Category: World

The Washington Post has rejected a provocative “Fire Elon Musk” ad campaign, planned by the advocacy group Common Cause. The campaign was scheduled to appear in the Tuesday edition of the paper.

What Happened: Common Cause had entered into a $115,000 deal with the Washington Post to feature the ad. The campaign, co-developed with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, was set to cover the front and back page of the Tuesday paper, along with a full-page ad inside the paper, reported The Hill.

The ad featured a large image of Musk laughing, with the White House in the background and the text: “Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”. It also contained a call to action for readers to urge their senators to have Trump dismiss Musk.

Virginia Kase Solomón, President of Common Cause, stated that the Post’s advertising sales representative had been informed about the ad’s content and had initially shown no issues with running it. However, the Post later declined to run the wrap ad without providing an explanation.

The Post’s decision has sparked questions among the advocacy group, with Kase Solomón questioning if the rejection was due to the ad’s criticism of Musk or potential backlash from the president.

The Post’s advertising guidelines state that advertisers must comply with laws and regulations for political ads and that the publication may require proof of factual claims. The Post declined to comment to The Hill on the decision, citing its policy against discussing internal matters related to specific ad campaigns.

Why It Matters: Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, had previously dismissed concerns about Musk’s influence on the Trump administration. Furthermore, Bezos had expressed optimism about Trump’s second term and pledged to assist in cutting regulations.

Source : https://www.benzinga.com/25/02/43760885/jeff-bezos-owned-washington-post-turns-down-ad-campaign-that-asked-whos-running-this-country-donald-trump-or-elon-musk

SEMINOLE, Texas — When Aganetha Unger pulled up her large, white van to the emergency measles testing site, several of her eight children were coughing.

“We had some sickness in the house, not very bad, but some fever, some cough,” said Unger, who is Mennonite. One child, she said, had a fever of 103 degrees.

Her youngest getting tested was a 2-month-old, wrapped tightly in a pink blanket on her mom’s lap. When the EMS team swabbed her nose, she didn’t cry.

It was Thursday, eight days after the Texas Department of State Health Services first reported a measles outbreak on the rural, western edge of the state.

On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 49, up from 24 earlier in the week, the state health department said. The majority of those cases are in Gaines County, which borders New Mexico.

Most cases are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. All are unvaccinated against measles, which is one of the most contagious viruses in the world.

The latest measles case count likely represents a fraction of the true number of infections. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people in West Texas are infected but untested, and therefore not part of the state’s official tally so far.

The fast-moving outbreak comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long sown distrust about childhood vaccines, and in particular, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, falsely linking it to autism.

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy said he was not anti-vaccine. “I am pro-safety,” he said. “All of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in health care.”

HHS did not respond to a request for comment from Kennedy about the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can send in its experts to assist only if the state requests help. So far, Texas has not done so, the CDC said.

The CDC has sent about 2,000 doses of the MMR vaccine to Texas health officials at their request. However, most doses so far are being accepted by partially vaccinated kids to boost their immunity, rather than the unvaccinated.

Without widespread vaccination, experts say, the outbreak could go on for months.

Measles epicenter

The city of Seminole is the seat of Gaines County, Texas, and the epicenter of the current measles outbreak. It’s located in a vast, flat region filled with ranchers and peanut and cotton farmers.

There’s also a large Mennonite population, a religious sect that believes in “total separation from the outside world,” according to the Texas State Historical Association. These Mennonites chose to settle in Gaines County, in part, for its lack of regulation on private schools. This includes vaccine mandates.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Gaines County had one of the state’s highest vaccine exemption rates, at nearly 18%, according to health department data.

“We have a high, high number of unvaccinated,” said Tonya Guffey, the chief nursing officer at Seminole District Hospital. “It’s not that they’re not educated. It’s just what their belief is.”

Guffey noted that many of the unvaccinated people in the area were Mennonite. “We educate, we encourage, we do what we can for the community, but it’s their choice,” she said.

The pandemic also appears to have driven down vaccination rates.

“We have some outside of that group of people that are unvaccinated, and the Covid vaccine did play a part in that,” Guffey said.

Guffey, who was born and raised in Gaines County, has been in health care for over 30 years and said she’s never seen a measles outbreak before. Still, she wasn’t surprised by the size of the outbreak currently spreading across the county.

“With the large population of unvaccinated that we have,” Guffey said, “it’s not out of the numbers that you would expect.”

‘Hub’ city concerns

Measles cases were limited to rural areas surrounding Lubbock, Texas, the largest city in the region, until Friday afternoon, when Lubbock Public Health confirmed its first case.

The “hub” city, as it’s nicknamed, is where all of the big grocery and big box stores are.

People who live in Gaines County regularly head into Lubbock to shop and do other business. That includes a large number of unvaccinated people who may have been exposed to measles.

“Communities who don’t vaccinate are not necessarily isolated to their area. They commute to Lubbock,” said Dr. Ana Montanez, a pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians in Lubbock. “By doing that, they’re taking the disease with them.”

Several of Montanez’s young patients were exposed recently, she said, one just by sitting in the same clinic waiting room with another child who was later confirmed to have measles. That child had traveled from another county for care.

Two doses of the MMR vaccine are needed for virtually full protection against the virus. The first is given at around age 1, but the second isn’t given until around age 5. That leaves kids slightly vulnerable for the several years that they are in between doses.

Doctors have the option of giving the second dose early, however, if a child has been exposed to the virus. That’s what Montanez has done for a few of her vulnerable patients. She also continues to counsel families who aren’t vaccinating their children about the benefits of the shots.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/measles-outbreak-west-texas-grows-unvaccinated-rcna192163

The Trump administration has urged Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, as they await trial on charges including human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering, according to a report by the Financial Times.

The 37-year-old is currently under house arrest in Romania and is awaiting trial on human trafficking charges. His brother, 36, and two Romanian women are also awaiting trial.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department and Tate’s publicist for comment via email on Monday.

Why It Matters

The brothers, who hold dual United States and United Kingdom citizenship, were arrested alongside two Romanian women in December 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering, all of which they deny. Andrew Tate also faces an additional rape charge.

Their case has garnered significant attention within right-wing social media circles, where they are portrayed as martyrs of political persecution. With a strong following in the “manosphere”—an online movement that promotes male dominance and opposes feminism—the brothers have become influential figures among conservative social media users.

What To Know

U.S. officials initially broached the subject during a phone call with the Romanian government, advocating for the return of the Tates’ passports and permission for them to travel while awaiting court proceedings, the FT reported.

This diplomatic effort was further amplified when Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s U.S. envoy for special missions, met with Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security Conference last week.

While Hurezeanu declined to comment on the specifics of their discussion, his spokesperson emphasized the independence of the Romanian judiciary, stating that courts operate based on the law and due process.

Grenell, acknowledging his support for the Tates to the FT, has publicly criticized the role of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds in Romania, suggesting they have been “weaponized against people and politicians who weren’t woke.”

Andrew Tate has previously said he would move back to the U.S. following Trump’s election victory in November.

Vice President JD Vance recently criticized Romanian authorities for annulling a presidential election in December, calling it an example of Europe’s alleged crackdown on right-wing figures.

Source : https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-pressuring-romania-over-andrew-tate-reports-2032237

European leaders insisted Monday they must have a say in international talks to end the war in Ukraine despite the clear message from both Washington and Moscow that there was no role for them as yet in negotiations that could shape the future of the continent.

