with the United States founder.

Carney crushed his rivals on Sunday in a race to become leader of the ruling Liberal Party. He replaces Trudeau, who spent more than nine years in office.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, whose shock resignation last December triggered a crisis that helped push out Trudeau, becomes transport minister.
Carney, a former head of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, successfully argued his position as an outsider with a history of tackling crises meant he was the best person to take on Trump, who has repeatedly talked about annexing Canada.
“We will never, ever in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States,” he said on Friday.
The cabinet is unlikely in office for long, since Liberal insiders say Carney is set to call a snap election within the next two weeks. If he changes his mind, opposition parties say they will unite to bring down the minority government in a confidence vote at the end of March.
Once the election is called, Carney will be limited in what he can do politically because convention dictates he cannot make major decisions during a campaign.
Opinion polls currently suggest it will be a close race with the Conservatives, with neither party gaining enough seats for a majority government.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mark-carney-be-sworn-canadian-prime-minister-now-must-face-trump-2025-03-14/

Pakistan Foregin Office Spokesperson did not implicate India in the train hijack incident but said it was “orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from abroad”.

Islamabad: Pakistan has accused India of “sponsoring terrorism”, without naming New Delhi in the recent train hijack incident that was executed by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Twenty one passengers had died in the attack while more thant 30 Pak military personnel were killed

In a press briefing on the train hostage situation that lasted for more than 24 hours, Pakistan’sForeign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan claimed that terrorists were in direct communication with “Afghanistan-based planners throughout the incident”.

He added that Pakistan has repeatedly asked Afghanistan to deny the use of its soil for terrorist groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a report in PTI stated. “We urge Afghanistan to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers, of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and cooperate with the government of Pakistan to bring all those who are concerned with this attack, including the real sponsors of terrorism to justice,” he was quoted as saying.

India strongly reacted to the statement and said that Pakistan should look into its own affairs rather than poining fingers at others.

“We strongly reject the baseless allegations made by Pakistan. The whole world knows where the epicenter of global terrorism lies. Pakistan should look inwards instead of pointing fingers and shifting the blame for its own internal problems and failures on to others, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal said.

The BLA had taken Jaffar Express passengers hostage on Tuesday and threatened to “execute” them allif military intervened. On Wednesday, the Pakistan Army announced that all 33 remaining attackers who seized the train in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan region had been eliminated and the captive passengers freed.

On the question of any possible change of policy because India was blamed in the past for BLA’s activities, the spokesman said there was no change.

“There is no shift in our policy. And again, the facts have not changed. India is involved in sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan. What I was referring to was, in this particular incident, we have evidence of calls being traced to Afghanistan. This is what I said,” he answered.

The spokesperson went on to accuse India for “trying to destabilise its neighbouring countries and running a global assassination campaign”.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/asia/pakistan-train-hijack-accuses-india-of-sponsoring-terrorism-says-indian-media-glorified-bla-article-119000922

Unlike the internet generated through extensive cable networks, Satellite Access Internet, as the name suggests, provides the internet through communication satellites. And this system is known to be able to sustain the internet at higher speeds.

Internet has changed the primary means of our very existence over the past few decades. Over the recent years, especially in the past one decade, it has traversed past greater advancements from mobile internet, provided by telecom service providers, to broadband services, espousing internet surfing through WiFi systems in your house. Now, the new phenomenon on the horizon, that is catching speed is satellite internet.

The Age Of Internet

In India, the advent of internet and its forms may have been delayed, but its proliferation and subsequent consumption have expanded at an exponential speed. Each change has been marked by some marquee moments, from the days of BSNL and MTNL to the competitive game of throne between private telecom players.

Another major marquee event came to pass when Reliance Jio introduced a disruption in the market with the company’s ultra-cheap mobile internet plans in 2016. This disruption resulted in a complete overhaul of the sector, leaving just three main players, namely Vodafone Idea, Airtel, and Reliance Jio.

Another marquee moment came when these mainstream players jumped into broadband internet service, a field that was once dominated by localised internet service providers.

Today another disruption is en route: the storm of Elon Musk’s Starlink and Satellite Internet Access. Satellite Internet Access is not an old idea, but it has gathered pace over the past few years.

Unlike the internet generated through extensive cable networks, Satellite Access Internet, as the name suggests, provides the internet through communication satellites. And this system is known to be able to sustain the internet at higher speeds.

Will Starlink Make A Dent?

In India, these satellite services are not new, as we have had business-to-business activities carried out in remote locations, including ATMs, in rural areas. But this time, the scale and the ambition are far greater. Starlink is not all alone in this race, as it has competition in India as well.

This new phase of changing internet consumption has the old players, just as before. Reliance and Airtel are active participants in this race as well. In fact, Airtel took the lead in the matter, as Airtel-backed London-based Eutelsat OneWeb in March, claimed, that it would introduce its first service in India, by June. Meanwhile, Reliance is also in the process of establishing India’s first satellite internet system.

Starlink has its task cut out in this mix. Elon Musk’s company currently has this service available in different countries across all the continents on earth. Starlink is available in all of North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the US. Its services are available in South America as well, with the exception of Bolivia. Starlink currently boasts of being able to render services in a 100 countries.

It is also available in most of Europe as well. In addition, according to the company, it also has a set of countries on the waiting list where the service is currently not in place. India happens to be one of them.

Now, apart from the red tape and regulatory issues, it is also about the viability of establishments and services and most importantly, the price and economics of them.

Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White is set to be released in UK cinemas next week, marking the latest efforts by the film studio to revive a beloved old classic.

But the film, which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, has faced several issues throughout its production.

The movie is being released amid a debate about how the seven dwarfs are represented on screen, while Zegler has made headlines for critical comments about the original 1937 film.

The European premiere was held on Wednesday at a castle in Northern Spain, instead of a more traditional and high-profile location such as London’s Leicester Square.

Dwarfism debate
The debate around the film began making headlines in January 2022, when Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, an actor with Dwarfism, described the decision to retell the story of “seven dwarfs living in a cave” as “backward”.

Disney has used computer-generated dwarfs in the remake and said it would “avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film”.

But this week, other actors with Dwarfism have said they would have liked the opportunity to play the roles.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, performer Choon Tan said the decision to use CGI was “absolutely absurd and discriminating in a sense”.

“There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf in any given opportunity,” he said.

“As long as we are treated equally and with respect, we’re usually more than happy to take on any acting roles that are suitable for us,” he added.

Another performer, Blake Johnston, told the newspaper that “we have plenty of dwarf actors out there who are dying for roles like this”.

He said he also said he believed Disney had “succumb to peer pressure on political correctness, which has now given top dwarf actors less work”.

Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, criticised the film in 2022 during an interview with podcaster Marc Maron.

“I was a little taken aback by [the fact] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” he said, referring to Colombian-American actress Zegler.

“You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

The actor had previously spoken about the representation of dwarfism, saying it was “bad writing” to make it a “dominant character trait”.

In a statement released after Dinklage’s comments, Disney said they were “taking a different approach with these seven characters” and had made their decision to use CGI after “consulting with members of the dwarf community”.

Pared-down premiere
The film’s European premiere took place on Wednesday at a remote castle in Spain, which was the inspiration behind the castle in the 1937 original animated film.

Zegler performed a rendition of original song Waiting On a Wish at the event on Wednesday evening in Segrovia, north-West of Madrid.

Most media outlets were not invited to the medieval castle, and Zegler instead performed to a relatively small crowd.

The Los Angeles premiere, meanwhile, will be reportedly smaller than usual for a film of this magnitude, with the stars only expected to pose for photographs and speak to Disney’s in-house crews.

News journalists have not been invited to attend the red carpet and therefore will not have the opportunity to interview the film’s cast and creatives.

However, the cast are taking part in a few select sit-down interviews with some outlets as part of a press junket which is taking place this week.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1n00qknro

What hope now for avoiding catastrophic climate change? As all of the data on emissions, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and global warming point emphatically in the wrong direction, returning president Donald Trump has given the call to “drill, baby, drill”—a pledge to fast-track new fossil fuel projects and ramp up production. One presumes it’s an order that the world’s oil and gas giants, already backsliding from their previous commitments to transition to green energy, will be only too happy to heed.

Against this backdrop, the dark premonitions that haunt the minds of those persuaded by the scientific consensus on climate change—and the myriad horrors of a burning world—only intensify. With every tried and tested climate fix looking like a busted flush, radical new ideas are being explored with increasing urgency.

One of these is geoengineering. The large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to mitigate the impact of man-made climate change is seen by some as a technical challenge that will draw out the very best of human ingenuity and ultimately save the world. Others see it as the latest example of our deluded faith in technology.

You may be aware by now of solar geoengineering, which in most cases means reflecting sunlight before it has the chance to reach and heat Earth’s surface. Some believe we could pump sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere to form a protective fug of sunlight-reflecting sulphate aerosols. Other theories, such as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), involve carbon sequestration. Rock weathering is actually a totally natural process in which carbon dioxide is drawn out of the atmosphere when a chemical reaction occurs between rainwater and rocks. With ERW, you accelerate this through mechanical means, allowing you to sequester significantly more CO2.

“This explosion would be well over a thousand times larger than the 50 megaton ‘Tsar Bomba’ test, the current largest nuclear explosion in history, which itself was around 3,800 times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.”

It’s this process that forms the basis for perhaps the most extreme geoengineering proposal to emerge yet. In January, a paper appeared on arXiv, a website of non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles. Written by Andy Haverly, a 25-year-old Microsoft software engineer from Washington State, its proposition was a modest one—that we should try firing the largest nuclear bomb in history into the Earth’s crust in order to sequester 30 years’ worth of CO2 emissions in underwater rock.

In Haverly’s mind, the 81 gigaton nuclear bomb would be buried somewhere between 3 and 5km beneath the seabed of the remote Kerguelen Plateau, where the surrounding waters of the Antarctic Ocean themselves have a depth of 6 to 8km. This explosion would be well over a thousand times larger than the 50 megaton ‘Tsar Bomba’ test, the current largest nuclear explosion in history, detonated in 1961 by the Soviet Union in the Arctic Circle. (For reference, that explosion was around 3,800 times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. Apparently recycling isn’t going to cut it any more.)

According to Haverly, who doesn’t have a background in climate science or nuclear engineering but is currently studying for a PhD in quantum computing at Rochester Institute of Technology, the bomb would pulverize a vast amount of basalt rock (3.86 trillion tons, to be precise) into tiny pieces. Theoretically, this would then react with CO2 in the ocean to form stable carbonate minerals that lock the carbon away permanently. The deep ocean waters would, he claims, safely contain the blast.

Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nuclear-bomb-earths-crust-geoengineering/

The move is the latest development in a brewing trade war between the US and the EU.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose tariffs of 200% on European wine, champagne and spirits if the European Union proceeds with plans to tax American whiskey imports.

The EU’s 50% whiskey tariff, which was due to take effect on April 1, was announced in response to the US administration’s plans to tax European steel and aluminum imports.

“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

How did we get to this point?
Trump’s announcement on Thursday is the latest development in an escalating trade dispute between the US and many of its allies and closest trading partners, including the EU, Canada and Mexico.

On Wednesday, he told reporters at the White House that he would “of course” retaliate to the EU’s tit-for-tat tariffs.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted that the EU’s reaction was “strong but proportionate.”

“As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion (€26 billion), we are responding with countermeasures worth €26 billion,” she said in a statement.

Von der Leyen added that EU authorities “remain open to negotiation” and “firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs.”

Shortly before Trump announced the massive 200% tariff on Thursday, European Commission spokesman Olof Gill urged Washington to “immediately revoke” the duties on European steel and aluminum and called for negotiations.

The tariffs “bring nothing but lose-lose outcomes, and we want to focus on win-win outcomes,” Gill said.

Why is Trump imposing the tariffs?
Since returning to the White House on January 20, the US president has slapped tariffs on a range of products from both America’s allies as well as its rivals, including China.

Beijing has promised to use “all necessary measures” to respond to Trump’s measures. It has already imposed tariffs of 10% and 15% on US agriculture products.

Trump has used the threat of heavy tariffs to pressure governments into accepting various policy demands, including curbing fentanyl smuggling and illegal immigration, as well as to address what Washington perceives as global trading imbalances.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/trump-threatens-200-tariff-on-european-wine-spirits/a-71913486

The video clip of the American tourist pestering the marsupial has outraged many in Australia. Her visa status is now being reviewed.

An American influencer has sparked outrage in Australia after she published a video which appears to show her grabbing a baby wombat.

In the video which has since been deleted from Instagram, self-described “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” Sam Jones is seen picking up the wild animal in an unknown location in Australia.

The wombat, which could be seen hissing and struggling, was followed by its mother on the road.

“I caught a baby wombat,” Jones says to the camera, before placing the joey back on the side of the road.

The marsupials are a protected species that are only found in Australia.

‘Leave the baby wombat alone’

Senior Australian government officials, including Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, on Thursday condemned the influencer.

“It looked pretty dreadful, didn’t it?” Wong told Australia’s Channel Seven, before adding, “look, leave the baby wombat alone.”

In a statement, Burke said authorities were looking into whether the American woman had violated the terms of her visa.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/australia-angered-by-video-of-us-influencer-grabbing-baby-wombat/a-71914930

Donald Trump’s cancellation of millions in aid to the country left a massive funding gap. The EU’s investment package includes funding to boost vaccine manufacturing and for a transition to clean energy.

The European Union will invest $5 billion (€4.7 billion) in South African aid and development projects, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced Thursday.

The majority of the investments will go to supporting the transition to clean energy, such as improving wind, solar and hydrogen power production.

The funds will also be put into vaccine manufacturing.

“South Africa wants to protect the health of [its] people… We Europeans want to diversify some of our most critical supply chains. This is what I call a true mutual interest,” von der Leyen said.

The announcement came at the first bilateral summit between the bloc and South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy, in seven years.

What led to the summit?
The summit in Cape Town was called to strengthen ties between the bloc and South Africa, the EU’s largest sub-Saharan trading partner.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the meeting came at a time of increasing “global uncertainty … characterized by rising unilateralism, economic nationalism,” a reference to the impact of US President Donald Trump’s policies.

The United States’ decision to ax nearly all aid to South Africa has sparked concerns about funding gaps in critical areas, such as HIV/AIDS treatment.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/eu-to-invest-5bn-in-south-africa-after-us-aid-withdrawal/a-71915894

THE pristine beach where college student Sudiksha Konanki disappeared during spring break was already haunted by a grim tragedy that happened just before she arrived for her vacation.

Konanki, 20, was last seen during the early morning hours of March 6 on the beach near Punta Cana’s Riu República Hotel – a five-star coastal resort with dangerously high waves and strong currents.

The extensive search operation for Konanki, which includes over 300 law enforcement personnel, has entered its seventh day as American and foreign investigators continue to piece together the University of Pittsburgh student’s final moments.

Konanki’s disappearance in the Caribbean waters came just a few weeks after four tourists died at the Punta Cana same resort as Konanki.

The tourists went for a swim in Playa Arena Gorda when they were swept away by strong currents and drowned on January 17, according to the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency.

The bodies of all four were recovered from the ocean on January 18.

The victims were identified as Polish nationals Marcin Teodor Checinski, 47, and Sylwia Aleksandra, 52, Portuguese tourist Nelzon Nunes Ribeiro, 47, and Russian native Jakub Tomasz Pedziach.

Two others who were also part of the group that was swept away survived, the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency said.

At the time of the January drownings, a red flag was flying on the beach to warn sunbathers of dangerous ocean conditions.

DANGEROUS CONDITIONS
On the day of Konanki’s disappearance, sea conditions were also dangerous, with high waves reported, Agustin Morillo Rodriguez, the general commander of the Dominican Republic navy, told CNN.

Previous guests of the Riu República Hotel, an all-inclusive adults-only resort, have spoken of the rugged sea conditions during their stays.

Guest D’Lani Sweeney was staying at the resort on the same day Konanki went missing and recalled the waves being dangerously high.

“I remember the waves being a lot bigger than they normally were,” Sweeney told NewsNation.

“Me and my friends were on the beach and I remember telling them that I was not going to go into the ocean because I know I could swim but not that well enough to feel safe in the ocean.

“I know a couple of friends that did go in but they weren’t in for a while and there weren’t as many people in the ocean as we normally would see.”

Red flags were flying at the time Sweeney was on the beach, video showed.

PERSON OF INTEREST
Meanwhile, as investigators comb the Caribbean Sea for any sight of Konanki, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, in the college student’s hometown in Virginia, has named a person of interest in her disappearance.

The sheriff’s office told The U.S. Sun they consider Joshua Steven Riibe, a 22-year-old who was also staying at the Riu hotel, a person of interest because he may have been the last person to have seen Konanki.

However, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office stressed Riibe has not been charged with a crime and is not considered a suspect.

“We want to be clean, this is not a criminal case, it is a missing persons case,” a sheriff’s official added.

“Person of interest does not mean suspect. It’s still an active investigation.”

Grainy surveillance photos showed Konanki and Riibe, a former high school football and wrestling athlete from Iowa, walking towards the beach with a group of people at around 4:15 am on March 6.

Several members of the group eventually left the beach and headed back to their hotel rooms, leaving Riibe and Konanki alone on the beach.

Riibe, who police said has been cooperative during their investigation, told officials that he and Konanki went for a swim but were caught in a large wave.

The Iowa native claimed he was able to swim back to shore but got sick after swallowing seawater, according to the Daily Mail.

However, Riibe has given detectives three different versions of what happened that morning, according to the New York Post.

In another version, Riibe told investigators that he fell asleep on the beach, and the last thing he remembered was Konanki walking on the beach, but when he woke up, she was gone.

Riibe also claimed he felt sick and left Konanki alone, standing in knee-deep water.

Surveillance photos released on Wednesday showed a shirtless, barefoot Riibe walking alone on the resort grounds without Konanki.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13771410/dark-truth-beach-sudiksha-konanki-vanished-punta-cana/

MICHELLE Obama has opened up on her marital struggles with husband Barack after a flurry of concern that they’re headed for a split.

The former first lady, 61, admitted to being irritated by her husband for years in a new podcast released weeks after she skipped high-profile events that he was forced to attend alone.

And after months of mystery around Michelle’s whereabouts, she’s returning to the public eye today at the final day of the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

She is recording a podcast episode with her older brother after launching a new weekly show in which they discuss various topics concerning everyday life.

In her debut episode, Michelle gave listeners a sneak peek into her marriage with the 44th president and how his lack of punctuality irritated her at the start of their relationship.

“Being married to the president of the United States is a thing that none of us kind of banked on,” Michelle told her brother, Craig Robinson.

“We knew Barack was smart and ambitious,” she added before admitting her brother convinced her to support Obama’s presidential campaign.

“You talked me into supporting his run cause I was definitely like, nope, nope, this is crazy, we’ve done enough crazy stuff,” Michelle said.

Robinson then shared how Obama, 63, spoke to him about being unable to persuade Michelle to back his White House efforts.

“I did. Barack came to me and he’s like, ‘I can’t convince your sister to go along with this,’ and I’m like, ‘woah, woah, go along with what?’ and he’s like, ‘I think I’m going to run for president.’ And I was like, ‘what? I wouldn’t go along with it,'” Robinson said.

Speaking to Michelle, he continued, “I convinced you to not penalize him for being really good at what he does.”

In the same episode of IMO, Michelle acknowledged her husband’s belatedness would bother her.

“Barack had to adjust to what on time was, you know,” she said.

“I’ve got this husband who, when it’s time to leave, he’s getting up and going to the bathroom.

“And I was like, dude, three o’clock departure means you’ve done all that. It’s like, don’t start looking for your glasses, you know, at the 3 departure.

“He’s improved over 30 years of marriage, but that was a ‘you must adjust.'”

Despite the siblings’ venture into podcasting, the first two episodes have failed to reach a large audience.

In total, the first two episodes of IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson have generated less than 70,000 views on YouTube.

MARRIAGE STRUGGLES?
The podcast comes as rumors have circulated about the Obamas’ supposed marriage strife.

The former president and Michelle have been spotted in public on numerous occasions without each other.

Divorce chatter first emerged on social media when Obama attended Jimmy Carter’s state funeral on January 9 in Washington DC alone.

Obama joined the other four living presidents – Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush – and their wives in honoring Carter, who died on December 29, 2024, at age 100.

However, missing from the gallery was Michelle, who was still on an extended vacation in Hawaii at the time.

Michelle then skipped Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, despite all of the other former first ladies and presidents attending.

Her team did not provide a reason for her absence.

Obama was pictured seated alone next to Bush and his wife, Laura Bush.

