Category: Trending

President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians, seeking for the first time to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behavior.
Biden’s warning, relayed in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, followed a deadly Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers that spurred new calls from Biden’s fellow Democrats to place conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. Israel said the attack was a mistake.

The U.S. president, a lifelong supporter of Israel, has resisted pressure to withhold aid or halt the shipment of weapons to the country. His warning marked the first time he has threatened to potentially condition aid, a development that could change the dynamic of the nearly six-month-old war.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said of the leaders’ phone call. It said the call lasted about 30 minutes.

Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for national elections in September on Wednesday (Apr 3) as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faces pressure at home and abroad over the war in Gaza.

“We must agree on a date for elections in September, towards a year to the war if you will,” Gantz said in a televised briefing. “Setting such a date will allow us to continue the military effort while signalling to the citizens of Israel that we will soon renew their trust in us.”

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days demanding new elections. Many have criticised Netanyahu and expressed anger at his government’s handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza six months into the war.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas, the Islamist movement that ruled Gaza.

His Likud party on Wednesday said Gantz must “stop engaging in petty politics” during the war. “Elections now will bring about paralysis, division, harm to the fighting in Rafah and a fatal blow to the chances of a hostage deal,” Likud said.

Gantz, a former army general, joined Netanyahu’s government in the early days of the war as a gesture of political unity during the crisis. Polls suggest his party would come top in any election and he would be favourite to take over as premier.

NETANYAHU PLEDGED TO BRING HOSTAGES HOME
Netanyahu has pledged to bring the hostages home, as well as destroy Hamas, though it is unclear how Israel would be able to do so and experts doubt that is even possible. Israel’s unrelenting air, ground and sea assault has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and led to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-war-minister-gantz-calls-sept-elections-amid-gaza-assault-4240951

NATO foreign ministers meet on Thursday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their alliance, having agreed to start planning for a greater role in coordinating military aid to Ukraine.
On the second day of a meeting in Brussels, the ministers will mark the signing in Washington on April 4, 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty that established the transatlantic political and military alliance.
“As we face a more dangerous world, the bond between Europe and North America has never been more important,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

NATO began with 12 members from North America and Europe, founded in response to growing fears that the Soviet Union posed a military threat to European democracies.
At its heart is the concept of collective defence, the idea that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all, giving U.S. military protection to Western Europe.
Seventy-five years later, NATO has 32 members and has retaken a central role in world affairs, after Russia’s war in Ukraine prompted European governments to view Moscow once more as a major security threat.

NATO’s two newest members, Finland and Sweden, joined in direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Democratic nations, free people chose to join (NATO) unlike how Russia expands by annexation or illegal aggression,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told reporters.
Russia said on Wednesday that NATO had returned to a Cold War mindset. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters NATO had no place in the “multipolar world” Moscow says it seeks to build to end U.S. dominance.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/ministers-mark-75-years-nato-discuss-more-support-ukraine-2024-04-03/

The US country-turned-pop singer is the only musician to have earned more than $1bn from her songs and performances alone, Forbes says.

Taylor Swift has made it on to a list of the world’s billionaires, according to Forbes, as her Eras Tour spanning 152 shows and five continents generated more than $1bn (£800m) in revenue.

The 34-year-old superstar, who stole the show at this year’s Grammy Awards by winning album of the year for the fourth time, is now said to have accumulated a fortune of $1.1bn (£874m).

According to Forbes, the estimated figure is based on the value of Swift’s music, earnings from her world tour and her real estate portfolio.

The US country-turned-pop singer is the only musician to have earned so much money from her songs and performances alone, Forbes adds.

Swift, whose relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce, 34, has gained her – and American football – even more publicity, is one of the 265 people to have joined the 2,781-strong list of billionaires over the past year.

The list has never been longer than this year’s, Forbes reports, with the total wealth of those on it amounting to an eye-watering $14.2tn (£11.3tn).

The richest new person on the list is ION tycoon Andrea Pignataro, 53, from Italy, who is now worth $27.5bn (£21.8bn).

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/taylor-swift-now-a-billionaire-as-worlds-wealthiest-revealed-in-2024-forbes-list-13106631

The move came after Israeli lawmakers passed a new law that allows the government to temporarily shutter foreign media outlets deemed to be a risk to national security.

Israeli lawmakers passed a law on Monday allowing the government to temporarily shutter foreign media outlets that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has determined undermine the country’s national security, and the Israeli leader said he would use the new law to block Al Jazeera broadcasts and activities in Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has had a tense relationship with Al Jazeera for years, but the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 escalated tensions. Mr. Netanyahu has called Al Jazeera a “Hamas mouthpiece.”

On Monday, the prime minister said it was time for the Qatar-based network, one of the most widely viewed sources of television news in the Arab world, to stop broadcasting in Israel, although he did not specify when that would happen.

“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on X, while recovering from hernia surgery.

Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s comments “lies that incite against the safety of our journalists around the world.”

“The network stresses that this latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera,” it said in a statement, adding that the new law would not “deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage.”

Under the new law, if the prime minister deems a foreign media outlet to “concretely undermine” Israel’s national security, the government can temporarily close its offices, confiscate its equipment, remove it from Israeli cable and satellite television providers, and block access to any of the channel’s online platforms hosted on servers in Israel or owned by Israeli entities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedoms around the world, criticized the new law, saying that it “contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about the law during a news briefing in Washington, said that “a move like this is concerning.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/world/middleeast/al-jazeera-israel-netanyahu.html

The Kremlin on Monday dismissed a report that Russian military intelligence may be behind the mysterious “Havana syndrome” ailment that has afflicted U.S. diplomats and spies globally.
Insider, a Russia-focused investigative media group based in Riga, Latvia reported, opens new tab that members of a Russian military intelligence (GRU) unit known as 29155 had been placed at the scene of reported health incidents involving U.S. personnel.

Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in front of the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, in the biggest protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the terrorist attack of Oct. 7.

• During the demonstration, a group of roughly 20 hostage families called on Netanyahu to resign. They say that for his own political reasons, he isn’t pushing hard enough for a deal with Hamas.

Why it matters: The protests, which many political observers thought would happen months ago, could signal a turning point for the Israeli public.

The big picture: Netanyahu and his government faced only limited protests at home over the past five months, compared to mass demonstrations before the war.

• The vast majority of Israelis have felt political demonstrations weren’t appropriate while hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers, many of them reservists, were fighting in Gaza or stationed on high alert along Israel’s borders.

Saturday’s eruption was driven by three key groups — all of whom think Netanyahu’s decisions are driven mainly by political survival:

1. Families of hostages in Gaza.
2. The anti-Netanyahu protest movement, which was very active before the war and now is resurfacing.
3. Many Israelis are angry at Netanyahu over attempts to bypass an Israeli Supreme Court ruling Thursday that ultra-orthodox men can no longer be exempt from military service.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu has rejected requests by the director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and other Israeli negotiators to give them more leeway so they can get a hostage deal with the Hamas captors.

• Several members of the Israeli war cabinet also pushed Netanyahu to show more flexibility. But he accused them of being soft and not knowing how to negotiate with Hamas.
• During a security cabinet meeting on Thursday, most of the ministers from Netanyahu’s own party said there’s a need to make more compromises to get a deal. Netanyahu rejected their proposals.

Between the lines: A development that helped turn the tide was a New York Times interview with a former hostage who was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, and was released last November.

• Amit Soussana told The Times, in a story published Tuesday, that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint by a Hamas militant who was guarding her while she was in captivity in Gaza.
• Two days later, another female hostage, Moran Stela Yanai, suggested in an interview with Israel’s most-watched investigative television show, “Uvda,” that she was molested by her male captors.
• Yanai shocked many Israelis when she said that not even one minister in the government had visited her or called her after she was released.

• But the Hamas attack — the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — eroded Netanyahu’s political situation even more.
• While a majority of Israelis support the war, recent polls show they also want Netanyahu to resign and call for new elections once the war winds down.

Source: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/31/netanyahu-critics-mobilize-in-israel

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday.
All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.
In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.
Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine – although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account showing a pickup truck whose tailgate featured a photoshopped image of a tied-up President Joe Biden being hauled away.

The truck in question can be seen driving in what looks like a caravan of Trump-themed trucks.

Above the video, Trump posted, “3/28/24 | LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK…” and the post is labeled as “viral.”

On X, formerly Twitter, right-wing watchdog group Patriot Takes posted about the Truth Social video.

Another X user posted what looked like a different truck sporting the same image.

Journalist Sandi Bachom posted,”The guy that drove that truck sent the video to me, Dan Scavino tweeted it. I filmed it at the Kathy Griffin protest.”

Trump was recently criticized for saying, “if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” in a rally speech, causing some pundits to fear he would promote violence if he lost to Biden in November.

Trump diputed this claim, saying he was talking about the auto industry, not the country as a whole. The May 18 remarks from his rally were: “We’re gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country, that’ll be the least of it.”

Source : https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-shares-image-of-biden-tied-up-in-the-back-of-maga-pickup-truck

If the tragic events that pulled the US into World War 2 were to repeat themselves today, NATO would not be obliged to enact Article 5.

Experts have warned that Vladimir Putin could use a NATO loophole to attack the US and not trigger Article 5.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the course of World War 2 changed forever when Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Consequently, it led then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt to join the Allies and declare war on the Axis – a move that would eventually lead to the use of nuclear weapons to force Japan into surrender.

However, experts warn that if Vladimir Putin did the same thing today, the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would not be obligated to rise to the Aloha State’s defence.

David Santoro, president of the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, said: “It’s the weirdest thing. People tend to assume Hawaii is part of the US and therefore it’s covered by NATO.

“The argument for not including Hawaii is simply that it’s not part of North America.”

The clue is in the alliance’s name – the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Hawaii is, of course, in the Pacific, and unlike California, Colorado, or Alaska, the 50th state is not part of the continental US that reaches the North Atlantic Ocean on its eastern shores.

And while Article 5 of the treaty provides for collective self-defence in the event of a military attack on any member state, Article 6 limits the geographic scope of that.

It reads: “An armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America.”

However, such an attack would likely trigger Article 4.

A US State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Hawaii is not covered by Article 5, but said Article 4, which says members will consult when “the territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any member is threatened, should cover any situation that could affect the 50th state.

NATO has not responded to a request for comment.

John Hemmings, senior director of the Indo-Pacific Foreign and Security Policy Program at the Pacific Forum, says Hawaii’s exclusion from NATO removes “an element of deterrence” from those who threaten the Western way of life.

He said: “For Americans, there is a direct link between this state and our involvement in the Second World War and ultimately our help in contributing to the victory over the Axis (the alliance of Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy).”

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/1883251/vladimir-putin-nato-loophole-article-5-russia

Guyana President Irfaan Ali while discussing Guyana’s recently found offshore oilfields had an argument with BBC’s Stephen Sackur, who hosts the interview programme HARDTalk, over climate change.

Irfaan Ali did not approve when journalist Sackur questioned him regarding Guyana’s plans to drill oil from its recently discovered oil reserves. “Over the next decade or two, it’s expected that there will be 150 billion dollars worth of oil and gas extracted off your coast. It’s an extraordinary figure. But in practical terms, that means two billion tons of carbon emissions will come from your seabed and be released into the atmosphere,” Sackur said.

President Ali immediately interjected and said: “Let me stop you right there! Did you know that Guyana has a forest that is the size of England and Scotland combined, a forest that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon, that we have kept alive”.

He then peppered Sackur with many counterpoints. Sackur tried to counter by asking if protecting Guyana’s forests gave him the right to release carbon in the atmosphere.