Three hours of emergency talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris left leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, NATO and the European Union without a common view on possible peacekeeping troops after a U.S. diplomatic blitz on Ukraine last week threw a once-solid trans-Atlantic alliance into turmoil.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for U.S. backing while reaffirming he’s ready to consider sending British forces on the Ukrainian ground alongside others “if there is a lasting peace agreement.”

There was a rift though with some EU nations, like Poland, which have said they don’t want their military imprint on Ukraine soil. Macron was non-committal.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof acknowledged the Europeans “need to come to a common conclusion about what we can contribute. And that way we will eventually get a seat at the table,” adding that “just sitting at the table without contributing is pointless.”

Starmer said a trans-Atlantic bond remained essential. “There must be a U.S. backstop, because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” he said.

Top U.S. officials from the Trump administration, on their first visit to Europe last week, left the impression that Washington was ready to embrace the Kremlin while it cold-shouldered many of its age-old European allies.

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Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said Monday he didn’t think it was “reasonable and feasible to have everybody sitting at the table.”

“We know how that can turn out and that has been our point, is keeping it clean and fast as we can,” he told reporters in Brussels, where he briefed the 31 U.S. allies in NATO, along with EU officials, before heading to Kyiv for talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

His remarks were echoed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was equally dismissive about a role for Europe. “I don’t know what they have to do at the negotiations table,” he said as he arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks with U.S. officials.

Last week, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a flurry of speeches questioned both Europe’s security commitments and its fundamental democratic principles.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long championed a stronger European defense, said their stinging rebukes and threats of non-cooperation in the face of military danger felt like a shock to the system.

The tipping point came when Trump decided to upend years of U.S. policy by holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

Shortly before the meeting in Paris Monday, Macron spoke with Trump, but Macron’s office would not disclose details about the 20-minute discussion.

Europeans stand by their support to Ukraine

Starmer, who said he will travel to Washington next week to discuss with President Trump “what we see as the key elements of a lasting peace,” appears to be charting a “third way” in Europe’s shifting geopolitical landscape — aligning strategically with the U.S. administration while maintaining EU ties. Some analysts suggest this positioning could allow him to act as a bridge between Trump and Europe, potentially serving as a key messenger to the White House.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters a possible peace agreement with Russia cannot be forced on Ukraine. “For us, it must and is clear: This does not mean that peace can be dictated and that Ukraine must accept what is presented to it,” he insisted.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that any peace agreement would need to have the active involvement of the EU and Ukraine, so as to not be a false end to the war “as has happened in the past.”

He went on: “What cannot be is that the aggressor is rewarded.”

A strong U.S. component, though, will remain essential for the foreseeable future since it will take many years before many European nations can ratchet up defense production and integrate it into an effective force.

Sending troops after a peace deal?

Highlighting the inconsistencies among many nations about potential troop contributions, Scholz said talk of boots on the ground was “premature.”

“This is highly inappropriate, to put it bluntly, and honestly: we don’t even know what the outcome will be” of any peace negotiation, he added.

European nations are bent though on boosting their armed forces where they can after years of U.S. complaints, and most have increased defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product, but the path to reaching 3% is unclear.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/eu-europe-ukraine-nato-security-summit-trump-060c8661c59f8f75b96711d3889ce559

China on Monday urged the United States to “correct its mistakes” after the U.S. State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update.
The fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington’s opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.

But as well as dropping the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence”, the page added a reference to Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the U.S. will support Taiwan’s membership in international organisations “where applicable”.
Beijing regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials, viewing it as encouraging Taiwan’s separate status from China.
The update to the website came roughly three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in the White House.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the revisions for Taiwan on the U.S. State Department’s website were a big step backwards and “sends a seriously wrong message to Taiwan independence separatist forces”.
“This is yet another example of the United States’ stubborn adherence to the erroneous policy of ‘using Taiwan to suppress China’. We urge the United States side to immediately rectify its mistakes,” Guo said.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

“As is routine, the fact sheet was updated to inform the general public about our unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email sent late Sunday Taiwan time responding to questions on the updated website wording.
“The United States remains committed to its one China policy,” the spokesperson said, referring to Washington officially taking no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and only acknowledging China’s position on the subject.
“The United States is committed to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson said.
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We support cross-Strait dialogue, and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to people on both sides of the Strait.”

On Sunday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung expressed his appreciation for what he called the “support and positive stance on U.S.-Taiwan relations”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-says-website-update-routine-after-removal-reference-taiwan-independence-2025-02-17/

Elon Musk’s estranged daughter, Vivian Wilson, claimed she found out about her dad’s possible 13th child via social media.

“Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I found out I had half-siblings through Reddit, I’d have two nickels… which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right?” the 21-year-old wrote atop her TikTok video Saturday.

Wilson’s post comes one day after conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair claimed to have given birth to the Tesla CEO’s 13th child.

Musk’s transgender daughter — whom he welcomed with his first wife, Justine Wilson — returned to TikTok Sunday to also share the story of when she found out about Grimes and Musk’s youngest son, Techno Mechanicus, via Reddit.

“I found out about the existence of my half brother through Reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace,” she said in the clip.

“This is a real thing that actually happened to me.”

Vivian claimed that the incident occurred in 2022 when she and Grimes, 36, were “not talking.” Vivian clarified that they “were not on bad terms,” but were simply not speaking at the time.

In March 2022, Vivian came across a post that read, “Not grimes poppin out another axolotl.”

“I had no idea of this at the time because no one thought to let me know!” she shouted in the clip. Vivian then stated that she was in “complete shock” and was in disbelief.

Although Vivian claimed she was the “last one to find out” about Techno’s birth, she noted that it “makes sense.”

“I just think it’s funny because. . . choices,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, St. Clair claimed that she gave birth to what is possibly the billionaire’s 13th child sometime last year.

“Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father,” she wrote on X Friday.

The internet personality claimed that she chose to keep the birth private to “protect” her and Musk’s alleged child.

A representative for St. Clair shared a statement on X, stating that she and Musk had been “privately working towards the creation of an agreement about raising their child for some time.”

“It is disappointing that a tabloid reporter, who repeatedly ambushed Ashley and her family, made it impossible to complete that process confidentially,” Brian Glicklich wrote.

“We are waiting for Elon to publicly acknowledge his parental role with Ashley, to end unwarranted speculation, and Ashley trusts that Elon intends to finish their agreement quickly, in the best interests of the wellbeing and security of the child they share.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/02/16/parents/elon-musks-estranged-daughter-vivian-says-she-learned-about-her-dads-possible-13th-child-online/

Another luxe resort, another batch of troubled travelers.

Welcome to “The White Lotus” Season 3, which takes Mike White’s vacation dramedy to the Thai island of Koh Samui. This season is farther from America (the first two seasons took place in Hawaii and Italy) and also bigger, with more characters and eight episodes. (Plus, a different theme song, much to the chagrin of those excited to sing along in their living rooms.)

There’s the Southern family with uncomfortable sibling dynamics. The three middle-aged women on a reunion trip fraught with tiny points of tension. The bubbly girlfriend and the miserable boyfriend. Plus, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is back from Season 1, and there’s a wide ensemble of hotel staffers like Mook (Lisa, from the band Blackpink) and Valentin (an often shirtless Arnas Fedaravičius).