Then, on February 21, Michelle and her brother were pictured at the Italian restaurant hotspot, Mother Wolf, in Los Angeles without Obama.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13773066/michelle-obama-admits-marriage-troubles-barack-podcast/

DONALD Trump has requested his military draw up plans to reclaim the Panama Canal, two officials have claimed.

The demands made by The White House come as Trump says he wants to crackdown China’s ever-growing presence in the region.

In his address to congress last week, the President said: “To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal.”

Two US officials who are familiar with the plans, told NBC News that Trump’s administration is pushing ahead with this strategy despite no clarity on what “reclaiming” means.

Ahead of his inauguration in late January, Trump refused to rule out using force at the canal that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

Both US officials have now said that US Southern Command is working on the plans to achieve Trump’s goal.

The various strategies are said to vary from partnering with the Panamanian military to US troops taking it by force.

Officials said this latter option is a less likely route that will be taken.

US military force will depend on the cooperation of the Panamanian military with America, they added.

The sources familiar with the plans said the President is focused on boosting the US presence in the region as China tries to get more of a foothold.

Concerns are especially around Chinese access to the canal, they said, after Trump claimed Chinese-supported ports bookend the 50-mile canal.

He said this is a security threat due to the increased potential that China could seize control the vital strait in a bid to strong-arm the US.

But both Panama and China have denied that there is foreign interference in the neutral canal that has its neutrality enshrined in a US-Panama treaty.

China has accused the US of pressuring Panamanian officials into blocking Chinese aid projects after Panama did not renew a major infrastructure agreement with the nation.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said last month that China “firmly opposes the U.S. smearing and undermining the Belt and Road cooperation through means of pressure and coercion.”

He added: “China supports Panama’s sovereignty over the canal and is committed to maintaining its status as a permanently neutral international waterway.

“China has never been involved in the management or operation of the canal, nor has it interfered in its affairs.”

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has echoed these comments, telling the US that his government alone dictates the canal.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to be briefed on the Panama strategy proposals this week ahead of a visit to Panama next month, the officials said.

They added that a forceful US invasion of the canal is hugely unlikely and would only come about if having a larger US military presence in the region does not accomplish Trump’s goal.

Strategies that may be on the table include making sure US ships can safely travel through the canal or restoring full US ownership and operation of the passageway.

US forces may also be used to secure ports, build new ports along the canal or take over operations of the locks along the passageway.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13774757/trump-orders-us-military-reclaim-panama-canal/

What happens on the golf course apparently doesn’t really stay on the golf course.

Citing four sources, the Daily Mail exclusively reported Thursday that esteemed golfer Tiger Woods and Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-wife, Vanessa Trump, have been dating in secret for the past few months.

The pair have reportedly been together since Thanksgiving, and have discussed their relationship among their close circle with all of Vanessa’s five children—whom she shares with Don Jr.—being aware of the budding romance.

“Tiger and Vanessa have been seeing each other since just before Thanksgiving,” an unnamed source told the Mail. “She comes to his place on Jupiter Island. They’re not living together. She comes over and spends the night and leaves in the morning. Maybe a few nights a week.”

“They just love hanging out, having dinner and schmoozing together,” the source added. “They’re sticking close to home, have decided not to make it a thing and go out in public. Not just yet anyway.”

An additional source “close to the Trump family” also confirmed the relationship to People magazine, claiming that Trump Jr. is “cool” with the happy, new couple.

A representative for Woods did not immediately reply to the Daily Beast’s request for comment. Vanessa’s representatives could not immediately be reached.

Alongside being an avid golfer, Vanessa has a slew of other similarities tying her to Woods. The duo both reportedly live 20 minutes away from each other in Palm Beach. Their children, Vanessa’s daughter Kai, 17, and Wood’s eldest children Charlie, 16, and Sam, 17, also all attend the same private school—The Benjamin School which boasts a $38,595 yearly tuition—according to the Mail.

During The Genesis Invitational golf tournament last month, Woods and Vanessa were spotted arriving together with aspiring pro-golfer Kai swiftly in tow.

President Donald Trump is famously friends with Woods, who joined the president for a game of golf as recently as last month and attended a Black History Month reception at the White House a few short weeks after. In 2019, Trump awarded Woods with a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his embodiment of “American excellence, devotion, and drive.”

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/tiger-woods-is-dating-donald-trump-jrs-ex-wife/

North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte demurred on Thursday when President Donald Trump baited him into backing his dream of the United States annexing Greenland.

Rutte—who has been nicknamed NATO’s “Trump whisperer” for his tact in handling the mercurial politician—shared laughs with the president throughout their Oval Office meeting on Thursday. He sat silently as the president rambled about the possibility of Canada, a NATO member, becoming a U.S. state.

But the former Dutch prime minister drew the line at Greenland.

When asked if he still believed the U.S. would take over the Danish autonomous territory, Trump said, “I think it will happen” before turning to Rutte.

“I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental” in the effort to take over Greenland, he said. “You know, Mark, we need that for international security.”

Rutte, who appeared uncomfortable but remained composed, brushed off the remark.

“When it comes to Greenland, yes or no, joining the U.S., I would leave that outside, for me, this discussion, because I don’t want to drag NATO into that,” he said.

Polls show Greenlanders do not want to join the U.S. by overwhelming margins. The only pro-Trump candidate in the country’s elections, which took place last week, brought in a dismal 1.1 percent of the vote.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/nato-chief-smacks-down-trump-on-greenland-grab/

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia supported a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but sought a number of clarifications and conditions that appeared to rule out a quick end to the fighting.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the sharpest confrontation for decades between Moscow and the West.

Putin’s heavily qualified support for the U.S. ceasefire proposal looked designed to signal goodwill to Washington and open the door to further talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Putin said many crucial details needed to be sorted out and any agreement must address the root causes of the conflict. Russia called its 2022 invasion a “special military operation” designed to “denazify” Ukraine and halt an expansion of NATO.

“We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin told reporters at the Kremlin. “The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it.”

“But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.”

He went on to list a slew of issues he said needed clarifying and thanked Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, for his efforts to end the war. Both Moscow and Washington now cast the conflict as a deadly proxy war that could have escalated into World War Three.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-close-ejecting-ukrainian-forces-kursk-kremlin-says-2025-03-13

Maria Branyas Morera, US-born supercentenarian who died in Spain last August, found to have microbiota of an infant

The US-born woman who was the world’s oldest living person before she died in Spain last August at age 117 once attributed her longevity to “luck and good genetics”. And, evidently, Maria Branyas Morera was right.

A study of Branyas’s microbiome and DNA that scientists began conducting before her death reportedly determined that the genes she inherited allowed her cells to essentially feel and behave as if they were 17 years younger than they actually were. And Branyas’s microbiota – which primarily refers to the bacteria in people’s guts that has a role in keeping them healthy – mirrored that of an infant, according to the research led by University of Barcelona genetics professor Manel Esteller, a leading expert on ageing.

The daily newspaper Ara, which covers the Catalan region where she resided much of her life, first reported on the results of the study into what was described as Branyas’s “privileged genome” earlier in March. Esteller’s team found that Branyas retained her lucidity until almost the very end of her life.

And the ailments that she grappled with during her extended golden years were largely limited to joint pain and hearing loss.

Ara reported that Esteller’s work on Branyas amounts to the most complete research yet into a so-called supercentenarian – someone who is 110 or older – as well as some possible explanations for the longevity that marks some lives in particular.

The researchers noted how Branyas made a number of healthy lifestyle choices that also helped her take advantage of her unique genetic makeup. She adhered to a Mediterranean diet that included three yogurts daily.

She avoided drinking alcohol and smoking, enjoyed walks, and constantly surrounded herself with family and loved ones, all of which apparently aided her in staving off declines both physical and mental that could have shortened her life, the researchers concluded.

Esteller and his colleagues said that they hope the study into Branyas provides useful information to those seeking to develop medications and treatments for age-related illnesses.

They said Branyas exemplified how ageing and sickness – at least in certain conditions – do not necessarily have to go hand-in-hand. And the results of the genetic study done on her “challenge the perception that [the two] are inexorably linked”, they also said, according to Spain’s EFE news service.

Branyas was born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907, after her parents moved from Spain and Mexico to the US. She also spent time in Texas and New Orleans before her family returned to Spain in 1915 – amid the first world war – and settled in Catalonia.

Some of the major global events that she subsequently lived through were the Spanish civil war, the second world war, the 1918 flu pandemic and Covid-19.

She made international news headlines by contracting Covid in 2020, when Spain was one of the countries hit hardest by the virus and protective vaccines were not yet available. But her Covid bout was asymptomatic, and she recovered relatively easily.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/13/supercentenarian-aging-genes-study

Vladimir Putin broke his silence on the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine – and said the Kremlin would continue to reject the deal until Ukrainian troops in Kursk ‘surrender or die’

Vladimir Putin has said Ukrainian troops involved in a counter-offensive will have to “surrender or die” before he agrees to a ceasefire.

Russia today rejected a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire drawn up by the US and Ukraine after a nine-hour meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Asked about the ceasefire at a press conference alongside Belarus’s president Alexander Lukashenko, Putin thanked Donald Trump for trying to get a deal done – but suggested he would not agree to it in its current form. He said: “We agree with the proposal for a ceasefire to cease hostilities, but we proceed from the fact that this ceasefire should lead to an enduring peace, and should remove the root causes of this crisis.”

Putin also recalled his visit to Kursk yesterday, where Russian troops are attempting to repel a Ukrainian counteroffensive in their own territory. He said “the situation is fully under our control, and the group that invaded our territory has been fully isolated”. The Russian leader added that Ukrainian troops can no longer leave the area, and they will have to “surrender or die”. He identified the fighting in the region as one of the issues preventing a deal being reached.

It comes as Donald Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow today for high-level talks with Vladimir Putin aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The property mogul, who was appointed to a senior White House foreign policy role by Trump, is expected to meet with the Russian president after his visit was confirmed by US officials and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who said the meeting would be held behind closed doors in the Kremlin.

Mr Ushakov said Russia would not agree the the current ceasefire proposal as it would “give us nothing,” adding that it would “only give the Ukrainians a chance to regroup, consolidate their forces and keep doing the same in the future.” He said Putin wants a “long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account Moscow’s interests and concerns”, echoing statements from Putin himself.

Source : https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vladimir-putin-gives-ceasefire-decision-34856606

US officials said military action in Panama would only be considered if the country does not allow Donald Trump to “reclaim” the canal.

Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the US military to come up with plans to increase the number of troops in Panama as part of his mission to “reclaim” the canal. US Southern Command, responsible for security cooperation and operations in Central America, has drafted ideas such as working with the Panamaian military and US troops taking the canal by force, two officials told NBC News. The likelihood of military force depends on the level of partnership agreed upon by the Panamanian military, they added.

This is part of Washington’s plan to reduce the level of influence China has over the region, particularly when it comes to access to the canal, though both China and Panama have denied any foreign interference in the waterway. The US president said last week that “to further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it”.

While it remains unclear what “reclaiming means”, the officials said US Southern Command chief Admiral Alvin Holsey sent draft strategies to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ahead of his visit to Panama next month.

They stressed that military action in Panama would only be considered if the country does not allow Mr Trump to “reclaim” the canal.

The Republican said the South American country imposes “ridiculous” and “very unfair” tolls on US ships travelling through the canal.

Source : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2026909/donald-trump-military-plans-panama-canal

Tesla is getting crushed in China, its most important market outside the United States and one that it had dominated for years.

When Liu Jie, 32, decided to buy an electric car in October, Tesla was one of her top choices. But after test-driving a few Chinese cars, she went with a sports sedan from Xiaomi, a consumer gadget maker better known for its smartphones, kettles and robot vacuums.

“Xiaomi is more fashionable,” Ms. Liu said last week in Beijing. “Tesla, for me, it’s a little bit normal. You can see the Tesla Model Y everywhere.”

It’s not personal, buyers said. Tesla is still considered a top brand, and Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, is admired in China. Beijing rolled out the red carpet when he broke ground on the company’s first overseas factory in Shanghai. Mr. Musk is credited with igniting China’s local electric vehicle industry.

But now that market is a blood bath of competition from Chinese rivals. Chinese drivers that once flocked to Tesla are turning more and more to local brands that offer more efficient cars with better technology, sometimes at half the price.

Tesla’s biggest rival, the electric car giant BYD, sold 481,318 cars in the first two months of this year, over three quarters more than it did over the same period last year. Tesla sold 60,480 vehicles in the first two months of the year, a drop of 14 percent from last year.

Tesla’s sales in China are plunging as the carmaker faces criticism over Mr. Musk’s role as an aide to President Trump in charge of cutting federal spending. Tesla lost about a quarter of its value over the past month as investors shunned the stock.

The threat that BYD poses Tesla in China has been building for years. BYD has sold around one million more cars each year for the past three years. The popularity of BYD has been driven in part by the fact that its cars are cheaper. It has helped that local governments sometimes steer business in the company’s direction.

But a property crisis and a broadly slowing consumer economy have hit households and badly dented people’s appetite to shop, making it hard for all carmakers. Things have become so bad that the government began offering subsidies a year ago for consumers to trade in their old cars. The government increased the incentives last week. Domestic companies have benefited from the subsidies, but so has Tesla.

Even amid the economic slowdown, there is still a market for luxury cars, for those who can afford them. Ms. Liu, who had a budget of around $41,000, said Tesla would have been an affordable luxury option compared with the $41,305 Xiaomi SU7 Max that she bought. And while Tesla offers a five-year zero-interest loan, Xiaomi does not offer any financing.

Many Chinese drivers are also willing to pay more for advanced technology like self-driving, an area in which Tesla has lagged because the government has delayed the company’s introduction of similar or better technology.

But Tesla faces another problem: demand. Sales are slowing for all cars in China.

The policies aimed at replacing gas guzzlers with electric vehicles have helped. In cities like Shanghai and Beijing, car owners can trade in older cars for a new one and get a nearly $2,100 subsidy. In some Tesla dealerships, employees have created a wall with photos of the cars that buyers have traded in — they range from Porsches to Mercedeses and even the occasional Chinese car.

Source : https://dnyuz.com/2025/03/13/china-cools-on-musk-two-cars-for-the-price-of-one-tesla

Former Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab boss Jes Staley had sex with a member of serial paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s staff, the banker told a court on the third day of his evidence as he appeals against a proposed financial services ban.
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority said in 2023 that it would ban Staley and fine him 1.8 million pounds ($2.3 million) for allegedly misleading the watchdog over his relationship with Epstein. He is giving evidence at London’s Upper Tribunal this week.

The 68-year-old, who said on Tuesday that he had no idea about the late financier Epstein’s “monstrous activities”, was asked by the FCA’s lawyer about evidence Staley had given in a lawsuit against him by his previous employer JPMorgan (JPM.N), opens new tab.
JPMorgan, where Staley was previously head of the private bank and had Epstein as a client, was sued by the U.S. Virgin Islands for allegedly ignoring Epstein’s sex trafficking, with the bank in turn suing Staley before the case was settled.
In the U.S. litigation, Staley was asked about having “had sexual intercourse with a woman … at Mr Epstein’s brother’s apartment” in New York, the FCA’s lawyer Leigh-Ann Mulcahy said.

Staley said he was introduced to the woman by Jeffrey Epstein, the encounter was consensual and that “she was a part of his staff as I recall”.
The FCA also referred to the fact Epstein had asked Staley to be trustee of his estate as evidence of their close relationship. Staley said: “I turned him down.”
Staley’s appeal centres on a 2019 letter sent by Barclays Chair Nigel Higgins to the FCA, which approached the British bank shortly after Epstein’s arrest brought scrutiny on the financier’s other high-profile associates.
The FCA says the letter contained two misleading statements: that Staley “did not have a close relationship” with Epstein and their last contact was “well before he joined Barclays in 2015”. Staley says both statements were accurate.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/former-barclays-ceo-jes-staley-slept-with-epstein-assistant-court-hears-2025-03-12/

Greenland’s pro-business Demokraatit Party surged to victory in a shake-up that could boost U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempts to tap the island’s mineral wealth, with the victors keen for reforms favouring private enterprise and mining.
The Democrats, which favour gradual independence from Denmark, more than tripled their seats to 10 in the 31-seat Inatsisartut parliament, according to results released on Wednesday, and will begin talks to form a coalition.

The strongly pro-independence Naleraq doubled their seats to eight from the prior election, while the ruling coalition lost almost half of its share of the vote.
“People want change,” the Democrats’ leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Nuuk after the final vote count. “We don’t want independence tomorrow, we want to build a good foundation.”
Independence became the central campaign theme in Tuesday’s election after Trump’s repeated insistence that the semi-autonomous Danish territory is vital to U.S. national security and will eventually become part of the United States.

At three times the size of Texas, with a population of just 57,000, the Arctic nation contains vast mineral resources, including rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems.
Despite gains for rapid independence advocate Naleraq, Rasmus Leander Nielsen, associate professor at the University of Greenland, said the Democrats were more likely to form a broad coalition with one or both of the outgoing ruling parties, Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut, in a show of national unity.
GOOD NEWS FOR TRUMP?
In the election campaign, the Democrats’ Nielsen rebuffed Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland, calling it “a threat to our political independence”.

However, in campaign documents, the party said it would be open to dialogue with the U.S. on commercial interests.
The election result has moved business development and the mining agenda to the centre of Greenlandic politics.
“If you add up the election result, voters were driven by business development and independence. And that’s good news for Trump,” said Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen. “From a White House perspective, this is probably the best result you could hope for.”
“If Trump can negotiate an agreement that gives the U.S. assurances that Greenland will not open up its society to Chinese bases, Chinese mines or Russian influence, then it’s sort of under control. And then Trump can… say that he has gained access to minerals.”

Greenland has been a formal part of Denmark since 1953. In 1979 it gained some autonomy, although Copenhagen still controls foreign affairs, defence and monetary policy and contributes nearly $1 billion annually to the economy.
The island won the right to seek full independence through a referendum in 2009, but so far has chosen not to do so, on concerns over the economy’s ability to be self-sufficient.
A poll in January showed the majority of Greenlanders want independence but are divided as to how fast it should happen.
Denmark, which has seen relations with Greenland worsen in recent years due to revelations of historic wrongdoing by the former colonial ruler, congratulated the Democrats.
“The Danish government will await the results of the negotiations that will now take place in Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the Democrat’s victory signalled a desire for continued cooperation between Nuuk and Copenhagen. “In difficult times we must stick together,” he told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-votes-pro-business-independence-parties-trump-interest-looms-2025-03-12/

With Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat tariffs on India looming next month, millions of Americans may have to brace for steeper medical bills.

Last week, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal made an unscheduled trip to the US for discussions with officials, hoping to strike a trade deal.

It followed Trump’s announcement that he would impose tariffs – which are government taxes on foreign imports – on India by 2 April, in retaliation to India’s tariffs on American goods.

Goyal wants to stave off tax increases on India’s critical export industries like medicinal drugs.

Nearly half of all unbranded medicines taken in the US come from India alone. Generic drugs – which are cheaper versions of brand-name medications – imported from countries like India make up nine out of 10 prescriptions in the US.

This saves Washington billions in healthcare costs. In 2022 alone, the savings from Indian generics amounted to a staggering $219bn (£169bn), according to a study by consulting firm IQVIA.

Without a trade deal, Trump’s tariffs could make some Indian generics unviable, forcing companies to exit part of the market and exacerbating existing drug shortages, experts say.

Tariffs could “worsen the demand-supply imbalances” and the uninsured and poor will be left counting the costs, says Dr Melissa Barber, a drug costing expert from Yale University.

The effects could be felt across people suffering from a range of health conditions.

Over 60% of prescriptions for hypertension and mental health ailments in the US were filled with Indian-made drugs, according to the IQVIA study funded by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

Sertraline, the most prescribed antidepressant in the US, is a prominent example of how dependent Americans are on Indian supplies for essential drugs.

Many of them cost half as much as for those from non-Indian companies.

“We are worried about this,” says Peter Maybarduk, a lawyer at Public Citizens, a consumer advocacy group fighting for access to medicines. One in four American patients already fail to take medicines due to their costs, he adds.

Trump is already reportedly facing pressure from US hospitals and generic drugmakers because of his tariffs on Chinese imports.

The raw materials for 87% of the drugs sold in the US are located outside the country and primarily concentrated in China which fulfils around 40% of global supply.

With tariffs on Chinese imports rising 20% since Trump took office, the cost of raw materials for drugs have already gone up.

Trump wants companies to shift manufacturing to the US to avoid his tariffs.

Big pharma giants like Pfizer and Eli Lily, that sell brand name and patented drugs, have said they are committing to move some manufacturing there.

But the economics for low-value drugs do not add up.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman of India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharma, told an industry gathering last week that his company sells pills for between $1 and $5 per bottle in the US and tariffs “do not justify relocating our manufacturing to the US”.