This visibly enraged Ali, who said in response: “Does that give you the right to lecture us on climate change? I’m going to lecture you on climate change. We have kept this forest alive that you enjoy that the world enjoys, that you don’t pay us for, that you don’t value. Guess what? We have the lowest deforestation rate in the world! Guess what? Even with the greatest exploration of oil and gas we will still be net zero”.

“This is the hypocrisy that exists in the world. The world in the last 50 years has lost 65 percent of its biodiversity. We have kept ours,” he further added.

The enraged Guyanese President then asked Sackur if he was “in the pockets of those who destroy the environment through the Industrial Revolution”.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/im-not-finished-yet-guyana-president-shuts-bbc-interviewer-down-on-climate-change-video-goes-viral-8833504.html

An American YouTube star has been kidnapped in Haiti by one of the gangs that have become its de facto rulers, as he was attempting to interview the nation’s most notorious gang leader.

Addison Pierre Maalouf, known online as YourFellowArab or just “Arab,” traveled from his home in Atlanta to interview Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, the leader of the notorious G9 Family and Allies gang that has seized control of the government, according to Haiti 24.net.

But just 24 hours after he arrived in the country, Maalouf and a Haitian colleague were taken by members of the 400 Mawozo gang on March 14.

He is being held for a $600,000 ransom, and even though $40,000 has already been paid, the kidnappers are continuing to demand a large sum of money to secure Maalouf’s release, the Haitian outlet reports.

As news of the YouTube star’s disappearance spread online Thursday, fellow streamer Lalem confirmed that his friend had been taken hostage.

“Tried keeping it private for two weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now,” Lalem posted on X.

“Yes, Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti and we’re working on getting him out,” he said, vowing, “he’ll be out soon.”

Lalem also shared the last video that Maalouf posted online, showing him at a hotel in Haiti telling his viewers about the dangers of being in the country.

In the video, Maalouf said he and his crew intended to travel to the capital city of Port-au-Prince, but had to wait until the early morning hours so they could arrive in the sunlight.

He also notes that Port-au-Prince is “completely run by gangs” and even though they had secured safe passage, “all it takes is one stupid gang member holding an AK-47 for one thing to go wrong.”

Maalouf had earlier posted on March 10 that he was “going on another one of those trips.”

“If I die, thanks for watching what I’ve put out,” he posted on X.

“If I live, all glory to God.”

By Friday, another YouTuber, Miles “Lord Miles” Routledge, claimed he spoke directly with Maalouf using his kidnappers’ phone.

Routledge said Maalouf arrived in the country with “fixer” Sean Roubens Jean Sacra to film the ongoing riots in Haiti, and was kidnapped just 24 hours after he arrived.

“Arab has been kept in a cage in a place on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince,” Routledge wrote.

“His location is known.”

He claimed there was an attempt to pay the ransom, “but it went wrong and truthfully everyone was out of their depths to help Arab.”

Routledge, a Brit, then went on to criticize the US government and the State Department for failing to secure the Georgian’s release.

He said they were “very hands off on helping, even though Arab is a US citizen.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/03/29/world-news/american-youtube-star-kidnapped-in-haiti/

NATO faces a “pre-war era” in which “literally any scenario is possible” given the potential for aggression from Russia, according to Poland’s prime minister, the latest evidence that allies see a growing likelihood of major conflict.

“Literally any scenario is possible,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a group of journalists in a newly-published interview. “I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to a new era. We are in a pre-war era. I don’t exaggerate. This is becoming more and more apparent every day.”

Tusk is the second senior politician from a NATO member-state to suggest that the alliance faces “a pre-war world,” as British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps likewise put it in a January speech. His urgent appeal adds a center-left voice to a chorus of Russia hawks typically populated by more conservative perspectives or the Baltic state leaders who feel acutely their vulnerability to Russia.

“But I would dare to say that it is only now, in the midst of this great war, that it has dawned on all NATO leaders and senior military leaders that all this may actually be needed very soon, that there is a real threat, a real military task, and that we must behave and act in such a way that this machinery, when it is needed, is ready,” Estonian Ambassador Jüri Luik, the Baltic ally’s envoy to NATO, told an Estonian outlet in an interview published Friday. “It seems to me that this final realization has come only after the aggression began.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin denies any intention to “fight NATO” in the event that the war in Ukraine ends with a Russian victory.

“The United States’s defense spending amounts to about 40% of the global figure, or more precisely, 39%, while Russia accounts for 3.5%,” Putin said Wednesday during a visit to a Russian air base. “Considering this difference, are we planning to fight NATO? This is nonsense. We are only defending our people on our historical territories. It is therefore complete nonsense when people say that we intend to attack Europe after Ukraine.”

Those statements are no consolation for Central and Eastern European leaders given that Putin and other Russian officials lied about their intent to attack Ukraine even in the weeks just prior to the full-scale invasion. And Baltic officials, especially, are conscious that Putin regards their countries as part of the historical Russian empire. The justification for the war in Ukraine, as Putin emphasized in June 2022, also “applies to Narva,” a city in Estonia where Tsar Peter the Great won a major battle in 1704.

“Then the question is, could NATO be challenged? … we’re more technologically advanced, we’re better prepared, we’re better trained, and all the other things,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Monday at the Hudson Institute. “But Russia is fighting an actual war right now, building up this army and expecting us to be, politically, not prepared — not militarily [unprepared], but politically.”

Tusk, likewise, emphasized that European leaders need to adopt a more hard-headed attitude.

“At the last European Council, I had an interesting discussion with the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez,” Tusk said. “He asked us to stop using the word ‘war’ in statements. He argued that people do not want to be threatened in this way, that in Spain it sounds abstract. I replied that in my part of Europe, war is no longer an abstraction — and that our duty is not to discuss, but to act and prepare to defend ourselves.”

The Polish leader aired his warning while arguing that European allies must recognize the urgent need for major defense spending increases, on their own behalf and in direct support of Ukraine.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign-policy/2945273/nato-allies-war-with-russia-soon/

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will serve 25 years in prison after being convicted of defrauding his customers, investors, and lenders.

The man who presided over the largest crypto collapse in history received his sentence Thursday in a Manhattan federal court from US Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s trial last fall.

He faced up to 110 years. Prosecutors argued for a sentence of 40 to 50 years, while Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked for six and a half years.

Sentences for white collar crimes have varied in recent years, from 150 years for Bernard Madoff to 11 years for Elizabeth Holmes.

The 32-year-old Bankman-Fried, in his final statement before the judge, said what happened at FTX “haunts me” and that “I made a lot of mistakes.”

As CEO, “I was responsible at the end of the day.”

Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyer tried to draw a distinction between his client and Madoff, who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

“Madoff stole from Holocaust survivors,” his lawyer said. “That is not Sam. He did not want to personally inflict pain on anyone in any way. Sam was not a ruthless financial serial killer. He wasn’t predatory. He makes decisions with math in his head, not malice in his heart.”

Dozens of FTX victims, including those who said they lost their life’s savings due to the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange, submitted letters urging Kaplan to impose a harsh sentence.

The federal sentencing guidelines, while advisory rather than mandatory, suggest prison term enhancements that lengthen sentences as victims’ losses increase.

Kaplan had to weigh the billions that prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole from FTX customers against claims made by FTX that those who were harmed may be fully repaid via FTX’s bankruptcy.

In January, lawyers for the defunct exchange told a Delaware bankruptcy court judge that a plan for FTX to repay customers and general unsecured creditors in full was “within reach.”

But the judge was not sympathetic to that claim, calling the assertion “misleading” and “speculative.”

Kaplan also had some strong words about Bankman-Fried before delivering his sentence, citing the “brazenness” of his actions, his “exceptional flexibility with the truth” and “his apparent lack of any remorse.”

“He knew it was wrong,” the judge added.

Rise and fall

The sentencing of Bankman-Fried completes a dramatic fall for a onetime billionaire who ran the world’s second-largest crypto exchange and was the face of a boom in digital assets during the early years of the pandemic.

His empire imploded in late 2022 as FTX filed for bankruptcy and he was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas.

The group, prosecutors claimed, allowed Bankman-Fried’s sister crypto trading firm Alameda Research “secret” backdoor access to FTX’s customer deposits, then spent the money on investments, loan repayments, political donations, and real estate.

“He spent his customers’ money, and he lied to them about it,” prosecutor Nicolas Roos said in the government’s closing argument.

The other three FTX executives — Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and FTX engineering director Nishad Singh — pleaded guilty to fraud charges and testified against Bankman-Fried under plea agreements with the government.

The World Court on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel, accused by South Africa of genocide in Gaza, to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to the enclave’s Palestinian population and halt spreading famine.
But Gaza’s Hamas rulers said a ceasefire was needed to halt the humanitarian crisis.
The order from the International Court of Justice came as Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled in close combat around Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire.

Judges at the court said the people in the coastal enclave face worsening conditions.
“The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine (…) but that famine is setting in,” the judges said in their order.
The new measures were requested by South Africa as part of its case that accuses Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the ruling did not go far enough and Israel must be ordered to end its military offensive to halt the suffering.

“We welcome any new demands to end this humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and especially in the northern Gaza Strip, but we hoped the court ordered a ceasefire as an absolute solution to all the miseries our people in Gaza are living through,” Naim told Reuters.
The U.N. Security Council voted on Tuesday to demand an immediate ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. The United States abstained from, but did not veto, the vote.

There was no immediate comment from Israel’s Foreign Ministry on the World Court ruling. Israel has said it is making efforts to expand access for humanitarian groups to Gaza overland, through air drops and by ship.
Israeli leaders have said Hamas can end the war by surrendering, freeing all hostages it holds in Gaza and handing over for trial those involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the Al Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start of the operation “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment”, it said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-fighters-battle-israeli-forces-around-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-2024-03-28/

The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, after the United States abstained from the vote — prompting Israel to cancel the visit of a high-level delegation to Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned before the vote that the delegation’s visit would be pulled, if Washington did not veto the motion. The U.S. abstention signals a widening divide between the White House and Israel’s current government, the most right-wing in its history, nearly six months into its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s offensive into the Gaza enclave, which comes in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, has killed tens of thousands of people, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

“This is a clear retreat from the consistent position of the U.S. in the Security Council since the beginning of this war,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, adding that “this withdrawal hurts both the war effort and the effort to release the abductees.”

The U.S. denied that the abstention marked a shift in its policy. Some observers see it differently.

“It’s a breakthrough. An abstention from a UN Security Council permanent member is a yes vote, because it means they are not exercising their veto and basically agree with the text, even if they don’t want to say so,” Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told CNBC.

“The U.S. declining to protect Israel from a resolution it passionately objects to by not providing a veto is an extraordinary thing.”

The first of its kind passed since the onset of the war, the resolution called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas for two weeks, breaking a five-month impasse during which the U.S. vetoed three U.N. calls for a halt in fighting. The motion also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington’s reasons to not approve the measure included its lack of condemnation for the Hamas terror attack, which led to roughly 1,200 deaths in Israel and took around 240 more people hostage.

But, Miller added, “the reason we didn’t veto it is because there were also things in that resolution that were consistent with our long-term position, most importantly, that there should be a cease-fire and that there should be a release of hostages, which is what we understood also to be the government of Israel’s position. So it is a bit surprising and unfortunate that they are not going to apparently attend these meetings.”

‘The United States is losing patience’
The move follows condemnations of Netanyahu from a number of U.S. lawmakers — most notably, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, who is known for steadfastly standing by Israel’s government over the years.

“In this case, the abstention is a very strong signal to Israel that the United States is losing patience,” Ibish said.