It’s a lot to keep track of — especially with vacation brain — so use this guide to freshen up on all the main characters in “The White Lotus” Season 3.

Happy travels!

Singapore’s opposition leader Pritam Singh has been found guilty of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.

The charges against Singh relate to his handling of Raeesah Khan, a former lawmaker from his party, who lied to parliament in a separate case.

The verdict in this high-profile trial comes as Singapore is gearing up for its next general election, which must be held by November. Singh’s Workers’ Party holds nine out of 87 elected seats in parliament.

In Singapore, any MP can lose their seat or be barred from running for office for five years if they are fined at least S$10,000 ($7,440; £5,925) or jailed for more than a year.

The verdict on Monday, which lasted more than two hours, was delivered to a packed courtroom. Members of the press who could not fit into the courtroom, including the BBC, viewed a livestream of the verdict from a separate room.

District Judge Luke Tan, who delivered the verdict, said several pieces of evidence showed that Singh “never wanted Ms Khan to clarify [her] lie” and had “direct and intimate involvement” in guiding Khan to continue her narrative.

Prosecutors are seeking the maximum fine of S$7,000 ($5,200; £4,200) for each of Singh’s two charges, while the defence are asking for S$4,000 ($3,000; £2,400).

Singh, 48, maintained his innocence throughout the trial, arguing that he had wanted to give Khan time to deal with what was a sensitive issue.

Singh’s case has gripped the city-state, where a usually uneventful political scene – dominated by the ruling People’s Action Party – has in recent years seen a rare string of scandals.

The saga started in August 2021 when Khan claimed in parliament that she had witnessed the police misbehave towards a sexual assault victim. She later admitted that her anecdote was not true.

Khan was fined S$35,000 ($26,000; £21,000) for lying and abusing her parliamentary privilege. She has since resigned from the party and parliament.

During a parliamentary committee investigation into the incident later that year, Khan testified that the party’s leaders, including Singh, had told her to “continue with the narrative” despite finding out that it was not true. This was prior to her eventual admission.

Singh denied this, but also said that he had given Khan “too much time to settle herself before closing this issue with her”.

The parliamentary committee concluded that Singh was not being truthful and referred the case to the public prosecutor.

Judge Tan said on Monday that Singh’s actions after learning of Khan’s lie were “strongly indicative that the accused did not want Ms Khan to clarify the untruth at some point”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20g0dxkv3mo

Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy, with the US said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally.

Last week Narendra Modi said India would take back its nationals who were in the US illegally, and also crack down on the “human trafficking ecosystem”.

“These are children of very ordinary families, and they are lured by big dreams and promises,” he said during his visit to Washington.

Now a new paper by Abby Budiman and Devesh Kapur from Johns Hopkins University has shed light on the numbers, demographics, entry methods, locations and trends relating to undocumented Indians over time.

Here are some of the more striking findings.

It has been dubbed one of the world’s rarest treasure troves of art but few people outside its host country know about it.

For decades, masterpieces by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock have been kept in the basement of a museum in Iran’s capital Tehran, shrouded in mystery.

According to estimates in 2018, the collection is worth as much as $3bn.

Only a small portion of the work has been exhibited since the 1979 Iranian Revolution but in recent years, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has been showcasing some of its most captivating pieces.

The Eye to Eye exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in October 2024, was extended twice due to overwhelming public demand, running until January 2025.

The display was widely regarded as one of the most significant exhibitions in the history of the museum, and it also became its most visited.

The showcase featured more than 15 works unveiled for the first time, including a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet – marking its first-ever appearance in an Iranian exhibition.

From abstract expressionism to pop art, the collection at the museum serves as a time capsule of pivotal artistic movements.

Among the artwork is Warhol’s portrait of Farah Pahlavi – Iran’s last queen – a rare piece blending his pop art flair with Iranian cultural history.

Elsewhere, Francis Bacon’s work called Two Figures Lying on a Bed with Attendants shows figures appearing to spy on two naked men lying on a bed.

On the opposite wall in the basement of the museum, a portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is on display in juxtaposition.

The museum was built in 1977 under the patronage of Pahlavi, the exiled widow of the last Shah of Iran who was overthrown during the revolution.

Pahlavi was a passionate art advocate and her cousin, architect Kamran Diba, designed the museum.

It was established to introduce modern art to Iranians and to bridge Iran closer to the international art scene.

The museum soon became home to a stunning array of works by luminaries including Picasso, Warhol and Salvador Dali, alongside pieces by leading Iranian modernists, and quickly established itself as a beacon of cultural exchange and artistic ambition.

But then came the 1979 revolution. Iran became an Islamic republic as the monarchy was overthrown and clerics assumed political control under Ayatollah Khomeini.

Many artworks were deemed inappropriate for public display because of nudity, religious sensitivities or political implications.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Gabrielle with Open Blouse was deemed too scandalous. And Warhol’s portrait of the former queen of Iran was too political. In fact, Pahlavi’s portrait was vandalised and torn apart with a knife during the revolutionary turmoil.

After the revolution, many of the artworks were locked away, collecting dust in a basement that became the stuff of art world legend.

It was only in the late 1990s that the museum reclaimed its cultural significance during the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami.

Suddenly the world remembered what it had been missing. Art lovers could not believe their eyes. Van Gogh, Dali, even Monet – all in Tehran.

Some pieces were loaned to major exhibitions in Europe and the United States, briefly reconnecting the collection with the global art world.

Hamid Keshmirshekan, an art historian based in London, has studied the collection and calls it “one of the rarest treasure troves of modern art outside the West”.

The collection includes Henry’s Moore’s Reclining Figure series – an iconic piece by one of Britain’s most celebrated sculptors – and Jackson Pollock’s Mural on Indian Red Ground, a vibrant example of the American’s painting technique pulsing with energy and emotion.

Picasso’s The Painter and His Model – his largest canvas from 1927 – also features, a strong example of his abstract works from the post-cubism period.

And there is Van Gogh’s At Eternity’s Gate – one of the very rare survivals of his first printmaking campaign during which he produced six lithographs in November 1882.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clye46n565xo

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the dye known as Red 3 from the nation’s food supply in January, setting deadlines for stripping the brightly hued additive from candies and cough syrup, baked goods and frozen treats.

The agency said it was taking the action because studies found that the dye, also known as erythrosine, caused cancer in lab rats. A federal statute requires FDA to ban any additive found to cause cancer in animals, though officials stressed that the way Red 3 leads to cancer in rats doesn’t happen in people.

But the dye is only one of several synthetic colors widely found in common foods and other products.

As their use is questioned by experts and consumers, here’s what you need to know:

What are artificial colors?

Synthetic dyes are petroleum-based chemicals that don’t occur in nature. They’re widely used in foods to “enhance the visual appeal” of products, according to Sensient Food Colors, a St. Louis-based supplier of food colors and flavorings.

Nine dyes, including Red 3, have been allowed in U.S. food. The other common color additives in food are Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. Two permitted colors are used more rarely: Citrus Red 2 and Orange B.

The FDA certifies synthetic color additives and regulates their use.

With the FDA’s recent order on Red 3, manufacturers have until January 2027 to remove the dye from their products. Makers of ingested drugs like cough syrups have until January 2028.

Who is concerned about these dyes and why?

Consumer advocates, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, had long lobbied to ban Red 3 from food because of the rat-cancer link. The dye was prohibited for decades in cosmetics, but not in food or ingested medications.