“Manufacturing in India is at least three to four times cheaper than in the US,” says Sudarshan Jain of the IPA.

Any quick relocation will be next to impossible. Building a new manufacturing facility can cost up to $2bn and take five to 10 years before it is operational, according to lobby group PhRMA.

For local pharma players in India, the tariff blow could be brutal too.

The pharmaceutical sector is India’s largest industrial export according to GTRI, a trade research agency.

India exports some $12.7bn worth of drugs to the US annually, paying virtually no tax. US drugs coming into India, however, pay 10.91% in duties.

This leaves a “trade differential” of 10.9%. Any reciprocal tariffs by the US would increase the costs for both generic medicines and specialty drugs, according to GTRI.

It flags up pharmaceuticals as one of the sectors that is most vulnerable to price increases in the US market.

Indian firms which largely sell generic drugs already work on thin margins and won’t be able to afford a steep tax outgo.

They sell at much lower prices compared to competing peers, and have steadily gained dominance across cardiovascular, mental health, dermatology and women’s health drugs in the world’s largest pharma market.

“We can offset single-digit tariff hikes with cost cuts, but anything higher will have to be passed down to consumers,” the finance head of a top Indian drugmaker who didn’t want to be identified, told the BBC.

North America is their biggest revenue source, contributing a third of the earnings and profitability of most companies.

“It is the fastest growing market and most crucial. Even if we increase exposure to other markets, it will not adjust for any loss in the US market,” the finance head said.

Umang Vohra, CEO of India’s third-largest drug firm Cipla, said at a public gathering recently that tariffs should not ultimately dictate what businesses do, “because there is a risk that four years later, those tariffs may go away”.

But four years is a long time, and could make or break the fortunes of several companies.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8ke45gq0o

Pakistan’s army says it has freed more than 300 hostages from a passenger train seized by militants in Balochistan province on Tuesday.

The military spokesperson said 33 militants were killed during the operation.

Twenty-one civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) before the operation began, the military spokesperson said. These numbers have not been verified by the BBC.

The military continues its search operation in the area to rule out any remaining threats.

There were approximately 440 passengers on board the train when it was attacked, according to the army’s spokesperson.

Security officials have been quoted as saying some of the militants may have left the train, taking an unknown number of passengers with them into the surrounding mountainous area.

The military is working to find the passengers who escaped and fled into the surrounding area during the attack, the spokesperson said. It is not clear how many passengers are unaccounted for.

The Pakistani authorities – as well as several Western countries, including the UK and US – have designated the BLA as a terrorist organisation.

The BLA is one of the rebel groups demanding either greater autonomy or independence for Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province.

They accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich mineral resources while also neglecting it. In the past, they have attacked military camps, railway stations and trains – but this is the first time they have hijacked a train.

At least 100 of those on the train were members of the security forces, officials have said.

The militants had threatened to kill hostages if authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners within 48 hours, according to local reports.

During the attack, the militants blew up a section of the tracks and opened fire on the train near a mountain tunnel.

Eyewitnesses described the “doomsday scenes” on board the train as the attack unfolded, with passenger Ishaq Noor telling the BBC: “We held our breath throughout the firing, not knowing what would happen next.”

Officials had difficulty communicating with passengers at the time of the attack, because the remote area has no internet or mobile coverage.

Some passengers who managed to disembark from the train late on Tuesday evening walked for nearly four hours to reach the next railway station.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgm147dlvv9o

Michelle Obama revealed one of the qualities about her husband, Barack Obama, that has gotten on her nerves over the years.

“Barack, you know, he had to adjust to what on time was for me,” the former first lady, 61, told her brother, Craig Robinson, on Wednesday’s premiere episode of their podcast, “IMO.”

“Because he was on that island time,” Robinson, 62, added about Barack’s lack of punctuality, referencing his brother-in-law’s Hawaiian roots.

Michelle recalled how “when it’s time to leave,” she would notice her spouse “getting up and going to the bathroom,” and doing other things that could make them late.

“I was like, ‘Dude, a 3 o’clock departure means you’ve done all that,’ you know, it’s like, don’t start looking for your glasses at the 3 o’clock departure,” she added.

However, Michelle gave Barack kudos for working on this flaw, saying, “He’s improved over 30 years of marriage, but that was a ‘you must adjust.’”

The “Becoming” author said their daughters — Malia Obama, 26, and Sasha Obama, 23 — know their mom likes to be on time, and so they’re “early” whenever they’re “doing anything” with her.

“They’ve learned how to snap to it,” the mom of two added.

Michelle’s candid disclosure about Barack, 63, comes as the couple tries to quiet separation rumors.

There have been rumblings of marital strife for a few months, with insiders telling Page Six in January that Michelle has “checked out” of her life in Washington, DC, is “fed up with the political circus” and “pretending everything is OK with Barack all the time.”

A source who worked closely with the pair added at the time, “They don’t pretend that they have this Camelot relationship. They’re not trying to present that they’re this magical couple.”

Barack has also been spotted on at least three occasions without his wife, further fueling the rumor mill.

Michelle did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in early January because she was reportedly on an “extended holiday vacation.”

Barack then went to a private dinner in DC alone later that month and attended President Trump’s inauguration without her. He was the only former president without his spouse at the ceremony.

A source told Page Six at the time that Michelle’s absence at the inauguration had to do with Trump, 78, adding that she is not “phony.”

“She showed up reluctantly for the election. They were united, but she doesn’t have to unify around [Trump]. She doesn’t have to say anything. Her absence speaks volumes,” the insider said.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/03/12/celebrity-news/michelle-obama-reveals-her-pet-peeve-about-husband-barack-amid-divorce-speculation/

The same business leaders who are publicly cordial to Donald Trump—even to his face—privately bemoan the havoc the president’s policies are wreaking on the American economy, according to a report.

When news broke on Tuesday that a livid Trump had doubled tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25 to 50 percent, dozens of top corporate executives at the Yale CEO Caucus broke into groans and incredulous laughter, The Wall Street Journal reported.

If the northern ally didn’t roll back its electricity surcharge, Trump also vowed to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.” (Both sides eventually backed off.)

The invite-only summit was organized by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale University’s business school. Its attendees included corporate bigwigs such as JPMogran Chase’s Jamie Dimon, billionaire Michael Dell, and Pfizer chief Albert Bourla.

“There was universal revulsion against the Trump economic policies,” Sonnenfeld told the Journal. “They’re also especially horrified about Canada.”

Nevertheless, when many of the same CEOs attended a question-and-answer session with Trump later that same day for Business Roundtable, there was not even a hint of confrontation. Despite the stock market’s recent nosedive, the executives lobbed softballs.

In an ad hoc poll at the Yale event, the CEOs agreed that they would need to see an even more precipitous decline before they publicly questioned Trump. About half of the room said the market would have to fall 20 percent before they spoke out, while around a quarter put the figure at 30 percent, the Journal reported. A quarter responded that they didn’t see it as their role to take a public stand on economic issues.

“I’ve been struck by how fearful people are and how unwilling they are to speak out. That has just not been true in the past,” Bill George, ex-CEO of the medical-device company Medtronic, told the Journal. “They don’t want to get on the wrong side of the president and his constituents.”

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-ceos-share-universal-revulsion-to-trumpbut-smile-to-his-face/

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly had one stark warning to share Wednesday: “If the U.S. can do this to us, their closest friend, then nobody is safe.”

During a press conference addressing President Donald Trump’s recent tariff retaliation against the country, Joly reiterated that Canada is “holding strong” and described the president’s actions as a “day to day fight.”

“We have done nothing to justify Trump’s attacks on our country, on our economy and our identity,” Joly said. “Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally.”

“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talks of annexing our country through economic coercion,” she continued. “He called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric. Well, Canadians have made it very clear that we will not back down, and we will not give in to this coercion.”

The foreign affairs minister went on to reflect on the long-established history and relationship between America and Canada, which she described as “the envy of the world,” and called for the American public to contact their elected representatives to send “a message to the White House” and put an end to the tariff sparring match.

Joly is slated to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week at a G7 meeting in Quebec. When asked by reporters Wednesday if U.S.-Canada relations would be on the meeting’s agenda, Rubio replied, “We’re going to be focused in G7 on all of those things. That’s what the meeting is about.”

“It is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada,” he continued.

The president imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from Canada this week, and so far seems to be going full speed ahead toward his reciprocal tariff deadline on April 2 which will see a 25% tariff on another handful of goods from the country.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/nobody-is-safe-canadian-minister-of-foreign-affairs-melanie-joly-sends-world-a-warning-against-trump/

An Australian man lived for 100 days with an artificial titanium heart while he awaited a donor transplant, the longest period to date of someone with the technology.

The patient, a man in his 40s who declined to be identified, received the implant during surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney last November.

In February, he became the first person worldwide to leave hospital with the device, which kept him alive until a heart donor became available earlier this month.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by St Vincent’s Hospital, Monash University and BiVACOR, the US-Australian company behind the device, the man, who had severe heart failure, was “recovering well.”

The ability of the device to sustain him for so long is being celebrated as a sign the artificial heart could potentially offer a long-term option for people suffering heart failure. The device is still being trialed and has not yet been approved for general use.

BiVACOR’s founder, Australian bioengineer Daniel Timms, who invented the device following his father’s death from heart disease, said it was “exhilarating to see decades of work come to fruition.”

“The entire BiVACOR team is deeply grateful to the patient and his family for placing their trust in our Total Artificial Heart,” he said in the statement. “Their bravery will pave the way for countless more patients to receive this lifesaving technology.”

How it works
The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart (TAH) has a single moving part, a levitated rotor that’s held in place by magnets. As the name suggests, it’s constructed from titanium and there are no valves or mechanical bearings that may be susceptible to wear.

It pumps blood to the body and the lungs, replacing both ventricles of a failing heart.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally killing around 18 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.

The long-term ambition is to use the device to save more people who languish on waiting lists for suitable donors. According to the US Health Department, about 3,500 people received heart transplants in 2024. Around 4,400 joined the waiting list the same year.

Professor Chris Hayward, from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, said the BiVACOR heart ushered in “a whole new ball game for heart transplants.”

“Within the next decade we will see the artificial heart becoming the alternative for patients who are unable to wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply not available,” said Hayward, who is overseeing the Australian patient’s recovery and was involved in preparing the device for clinical trials.