The canceled Israeli delegation’s visit to Washington was set to discuss Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, the southernmost corner of Gaza, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter and where Israel says the bulk of Hamas’ remaining fighters are located.

The Biden administration has warned against a Rafah operation, already frustrated by Israel’s hindering of aid deliveries into the besieged strip. At the start of the year, the U.N. warned that half a million Palestinians were facing famine.

For former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, the rift between the two longtime allies is a grave threat to Israel’s security — and the blame lies with Netanyahu.

Asked by CNBC’s Dan Murphy if the U.S. and Israel are now at a turning point in the war, Ben-Ami said:

“I think we definitely are. This is a crisis, [and] Americans are conveying the powerful message that they disagree on the way Israel is conducting the war, that they think this is the moment to move to a political process.”

He added, “The whole attitude of confronting Americans instead of serving with their interests, which are essentially Israel’s interests, is working against the nation’s security. Netanyahu has become a threat to Israel’s security by conducting war from the very first day. With him, political domestic consideration is more [important] than catering to the strategic interest of Israel.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/26/israel-gaza-us-abstention-on-un-cease-fire-vote-triggers-netanyahu-rage.html

Barack Obama spent several hours last Friday in the family dining room of the White House, visiting his former vice president, Joe Biden. The mood was cheerful as the pair exchanged jokes, and the meeting served as a small reunion of sorts for the two presidents’ respective staff – many of whom have known each other going back to the Obama White House.

Still, the occasion was hardly just two old friends catching up.

Obama has made clear to associates in recent months that he believes Biden’s intensifying re-match with Donald Trump in November will be incredibly close, and that the 2024 election marks an “all-hands-on-deck” moment, people familiar with his thinking told CNN. To that end, his return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue last week was largely a working visit.

Biden and Obama, along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, participated in an organizing call in the White House residence heralding the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. “We have the chance to do even more, but that only happens if we send Joe and Kamala back to the White House in November,” Obama said in the video. “So, we’ve got to keep working.”

Off camera, Obama told Biden that he thought the president’s State of the Union remarks earlier this month had been effective and were breaking through, according to people familiar with their conversation. Obama also emphasized to Biden how much he believes health care will be a politically potent and important issue in the upcoming election.

The campaign also recorded other content featuring the two presidents, sources said, that they plan to roll out in the coming weeks.

Obama and Biden speak with regularity, sources said, and the former president remains in direct contact with some top White House officials, including Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, who worked in the Obama administration.

The former president has lent an occasional hand to Biden since the current president’s reelection announcement last year, particularly through public fundraising appeals and in quiet conversations in hopes of allaying concern from some Democrats about Biden seeking a second term. His engagement with the Biden campaign is expected to intensify as the general election kicks into higher gear, and aides said he has already agreed to several campaign appearances before November as he works to help rebuild Biden’s winning coalition from 2020.

Obama’s biggest embrace of Biden’s reelection effort comes Thursday at a star-studded Manhattan fundraiser featuring Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton. The three presidents will sit for a rare conversation, moderated by Stephen Colbert.

It will hardly be a routine meeting of the Presidents Club, and when Clinton and Obama take the stage at Radio City Music Hall, their appearance will underscore the extraordinary moment in American history as a sitting president is locked in a bitter fight to keep his predecessor from returning to the White House.

“No one can speak to disillusioned Democrats better than President Obama,” a senior strategist who has worked closely with Obama and Biden told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to be candid about the campaign. “But there are limits to what Obama can do. The burden to win this race is still on President Biden.”

Attending the sold-out, high-dollar event Thursday night will be numerous celebrities and artists like Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Cynthia Erivo, Mindy Kaling, Ben Platt and Lea Michele, according to the campaign. The evening will be overseen by high-profile producers Jordan Roth and Alex Timbers, and tickets will range from $225 to $500,000.

Capitalizing the rare joint appearance of Biden and two of his predecessors, the campaign is offering some of the high-dollar guests the opportunity to get their photographs taken with all three presidents by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

As president, Biden has also been in frequent touch with Clinton, sources familiar say. Steve Ricchetti, a top Biden adviser who also worked in the Clinton White House, is also in regular touch with his former boss. Advice and consultation related to the 2024 election have been a part of all of those conversations, those people said.

Obama’s appeal and popularity as one of the best-known national Democrats has been undeniable. The campaign’s grassroots fundraising efforts featuring the former president have raised over $15 million so far this cycle, with a “Meet the Presidents” contest featuring Biden and Obama alone hauling in some $3 million, according to the campaign.

For the next seven months, a specific area of focus for Obama will be making fundraising appeals and helping to motivate young Americans, particularly Black and Latino voters, who are seen by campaign advisers as a weak spot for Biden’s candidacy.

Obama has no plans to hit the stump aggressively until the fall, when early voting begins, following a pattern he has adopted since leaving office. Saving the former president until the end of the race – at the time when voters are paying the most attention – is how Obama and his advisers believe he can be the most effective.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/27/politics/barack-obama-joe-biden-bill-clinton-donald-trump/index.html

China criticizes EAM Jaishankar’s support for Philippines in maritime dispute, asserts third parties have no right to interfere in territorial matters.

China criticizes EAM Jaishankar’s comments on India supporting the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty. Responding to Jaishankar’s comments, China said, “Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever. Respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.”

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian told Reuters that, “Marintime disputes are issued between the countries concerned. Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever. We urge relevant parties to dae squarely the facts and truths on the South China Sea issue, and respect China territorial sovereignity and marinetime rights and interest and the efforts of regional countires to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable.”

Earlier on Tuesday, in a firm public assertion of India’s position on the South China Sea issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India firmly supported the Philippines in upholding its national sovereignty as Manila and Beijing were currently involved in a raging maritime territorial dispute over the resource-rich region.

Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. conveyed his appreciation to India for its prompt and resolute response in aiding Filipino crew members of a merchant vessel targeted by Houthi insurgents in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month. The swift intervention by the Indian Navy’s medical team ensured the rescue and provision of essential medical attention to all crew members of MV Confidence after the vessel came under attack from a Houthi missile strike on March 6. Tragically, three crew members, among them two Filipinos, lost their lives in the incident. According to the Philippine News Agency, all surviving Filipino crew members have been safely repatriated.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/south-china-sea-issue-china-miffed-with-eam-jaishankars-comment-on-philippines-says-third-parties-have-no-right-11711510676959.html

The ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and, according to reports, several vehicles and as many as 20 people were sent plunging into the river below.

The container ship that rammed a bridge in US’ Baltimore, causing it to collapse almost entirely and sending cars and people plunging into the river below, was manned entirely by a crew of Indians. This was confirmed by shipping company Maersk, which had chartered the Singapore-flagged container ship, named Dali.
According to a report by news agency AFP, several vehicles and nearly 20 people are believed to have fallen into the Patapsco River after the 300-metre-long vessel crashed into one of the legs of the bridge. The ship had a crew of 22 members, all of whom were Indian. Quoting the Synergy Marine Group, which manages the Dali, a report said all crew members had been accounted for and none of them were injured.

Footage showed lights going out on the ship just before it rammed a leg of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a portion of which collapsed on the vessel itself.

Maryland’s governor said the ship, which was moving at a “rapid” eight knots (nine miles per hour), issued a Mayday call moments before it collided with the pillar of the bridge and that quick thinking by authorities after that allowed officials to stop vehicles from going onto the bridge.

“We’re thankful that between the Mayday and the collapse that we had officials who were able to begin to stop the flow of traffic,” Mr Moore said, according to AFP.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/all-indian-crew-on-board-ship-that-collided-with-baltimore-bridge-5314989

The US abstained from the proposal, which also called for the immediate release of hostages and the expansion of aid into Gaza.

The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution that demands a ceasefire in Gaza for the rest of Ramadan.

The Muslim holy month began on 10 March and is set to finish on 9 April – meaning the council is calling for a two-week truce, though the proposal said the pause in fighting should lead “to a permanent sustainable ceasefire”.

The US abstained from the vote, with the 14 other council members – including Russia, China and the UK – voting in favour.

The resolution also demanded the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages – not linked to a timeline – and “emphasises the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to… the Gaza Strip”.

After the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned delegation visit to Washington as “the US withdrew from its consistent position”.

In a statement, Mr Netanyahu’s office said “the US did not veto the new text that calls for a ceasefire without the condition of releasing the abductees”, and called the American abstention a “clear retreat”.

“This withdrawal hurts both the war effort and the effort to release the hostages, because it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” the office said.

The Israeli delegation was to present White House officials with plans for an expected ground invasion of the strategic Gaza town of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter from the war.

Meanwhile, Hamas welcomed the UN resolution and said it “affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides”.

Vote ‘does not represent policy shift’, US says

On Friday, Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution that would have supported “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

The council had adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza since the start of the war but Friday’s proposal marked the first time the US has backed a resolution containing the word “ceasefire” – reflecting a toughening of the Biden administration’s stance towards Israel.

But the White House said after Monday’s vote that the US abstention “does not represent a shift in policy” and that the resolution “did not have language the US deems essential”.

US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US “fully supports” the resolution’s “critical objectives” despite its abstention.

“In fact, they were the foundation of the resolution we put forward last week – a resolution that Russia and China vetoed.”

Resolution ‘could have come months ago’

Emphasising that her country’s support for the objectives “is not simply rhetorical”, Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the US “is working around the clock to make them real on the ground through diplomacy”.

She also said a ceasefire could have come “months ago” had Hamas been ready to release the hostages, accusing the Palestinian group of throwing roadblocks in the path of peace.

“So today my ask to members of this council… is ‘speak out and demand unequivocally that Hamas accepts the deal on the table’,” she said.

The US had vetoed three previous resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the most recent a measure backed by the 22-nation Arab Group at the UN on 20 February.

Vote ‘sends clear and united message’

In explaining the UK’s support of the proposal, Dame Barbara Woodward, the country’s ambassador to the UN, said she “regrets that this resolution has not condemned” the 7 October attack but welcomed the ongoing diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the US.

She said: “The resolution sends a clear and united message on the need for international humanitarian law to be upheld and for aid to be scaled up urgently, including the lifting of all barriers impeding its delivery.

“We need to focus on how we chart the way from an immediate humanitarian pause to a lasting sustainable peace without a return to fighting.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/un-security-council-passes-resolution-demanding-gaza-ceasefire-13101682

It comes as a separate court agreed to hold off collection of his $454m civil fraud judgement if he puts up $175m within 10 days.

Donald Trump is set to stand trial in his hush-money case on 15 April – marking the first of four criminal cases against the former president to reach trial.

A New York judge ruled today that the former president will face charges next month related to payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, meant to cover up claims of marital infidelity.

Trump stands accused of criminally altering business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Ms Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

Trump’s lawyers say the payment was meant to spare himself and his family embarrassment, not to help him win the election.

Judge Juan Merchan also rejected claims of prosecutorial misconduct made by the defence during the hearing.

If the date holds, it marks the first of four criminal cases against Trump to reach trial as he mounts his campaign for US president as the presumptive Republican nominee.

Outside the courtroom, Trump complained about the ruling, characterising the case as an act of “election interference”.

He accused Biden of waging a legal witch hunt against him and accused the judge of corruption without providing evidence of either.

The former president also claimed the case could bolster his campaign, saying: “It can make me more popular because the people know it’s a scam.”

Trump has claimed he should not have to stand trial during the campaign, and his lawyers have filed a blizzard of motions to delay or derail the cases.

As it stands now, only the New York case is guaranteed to go to trial before November.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-to-start-15-april-13101819

Beijing has lashed out at the United States and the United Kingdom for imposing sanctions over alleged Chinese government-backed cyberattacks, calling the Western allies’ move an act of “political manipulation.”