Other research has tied artificial colors to behavioral problems in some children, including hyperactivity and impulsivity, particularly for those at risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

“Artificial colors are not the main cause of ADHD, but they may contribute significantly to some cases,” said Dr. L. Eugene Arnold, an emeritus psychiatry professor at Ohio State University who studied dyes and their effect on behavior and now advises CHADD, a support group for people with ADHD.

The FDA says it has reviewed and evaluated the effects of color additives on children’s behavior. It says its scientists believe that most children suffer no adverse effects when consuming them, though it acknowledges some children may be sensitive to them.

About two-thirds of Americans favor restricting or reformulating processed foods to remove ingredients like added sugar or dyes, according to a recent AP-NORC poll.

Will other colors be banned?

Momentum is building for the removal of synthetic dyes in foods.

Last year, California became the first state to ban six artificial food dyes from food served in public schools. More than a dozen state legislatures may take up bills this year that would ban synthetic dyes in foods, either for school lunches or in any setting. In October, protesters demanded that WK Kellogg Co. remove artificial dyes from cereals such as Apple Jacks and Froot Loops.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently confirmed as the U.S. secretary of health and human services, campaigned on a promise to “Make America Healthy Again,” including a focus on artificial dyes and other chemicals in food. His support has been buoyed by “MAHA moms,” women on social media calling for an end to artificial ingredients and ultraprocessing in the U.S. food supply, among other concerns.

“I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said that red dye caused cancer,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing. “Now, FDA has acknowledged that and banned it.”

What about natural colors?

It is possible to add color to foods with natural ingredients. Some manufacturers have already reformulated products to remove Red 3. In its place they use beet juice; carmine, a dye made from insects; or pigments from foods such as purple sweet potato, radish and red cabbage.

But it’s tricky, said Meghan Skidmore, a Sensient spokesperson. Natural dyes may be less stable than synthetic dyes and may be affected by factors including heat and acid levels.

“It’s not impossible to replace, but there’s not a single solution,” she said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/synthetic-dyes-red-3-artificial-colors-ef5af10b3aca66d0033d3f239546f1aa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the United Arab Emirates late Sunday as momentum grows for potential peace talks ending Moscow’s war on the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week suggested he would be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, long has been floated as a possible site for peace talks as well given the large population of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates who have flooded the country since the war began, and due to the Emirates’ work on prisoner exchanges in the past.

Zelenskyy arrived in Abu Dhabi after attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Footage released by his office showed him and his wife, Olena Zelenska, being greeted by an Emirati official and honor guard at the airport late Sunday night.

Zelenska has traveled to the UAE since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, but this trip is Zelenskyy’s first to the UAE since the war began.

“Our top priority is bringing even more of our people home from captivity,” Zelenskyy’s office said in messages online. “We will also focus on investments and economic partnership, as well as a large-scale humanitarian program.”

The United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency did not immediately report on Zelenskyy’s arrival, which was unusual.

It wasn’t immediately clear what his agenda would be while he was in the country, though Abu Dhabi is hosting its biennial International Defense Exhibition and Conference arms show this week, where both Ukraine and Russia have displayed arms — even as Moscow faces Western sanctions over the war.

Russian money continues to flood into Dubai’s red-hot real estate market. Daily flights between the Emirates and Moscow provide a lifeline for both those fleeing conscription and the Russian elite. The U.S. Treasury under former President Joe Biden also expressed concerns about the amount of Russian cash flowing into the Arabian Peninsula country.

Zelenskyy’s visit comes as Denis Manturov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, visited earlier Sunday with UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s president and ruler of Abu Dhabi. A readout from WAM described the talks as focusing on “growing UAE-Russia ties and ways to advance shared interests, benefiting both nations and their peoples.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/uae-russia-ukraine-war-a09b2fc2d81276551f40d89383a348c2

Here is the full list of winners from this year’s BAFTA Awards.

There were 42 films up for awards at this year’s ceremony, from blockbusters to indie breakthroughs.

Conclave and The Brutalist were the big winners, taking home four awards each.

Scroll through for all the winners here, as well as the nominees they were up against.

BEST FILM
Conclave
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Perez

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Conclave
Bird
Blitz
Gladiator II
Hard Truths
Kneecap
Lee
Love Lies Bleeding
The Outrun
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says she has thought about him every day since his death exactly a year ago.

Writing on Instagram, Yulia Navalnaya said: “Love you so much, miss you so much.”

Staunch Putin critic Mr Navalny, 47, died mysteriously in an Arctic penal colony on 16 February 2024. His body is buried at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

The politician, who campaigned against official corruption and led major anti-Kremlin protests, was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. Russia’s federal prison service said he had become unwell after a walk and lost consciousness.

It comes as supporters have been helping to choose a new design for a “memorial” to Navalny in the cemetery on the anniversary of his death. His mother Lyudmila Navalnaya visited his grave on Sunday.

The winning design

Called “Titan and Stone”, the tombstone is made up of three blocks of black granite and a metal inscription with his name in capital letters and no other text.

The first block will be placed at the base, covering the burial site. The vertical part will be installed on a horizontal plate. And the third granite block, slightly more than half the height of the second block, will be placed on the text insert.

It was the winner from a shortlist of three which were chosen by the family, and has been designed by someone who wants to remain anonymous. It received 40% of the online votes.

The Navalny memorial website said: “Despite the fact that the letters are part of the power structure for the upper block, they are not located along the entire length and width of the lower stone, but stand in the middle, retreating from the edges on all sides, which creates a feeling of fragility and at the same time unbreakability.”

“And despite the fact that this tombstone contains nothing but smooth stone and metal letters, it is symbolic and suggests reflection on the meaning contained in it,” it added.

The statement also said: “We need to complete the design project, produce the monument and have it installed. This may take several months and will require financing.”

It has appealed to people to donate to make the memorial a reality.

Widow’s tribute to Navalny

On the anniversary of his death, Yulia Navalnaya, 48, wrote on Instagram: “I used to think that the phrase ‘a year has passed and there hasn’t been a day I didn’t remember’ was total nonsense. And it turned out that this is not nonsense.

“A year. The whole year. And there was not a single day that I didn’t think about Alexei. I didn’t laugh with him, didn’t consult him, didn’t argue with him.”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/navalnys-widow-pays-tribute-on-anniversary-of-his-death-as-supporters-help-choose-design-for-tombstone-13310586

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has made a flying visit to the Daytona 500 – where his armoured car ‘The Beast’ did laps of the circuit.

In the latest visit by Trump to a high-profile sporting event, Air Force One performed a flyover of the Daytona International Speedway before the race.

Trump, who last week became the first sitting president ever to attend the Super Bowl, was subsequently ferried to the circuit in Florida in a presidential motorcade.

The US leader’s limousine then led drivers around the race circuit while Trump addressed the participants via a radio message.

“This is your favorite president,” Trump could be heard telling the drivers.

“I’m a big fan. I am a really big fan of you people. How you do this I don’t know, but I just want you to be safe.

“You’re talented people and you’re great people and great Americans. Have a good day, have a lot of fun and I’ll see you later.”

Not every driver is excited to see Trump in the stands this weekend though.

Bubba Wallace was previously criticized by Trump after an incident where a noose was found in his garage.