The device has already been tested in the Food and Drug Administration’s Early Feasibility Study in the United States, which saw five patients successfully implanted with the device.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta got an exclusive look into a top secret facility where they genetically modify pigs to be used for human organ donors.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/12/health/australia-artificial-heart-100-days-intl-hnk/index.html

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the attack, blew up the railway track and fired rockets at the Jaffar Express on Tuesday.

The tense silence inside the Jaffar Express ended in a barrage of gunfire as Pakistani security forces stormed the hijacked train on Wednesday, killing all 33 separatist militants and rescuing hundreds of passengers.

The day-long standoff, marked by explosions and hostage threats, began when Baloch militants attacked the train in Balochistan, demanding the release of prisoners.

As special forces moved in, militants wearing suicide vests sat among terrified passengers. In a final planned assault, commandos eliminated the attackers. However, the ordeal left 21 passengers and four security personnel dead.

“Today, we rescued many people, including women and children. The final operation was executed with utmost caution,” Pakistan military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told reporters. He added that no civilians were killed in the final stage of the operation.

The Baloch Liberation Army, which claimed responsibility for the attack, blew up the railway track and fired rockets at the Jaffar Express on Tuesday.

The train, carrying 440 passengers, was travelling from Quetta in Balochistan to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was targeted.

Before the army’s announcement, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed to have killed 50 passengers on Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, it said it was holding 214 people, mostly security personnel.

The group had warned that it would begin executing hostages if authorities failed to meet its 48-hour deadline to release Baloch political prisoners, activists, and those it claimed were abducted by the military.

The BLA is the largest of several ethnic armed groups fighting the government in Balochistan, a region bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

In recent months, the militants have intensified their attacks, adopting new tactics to cause heavy casualties and strike at Pakistan’s military.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/how-pakistan-forces-stormed-hijacked-train-rescued-passengers-in-balochistan-101741823100923.html

HAUNTING footage captured the moment blood-red water flooded a beach popular with tourists, freaking out confused onlookers.

The popular Silver and Red Beach on Hormuz Island saw scenes of horror, as its mineral-rich coast was soaked by heavy rainfall which caused a bizarre phenomenon.

Tourists gathered at the Silver and Red Beach on Hormuz Island to marvel at its colourCredit: instagram/@hormoz_omid/Millions of viewers watched the Biblical scenes on “rainbow island” – a largely uninhabited and quiet island which is miles away from Iran’s mainland.

One user said: “The power of God …. How beautiful and amazing.”

The frightening yet unique scenes are a year-round attraction at the coast, caused by the high iron oxide content in the volcanic soil.

These minerals mix with the heavy tide to give the shoreline a bright red colour, which looks as if someone has dropped a large bucket or red paint in the sea.

The rich volcanic soil is also known as “gelack” soil, and has industrial purposes, as it is used in dyeing, cosmetics, glass and ceramics.

It also plays an important role in local cuisine, with natives using it in sauces and jams.

The Iran Tourism and Touring Organisation says on its tourist board: “Walking along the shore you will encounter parts where sand glitters with metal compounds, especially mesmerising at sunset or sunrise.

“The soil colour around you keeps changing as you walk or ride and you can visit a unique red edible soil and other 70 colourful minerals in Hormuz Island.”

Last year, separate videos wrongly claimed that the same beaches had turned red due to severe weather.

Tourists, however, can experience the rare phenomenon any time of year, in any weather.

Scenes like this are not unique to Iran.

In Torrevieja, Spain, there is a strange pink lake that owes its colour to an unusual bacteria in the salt.

And in the UK, thousands of tiny bio-luminescent plankton could be seen emitting light when being disturbed by waves.

This made the shore of the Sheerness Beach in Kent light up a glowing electric blue.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13765685/blood-rain-beach-red-biblical/

Rahm Wants to Run.

Yes, that Rahm. And, yes, for that office — the presidency.

Major trade partners swiftly hit back at President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, imposing stiff new taxes on U.S products from textiles and water heaters to beef and bourbon.

Canada, the largest supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S., said Wednesday it will place 25% reciprocal tariffs on steel products and also raise taxes on a host of items: tools, computers and servers, display monitors, sports equipment, and cast-iron products.

Across the Atlantic, the European Union will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans.

Combined, the new tariffs will cost companies billions of dollars, and further escalate the uncertainty in two of the world’s major trade partnerships. Companies will either take the losses and earn fewer profits, or, more likely, pass costs along to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Prices will go up, in Europe and the United States, and jobs are at stake, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said.

The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. EU officials have made clear that the tariffs — taxes on imports — are aimed at products made in Republican-held states, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska and wood products from Alabama and Georgia. The tariffs will also hit blue states such as Illinois, the No. 1 U.S. producer of soybeans, which are also on the list.

Spirits producers have become collateral damage in the dispute over steel and aluminum. The EU move “is deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild U.S. spirits exports in EU countries,” said Chris Swonger, head of the Distilled Spirits Council. The EU is a major destination for U.S. whiskey, with exports surging 60% in the past three years after an earlier set of tariffs was suspended.

Could there be an agreement that takes increasing tariffs off the table?
Von der Leyen said in a statement that the EU “will always remain open to negotiation.”

Canada’s incoming Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he’s ready to meet with Trump if he shows “respect for Canadian sovereignty″ and is willing to take ”a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade.″

Carney, who will be sworn in Friday, said workers in both countries will be better off when “the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed, relaunched. That is possible.”

“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs,” she said.

The American Chamber of Commerce to the EU said the U.S. tariffs and EU countermeasures “will only harm jobs, prosperity and security on both sides of the Atlantic.” “The two sides must de-escalate and find a negotiated outcome urgently,” the chamber said Wednesday.

What will actually happen?
Trump slapped similar tariffs on EU steel and aluminum during his first term in office, which enraged European and other allies. The EU also imposed countermeasures in retaliation at the time, raising tariffs on U.S.-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, among other items.

This time, the EU action will involve two steps. First on April 1, the commission will reimpose taxes that were in effect from 2018 and 2020, but which were suspended under the Biden administration. Then on April 13 come the additional duties targeting 18 billion euros ($19.6 billion) in U.S. exports to the bloc.

EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič traveled to Washington last month in an effort to head off the tariffs, meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other top trade officials.

He said on Wednesday that it became clear during the trip “that the EU is not the problem.”

“I argued to avoid the unnecessary burden of measures and countermeasures, but you need a partner for that. You need both hands to clap,” Šefčovič told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

Canada is imposing, as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday 25% reciprocal tariffs on steel products worth $12.6 billion Canadian (US$8.7 billion) and aluminum products worth $3 billion Canadian (US$2 billion) as well as additional imported U.S. goods worth $14.2 billion Canadian ($9.9 billion) for a total of $29.8 billion (US$20.6 billion.)

The list of additional products affected by counter-tariffs includes tools, computers and servers, display monitors, water heaters, sport equipment, and cast-iron products.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-eu-tariffs-countermeasures-806a3b9bcc9cd4e45817e672d95f0070

The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.

Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.

The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in civic freedoms across 198 countries. Other countries that have previously been featured on the watchlist in recent years include Zimbabwe, Argentina, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates.

Mandeep Tiwana, co-secretary general of Civicus, said that the watchlist “looks at countries where we remain concerned about deteriorating civic space conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression”.

The selection process, the website states, incorporates insights and data from Civicus’s global network of research partners and data.

The decision to add the US to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic norms and global cooperation”.

In the news release announcing the US’s addition, the organization cited recent actions taken by the Trump administration that they argue will likely “severely impact constitutional freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression, and association”.

The group cited several of the administration’s actions such as the mass termination of federal employees, the appointment of Trump loyalists in key government positions, the withdrawal from international efforts such as the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, the freezing of federal and foreign aid and the attempted dismantling of USAid.

The organization warned that these decisions “will likely impact civic freedoms and reverse hard-won human rights gains around the world”.

The group also pointed to the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, and the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to control media access to presidential briefings, among others.

Civicus described Trump’s actions since taking office as an “unparalleled attack on the rule of law” not seen “since the days of McCarthyism in the twentieth century”, stating that these moves erode the checks and balances essential to democracy.

“Restrictive executive orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal,” Tiwana said.

In addition to the watchlist, the Civicus Monitor classifies the state of civic space in countries using five ratings: open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed and closed.

Currently, the US has a “narrowed” rating, which it also had during the Biden administration, meaning that while citizens can exercise their civic freedom, such as rights to association, peaceful assembly and expression, occasional violations occur.

For part of Trump’s first term, Tiwana said, the US had been categorized as “obstructed”, due to the administration’s response to the Black Lives Matter protests and restrictive state laws that were enacted limiting the rights of environmental justice protesters, and other actions.

Under Joe Biden, the classification went back to “narrowed”, Tiwana, said, but as of Monday, the US has been placed on the watchlist as the group says it sees “significant deterioration” in civic freedoms occurring.

Tiwana noted that the US is again seemingly headed toward the “obstructed” category.

While the Trump administration often say they support fundamental freedoms and individual rights, like free speech, Tiwana believes that the administration seem “to be wanting to support these only for people who they see as agreeing with them”.

Historically, Tiwana said, the US has been “considered the beacon of democracy and defense of fundamental freedoms”.

“It was an important pillar of US foreign policy, even though it was imperfect, both domestically and how the US promoted it abroad,” he added.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/watchlist-decline-civic-freedoms-civicus#img-1

Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium – the biggest in the country.

Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been vocal about his desire for a new, state-of-the-art ground ever since he purchased almost 30% of the club in February last year.

United were previously examining whether to redevelop the historic Old Trafford but have now said they will build an entirely new stadium – next to the old one.

The planned stadium would become the largest in the UK – overtaking Wembley Stadium, which has a capacity of 90,000.

The project, undertaken in conjunction with a government regeneration task force chaired by Lord Sebastian Coe, has been developed by Foster + Partners.

It will replace one of the world’s most iconic football stadiums and redevelop the surrounding area.

During the construction process, United will continue to play at Old Trafford, Sky Sports News reported.

During the announcement, Sir Jim said the ground would be the “world’s greatest” football stadium.

He added the new stadium would be built “next to the existing site”.

In a press release, United said the project could bring billions of pounds to the UK economy, create as many as 92,000 jobs and more than 17,000 new homes.

The stadium is estimated to cost £2bn and Omar Berrada, United chief executive, said he was confident they could attract investors.

Lord Foster, the architect and founder of Foster + Partners, said the stadium would only take five years to build as it would utilise prefabrication.