The US and the UK announced Monday a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven Chinese hackers for allegedly conducting sweeping attacks on behalf of China’s civilian intelligence agency.

The yearslong campaign allegedly targeted American officials, senators, journalists and companies – including Pentagon contractors – as well as British parliamentarians, the UK’s election watchdog and members of the European Parliament, affecting millions of people.

New Zealand also weighed in on Tuesday, accusing state-sponsored Chinese hackers of launching “malicious cyber activity” against the country’s parliament in 2021.

Accusations of cyber espionage have long been a major point of friction between Beijing and Washington, with the US indicting a series of Chinese hackers in recent years.

The public accusations from three members of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance show key Western democracies are now taking a more concerted – and coordinated – stand against what they view as unacceptable levels of hacking and espionage by Beijing.

At a news conference Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at the US and the UK, accusing them of “hyping up the so-called cyberattacks by China.”

“This is purely political manipulation. China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, adding China has made solemn representations to both sides.

Exterior view of the Northern side of the White House in Washington DC as seen from Lafayette Square park and Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States of America POTUS and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical architecture style. Outside of the the North side is a fountain in the lawn, the executive residence northern facade is with a columned portico. Secret Service police with cars and dogs are patrolling and guarding the building as many tourists visit the location daily. The American flag is flown at half-staff honoring the victims of the tragedy in Allen, Texas and respect for the victims of violence. Washington DC, USA on May 8, 2023 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via AP)

“We urge the United States and the United Kingdom to stop politicizing cyber security issues, stop slandering and smearing China, impose unilateral sanctions, and stop cyberattacks on China.”

The spokesperson did not mention New Zealand.

Australia and the European Union also expressed solidarity with the UK and voiced concerns over China’s alleged malicious cyber activities, as Beijing comes under growing scrutiny in a big election year for democracies around the world.

The accusations and sanctions come as China is trying to manage tensions and repair frayed relations with major Western powers, as it grapples with a host of economic challenges including an exodus of foreign investment.

Beijing’s frustration was evident on Tuesday, when Lin, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, blamed the US for encouraging the Five Eyes alliance “to spread all kinds of disinformation about the threats posted by Chinese hackers for geopolitical purpose.”

Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor focusing on Chinese politics at City University of Hong Kong, said the coordinated move by the US and its allies undermines Beijing’s “divide and rule” strategy.

“My observation is that China has always sought to create some distance between the US and other Western countries, such as European nations and Australia. Especially considering the possibility of a reelection of Donald Trump, China feels there may be a chance to separate them a little more,” he said.

“But (the accusations) show that despite their differences, these countries remain united on many issues regarding China.”

‘Sensitive time’
The sanctions against two Chinese nationals and a technology company in the central Chinese city of Wuhan mark the first time Britain has slapped penalties on Chinese state-affiliated entities for alleged cyberattacks, even as Western intelligence agencies have increasingly sounded the alarm in recent years.

“It is an escalation, but perhaps only because the UK has been rather mild in its previous actions,” said Jonathan Sullivan, an associate professor and China specialist at the University of Nottingham.

British cybersecurity officials said a Chinese state-backed hacking group known as APT31 had “conducted reconnaissance activity” against British parliamentarians who were openly critical of Beijing in 2021.

Chinese hackers have also “highly likely” breached the UK’s Electoral Commission in 2021 and 2022 and accessed personal data of 40 million voters, according to British officials.

On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China had made “technical clarification” in response to the APT31-related information submitted by the UK, calling its evidence “insufficient” and “unprofessional.”

The sanctions come at a sensitive time in the UK, which is facing a general election and bracing itself for a wave of misinformation, said Sullivan, the China expert at the University of Nottingham.

“Our economic relations with China are already undergoing securitization, from investment to data protection,” he said, citing Britain’s bans on Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G networks, and on the camera systems of Chinese surveillance company Hikvision from sensitive sites.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/26/china/china-cyber-hacking-accusations-intl-hnk/index.html

Win or lose, the Justice Department’s antitrust suit against Apple could force the company to do something it hates: It will have to share detailed info about its inner workings.

Why it matters: The famously tight-lipped company likes to carefully craft every narrative, releasing only information that makes its products and business practices look good.

• But business lawsuits involve “discovery” — in which the other side gets to rifle through a company’s email, reports and numbers.
• Some of that information is kept confidential, but some of it is made public at trial.

Flashback: Apple has faced this challenge before in deciding how to handle legal matters. After choosing to sue Samsung a decade ago, Apple was forced to share details of unlaunched prototypes, market research and its secretive design process.

• That suit even dragged in details that other tech companies wanted to keep secret, with Intel, Qualcomm and others filing motions to keep their business dealings out of the public record.
• In 2005, the company was forced to essentially confirm unannounced products when it went to court to punish people who leaked its product info.

Be smart: The antitrust case is likely to force Apple to reveal even more of its business dealings, though it may be able to keep its most confidential arrangements under seal.

The other side: An Apple official told Axios that new secrets won’t necessarily be exposed.

• “We have litigated dozens of high-profile cases over the last 15 years,” the official said. “DOJ has already had access to millions of documents during the course of the investigation. Yet they only used the same tired documents that have been part of the public record.”

The big picture: Apple is particularly averse to having its business arrangements made public, but many tech companies have faced similar dilemmas in choosing whether to fight or settle antitrust complaints or other legal challenges.

• Such suits inevitably become uncomfortable for all parties, as happened in the recent battle between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic Games.
• In that case, court documents revealed secrets not only from Apple and Epic, but also from Microsoft, Sony and others.

Source : https://www.axios.com/2024/03/24/apple-secrets-antitrust-suit

France’s government increased its security alert posture to the highest level Sunday after the deadly attack at a Russian concert hall and the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced the decision in a post on X, saying authorities were “taking into account the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the (Moscow) attack and the threats weighing on our country.″

The announcement came after Presiden t Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting prompted by Friday’s attack in a Moscow suburb that killed more than 130 people. The attack was claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.

France has repeatedly been hit by deadly Islamic State attacks, including the Bataclan theater massacre in 2015 in which extremists opened fire on concert-goers and held hostages for hours. French troops have also fought against Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Africa.

France was already on high security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics this year, which are expected to draw millions of visitors to the country. Security concerns are notably high for the the exceptional opening ceremony July 26, which will involve boats riding along the Seine River and huge crowds watching from the embankments.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/france-threat-level-russia-attack-aa08ac650ac8760410806568d9477197

The news comes after many weeks of speculation about the health of the 42-year-old future queen, who has not been seen on official duties since Christmas.

Kate, Princess of Wales, has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing preventative chemotherapy.

In a personal message, the 42-year-old said planned abdominal surgery in January was successful and it was initially thought her condition was non-cancerous.

But tests after the operation found cancer had been present, she said, adding: “This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”

The mother of George, Charlotte and Louis said doctors had advised her to have a course of preventative chemotherapy and she is currently in the early stages of that treatment.

“It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment,” she said.

“But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be okay.

“As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits.”

She described having her husband Prince William by her side as a “great source of comfort and reassurance”, adding: “As is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you – it means much to us both.”

The princess’s chemotherapy began in late February, although it is unclear when it will end.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/kate-princess-of-wales-reveals-she-is-having-treatment-for-cancer-13099988

The newly-released photograph of the Princess of Wales came amid online speculation about her health. Kate has not been seen at an official event since Christmas Day.

Major photo agencies have pulled a new image of the Princess of Wales from circulation over concerns it was “manipulated” by “the source”.

The image was circulated by a number of picture agencies on Sunday before Reuters, Associated Press (AP), Getty Images and Agence France-Presse (AFP) told media outlets to “kill” the photo from their systems and archives.

AP has told Sky News the photo shows an “inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand”.

The picture in question was released to celebrate Mother’s Day and shows Kate surrounded by her and Prince William’s three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Kensington Palace has declined to comment after the photo was pulled by picture agencies.

AP told Sky News in a statement: “The Associated Press initially published the photo, which was issued by Kensington Palace. The AP later retracted the image because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards.

“The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”

Reuters said it withdrew the picture following a “post-publication review” with a spokesperson saying the agency is “reviewing the matter”.

Meanwhile, AFP said it had “come to light” that the image of the “Princess of Wales and her kids had been altered” and was therefore removed from its systems.

A spokesperson for Getty Images told Sky News: “Earlier today our picture desk identified a problematic image provided to Getty Images by Kensington Palace. We can confirm the image in question was removed from our site in accordance with our editorial policy.”

A spokesperson for the Press Association news agency said it had not killed the picture on its service, but was seeking urgent clarification from Kensington Palace about the concerns raised about manipulation.

Readers on X, formerly known as Twitter, added a community note to a post from the Prince and Princess of Wales’ account which shared the image.

Community notes allow readers to add context to posts to help other users have a better understanding of what they are reading or viewing.

The note reads: “This photo is believed to be digitally altered and as a result many major news outlets have pulled the image from their reports.”

Source:https://news.sky.com/story/picture-agencies-pull-kate-photo-amid-manipulation-concerns-13092352

With Russia gaining momentum on the battlefield, Pope Francis has said Kyiv should not be ashamed to talk to Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed the Pope’s call for Ukraine to enter peace talks with Russia as “virtual mediation”.

In his nightly video address, Ukraine’s president did not refer directly to Pope Francis or his suggestion, but said his ideas had nothing to do with efforts from religious figures in Ukraine.

“They support us with prayer, with their discussion and with deeds,” he said. “This is indeed what a church with the people is.

“Not 2,500km away, somewhere, virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”

The head of the Catholic Church had called on Ukraine to have “the courage of the white flag”, adding “I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people, has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates.”

In an interview with Swiss broadcaster RSI, he said Kyiv, shouldn’t be ashamed to talk to Vladimir Putin’s regime, “before things get worse”, as “the word negotiate is a courageous word”.

“When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate. Negotiations are never a surrender,” he added.

Zelenskyy’s comments come after a leading Ukrainian cleric and a senior Polish politician joined those condemning Pope Francis’s remarks.

Radek Sikorski, foreign minister of Poland, a staunch and vocal Ukraine ally, responded on X: “How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”

Mr Sikorski drew parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying [Ukraine] the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler just before the Second World War.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, responded, too, saying surrender is not on the minds of Ukrainians.

While meeting some Ukrainians in New York, he said: “Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered! Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and will endure. Believe me, it never crosses anyone’s mind to surrender.”

Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, in a post on X, appeared to compare the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/zelenskyy-dismisses-pope-franciss-call-for-ukraine-to-negotiate-peace-with-russia-13091610

Pope Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago and that has killed tens of thousands.

Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday’s latest offer by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

Erdogan made the fresh offer after a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has said while he wants peace he will not give up any territory.

The Ukrainian leader’s own peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine and the restoration of its state borders. The Kremlin has ruled out engaging in peace talks on terms set by Kyiv.

A spokesman for Zelenskiy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pope’s remarks.

In the interview Francis was asked for his position on a debate between those who say Ukraine should give up as it has not been able to repel Russian forces, and those who say doing so would legitimise actions by the strongest party. The interviewer used the term “white flag” in the question.

“It is one interpretation, that is true,” Francis said, according to an advance transcript of the interview and a partial video made available to Reuters on Saturday. It is due to be broadcast on March 20 as part of a new cultural programme.

“But I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” Francis said, adding that talks should take place with the help of international powers.

“The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate,” Francis said.

It was believed to be the first time Francis has used terms such as “white flag” or “defeated” in discussing the Ukraine war, although he has spoken in the past about the need for negotiations.