It was deemed not to be a hate crime, and Trump called Wallace out for what he called a “hoax.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13548935/donald-trump-daytona-500-nascar-arrival/

Turkey is one of the key players in the global honey market. With annual production of 115,000 tons of honey, the country is the world’s second-largest supplier after China, followed by Ethiopia, Iran and India.

The Turkish honey sector has an annual volume of about €270 million ($283.4 million), according to estimates, with Germany and the United States being the biggest importers of honey from Turkey.

Adulterated honey

But the sector faces a crisis because of counterfeit Turkish honey, although the actual extent of counterfeit honey production in the country remains unclear.

Police have confiscating several tons of the adulterated product in recent months for a total value of about €25 million.

One raid in the capital Ankara in September 2024 found 8,150 tons of glucose, fructose and sugar, along with 100,000 labels for different brands of honey.

Honey is often adulterated with sugar syrup. But if a product contains artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, glucose, corn syrup or artificial honeycomb, it can’t legally be sold as honey.

If it is, it’s referred to as counterfeit or adulterated honey — which is a violation of labeling laws.

In the last quarter of 2024, the Turkish ministry of agriculture released lists indicating that 43 producers in Turkey had adulterated honey.

Ankara is seen as the center of this industry; the majority of production facilities are located there. The ministry says two of the manufacturers distribute their products through big supermarket chains.

Damage to Turkey’s image

The industry is alarmed. Producers fear that Turkey’s reputation on the international market will suffer significant damage or has already been harmed. They are calling for state intervention, stricter regulations and deterrent penalties for producers of counterfeit honey.

Ziya Sahin, the president of the Turkish Beekeepers’ Association, holds the Ministry of Agriculture responsible. He wants to see more inspections and higher penalties.

“The problem is the lack of regulation. Our beekeepers are angry, and they ask why we’re not doing something to stop it. But we have no authority to inspect,” Sahin told DW. “I’m not even allowed to ask street sellers whether their honey is real or not.”

A meeting of the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations is due to be held in Turkey this year. Sahin says they are in close contact with their international partners.

“As in other parts of the world, there is counterfeit honey in Turkey. We can’t deny that. But we don’t want Turkey to be known as a paradise for fake honey. We won’t accept that,” Sahin insisted.

‘There’s fake honey in China and Europe, too’

Counterfeit honey isn’t just a Turkish problem, though, those involved in the industry emphasize.

“There’s fake honey in China and Europe, too,” said Can Sezen, the managing director of Anavarza Bal, one of the country’s leading honey producers. “It would be unfair to claim that it only affects Turkey. That said, Turks are particularly inventive about such matters.”

Manufacturers of counterfeit honey closely monitor when the state authorities are ordering inspections, Sezen said, and then they scale back production in a targeted way.

“You can find these products in every supermarket. The revelations must continue — like the lists released by the ministry. Our population needs to be aware of these fake products,” Sezen said.

One significant reason for the increase in counterfeit honey is Turkey’s economic situation. Fake honey costs only a fifth as much as the real thing, selling in Turkey for about €1.60 per kilogram.

The price for real honey can be as high as €8 a kilo.

The adulterated product is more affordable for many consumers — an important consideration in times of high inflation.

Counterfeit honey in Europe?

And as for exports, experts say customs checks aren’t sufficient for detecting counterfeit honey meaning that fake Turkish honey could already be in supermarkets abroad.

“It may be that counterfeit honey is first exported illegally to Arab countries then shipped on to other parts of the world,” Ziya Sahin said.

There are already indications that counterfeit honey has found its way to Europe. In January 2024, French authorities confiscated 13 tons of honey laced with Viagra, also known as “erectile honey.” According to official reports, it originated with illegal supply chains in Turkey, Tunisia and Thailand.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-is-making-fake-honey-on-an-alarming-scale/a-71626685

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about Iran’s terror axis this week, stating that, with the support of the U.S. and President Donald Trump, he would “finish the job”.

“Over the last 16 months, Israel has dealt a mighty blow to Iran’s terror axis. Under the strong leadership of President Trump… I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, speaking alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made his first official trip to Israel this week.

“It’s important to constantly point that whether we talk about Hamas or we talk about Hezbollah, we talk about violence in the West Bank, or we talk about destabilization in Syria, or we talk about any of these issues the militias in Iraq, they all have behind them one common theme – Iran,” Rubio added, emphasizing that there “could never be a nuclear Iran.”

The Trump and Biden administrations were both warned by U.S. intelligence agencies that Israel would likely attempt to weaken Iran’s nuclear program by attacking important facilities, reported CNN.

Earlier this month, Trump took to Truth Social to share his desire for a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran, stating that he sought a “Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper.”

“I would love to be able to make a great deal [with Iran], a deal where you can get on with your lives, and you’ll do wonderfully,” Trump had said to journalists while visiting Netanyahu in Israel.

Netanyahu stated that Israel was pursuing an overarching goal of regime change within Iran, indicating that Israel’s goals regarding both Iran and Gaza aligned with those of the Trump administration.

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/netanyahu-vows-finish-job-against-iran-trump-help-575826

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Ukraine and Europe would be part of any “real negotiations” to end Moscow’s war, signaling that U.S. talks with Russia this week were a chance to see how serious Russian President Vladimir Putin is about peace.
America’s top diplomat played down European concerns of being cut out of the initial talks between Russia and the United States set to take place in Saudi Arabia in the coming days. In an interview with CBS, Rubio said a negotiation process had not yet begun in earnest, and if talks advanced, the Ukrainians and other Europeans would be brought into the fold.

Earlier on Sunday, Reuters reported that U.S. officials had handed European officials a questionnaire asking, among other things, how many troops they could contribute to enforcing a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
“President Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin last week, and in it, Vladimir Putin expressed his interest in peace, and the president expressed his desire to see an end to this conflict in a way that was enduring and that protected Ukrainian sovereignty,” Rubio said on CBS’s “Meet the Press.”

“Now, obviously it has to be followed up by action, so the next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not. Ultimately, one phone call does not make peace.”
U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz were due to leave for Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, Witkoff said in a Fox News interview.
Rubio noted he was due to be in Saudi Arabia anyway due to previously arranged official travel. The composition of the Russian delegation had not yet been finalized, he said.
The planned talks in Saudi Arabia coincide with a U.S. bid to cut a deal with Kyiv to open up Ukraine’s natural resources wealth to U.S. investment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an NBC interview broadcast on Sunday, questioned if minerals in areas held by Russia would be given to Putin.

Trump, who held a call with Putin on Wednesday and said the Russian leader wants peace, said Sunday he was confident Putin would not want to try and take control of the entirety of Ukraine.
“That would have caused me a big problem, because you just can’t let that happen. I think he wants to end it,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump added that Zelinskiy would be involved in the conversations to end the conflict.

EUROPEAN ROLE IN PEACE TALKS, OR NOT?

Rubio and Witkoff rejected concerns that Ukraine and other European leaders would have no place at peace negotiations, despite Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, suggesting precisely that at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference.
Witkoff noted in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Ukrainian officials had met several U.S. officials in recent days at the conference, while Trump had talked with Zelenskiy last week.