Offering further details about the stadium plans, Lord Foster said: “The stadium is contained by a vast umbrella, harvesting energy and rainwater, and sheltering a new public plaza that is twice the size of Trafalgar Square.”

However, when he was asked about a timeline, Sir Jim said it would also depend on the government’s regeneration efforts as well.

Leadership figures involved in the new stadium also stressed its wider benefits for the local area and its economy, as well as the wider North West.

“If we get this right, the regeneration impact could be bigger and better than London 2012,” Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said.

While senior figures at United have been trying to sound upbeat about the club’s future, the men’s team has struggled on the pitch this season, languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

Alongside that, under Sir Jim’s stewardship, there have been rounds of redundancies and cost-cutting measures.

On the evening before the stadium announcement, the British billionaire spoke in a round of interviews in which he tried to justify his actions so far and talk up the club’s future.

However, he also described some of his players as “not good enough” and admitted some were likely overpaid.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/manchester-united-unveil-plans-for-100-000-seater-new-stadium-in-regeneration-project-13326191

The billionaire chief of asset management firm BlackRock warned that the Trump administration’s nationalistic policies and deportation blitz could slash the agricultural workforce so much that crops could be left rotting in the ground.

Larry Fink, whose company fulfilled President Donald Trump’s Panama Canal takeover dreams by buying two ports at either end of the waterway, said the administration’s massive deportation push could lead to a massive shortage of farm workers as soon as the spring harvest season.

“I do believe deportations, in the speed at which it is happening, is going to have severe impact on the agricultural sector and the construction sector,” Fink said Tuesday at S&P Global’s CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas. “I think we’re going to start seeing, especially when spring and the spring crops arrive, are we going to have enough workers to harvest the crops?”

Citing his conversations with other CEOs, Fink said about 70 percent of agriculture workers and 40 percent of construction workers were not born in the United States.

“You add that up and what’s going on?” he said. “With the whole idea that we’re going to have to use a private capital to build up this economy, are we going to have enough workers?”

The number of border crossers has plummeted to record lows since Trump suspended refugee admissions on his first day back in office—but February data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained by NBC News showed that the government continues to fall short of the president’s promise to enact the largest deportation operation in American history.

Fink said a worker shortage would have elevated inflation “embedded” in it, though he foresees “big deflation” in the next few years thanks to the advancement of AI.

The billionaire also warned the Trump administration that its “America First” policy comes with a price.

“I think if we all are becoming a little more nationalistic—and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing—it does resonate with me that it’s going to have elevated inflation,” Fink said. “When I go to Washington, when they talk about these policies, at what cost are you willing to tolerate that?”

Though Fink is a lifelong Democrat, he recently delivered a big win for Trump.

Under a deal announced last week, BlackRock and other investors would spend over $22 billion to buy the Balboa and Cristobal ports in the Panama Canal from Hong Kong company CK Hutchison. BlackRock will also purchase CK Hutchison’s controlling interest in 43 other ports.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-immigration-push-could-leave-crops-rotting-in-the-ground-blackrock-ceo-warns/

AN EXTREME eater and TikTok star known for sharing videos of himself over-eating has died after struggling to breathe or stand.

Efecan Kultur, 24, had over 155,000 followers on TikTok and was well known as a mukbang streamer.

Mukbang is an online phenomenon where people watch, record and stream themselves scoffing super-sized quantities of food online.

Kultur shared videos of himself eating with his followers, while he chatted to them.

PRESIDENT Donald Trump bought a Tesla on the White House lawn on Tuesday in an outlandish display of support for CEO Elon Musk following recent backlash.

Musk brought an entire fleet of electric vehicles to the White House lawn to let the president have his pick of the litter for the purchase.

Trump’s support for his advisor comes after Tesla faced backlash and vandalism over Musk’s new role in the Oval Office.

As the head of Trump’s brand new Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has slashed federal jobs and budgets in Trump’s first few months of his second term.

Growing fears and concerns over Doge’s plans have sparked a series of attacks on Tesla across the country, including vandalism at Tesla showrooms and charging stations.

Over the past few weeks, protestors have gathered at multiple Tesla locations as people carry signs and shout chants, lashing out at Musk for his role in the Trump administration.

The company is also facing dropping sales for the first time as Americans are boycotting the auto giant in what protestors are calling “Tesla takedowns.”

Tesla stock has lost more than half its stock since peaking in December – wiping out over $800 billion from the company’s total value, according to CNBC.

In the face of the backlash, the president announced on Tuesday morning that he would buy a Tesla as “a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

In his Truth Social post, Trump accused leftists of trying to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla.”

“The attacks on Elon by the radical left are not just attacks on him, but on this incredible American company and the workers who make these spectacular cars,” Trump said at the White House.

He said Musk has been treated “very unfairly by a very small group of people.”

He added that he plans to classify the attacks on dealerships as domestic terrorism.

On Tuesday afternoon, videos shared to X showed Trump walking next to at least four different Teslas, including a Cybertruck, arranged on the South Portico of the White House.

Musk’s son X Æ A-Xii also joined the Doge head while the powerful duo talked over Trump’s options.

While speaking at the White House, the billionaire also said Tesla will double its vehicle output in the US over the next two years.

Trump and Musk were seen smiling and chopping it up on the lawn as the two celebrated the big purchase by sitting in the cars and speaking to reporters.

The two men have a long and complicated relationship that initially started with a feud before boiling down into an apparent friendship.

Trump often speaks highly of Musk and even previously reversed his stance on electric vehicles due to their relationship.

The president appointed Musk as the head of Doge in November, just a week after winning the election, and hasn’t looked back.

FULL-FLEDGED PURCHASE

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joked at a briefing on Tuesday that the president, a native New Yorker, was excited to drive again.

As the vehicles were being transported to the White House, Leavitt said it was a “very exciting moment.”

She insisted Trump would pay the full market price for the car.

Pictures from the White House showed Trump reviewing a handwritten note of Tesla’s pricing on his presidential stationary.

He has a choice between a silver Model X, a gray CT, a blue Model S, and a red Model Y, according to the sheet

A handwritten note at the bottom of the page said Teslas can be bought for as low as $299 a month or $35,000.

“All cars have self-driving, just needs to be turned on,” the note added.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13756695/donald-trump-elon-musk-tesla-ceo-white-house-car/

On March 21, “The Union” star, 58, will officially enter menopause — defined as 12 months without a period — she revealed on former PIX11 anchor-turned-menopause advocate, Tamsen Fadal’s new podcast, “The Tamsen Show.”

Berry’s feting the occasion with a “shiesta,” a term she’s been using to describe a celebration for women entering menopause.

“When a woman realizes that she’s in the menopause — you know, 365 days, and you know you’re in it — it is their duty to give that woman a ‘shiesta’ to celebrate her, like we do every other milestone in our life,” Berry said.

Berry is Fadal’s first guest on the podcast that launches on Wednesday.

We’re told the two women had a mutual love fest discussing womanhood, and their menopause journeys.

Berry, who also battles Type 2 diabetes, revealed she took control of that disease, and was able too wean herself off insulin and oral medication, so, “I thought I would skip menopause, whatever that was,” she half-jokingly told Fadal.

“There was a feeling of, ‘Hey, I can do pretty much anything I want to do if I eat right and exercise, and prioritize my health and well-being,” she explained.

She added that her healthy lifestyle made her feel immune to the inevitable. “I thought whatever menopause is — I don’t know much about it — but I’m sure I’m going to skip it, because I’m too healthy! I’m on top of everything,” she said.

Fadal and Berry are among several high-profile women making it part of their mission to educate women on the topic. Fadal told Page Six last year that entering menopause was the catalyst for her to leave the youth-obsessed TV news biz, and her job at New York’s PIX11, after 15 years at the anchor desk.

“The realization I needed to put my voice into this conversation led me to leave [TV news]. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do my job anymore, but I had a bigger story to tell. I couldn’t stop talking about it. I couldn’t stop studying it. I couldn’t stop talking to women about it,” she said.

She has since produced a documentary on the subject, “The (M) Factor Film,” as well as launched the podcast and penned the book, “How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better than Before,” out March 25.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/03/11/celebrity-news/halle-berry-plans-to-celebrate-a-major-milestone-before-she-turns-59-this-year/

Just short of his 80th birthday, Rodrigo Duterte, a man who once vowed to purge his country through a bloody anti-drugs and crime campaign, found himself outmanoeuvred and in custody.

The former president was met by Philippines police as he arrived in Manila on a flight from Hong Kong, where he had been rallying support for his candidates for the upcoming mid-term election among the large Filipino diaspora there.

The much-talked-about warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was, it turned out, already in the hands of the Philippines government, which moved swiftly to execute it.

A frail-looking Mr Duterte, walking with a stick, was moved to an air force base within the airport perimeter. A chartered jet was quickly prepared to take him to the ICC in The Hague.

How had this happened? How had a man so powerful and popular, often called “the Trump of Asia”, been brought so low?

In vain, his lawyers and family members protested that the arrest had no legal basis and complained that Duterte’s frail health was being neglected.

While in office, Mr Duterte formed an alliance with the Marcos family – the children of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos who had long been working on a political comeback. Mr Duterte could not run again in the 2022 election, but his daughter Sara, mayor of southern city of Davao, was also popular and a strong contender to replace him.

However, Ferdinand Marcos’s son Bongbong, who had been in politics all his life, was also well placed to win and very well-funded.

The two families struck a deal. They would work together to get Bongbong into the presidency and Sara into the vice-presidency, on the assumption that come the next election in 2028, her turn would come and she would have the formidable Marcos machine behind her.

It worked. Both won their positions by a wide margin. Mr Duterte expected that his alliance would protect him from any blowback over his controversial presidency once he was out of power.

The most serious threat hanging over him was an investigation by the ICC into his culpability for thousands of extrajudicial killings carried out during anti-drugs campaigns he ordered – after he became president in 2016, but also during his tenure as mayor of the southern city of Davao from 2011.

Mr Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the jurisdiction of the ICC in 2019, but its prosecutors argued they still had a mandate to look into alleged crimes against humanity committed before that, and launched a formal investigation in 2021. However, President Marcos initially stated that his government would not co-operate with the ICC.

That position only changed after the dramatic breakdown of the Duterte-Marcos alliance. Strains in their relationship were evident from the earliest days of the administration, when Sara Duterte’s request to be given control of the powerful defence ministry was turned down and she was given the education ministry instead.