In a statement, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope had picked up on the term “white flag” spoken by the interviewer and used it “to indicate a stop to hostilities (and) a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-says-ukraine-should-have-courage-white-flag-negotiations-2024-03-09

A US military ship is sailing towards the Middle East, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, the army says.

The support ship, General Frank S Besson, set sail from a military base in the state of Virginia on Saturday.

It comes after President Joe Biden said the US would build the floating harbour to help get aid into Gaza by sea.

The UN has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” and children are starving to death.

Aid deliveries by land and air have proved difficult and dangerous.

The World Food Programme had to pause land deliveries after its convoys came under gunfire and looting. And on Friday, there were reports that five people had been killed by a falling aid package, when its parachute failed to open properly.

The US ship departed “less than 36 hours” after Mr Biden made his announcement, US Central Command wrote on X.

It is “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies” to Gaza, the statement continued.

The Pentagon has said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops – none of whom would go ashore.

Charities have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long.

Meanwhile, an aid ship laden with some 200 tonnes of food was still waiting for clearance to set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday morning.

It is hoped the vessel, Open Arms, will be able to depart before Monday, following an EU announcement that a new sea route would be opened over the weekend to allow aid to sail directly from Cyprus – the closest EU country to Gaza.

The ship belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name, Open Arms, and the food on board has been provided by US charity World Central Kitchen.

It is unclear how any aid delivered by sea would get safely to shore before the US pier is built. Gaza has no functioning port and its surrounding waters are too shallow for large vessels.

However Oscar Camps, the founder of Open Arms, told the Associated Press that at the destination point – which remains a secret – a team from the World Central Kitchen has been building a pier to receive the aid.

Israel has welcomed the ocean initiative, and said aid would be delivered after security checks were carried out in Cyprus “in accordance with Israeli standards”.

Israel’s military launched an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.

More than 30,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68526503

The F-35A Joint Strike Fighter has been certified to carry thermonuclear weapons as tensions between Russia and NATO hit a breaking point.

A NATO stealth fighter has been certified to carry nukes including the terrifying B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bomb as tensions between NATO and Russia hit a boiling point.

The F-35A Joint Strike Fighter has become the first stealth fighter of its class to be green-lit to carry nuclear weapons.

A spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office told Breaking Defence: “The F-35A is the first 5th generation nuclear-capable aircraft ever, and the first new platform (fighter or bomber) to achieve this status since the early 1990s.

“This F-35 Nuclear Certification effort culminates 10+ years of intense effort across the nuclear enterprise, which consists of 16 different government and industry stakeholders.”

They added: “The F-35A achieved Nuclear Certification ahead of schedule, providing US and NATO with a critical capability that supports US extended deterrence commitments earlier than anticipated.​”

The move comes as tensions between NATO and Russia continue to escalate following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Sweden officially joined the NATO alliance, breaking from decades of neutrality.

The country began its process to join shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “unity and solidarity” would be Sweden’s “guiding lights”.

US President Joe Biden added: “NATO stands more united, determined, and dynamic…together with our newest ally Sweden – NATO will continue to stand for freedom and democracy for generations to come.”

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1875287/nato-f35a-fighter-jet-nuclear-bombs

President Joe Biden ‘s growing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to mount, with the Democrat captured on a hot mic saying that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a “come to Jesus meeting.”

The comments by Biden came as he spoke with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., on the floor of the House chamber following Thursday night’s State of the Union address.

In the exchange, Bennet congratulates Biden on his speech and urges the president to keep pressing Netanyahu on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were also part of the brief conversation.

Biden then responds using Netanyahu’s nickname, saying, “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.”

An aide to the president standing nearby then speaks quietly into the president’s ear, appearing to alert Biden that microphones remained on as he worked the room.

“I’m on a hot mic here,” Biden says after being alerted. “Good. That’s good.”

The president on Friday acknowledged the comments, lightheartedly poking at reporters that they were “eavesdropping” on his conversation. Asked if he thought Netanyahu should be doing more to alleviate the humanitarian suffering, Biden responded, “Yes, he does.”

A widening humanitarian crisis across Gaza and tight Israeli control of aid trucks have left virtually the entire population desperately short of food, according to the United Nations. Officials have been warning for months that Israel’s siege and offensive were pushing the Palestinian territory into famine.

Biden has become increasingly public about his frustration with the Netanyahu government’s unwillingness to open more land crossings for critically needed aid to make its way into Gaza.

In his address on Thursday, he called on the Israelis to do more to alleviate the suffering even as they try to eliminate Hamas.

“To Israel, I say this humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” Biden said.

The president announced in his speech Thursday that the U.S. military would help establish a temporary pier aimed at boosting the amount of aid getting into the territory. Last week, the U.S. military began air dropping aid into Gaza.

Biden said the temporary pier, ”will enable a massive increase in humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/biden-netanyahu-hot-mic-gaza-885b97a75d15d15ae7f7a47d0125c918

President Joe Biden took on Donald Trump in a fiery speech to Congress on Thursday, accusing his election rival of threatening U.S. democracy and kowtowing to Russia, as he laid out his case for four more years in the White House.
In his last State of the Union address before the election, Biden, a Democrat, charged Trump, his Republican challenger in the Nov. 5 election, with burying the truth about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin and torpedoing a bill to tighten restrictions at the U.S. border with Mexico.

The 68-minute speech gave Biden, who is suffering from low approval ratings, a chance to speak directly to millions of Americans about his vision for another four-year term and present a contrast with Trump, whose name he did not mention but whose presence reverberated throughout the speech.
Speaking before a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Biden opened his remarks with direct criticism of Trump for his comments inviting Russian Putin to invade other NATO nations if they did not spend more on defense.

“Now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, quote, ‘Do whatever you want,'” Biden said. “I think it’s outrageous, it’s dangerous and it’s unacceptable.”
Biden, who has been pushing Congress to provide additional funding to Ukraine for its war with Russia, also had a message for Putin: “We will not walk away,” he said.
The president also drew a contrast with Trump over abortion rights and the economy, and he directed several barbs at Republican lawmakers in the chamber with off-the-cuff banter that appeared designed to assuage concerns about his age and mental acuity.

Biden came out swinging at the top of his speech with robust attacks. He accused Trump and Republicans of trying to rewrite history about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by the former president’s supporters seeking to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.
“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that,” Biden said, a signal that he will emphasize the issue during his re-election campaign. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

He also knocked Republicans for seeking to roll back healthcare provisions under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and driving up deficits, and jibed them for taking money from legislation they had opposed.
Biden faces discontent among progressives in his party about his support for Israel in its war against Hamas and from Republicans over his stance on immigration, but the mood among Democrats in the chamber was rapturous. They greeted Biden with cheers and applause, prompting him to quip that he should leave before he even began.
Trump, meanwhile, sent a steady stream of messages blasting Biden on his Truth Social platform. “He looks so angry when he’s talking, which is a trait of people who know they are ‘losing it,'” Trump wrote. “The anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our Country back together!”
AGE, ECONOMY AT ISSUE
Opinion polls show Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, closely matched in the race. Most American voters are unenthusiastic about the rematch after Biden defeated Trump four years ago.
Trump, facing multiple criminal charges as he fights for re-election, says he plans to punish political foes and deport millions of migrants if he wins a second White House term. Representative Troy Nehls, a Republican, wore a shirt with Trump’s face and the words “Never surrender” on it.
The speech may be the Democratic president’s biggest stage to reach voters weighing whether to vote for him, choose Trump, or sit out the election. Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival for his party’s presidential nomination, dropped out on Wednesday.
Biden emphasized his support of abortion rights and pledged to make them the law of the land if Americans voted in enough Democratic lawmakers to do so.
He also sought to burnish his reputation about the strength of the U.S. economy and renew his quest to make wealthy Americans and corporations pay more in taxes, unveiling proposals including higher minimum taxes for companies and Americans with wealth over $100 million.
Any such tax reform is unlikely to pass unless Democrats win strong majorities in both houses of Congress in the November vote, which is not forecast.
Biden proposed new measures to lower housing costs, including a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers – an acknowledgement of consumers’ distress over high mortgage interest rates – while boasting of U.S economic progress under his tenure.
The U.S. economy is performing better than most high-income countries, with continued job growth and consumer spending. But
Americans overall give Trump better marks in polls for economic issues.
“Joe Biden is on the run from his record … to escape accountability for the horrific devastation he and his party have created,” Trump posted before the speech on his Truth Social platform.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/state-union-biden-sharpen-contrast-with-trump-2024-03-07/

Sweden joined NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced it to rethink its national security policy and conclude that support for the alliance was the Scandinavian nation’s best guarantee of safety.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson handed over the final documentation to the U.S. government on Thursday, the last step in a drawn-out process to secure the backing of all members to join the military alliance.

“Good things come to those who wait,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he received Sweden’s accession documents from Kristersson.
Blinken said “everything changed” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, citing polls showing a massive shift in Swedish public opinion on joining NATO.
“Swedes realized something very profound: that if Putin was willing to try to erase one neighbor from the map, then he might well not stop there.”

For NATO, the accessions of Sweden and Finland – which shares a 1,340-km (830-mile) border with Russia – are the most significant additions in decades. It is also a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought prevent any further strengthening of the alliance.
Sweden will benefit from the alliance’s common defence guarantee under which an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.

“Sweden is a safer country today than we were yesterday. We have allies. We have backing,” Kristersson said in an address to the Swedish nation from Washington. “We have taken out an insurance in the Western defence alliance.”
Hakan Yucel, 54, an IT worker in the Swedish capital, said of the accession: “Before, we were outside and felt a little bit alone. … I think that the threat from Russia, it’s going to be much less now.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement, said the addition of Sweden made NATO “more united, determined, and dynamic than ever,” adding that the accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance meant the addition of “two highly capable militaries.”

Sweden adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces, and is a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.
“Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer and the whole Alliance more secure,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Russia has threatened to take unspecified “political and military-technical counter-measures” in response to Sweden’s move.
“Joining NATO is really like buying insurance, at least as long as the United States is actually willing to be the insurance provider,” said Barbara Kunz, a researcher at defence think tank SIPRI.
While Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.
After World War Two, it built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, successive governments have pared back military spending.
As recently as 2021, its defence minister had rejected NATO membership, only for the then-Social Democrat government to apply, alongside neighbour Finland, just a few months later.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/sweden-set-become-natos-32nd-member-pm-visits-washington-2024-03-07/

The Ukrainian prime minister was meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

A Russian missile exploded in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, just hundreds of feet from where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to sources and officials.

“It hit in a couple of hundred of meters (about 300 feet) from us, while the meeting was going,” a source said.

The source also added that this was “the closest call ever,” excluding Zelenskyy’s trips to visit troops on the front lines.

Zelenskyy had shown the Greek prime minister around the port, the two got back in the car, and then as they were in the car preparing to leave, they heard the air raid siren go off followed shortly by the missile striking and hitting the port.

However, according to the source, it is unlikely that Zelenskyy was the target, with the source saying Russians were likely just launching missiles at their usual targets.

“Yes, a missile strike was carried out in Odesa, probably by a ballistic weapon, hitting one of the buildings in the port infrastructure. But this is not in any way related to a specific visit. It is related to the terror that the enemy is carrying out quite methodically,” a Ukrainian spokesperson for the joint press center of the Ukrainian Southern Defense Forces said Wednesday after the attack.

Zelenskyy’s trip was not announced before Wednesday but his location was known by the time the strike hit his location.

Neither of the leaders was harmed.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said they successfully struck a hangar in a port in Odesa where unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were being prepared in a statement Wednesday.

A source with the Biden administration told ABC News it doesn’t seem like Zelenskyy was the target of the Russian missile strike in Odesa but said it was certainly a very dangerous and reckless attack.