Rubio, for his part, said that Ukrainians and other Europeans would be included in any meaningful negotiations.
“Ultimately, it will reach a point – if it’s real negotiations, and we’re not there yet – but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved because they’re the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well,” Rubio said.
“We’re just not there yet.”
French President Emmanuel Macron will host European leaders on Monday for an emergency summit on the Ukraine war, Macron’s office said, in the wake of Kellogg’s remarks.
European officials have been left shocked and flat-footed by the Trump administration’s moves on Ukraine, Russia and European defense in recent days.
Chief among their fears is that they can no longer count on U.S. military protection and that Trump will attempt to ink a Ukraine peace deal with Putin that undermines Kyiv and broader European continental security.
Asked if he had discussed lifting sanctions on Russia during a Saturday phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Rubio declined to provide confirmation, saying only that they “did not go into any details.”
After the call, Moscow said that the two had discussed the removal of “unilateral barriers” set by the previous U.S. administration in relations with Russia.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/rubio-says-coming-days-will-show-if-putin-serious-about-ukraine-peace-2025-02-16/

(This Feb.15 story has been refiled to correct the spelling of the crypto coin to $LIBRA, not $LIBRE, in paragraph 2)
Argentine President Javier Milei could face an impeachment trial in Congress, opposition lawmakers said on Saturday, after the libertarian leader touted a cryptocurrency which crashed soon after.
Milei late on Friday posted on X recommending the little-known crypto coin $LIBRA, which soon after shot up to nearly $5 apiece.

Just hours later, the cryptocurrency plummeted to under $1.
Argentina’s fintech chamber acknowledged that the case could potentially be a “rug pull,” in which the developers of a crypto token draw legitimate investments, pumping up the value, only to later dump their stake.
“This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president,” said lawmaker Leandro Santoro, a member of the opposition coalition.
Milei deleted the post on X, with local media saying the post had been up for a few hours on Friday night. He later said he took down his post after becoming aware of the circumstances, and that he had no relation to the cryptocurrency.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentinas-opposition-threatens-impeachment-trial-after-milei-touts-crypto-coin-2025-02-16/

Papal selection thriller “Conclave” and period drama “The Brutalist” were the big winners at the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday, winning four prizes each.
“Conclave”, which had led nominations with 12 nods, won the night’s most coveted award, best film, as well as outstanding British film, best adapted screenplay and best editing.
“We live in a time of a crisis of democracy and institutions that are usually used to bring us together are used to pull us apart,” “Conclave” director Edward Berger said in his acceptance speech for the outstanding British film award.

“And sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith in that situation but that’s why we make movies and that’s why we made this movie.”
“The Brutalist”, a three-and-a-half hour tale about a Hungarian immigrant architect trying to rebuild his life in the United States post-World War Two, had also been considered a frontrunner for best film. It won best director for Brady Corbet and best actor for its star, Adrien Brody.
“This film is really about this pursuit of leaving something meaningful and I think that is something we can all relate to,” Brody said in his acceptance speech.

“The Brutalist” also won original score and cinematography.
In one of the big surprises of the night, Mikey Madison won the leading actress category for portraying an exotic dancer who gets involved with a Russian oligarch’s son in “Anora”.
Many had considered the frontrunners to be Demi Moore, who has received multiple honours for her performance in body horror “The Substance”, and Briton Marianne Jean-Baptiste, for her critically acclaimed portrayal of a woman struggling with depression in “Hard Truths”.

“I really wasn’t expecting this,” Madison said.
“I want to take to a moment to recognise the sex worker community … you deserve respect and human decency. I will always be your friend.”
“Anora”, considered a strong awards season contender after it and director Sean Baker triumphed at the Critics Choice Awards, as well as the Producers and Directors Guild of America Awards ahead of next month’s Academy Awards, was also up for best film, as was Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown”.

SALDANA, CULKIN WIN

Fellow best film nominee “Emilia Perez”, which mixes the diverse genres of musical and crime, triumphed in the film not in the English language category.
“This is too nice, you shouldn’t have done that,” director Jacques Audiard said, accepting his award. “This award is not just for me but everyone who worked tirelessly on this film.”
He thanked the film’s cast members, including an absent Karla Sofia Gascon, who had been nominated for leading actress.
Zoe Saldana won supporting actress for her portrayal of a lawyer who helps a Mexican cartel leader, played by Gascon, fake his death and transition from a man to a woman.
“Emilia Perez”, had been an early awards frontrunner but its campaign lost steam following controversy surrounding Gascon, who has apologised for past social media posts denigrating Muslims and other groups and said she would go silent to help the movie ahead of the Oscars.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/conclave-the-brutalist-anora-battle-best-film-baftas-2025-02-16/

Donald Trump appeared to quote Napoleon Bonaparte by way of Rod Steiger on Saturday afternoon after his blitzkrieg of executive actions and threats to federal agencies under Elon Musk were challenged in courts across the country, raising alarms that his administration is preparing to shred court orders and ignite a constitutional crisis.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” the president wrote on Truth Social and X.

The official White House account on X also shared the message, endorsing his apparent belief that the president of the United States is incapable of breaking any law.

The president — whose efforts to gut federal funding, fire thousands of aid workers and unilaterally redefine the 14th Amendment were blocked in federal courts across the country in recent days — invoked a quote often attributed to Napoleon, who justified his despotic regime as the will of the people of France.

The quote from a president with his own imperial ambitions appeared to come from the 1970 film Waterloo, in which Steiger’s Napoleon states that he “did not ‘usurp’ the crown.”

“I found it in the gutter, and I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people … who put it on my head,” he says. “He who saves a nation violates no law.”

Within his first month in office, Trump’s allies have baselessly argued Trump’s supreme authority as president, immune from checks and balances, as his executive orders and Musk’s access to the levers of government face an avalanche of lawsuits and restraining orders.

Musk and other members of the Trump administration have smeared the judges who have ruled against them as “corrupt” and “evil” and threatened to impeach and remove them from the bench.

The world’s wealthiest man and his allies have repeated false and inflated claims about how the three branches of government operate, and how a system of checks and balances is designed to prevent the presidency from accumulating supreme authority.

Their comments are raising alarms among constitutional scholars and legal analysts for an impending constitutional crisis — which the White House blames on the judges, not the president’s spurious legal actions and the administration’s baseless insistence that he should not be subject to checks and balances in the courts.

Trump, now seemingly invoking his own “l’etat, c’est moi” maxim, routinely conflated the criminal and civil cases against him with an attack on the American people and rule of law itself during his campaign.

The Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling affirming a president’s “immunity” from criminal prosecution for actions tied to official duties while in office has only fueled what he perceives is a permanent shield from oversight.

The New York Times’s Jamelle Bouie called Trump’s latest statement “the single most un-American and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an American president.”

“We’re getting into real Führerprinzip territory here,” added conservative Trump critic Bill Kristol, referencing executive authority under Nazi Germany, granting the word of the führer above all.

Musk’s ongoing campaign to delegitimize the courts followed Vice President JD Vance’s claim that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the “media” of “fear mongering” about an impending constitutional crisis.

“The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch where district court judges in liberal districts are abusing their power,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

Source : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-napoleon-saves-country-quote-rod-steiger-b2699102.html

At least nine people have died in the most recent round of harsh weather to pummel the U.S., including eight people in Kentucky who died as creeks swelled from heavy rain and water covered roads.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that hundreds of people stranded by flooding had to be rescued. President Donald Trump approved the state’s request for a disaster declaration, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts throughout the state.

Beshear said most of the deaths, including a mother and 7-year-old child, were caused by cars getting stuck in high water.