President Marcos also distanced himself from his predecessor’s mercurial policies, mending fences with the US, standing up to China in contested seas, and stopping the blood-curdling threats of retribution against drug dealers.

In the end, these were two ambitious, power-hungry clans aiming to dominate Filipino politics, and there was not enough power for them to share. Relations reached a nadir last year when Sara Duterte announced that she had hired an assassin to kill President Marcos, should anything happen to her.

Late last year, the lower house of Congress, which is controlled by Marcos loyalists, filed a petition to impeach Ms Duterte. That trial is due to take place in the Senate later this year.

If she is impeached, under the constitution, she would be barred from holding high political office, killing her long-standing presidential ambitions and weakening the political power of the Dutertes even further.

President Marcos now appears to have moved deftly to neutralise his main political rival. But his strategy is not risk-free. The Dutertes remain popular in much of the country, and may be able to mobilise protests against the former president’s prosecution.

Sara Duterte has issued a statement accusing the government of surrendering her father to “foreign powers” and of violating Filipino sovereignty.

An early test of the support enjoyed by both clans will be the mid-term elections in May.

In his comments to journalists after the plane carrying his predecessor had taken off from Manila, President Marcos insisted he was meeting the country’s commitments to Interpol, which had delivered the ICC warrant. But he was coy about the fact that it was an ICC warrant he was executing, given that many Filipinos will question what the ICC’s remit is in a country which has already left its jurisdiction.

It is not risk-free for the ICC either. The court is an embattled institution these days, with the Trump administration threatening to arrest its top officials should they travel to the US, and few countries willing to extradite those it has indicted. Getting former President Duterte to The Hague might therefore look like a welcome high-profile success.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6253ly20p4o

Armed militants in Pakistan’s Balochistan region have attacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers and taken a number of them hostage, military sources told the BBC on Tuesday.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) fired at the Jaffar Express Train as it travelled from Quetta to Peshawar.

The separatist group said it had bombed the track before storming the train in the remote Sibi district, claiming the train was under its control.

At least 16 militants have been killed and 104 passengers rescued as of Wednesday morning, local media reported.

Among those rescued are 17 injured passengers, who have been hospitalised for treatment.

The militants had threatened to kill hostages if authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners within 48 hours, according to local reports.

The rescue operation is ongoing.

There were reports of “intense firing” at the train, a Balochistan government spokesman told local newspaper Dawn on Tuesday.

A senior police official said it “remains stuck just before a tunnel surrounded by mountains”, AFP news agency reports.

A senior army official confirmed to the BBC that there were more than 100 army personnel travelling from Quetta on the train.

The Pakistani authorities – as well as several Western countries, including the UK and US – have designated the BLA as a terrorist organisation.

It has waged a decades-long insurgency to gain independence and has launched numerous deadly attacks, often targeting police stations, railway lines and highways.

On Tuesday, the group warned of “severe consequences” if an attempt was made to rescue those it is holding.

“I can’t find the words to describe how we managed to escape. It was terrifying,” Muhammad Bilal, one of the freed hostages, told AFP news agency.

Allahditta, another passenger, said he was allowed to go because of his heart condition. The 49-year-old recalled how people “began hiding under the seats in panic” when the attackers stormed the train.

A local railway official in Quetta earlier told the BBC that a group of 80 passengers – 11 children, 26 women and 43 men – had managed to disembark the train and walk to the nearest railway station, Panir.

The official said the group was made up of locals from the province of Balochistan.

One man, whose brother-in-law was still being held on the train, described an agonising wait. He said he had tried to drive to the area, but many of the roads were closed.

Meanwhile, anxious families of passengers were trying to get information about their loved ones from the counter at Quetta railway station.

The son of one passenger, Muhammad Ashraf, who left Quetta for Lahore on Tuesday morning, told BBC Urdu he had not been able to contact his father.

Another relative said he was “frantic with worry” about his cousin and her small child, who were travelling from Quetta to Multan to pick up a family member.

“No one is telling me what’s happening or if they’re safe,” Imran Khan told Reuters news agency.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y2q5v9249o

The captain of a cargo ship has been arrested after it collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday.

Humberside Police said the 59-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following searches for a missing crew member of the Solong.

Smoke is continuing to billow from the Solong, but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said both ships were expected to remain afloat.

German firm Ernst Russ, which owns the Solong, confirmed to the BBC that the man arrested is the master of the ship.

It said he, along with the rest of the crew, were assisting the investigation.

A crew member from the cargo ship was still missing and presumed dead after a search and rescue operation ended on Monday evening, according to Transport Minister Mike Kane.

Whitehall sources have told the BBC there were Russians and Filipinos among the crew of the Solong.

The BBC understands all 23 crew on board the Stena Immaculate are Americans. They are all in Grimsby and are likely to be repatriated in due course.

Police said they had begun a criminal investigation into the cause of the collision and was working with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch was also undertaking a parallel preliminary assessment to establish the causes of the crash, police said.

HM Coastguard confirmed 36 people had been taken safely to shore.

Det Ch Supt Craig Nicholson said: “Humberside Police have taken primacy for the investigation of any potential criminal offences which arise from the collision between the two vessels.”

He said the arrested man was in custody.

“Following inquiries undertaken by my team, we have arrested a 59-year-old man on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision.

“This follows the conclusion of search operations by HM Coastguard for the missing crew member of the Solong.

“Our thoughts are with the family of the missing crew member, and I have appointed family liaison officers to make contact and provide support to the family.”

Smoke is continuing to billow from Solong.

The ship’s German owner, Ernst Russ, said it was supporting the missing crew member’s family.

It also confirmed there were no containers on board carrying sodium cyanide, as had been initially feared.

“There are four empty containers that have previously contained the hazardous chemical and these containers will continue to be monitored,” the firm said.

Crowley, the maritime company managing Stena Immaculate, said the vessel was struck by Solong while anchored off the coast of Hull, causing “multiple explosions” on board and an unknown quantity of jet fuel to be released.

The firm said Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks, at least one of which was ruptured when it was struck.

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said officials had told him there was no evidence so far of any of the heavy engine oil leaking from either ship, or pollution in the water or the air.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1w093exx4qo

The Trump administration lifted its suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine, and Kyiv signaled that it was open to a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia, pending Moscow’s agreement, American and Ukrainian officials said Tuesday following talks in Saudi Arabia.

The administration’s decision marked a sharp shift from only a week ago, when it imposed the measures in an apparent effort to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to enter talks to end the war with invading Russian forces. The suspension of U.S. assistance came days after Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump argued about the conflict in a tense White House meeting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the U.S. delegation to the talks in Jeddah, said Washington would present the ceasefire offer to the Kremlin, which has so far opposed anything short of a permanent end to the conflict without accepting any concessions.

“We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking. And now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no,” Rubio told reporters after the talks. “If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.”

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, added: “The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President Trump’s vision for peace.”

Tuesday’s discussions, which lasted for nearly eight hours, appeared to put to rest — for the moment at least — the animosity between Trump and Zelenskyy that erupted during the Oval Office meeting last month.

Waltz said the negotiators “got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end,” including long-term security guarantees. And, he said, Trump agreed to immediately lift the pause in the supply of billions of dollars of U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing.

Trump said he hoped that an agreement could be solidified “over the next few days.”

“I’ve been saying that Russia’s been easier to deal with so far than Ukraine, which is not supposed to be the way it is,” Trump said later Tuesday. “But it is, and we hope to get Russia. But we have a full ceasefire from Ukraine. That’s good.”

The Kremlin had no immediate comment on the U.S. and Ukrainian statements. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said only that negotiations with U.S. officials could take place this week.

Trump ‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel later this week to Moscow, where he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly. The person cautioned that scheduling could change.

Officials met in Saudi Arabia only hours after Russia shot down over 300 Ukrainian drones in Ukraine’s biggest attack since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion. Neither U.S. nor Ukrainian officials offered any comment on the barrage.

Russia also launched 126 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, as part of Moscow’s relentless pounding of civilian areas.

Zelenskyy renews calls for lasting peace

In an address posted shortly after Tuesday’s talks ended, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s commitment to a lasting peace, emphasizing that the country has sought an end to the war since its outset.

“Our position is absolutely clear: Ukraine has strived for peace from the very first second of this war, and we want to do everything possible to achieve it as soon as possible — securely and in a way that ensures war does not return,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak, who led the Ukrainian delegation, described the negotiations as positive. He said the two countries “share the same vision, and that we are moving in the same direction toward the just peace long awaited by all Ukrainians.”

In Kyiv, Lena Herasymenko, a psychologist, accepts that compromises will be necessary to end the war, but she said they must be “reasonable.”

“We had massive losses during this war, and we don’t know yet how much more we’ll have,” she told The Associated Press. “We are suffering every day. Our kids are suffering, and we don’t know how the future generation will be affected.”

Oleksandr, a Ukrainian soldier who could give only his first name because of security restrictions, warned that Ukraine cannot let down its guard.

“If there is a ceasefire, it would only give Russia time to increase its firepower, manpower, missiles and other arms. Then they would attack Ukraine again,” he said.

Hawkish Russians push back against a ceasefire

In Moscow, hawkish politicians and military bloggers spoke strongly against a prospective ceasefire, arguing that it would play into Kyiv’s hands and damage Moscow’s interests at a time when the Russian military has the advantage.

“A ceasefire isn’t what we need,” wrote hardline ideologue Alexander Dugin.

Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health and business.

“IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson” will address “everyday questions shaping our lives, relationships and the world around us,” according to a press release. IMO is slang for “in my opinion.”

Some of the guests slated to speak to the former first lady and Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, include the actors Issa Rae and Keke Palmer and psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik.

Other guests include filmmakers Seth and Lauren Rogan; soccer star Abby Wambach; authors Jay Shetty, Glennon Doyle and Logan Ury; editor Elaine Welteroth; radio personality Angie Martinez; media mogul Tyler Perry; actor Tracee Ellis Ross; husband-and-wife athlete and actor Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union; and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

The first two episodes — the first is an introductory one and the second features Rae — will premiere on March 12. New episodes will be released weekly and will be available on all audio platforms and YouTube.

“With everything going on in the world, we’re all looking for answers and people to turn to,” Obama said in a statement. “There is no single way to deal with the challenges we may be facing — whether it’s family, faith, or our personal relationships — but taking the time to open up and talk about these issues can provide hope.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/michelle-obama-podcast-imo-8cf34cf3cc9eb6aac17c4341f7b94103