The strike was “yet another reminder of how Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine recklessly every single day and of Ukraine’s urgent needs, in particular, for air defense interceptors,” a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said.

At least five people were killed in the Russian strike on Odesa, a Ukrainian navy spokesman said.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/missile-explodes-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyys-meeting-greek/story?id=107844297

Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Haley didn’t endorse the former president in a speech in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she challenged him to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her.

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” she said. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023. She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.

Her departure clears Trump to focus solely on his likely rematch in November with Biden. The former president is on track to reach the necessary 1,215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination later this month.

Haley’s defeat marks a painful, if predictable, blow to those voters, donors and Republican Party officials who opposed Trump and his fiery brand of “Make America Great Again” politics. She was especially popular among moderates and college-educated voters, constituencies that will likely play a pivotal role in the general election. It’s unclear whether Trump, who recently declared that Haley donors would be permanently banned from his movement, can ultimately unify a deeply divided party.

Haley planned to address donors on a Zoom meeting Wednesday afternoon, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Trump on Tuesday night declared that the GOP was united behind him, but in a statement shortly afterward, Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said, “Unity is not achieved by simply claiming, ‘We’re united.’”

“Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump,” Perez-Cubas said. “That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”

Haley has made clear she doesn’t want to serve as Trump’s vice president or run on a third-party ticket arranged by the group No Labels. She leaves the race with an elevated national profile that could help her in a future presidential run.

Swiftly following her speech Wednesday, Trump’s campaign in a fundraising email falsely claimed that Haley had endorsed his candidacy and did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the message. Earlier this week, Haley said she no longer feels bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.

In a social media post, Trump continued to mock his former rival, while at the same time extending an invitation to “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation. BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY,” he wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

On Wednesday, Biden welcomed any voters who had backed Haley, acknowledging Trump’s previous rejection of her supporters.

“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement. “I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”

A group that had targeted independents and Democrats to vote for Haley over Trump in Republican primaries is now pushing those voters to back Biden in November. On Wednesday, Primary Pivot said it was “pivoting” again with a new initiative — Haley Voters for Biden — which might ultimately amount to basically encouraging Democrats to revert back to supporting their party’s likely eventual nominee.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-republican-trump-super-tuesday-losses-95ab56b68a8eefbbf04ef90f2f00ef29

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu stepped up his anti-India rhetoric and told a gathering in Baa atoll that no Indian military personnel, not even those in civilian clothing, would be present inside his country after May 10. According to a report by Edition.mv, the comments were made by pro-China Muizzu while addressing the Baa atoll Eydhafushi residential community during his tour across the atoll.

He said that “people are spreading false rumours to twist the situation” as his government was “successful” in “expelling Indian troops from the country”. His statement comes less than a week after an Indian civilian team reached the Maldives to take charge of one of the three aviation platforms in the island nation, well ahead of the March 10 deadline agreed by the two nations for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel.

“That these people [Indian military] are not departing, that they are returning after changing their uniforms into civilian clothing. We must not indulge such thoughts that instil doubts in our hearts and spread lies,” the portal quoted Mr Muizzu, widely regarded as a China-backed leader, as saying.

“There will be no Indian troops in the country come May 10. Not in uniform and not in civilian clothing. The Indian military will not be residing in this country in any form of clothing. I state this with confidence,” he said, on a day when his country signed an agreement with China to receive free military aid.

Earlier last month, after a high-level meeting in Delhi on February 2 between the two sides, the Maldivian foreign ministry said India would replace its military personnel operating the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by May 10 and the first phase of the process would be completed by March 10.

In his maiden address to Parliament on February 5, he made similar remarks.

There are 88 military personnel manning the three Indian platforms that have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives for the last few years using two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft.

Muizzu rode to power last year on an anti-India stance and within hours of taking oath demanded India to remove its personnel from the strategically located archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

The Maldivian news outlet further reported that while the first troops to depart the country are the Indian military personnel operating the two helicopters in Addu City, the military personnel present in Haa Dhaalu atoll Hanimaadhoo and Laamu atoll Kahdhoo are also expected to leave ahead of May 10.

India had agreed to remove their troops from Maldives under the condition that a number of their civilians equivalent to the military presence are brought to operate the aircraft.

The Maldivian opposition has been directing criticism at the administration asserting that the Indian personnel sent to Maldives as civilians are in reality military officials out of uniform and that the government has no way to ascertain otherwise, the portal claimed.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/maldives-tells-indian-officials-to-leave-by-may-10-after-signing-military-pact-with-china-8804303.html

The United States on Tuesday revised language in a draft United Nations Security Council resolution to back “an immediate ceasefire of roughly six-weeks in Gaza together with the release of all hostages,” according to the text seen by Reuters.
The third revision of the text – first proposed by the U.S. two weeks ago – now reflects blunt remarks by Vice President Kamala Harris. The initial U.S. draft had shown support for “a temporary ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The U.S. wants any Security Council support for a ceasefire to be linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire.
It has vetoed three draft council resolutions – two of which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire – during the five-month-long war. Most recently, the U.S. justified its veto by saying that such council action could jeopardize efforts by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday it was in the hands of Hamas whether to accept a deal for a ceasefire as delegations held a third day of talks with no sign of a breakthrough.
The U.S. traditionally shields Israel at the United Nations, but it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
In retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Israel launched a military assault on Hamas in Gaza that health authorities say has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians with thousands more bodies feared lost amid the ruins.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-now-pushes-un-back-immediate-gaza-ceasefire-free-hostages-2024-03-06/

For the first time in more than nine months, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person.

Mr Musk lost his position at the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to Mr Jeff Bezos after shares in Tesla tumbled 7.2 per cent on March 4. He now has a net worth of US$197.7 billion (S$265.5 billion), while Mr Bezos has a bigger one of US$200.3 billion.

It’s the first time that Mr Bezos, 60, the founder of Amazon.com, has topped Bloomberg’s ranking of the richest people since 2021.

The wealth gap between Mr Musk, 52, and Mr Bezos, which at one point was as wide as US$142 billion, has been shrinking as Amazon and Tesla shares move in opposite directions. While both are among the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks that have propelled US stock markets, Amazon shares have more than doubled since late 2022 and are within striking distance of a record high. Tesla is down about 50 per cent from its 2021 peak.

Tesla shares fell on March 4 after preliminary data showed shipments from its factory in Shanghai slumped to the lowest in more than a year. Amazon, meanwhile, is coming off its best online sales growth since early in the pandemic.

Pay package problem
Mr Musk’s wealth could take a further hit after a Delaware judge struck down his US$55 billion pay package at Tesla, where he’s chief executive. The decision took the side of an investor who had challenged Mr Musk’s compensation plan, which had been the largest in history.

Options that were included in the voided plan are one of Mr Musk’s largest assets, alongside his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. The Bloomberg index continues to include them in its calculations of his wealth.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/elon-musk-loses-world-s-richest-person-title-to-jeff-bezos

Donald Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s US election.

The US Supreme Court has given a boost to Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign after ruling that states cannot kick him off the ballot for his actions over the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

America’s highest court reversed a decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, which had determined Trump could not serve again as president under a rarely-used constitutional provision.

The US Supreme Court has now ruled unanimously that states cannot keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots without action from Congress first.

The latest ruling applies to all states, not just Colorado, and it means efforts to remove him from ballots in places such as Maine and Illinois – which had been on hold pending today’s decision – will also come to an end.

Speaking after the decision was announced, the former president said: “Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of the race because an opponent would like to have it that way.

“It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s the leading candidate, whether it was the leading candidate or a candidate that was well down on the totem pole.”

Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s US election.

Section 3 of the constitution’s 14th amendment prohibits those who previously held government positions but later “engaged in insurrection” from running for various offices.

The court in Washington DC ruled the Colorado Supreme Court had wrongly assumed states can determine if a presidential candidate or other candidate for federal office is ineligible.

Advertisement
The latest ruling makes it clear that Congress, rather than states, has to set rules on how the 14th amendment provision can be enforced.

Trump also called for presidents to have immunity from prosecution, saying: “If a president doesn’t have full immunity, you really don’t have a president because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision, or it could be the wrong decision.”

His only remaining rival for his party’s nomination is former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley.

The former president’s eligibility had been challenged in court by a group of six voters in Colorado – four Republicans and two independents – who portrayed him as a threat to American democracy and sought to hold him accountable for the 6 January riots in 2021.

This is a sweeping victory for Donald Trump, but it isn’t a great surprise.

It was all about whether Donald Trump was disqualified from running again for president because of his involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Supreme Court in Colorado (each state has its own top court) had concluded he was involved in an insurrection and that this fact disqualified him from running for president under a clause in the US constitution’s 14th amendment.

Two other states, Maine and Illinois, made similar decisions.

But now the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, ruled that individual states do not have the authority to determine whether a presidential candidate is ineligible under a provision of the constitution’s 14th amendment.

The justices’ ruling makes it clear the US Congress, not individual states, set rules on how the 14th amendment provision can be enforced.

“Because the constitution makes Congress, rather than the states, responsible for enforcing section 3 against all federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse,” the ruling said.

This means the decision applies to all states, not just Colorado.

The top court is often accused of being politically driven because the justices are appointed by the president.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-restored-to-colorado-ballot-after-supreme-court-rejects-he-was-accountable-for-capitol-riots-13087233

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled how External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar countered the West over New Delhi’s decision to purchase crude oil from Moscow amid the Ukraine war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recalled how External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar gave a strong response to European leaders “to mind their own business” when they asked why New Delhi continued to align itself with Moscow amid the war in Ukraine.

He made the remarks at the World Youth Forum in Russia’s Sochi while responding to a query on why India was continuing to purchase oil from Russia amid the Ukraine war.

Describing Jaishankar as his “friend”, Lavrov said the former had questioned how much oil Europe had begun purchasing and stressed that India buying crude oil from Russia was a “national dignity”.

“My friend, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, was once at the UN, giving a speech. He was asked why they started buying so much oil from Russia. He advised them to mind their own business and reminded them at the same time how much oil the West had started buying and continued to buy oil from the Russian Federation. This is national dignity,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Lavrov’s statement came amid criticism in Europe against India that its procurement of Russian crude oil is detrimental to the effectiveness of the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a notable shift in its import patterns, India significantly increased its oil purchases from Russia following the geopolitical tensions arising from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite global sanctions, India capitalised on discounted Russian oil prices, with imports growing from zero in January 2022 to 1.27 million barrels a day by January 2023.

Throughout 2023, India’s oil imports from Russia more than doubled to 1.79 million barrels a day, making Russia the dominant supplier, even as imports from traditional suppliers like Iraq saw a contraction.

In an interview with German economic daily Handelsblatt last month, Jaishankar said that India expanded its economic ties with Russia despite Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine. He also said that Russia never violated India’s interests and the bilateral ties remain “stable and friendly”.

He said India’s energy suppliers in the Middle East gave priority to supply petroleum products to Europe that paid higher prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“When the fighting started in Ukraine, Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to the Middle East — until then the main supplier for India and other countries,” Jaishankar said.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/s-jaishankar-russia-lavrov-west-crude-oil-ukraine-invasion-sanctions-europe-2510601-2024-03-05

The expected decision comes ahead of “Super Tuesday” this week, when voters in 15 states will pick their party candidates for November’s presidential election.

The US Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on Monday on Colorado’s bid to ban Donald Trump from running for president.

It comes after the Colorado Supreme Court said in December that the Republican could not stand for election in the state because he had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” – as is forbidden under the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The judges ruled Trump was disqualified from the presidency because he had incited 2021’s January 6 riot at the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The former president strongly denies the claims and his lawyers argue the riot did not amount to an insurrection.