“So folks, stay off the roads right now and stay alive,” he said. “This is the search and rescue phase, and I am very proud of all the Kentuckians that are out there responding, putting their lives on the line.”

Beshear said there have been 1,000 rescues across the state since the storms began Saturday. The storms knocked out power to about 39,000 homes, but Beshear warned that harsh winds in some areas could increase outages.

Parts of Kentucky and Tennessee received up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service.

“The effects will continue for awhile, a lot of swollen streams and a lot of flooding going on,” Oravec said Sunday.

In Alabama, the weather service in Birmingham said it had confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down overnight in Hale County. Storms there and elsewhere in the state destroyed or damaged a handful of mobile homes, downed trees and toppled power lines, but no injuries were immediately reported. Extensive damage to downtown roofs and buildings was reported in the northern city of Tuscumbia, with authorities asking people to avoid the area, according to WAFF-TV and other local media.

A state of emergency was declared for parts of Obion County, Tennessee, after a levee failed on Saturday, flooding the small community of Rives, home to around 300 people in the western part of the state. “There will be mandatory evacuations in effect for the residents in Rives due to the rising water, no electricity, and freezing temperatures creating a life-threatening situation,” Mayor Steve Carr said in a statement Sunday.

In Atlanta, a person was killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday, according to Atlanta Fire Rescue Capt. Scott Powell.

Dangerously cold wind chill temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero (minus 45.6) were expected in most of North Dakota, which remained under an “extreme cold warning” along with parts of Montana and large swaths of South Dakota and Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.

Kentucky faces severe flooding

Water submerged cars and buildings in Kentucky and mudslides blocked roads in Virginia late Saturday into Sunday. Both states were under flood warnings, along with Tennessee and Arkansas.

The mother and child were swept away Saturday night in Kentucky’s Bonnieville community, Hart County Coroner Tony Roberts said. In southeastern Kentucky, a 73-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in Clay County, county Emergency Management Deputy Director Revelle Berry said. There were a total of four deaths in Hart County, Beshear said.

The Kentucky River Medical Center in the city of Jackson said it had closed its emergency department and transferred all patients to two other hospitals in the region due to a nearby river flooding.

Photos posted by authorities and residents on social media showed cars and buildings underwater in south-central and eastern Kentucky. In Buchanan County, Virginia, the sheriff’s office said multiple roads were blocked by mudslides.

High winds brought down trees and power poles across Albermarle County, Virginia. The Charlottesville Police Department said Sunday on social media that officers’ response times could be delayed due to “an overwhelming number of weather-related calls for service.” Police urged residents to stay off the roads.

Power outages were reported along much of the Eastern Seaboard, from New York south to Georgia.

In West Virginia, 13 southern counties were under a state of emergency for flooding and some areas were cut off to vehicle traffic Sunday. Several volunteer fire departments dealt with flooding in their own buildings while answering rescue and evacuation calls.

Rockies, Midwest, Northeast hit with snow storms, Polar Vortex on the way

Ice and snow made road travel treacherous in large swaths of Michigan, which remained under a winter weather advisory until Monday afternoon. Michigan State Police reported 114 crashes Sunday around the Detroit area since snow started falling Saturday.

“Fortunately, most were one-car spin outs and there were no serious injuries,” Michigan State Police said on X. “A majority of them were caused by drivers just going too fast or following too close.”

Authorities in Colorado reported eight people were killed in fatal vehicle crashes since Valentine’s Day and warned drivers to be cautious as the weather made driving more difficult. The causes of the fatal crashes weren’t immediately known.

Also in Colorado, three state patrol cruisers that had pulled over along roadsides were struck by other vehicles, including one on Sunday where a trooper had stopped as officials prepared to close a road because of ice. In each case the troopers were out of their cruisers at the time and were uninjured.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/rain-snow-flooding-0c4ddcf08eba65e62f9c070f59947457

Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes don’t work! Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into an SUV and a sedan and crashing into a large concrete barrier.

Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the car’s brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than $23,000 in damages and publicly apologize to the $1.1 trillion company.

Zhang is not the only one to find herself in the crosshairs of Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, among the richest men in the world and a self-described “ free speech absolutist.” Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures.

The company has also sued at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets that wrote critically about the company, according to a review of public court documents and Chinese media reports by The Associated Press. Tesla won all 11 cases for which AP could determine the verdicts. Two judgments, including Zhang’s, are on appeal. One case was settled out of court.

It is not common practice for automakers — in China or elsewhere — to sue their customers. But Tesla has pioneered an aggressive legal strategy and leveraged the patronage of powerful leaders in China’s ruling Communist Party to silence critics, reap financial rewards and limit its accountability.

The AP review of Tesla’s record in China comes as Musk is wielding significant influence in President Donald Trump’s new administration, leading an effort to rapidly shrink the size of the federal government and oust employees deemed disloyal to the president. His actions have raised concerns that Musk is weakening the U.S. system of checks and balances, in part, to benefit Tesla and his other companies.

In the United States, Musk has found a powerful ally in Trump. Together, they have launched an assault on the federal government, freezing spending, suspending programs and dismissing prosecutors, government watchdogs and others that have traditionally acted as guardrails.

Tesla officials in China and the United States did not reply to requests for comment.

Tesla’s record in China shows how Musk has thrived in a system in which regulators, the media and the courts — which must all ultimately answer to the ruling Communist Party — are, by design, somewhat intertwined.

Tesla has profited from the largesse of the Chinese state, winning unprecedented regulatory benefits, below-market rate loans and large tax breaks. With a few pointed exceptions, Tesla has enjoyed ingratiating coverage in the Chinese press, and journalists told AP they have been instructed to avoid negative coverage of the automaker.

Tesla’s windfall has extended to the courts — and not just in legal actions Tesla has brought against customers. In a review of public court documents, AP found that Tesla won nearly 90% of civil cases over safety, quality or contract disputes brought by customers.

“The government gave Tesla a super status that put consumers in a very vulnerable position,” said Qiao Yudong, a former lawyer for American sports car company Saleen Automotive in China. “That’s why some consumers had to resort to extreme actions.”

One of those desperate customers was Zhang.

‘Burning with anger’

The February 2021 crash in central China’s Henan province sent Zhang’s mother and father, who had a concussion, to the hospital for four days, medical records show. Zhang — who was unharmed in the accident, as was her baby niece — wanted to understand what had happened: How could her dream car have turned into such a nightmare?

Traffic police determined that the crash was her dad’s fault because he hadn’t maintained a safe following distance. Zhang, however, insisted that the brakes had malfunctioned, sending the car out of control. She filed a complaint with a local market regulator, requesting a refund and compensation. Teslas are among the most computerized cars on the market, so Zhang asked the automaker to turn over the full pre-crash data from her car, hoping it might help explain what went wrong. Tesla refused.

“Tesla’s employees were very arrogant and tough in dealing with my complaints,” Zhang said in an interview. “I was burning with anger.”

After weeks of stewing, she draped her damaged car with a banner proclaiming “Tesla brake failure” in front of the Tesla dealership in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, some 200 km (124 miles) from her home. She sat on the Tesla’s roof and blared her protest through a bullhorn: “Tesla Model 3 brakes failed,” she said. “A family of four almost died.” The next month, she parked her damaged car outside an auto show in Zhengzhou. It was all to no avail — Tesla refused to turn over the full data and mediation went nowhere.