Following the Colorado ruling, the case was taken to the US Supreme Court, the highest court in America, for a final decision.

In an unusual move, officials issued an update on Sunday to reveal that an unspecified Supreme Court ruling would be published on Monday – even though judges are not scheduled to sit that day.

However, it is widely expected that the announcement will be about the Colorado case because so-called “Super Tuesday” will be held this week.

On that day a total of 15 states – including Colorado – will host primary elections for voters to pick their party candidates for November’s presidential election.

Most commentators believe that the Supreme Court, which has a six to three conservative majority, will reject Colorado’s ruling and allow Trump to stand in the state.

During a hearing last month, Supreme Court justices expressed scepticism about the attempt to ban Trump from November’s poll.

Chief justice John Roberts said there would be “daunting consequences” if the Colorado decision was upheld and other states also barred Trump from office – as it could “decide the presidential election”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/supreme-court-looks-set-to-issue-ruling-on-bid-to-ban-donald-trump-from-election-in-colorado-tomorrow-13086844

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won her first GOP presidential nominating contest Sunday, notching a victory in the Washington, D.C., primary, NBC News projects — a win her campaign hopes will spark some momentum ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday contests.

Haley, who won the primary over former President Donald Trump, has for weeks pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday, when 15 states and American Samoa will hold nominating contests. Trump is dominating in nearly all of those states in most public polling and is expected to extend his commanding delegate lead.

Haley took 63% of the GOP primary vote to 33% for Trump. Just over 2,000 Washington Republicans cast ballots. Because Haley got more than half of the vote, she came away with the District’s 19 delegates.

Washington’s moderate set of Republicans, many of whom work in politics or government, are seen as vastly different from those in other early states, like South Carolina and Iowa, which set up a scenario in which Haley had her first legitimate chance to notch a victory. Trump got just 14% of the vote in Washington’s 2016 primary.

And expectations for turnout were also low, which opened the door to a different scenario from every other contest so far because the margins were expected to be thin.

“It could be anywhere between 2,000 and 6,000 voters,” Washington GOP chair Patrick Mara predicted in an interview last week. “So, quite frankly, there is an opportunity here for anyone to win. It just depends on voter turnout and what the campaigns are doing.”

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida won the GOP primary in 2016, when roughly 2,800 votes were cast. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who became the party’s 2012 nominee, won the contest that year, when 5,200 votes were cast, and in 2008, roughly 6,200 votes were cast in a contest won by eventual Republican nominee John McCain.

Mara said both Haley’s and Trump’s campaigns were sending text messages and making phone calls to inspire turnout, even having some volunteers go door to door.

The primary is run by the local Republican Party, unlike nominating contests in states, and there was just one polling location, at the Madison Hotel.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/haley-wins-republican-primary-washington-dc-rcna140421

Donald Trump on Saturday easily won the Republican caucuses in Michigan, where the party has been riven by infighting that some Republicans fear could hurt his campaign in the key battleground state as he gears up for the general election in November.

The former U.S. president also won the Missouri and Idaho Republican caucuses on Saturday, according to Edison Research.

In all three states Trump trounced Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, moving him closer to becoming his party’s White House standard-bearer and a likely general election rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

In Michigan, Trump beat Haley in all 13 districts taking part in the nominating caucuses, according to the state Republican Party.

Overall, Trump won with nearly 98% percent support: 1,575 votes to just 36 for Haley.

Pete Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican Party’s chair, called it an “overwhelming, dominating victory.”

More than 1,600 party insiders participated in the presidential caucus in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids, where they were choosing delegates for Trump or former U.N. Ambassador Haley for the party’s national nominating convention in July.

Haley is fast running out of time to alter the course of the Republican nominating race. Next up is Super Tuesday on March 5, the biggest day in the primaries, when 15 states and one territory will vote.

With victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina, and now Michigan, Missouri and Idaho under his belt, Trump is far and away the frontrunner in the race, with Haley hanging on thanks to support from donors keen for an alternative to the former president.

For this election cycle, Michigan Republicans devised a hybrid nominating system, split between a primary and a caucus.

Trump won the primary convincingly on Tuesday, securing 12 of 16 delegates up for grabs. He took all of Michigan’s remaining 39 delegates at stake on Saturday.

At one of the 13 caucus meetings, the participants – knowing Trump would win easily – decided to save time by simply asking anyone who backed Haley to stand up. In a room of 185 voting delegates, 25-year-old Carter Houtman was the only person who rose to his feet.

“It was a little lonely,” Houtman told Reuters in an interview afterward.

Houtman said he would likely vote for Trump in November’s general election if he is the nominee but felt it was important to stand up for his beliefs on Saturday.

“I didn’t like the way that Trump handled himself after the last election,” Houtman said.

Dennis Milosch, 87, a Trump supporter, said the former president’s dominating win on Saturday underscored how the party has been transformed from one aligned with big business to one focused on the working class.

“Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he pays attention to, responds to, the average person,” Milosch said.

RIFT IN MICHIGAN PARTY

The contest in Michigan on Saturday had held the potential for confusion. Internal turmoil has been percolating in the party for months, pitting backers of Michigan’s former Republican Party chair, Kristina Karamo, against the faction of party members who voted to oust her on Jan. 6, and installed Hoekstra as chair.

Hoekstra, whom Trump backed as chair, was overseeing the convention in Grand Rapids. Karamo had been planning to chair a dueling convention in Detroit on Saturday, but that was canceled after a Michigan court this week affirmed her ouster and an appeals court denied her request to stay the ruling.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/amid-infighting-michigan-republicans-set-deliver-trump-another-win-2024-03-02

U.S. military C-130 cargo planes dropped food in pallets over Gaza on Saturday in the opening stage of an emergency humanitarian assistance authorized by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops.

Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST (3:30 p.m. local). The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory’s Mediterranean coast. The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had two food airdrops Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months.

“The amount of aid flowing to Gaza is not nearly enough and we will continue to pull out every stop we can to get more aid in,” President Joe Biden said Saturday in a post on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

U.S. Central Command said on X that “the combined operation included U.S. Air Force and RJAF C-130 aircraft and respective Army Soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of supplies, built bundles and ensured the safe drop of food aid.”

Three Biden administration officials said the planes dropped the military Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) — shelf-stable meals that contain a day’s worth of calories in each sealed package — in locations that were thought would provide civilians with the greatest level of safety to access aid. Afterward, the U.S. monitored the sites and was able to see civilians approach and distribute food among themselves, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details that had not been made public.

Biden on Friday announced the U.S. would begin air dropping food to starving Gazans after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Thursday attack as they scrambled for aid, the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said.

Hundreds of people had rushed about 30 trucks bringing a predawn delivery of aid to the north. Palestinians said nearby Israeli troops shot into the crowds. Israel said they fired warning shots toward the crowd and insisted many of the dead were trampled.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Friday that the airdrops were being planned to deliver emergency humanitarian assistance in a safe way to people on the ground. The United States believes the airdrops will help address the dire situation in Gaza, but they are no replacement for trucks, which can transport far more aid more effectively, though Thursday’s events also showed the risks with ground transport.

Kirby said the airdrops have an advantage over trucks because planes can move aid to a particular location very quickly. But in terms of volume, the airdrops will be “a supplement to, not a replacement for moving things in by ground.”

The C-130 is widely used to deliver aid to remote places because of its ability to land in austere environments.

A C-130 can airlift as much as 42,000 pounds of cargo and its crews know how to rig the cargo, which sometimes can include even vehicles, onto massive pallets that can be safely dropped out of the back of the aircraft.

Air Force loadmasters secure the bundles onto pallets with netting that is rigged for release in the back of a C-130, and then crews release it with a parachute when the aircraft reaches the intended delivery zone.

The Air Force’s C-130 has been used in years past to air drop humanitarian into Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and other locations and the airframe is used in an annual multi-national “Operation Christmas Drop” that air drops pallets of toys, supplies, nonperishable food and fishing supplies to remote locations in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-airdrop-humanitarian-assistance-f8bc071193f89906abf21478bc70a084

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin believes a war between NATO and Russia will become inevitable if Ukraine falls and Vladimir Putin is not stopped.

NATO could be dragged into a war with Russia if Vladimir Putin’s forces are not stopped in Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned.

Speaking at a Republican-led House Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday (Thursday, February 29), Austin said he believes Putin will not stop if Ukraine falls and Russia wins the war. This would mean NATO will almost certainly be drawn into conflict if Kyiv is defeated by Moscow’s forces, he added.

Austin told committee members: “We know that if Putin is successful here, he will not stop. He will continue to take more aggressive action in the region.”

The Secretary of Defense warned that other despots would be emboldened by a Putin victory. “Other leaders around the world, other autocrats, will look at this and they’ll be encouraged by the fact that this happened and we failed to support a democracy,” he said.

Austin then offered his chilling warning that NATO will almost certainly be dragged into a war with Russia.

“If you’re a Baltic state, you’re really worried about whether or not you’re next,” he said. “They know Putin, they know what he’s capable of … And quite frankly, if Ukraine falls, I really believe that NATO will be in a fight with Russia.”

The comments came after Congress refused to approve Joe Biden’s request for a $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine, reported Newsweek. Whilst there was bipartisan support for the aid package, it stalled amid disputes over border security.

His warning also came as a huge NATO strike force took command of 5,000 US Navy sailors and Marines – plus a flotilla of warships – at a key location that controls access to the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia. The transfer of command took place in the East Mediterranean, close to Israel and Gaza – and the Russian Navy’s Tartus base in Syria.

A US Navy spokesperson said: “This transfer of authority constitutes a tangible, transparent display of advanced capabilities in the maritime domain and the defensive commitment of the NATO Alliance across Supreme Allied Commander Europe’s (SACEUR) Area of Responsibility.”

Source: https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/129654/nato-russia-war-lloyd-austin-usa

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, saying they abandoned the startup’s original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit.
The lawsuit filed late on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco is a culmination of Musk’s long-simmering opposition to the startup he co-founded. OpenAI has since become the face of generative AI, partly due to billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab. Musk went on to found his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, launched last July.

Musk’s lawsuit alleges a breach of contract, saying Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman originally approached him to make an open source, non-profit company, but the startup established in 2015 is now focused on making money.
Musk said OpenAI’s three founders originally agreed to work on artificial general intelligence (AGI), a concept that machines could handle tasks like a human, but in a way that would “benefit humanity,” according to the lawsuit.

OpenAI would also work in opposition to Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, which Musk said he believed was developing AGI for profit and would pose grave risks.
Instead, OpenAI “set the founding agreement aflame” in 2023 when it released its most powerful language model GPT-4 as essentially a Microsoft product, the lawsuit alleged.
Musk has sought a court ruling that would compel OpenAI to make its research and technology available to the public and prevent the startup from using its assets, including GPT-4, for financial gains of Microsoft or any individual.
OpenAI’s top executives rejected several claims that Musk made in his lawsuit, Axios reported on Friday, citing a memo.
“It was never going to be a cakewalk,” Altman said in his note, also seen by Axios. “The attacks will keep coming.”
OpenAI, Microsoft and Musk did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Musk is also seeking a ruling that GPT-4 and a new and more advanced technology called Q* would be considered AGI and therefore outside of Microsoft’s license to OpenAI.

Reuters in November was first to report on Q* and warnings from OpenAI researchers about a powerful AI discovery.
Musk, who runs electric vehicle maker Tesla(TSLA.O), opens new tab, rocket maker SpaceX and social media platform X, decided to try to seize control of OpenAI from Altman and the other founders in late 2017, aiming to convert it into a commercial entity in partnership with Tesla, utilizing the automaker’s supercomputers, said one source with knowledge of the situation.
Altman and others resisted, and Musk resigned, saying he wanted to focus on Tesla’s AI projects. He announced his exit to OpenAI staff in February 2018 during a meeting at which Musk called for OpenAI to increase its development speed, which one researcher called reckless, the source said.
Musk did not respond to request for comment about his exit from OpenAI.
Since then, Musk on several occasions has called for regulation of AI.
“We expect this will have zero impact on AI development inside or outside of OpenAI, and would chalk it up to Musk seeking to get a slice of equity in a company he effectively founded but in which he holds no stake,” said Giuseppe Sette, president and co-founder of market research firm Toggle AI.
OpenAI’s tie-up with Microsoft is under antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. and Britain following a boardroom battle last year that resulted in the sudden ouster and return of Altman and creation of a new temporary board.
The startup plans to appoint new board members in March, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Microsoft said in November it would have a non-voting observer seat.
Some legal experts said Musk’s allegations of breach of contract, based partly on an email between Musk and Altman, might not hold up in court.
While contracts can be formed through a series of emails, the lawsuit cites an email that appears to look like a proposal and a “one-sided discussion,” said Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College Law School.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-sues-openai-ceo-sam-altman-breach-contract-2024-03-01/

U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Friday plans to carry out a first military airdrop of food and supplies into Gaza, a day after the deaths of Palestinians queuing for aid threw a spotlight on an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the crowded coastal enclave.

Biden said the U.S. airdrop would take place in the coming days but offered no further specifics. Other countries, including Jordan and France, have already carried out airdrops of aid into Gaza.

“We need to do more and the United States will do more,” Biden told reporters, adding that “aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough.”
At the White House, spokesperson John Kirby stressed that airdrops would become “a sustained effort.” He added that the first airdrop would be likely be military MREs, or “meals ready-to-eat.”
“This isn’t going to be one and done,” Kirby said.
Biden told reporters that the U.S. was also looking at the possibility of a maritime corridor to deliver large amounts of aid into Gaza.

The airdrops could begin as early as this weekend, officials said.
At least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip – one quarter of the enclave’s population – are one step away from famine, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces had killed more than 100 people trying to reach a relief convoy near Gaza City early on Thursday. Palestinians face an increasingly desperate situation nearly five months into the war that began with a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Israel blamed most of the deaths on crowds that swarmed around aid trucks, saying victims had been trampled or run over. An Israeli official also said troops had “in a limited response” later fired on crowds they felt had posed a threat.
With people eating animal feed and even cactuses to survive, and with medics saying children are dying in hospitals from malnutrition and dehydration, the U.N. has said it faces “overwhelming obstacles” getting in aid.
While it is unclear which type of aircraft will be used, the C-17 and C-130 are best suited for the job.
David Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force three-star general who once commanded the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, said airdrops are something the U.S. military can effectively execute.
“It is something that’s right up their mission alley,” Deptula told Reuters.
“There are a lot of detailed challenges. But there’s nothing insurmountable.”
The United States and others also expect aid would be boosted by a temporary ceasefire, which Biden said Friday he hoped would happen by the time of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on March 10.

ISRAEL ‘AWARE’ OF AIRDROP
Still, there have been questions about the effectiveness of air dropping aid into Gaza.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the airdrops would have only a limited impact on the suffering of those in Gaza.
“It doesn’t deal with the root cause,” the official said, adding that ultimately only opening up land borders could deal with the issue in a serious manner.
Another issue, the official added, was that the U.S. could not ensure that the aid simply didn’t end up in Hamas’ hands, given that the United States did not have troops on the ground.
“Humanitarian workers always complain that airdrops are good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid,” Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s U.N. Director, said. Gowan said that the only way to get enough aid was through aid convoys which would follow a truce.
“It is arguable that the situation in Gaza is now so bad that any additional supplies will at least alleviate some suffering. But this at best a temporary band aid measure,” Gowan added.
Under pressure at home and abroad, another U.S. official said the Biden administration was looking at shipping aid by sea from Cyprus, some 210 nautical miles off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-announce-us-air-drop-aid-into-gaza-us-officials-say-2024-03-01/

At long last, first son Hunter Biden affirmed during his Wednesday impeachment inquiry deposition that his father, Joe, was “the big guy” referenced in an email about a business deal with a Chinese state-linked energy firm that yielded millions for Biden family members and other associates, more than three years after The Post broke the story — but rejected the notion that the president was ever penciled in for a 10% stake.

The deposition represents the first time the 54-year-old Hunter has admitted that his former business partner James Gilliar was referring to Joe Biden when he raised the prospect on May 13, 2017, of the first son holding a 10% stake in the lucrative joint venture involving CEFC China Energy “for the big guy.”

“I truly don’t know what the hell that James was talking about,” the first son said when asked about the reference, according to a transcript released Thursday.

“All I know is … what actually happened.”

The email, found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, was first reported by The Post in October 2020 as part of a bombshell series of reports on the first son’s influence-peddling schemes.

Hunter Biden and his allies had long insisted that information found on the laptop either was not his or had been manipulated by bad actors — with dozens of former intelligence officials insisting the trove bore the hallmarks of Russian election interference.

Later in his response, Hunter said that Gilliar’s suggestion of his dad getting a stake was a “pie in the sky idea” with Biden leaving public life after eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.

“Like, ‘Joe Biden’s out of the office. Maybe we’ll be able to get him involved,’” the first son said.

“Remember, again, is that Joe Biden, for first time in 48 years, is not an elected official and is not seeking office. And so James is probably, like, ‘Wow, wouldn’t be great if a former Vice President could be in our business together?’”

Hunter claimed to his interrogators that if he had seen the email from Gilliar at the time, “I would have picked up the phone and said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’”

“I shut it down, and the evidence of me shutting it down is the actual things you have as evidence,” the younger Biden said.

“Remember that. The agreement, the executed agreement, the executed agreement to create a company that was never operated, that’s what happened. That’s the evidence you have … Nothing to do with my dad, zero.”

The president lashed out at a Post reporter in June 2023 when pressed about being repeatedly referred to as “the big guy,” a moniker that his brother Frank also used in addition to several of Hunter’s associates.

“Why do you ask such a dumb question?” Biden shot back.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) described the deal involving CEFC China Energy as “money laundering” when speaking with reporters on a break from the deposition, pointing to a $40,000 check Joe Biden received from his brother James, following a “complicated financial transaction.”

Comer released bank records last year showing the firm, a shuttered entity that was apparently part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Belt and Road” foreign influence campaign, paid James and Hunter Biden $6.1 million in 2017 and 2018 — including a $5 million wire on Aug. 8, 2017, days after Hunter texted a CEFC translator that he was “sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

Through a series of transfers to entities owned and controlled by Hunter, those funds flowed to other Biden family members, with $50,000 landing in a personal checking account for James and his wife, Sara — and the first brother writing the $40,000 check to the former vice president as a “loan repayment.”

At another point in the deposition, Hunter Biden described his financial relationship with his father as that of “a normal son [who] would take care of something for their dad or their dad would take care of something for their son.”

Hunter also defended patching his famous father in on speakerphone during calls with his business associates, telling the panel: “My dad calls me, like I’m sure a lot of your parents do, or a lot of you do with your children, and if I’m with people that are friends of mine, I’ll have him say hi.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/02/29/us-news/hunter-biden-acknowledged-joe-was-the-big-guy-in-5m-china-deal/

President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Donald Trump to help unblock a plan languishing in Congress to cut migrant crossings as the pair took part in dueling visits to the border over a top issue ahead of November’s election. Biden was in the town of Brownsville, Texas, across the Rio Grande river from Mexico, where he criticized Republicans for rejecting a bipartisan effort to toughen immigration rules after Trump told them not to pass it and give the president a win.

Biden and Trump, the Republican former president making his third bid for the White House, look set to face each other in what polls show will be a close election on Nov. 5 that looks set to be a deeply divisive rematch of the 2020 contest.
“Here’s what I would say to Mr Trump: … Instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I’ll join you, in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan security bill,” he said, while also warning he wanted people to know the cause of the inaction.

After being briefed by border patrol agents and others on the ground, Biden said they “desperately need more resources.”
Trump also met with local officials as well as Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, at the Rio Grande before speaking at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, where border-crossers have posed a major problem for authorities in recent months.
“This is a Biden invasion over the past three years,” Trump said, citing crimes committed by migrants and referring to the issue at the border as a “war”, in the latest examples of the increasingly inflammatory language he has used in recent months.

He pledged to bring back policies in place during his term in office, including the “Remain in Mexico” plan that required some migrants to wait in Mexico for the outcome of their U.S. immigration cases.
Several hundred Trump supporters gathered on street corners in an area overlooking Shelby Park, an area that has been commandeered to block migrants crossing illegally, carrying “Make America Great Again” and “Never Surrender” flags.
Biden took office in 2021 promising to reverse the hardline immigration policies of Trump, who was in office from 2017 to early 2021, but has since toughened his own approach.
Under pressure from Republicans who accuse him of failing to control the border, Biden called on Congress last year to provide more enforcement funding and said he would “shut down the border” if given new authority to turn back migrants.
The White House is also considering using executive authority to deny more migrants asylum at the border, a source familiar with the matter has said.
Republicans have said Biden could better enforce existing laws and take new executive action without the need for Congress to approve it.

Biden was joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who Republican lawmakers have narrowly voted to impeach over his handling of the border, a move unlikely to succeed in the Democratic-led Senate.
“This visit is focused on the work that we do, not the rhetoric of others,” Mayorkas told reporters on Air Force One.
RISING CONCERN FOR VOTERS
A Reuters-Ipsos poll from Jan. 31 found rising concern among Americans about immigration, with 17% of respondents listing it as the most important problem facing the U.S. today, up sharply from 11% in December.
It was the top concern of Republican respondents, with 36% citing it as their main worry, above the 29% who cited the economy.
Trump was joined on his visit by Abbott, whose administration has been building a military “base camp” at Eagle Pass to deter migrants.
Eagle Pass remains a flashpoint in a heated partisan debate over border security even though the number of migrants caught crossing illegally into both there and Brownsville dropped sharply in January and February.
The number of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally hit a monthly record of 250,000 in December but dropped by half in January, a trend U.S. officials attribute to increased Mexican enforcement and seasonal trends.
A federal judge in Texas on Thursday blocked the state’s new law giving officials broad powers to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people who illegally cross the border.
Abbott has deployed thousands of National Guard troops and laid concertina wire and river buoys to deter illegal immigration through a program called Operation Lone Star.
Some Democrats told Reuters they were turning toward Trump in Maverick County near the border, a rare Democratic stronghold in the majority Republican state of Texas.
Wendy Riojas, 25, who came to downtown Eagle Pass to see Trump visiting her hometown, voted for Biden in 2020 but does not know who she will support in November.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-trump-make-competing-election-year-visits-southern-us-border-2024-02-29/

President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.

Addressing lawmakers and other members of the country’s elite, Putin, 71, repeated his accusation that the West was bent on weakening Russia, and he suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia’s own internal affairs.
He prefaced his nuclear warning with a specific reference to an idea, floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine – a suggestion that was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain and others.

“(Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don’t they get that?!” said Putin.
Speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, he lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernised nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.

“Strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness,” he said, noting that new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons he first spoke about in 2018 had either been deployed or were at a stage where development and testing were being completed.
Visibly angry, Putin suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who had unsuccessfully invaded Russia in the past.

MORE TROOPS FOR WESTERN BORDER