Figuring that top Tesla officials would attend an April auto show in Shanghai, she and a friend — who had also had a problem with her Tesla — donned matching T-shirts with the phrase “Brakes fail” and headed for Tesla’s booth, determined to buttonhole executives. The automaker’s officials avoided them, Zhang said, and they couldn’t get anyone to hear them out.

Her friend, who was six months pregnant, started shouting, “Tesla brakes fail!”

Zhang clambered on top of a shiny red display model and started hollering, too.

“Things escalated,” said Zhang.

The moment — captured on cellphone videos shot by onlookers — went viral on Chinese social media. Burly security guards hauled Zhang out, and she was detained for five days.

Some observers speculated that Zhang’s protest had been orchestrated — perhaps by a competitor or by the Chinese government itself to pressure Tesla to conform with Chinese regulations. Tesla alleged that Zhang hadn’t acted on her own. A top executive speculated to Chinese media that she “had someone behind her” and said Zhang was making a fuss because she just wanted higher compensation.

Zhang insisted she acted on her own — and out of anguish. Outraged, she sued Tesla for defamation, arguing that the executive’s comments unjustly cast her as a troublemaker to deflect attention from the company’s own shortcomings.

And then she found herself on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by Tesla.

‘The odds are stacked against you’

Tesla said Zhang had deliberately spread false information that damaged the brand and asked for 5 million yuan ($684,000) in damages.

The case, which a court took up in October 2021, came as Tesla faced a barrage of criticism in China.

Dozens of Tesla owners had been publicly complaining about alleged brake failures, battery fires, unintended acceleration and other defects, as well as what they claimed were misleading sales practices. The same month as Zhang’s crash, Chinese regulators summoned Tesla to respond to quality concerns raised by such reports.

Zhang’s emotional protest sparked a rare burst of criticism of Tesla in Chinese media. Under pressure from regulators, Tesla finally released the data from her car, which the company said showed her father had been driving nearly 120 km per hour (75 mph) and that the brakes had functioned to reduce the magnitude of the collision.

Tesla had finally given Zhang what she’d been asking for, but they’d published the data publicly and included her vehicle identification number. She said she and her family started getting threatened and doxed online. Besides, she wondered, how could she be sure Tesla hadn’t modified or redacted the data from her car? It was less than the victory she’d hoped for. Feeling besieged, she sued Tesla a second time, in March 2022, for invading her privacy.

Zhang lost both cases she brought against Tesla.

Meanwhile, the defamation case against her was grinding along. Back in court as a defendant, Zhang was unable to prove that the brakes on her Tesla had indeed failed. In a closed trial, a Shanghai court ruled in May 2024 that Zhang’s public complaints went beyond what magistrates considered reasonable, factual criticism and ordered her to publicly apologize and pay 170,000 RMB ($23,000) to cover damages and the legal costs of the world’s most valuable car company.

Zhang appealed the ruling. She maintains that her lawsuit is a cry for transparency and accountability and that a company as rich and powerful as Tesla should be able to tolerate legitimate criticism from its customers.

“I refuse to accept it,” Zhang told The Associated Press, “As a consumer, even if I said something wrong, I have the right to comment and criticize. I spoke about my feelings as a user of the car. It has nothing to do with damaging their reputation.”

Her odds of winning the appeal against Tesla do not look good. Tesla has not only won the defamation cases it brought against unhappy car owners and critical journalists, it’s also prevailed in lawsuits customers have filed against it.

An AP review of a Chinese government database of court filings published online found 81 civil judgments in which car owners sued Tesla over safety and quality issues or contract disputes. Car owners won in only nine of those cases.

In a statement to AP, the Shanghai High People’s Court said that judgments are the result of a “fair trial” based on “the objective facts of the case.”

“It cannot be assumed that the party has received ‘special protection’ or ‘special treatment’ because of their victory,” the court wrote.

While some auto industry experts in China say it’s generally difficult for customers to win cases against car companies, others say it’s remarkable for a foreign company to enjoy such success in Chinese courts.

“For Tesla to win that percentage of the time is an anomaly,” said Bill Russo, founder of Automobility Ltd., an advisory firm based in Shanghai, who also used to be regional head of Chrysler in northeast Asia. “The odds are stacked against you. It’s like going to the casino and winning every hand.”

The power of patronage

Tesla’s commercial and political success in China has hinged on the support of a powerful patron: Li Qiang, the former party boss of Shanghai who is now China’s premier, second in rank only to President Xi Jinping. It was under his watch, in 2019, that Tesla built its first overseas factory on the outskirts of China’s financial capital.

With Li’s support, Tesla became the first foreign automaker allowed to retain complete control over its China venture and got low-interest loans and generous tax breaks. China also adopted an emissions credit scheme modeled after a U.S. program that has generated billions in income for Tesla.

In January 2020, one year after breaking ground, Elon Musk unveiled the first Chinese-made Teslas on a stage in Shanghai. Tesla turned an annual profit for the first time in its history that year, and Musk was declared the world’s richest person in January 2021.

China got what it wanted, too: Tesla was a potent catalyst for domestic production and consumption. Before Tesla’s arrival, new energy vehicles accounted for around 5% of China’s auto market. Today, analysts say, more than half of passenger vehicles sold retail in China are powered by an electric motor. Chinese battery maker CATL, a key Tesla supplier, has embedded itself in global supply chains to become the world’s largest EV-battery maker. China’s BYD is now the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer and a growing competitive threat to legacy carmakers in the West.

“Tesla had a large part to play in that,” said Tu Le, the managing director of Sino Auto Insights, a consulting firm. Tu said the way the government smoothed the way for Musk’s factory was critical. “It was a swampy field on the outskirts of Shanghai. A year later they’re rolling cars off the line,” he said. “I don’t know if that happens anywhere else in the world.”

Requests for comment to the State Council, which is run by Li Qiang and oversees China’s government ministries, went unanswered.

Musk still swings by to meet Li when he goes to China. Their encounters underscore the complexity of Musk’s overlapping interests as a businessman and the most China-friendly member of Trump’s inner circle.

Musk’s “greater objective was winning influence over the people that mattered for him, that enabled him to get things done,” said Russo, the auto strategist in Shanghai. “He’s done a good job of it in China and he’s done it now with the influence he purchased with his relationship with Trump.”

‘A chilling effect’

Safety advocates worry about the implications of Musk’s proximity to power in the United States. Federal investigations and safety initiatives Musk has long railed against could be easily snuffed out by the new administration.

In the U.S., Tesla also has been subject to a raft of customer safety complaints and lawsuits over autopilot function, battery charging, alleged suspension defects, sudden braking or acceleration, faulty airbags and allegedly monopolistic practices on repairs and parts. Judges have dismissed some cases. In others, Tesla settled out of court or paid hefty settlements.

Tesla has not publicly sued any of its U.S. customers for speaking out, though in January, Musk said on X that “maybe it is time” to sue media outlets for coverage that could stain Tesla’s brand. His post has been viewed more than 22 million times.

Tesla has already successfully done that in China.

Two Chinese journalists based in Shanghai told AP there is an unwritten rule to avoid critical coverage of Tesla. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.

“We were told by our editor that we should not write negatively about Tesla because it is a key company that was introduced and protected by the Shanghai government,” a tech reporter told AP.

Those who have strayed have found themselves in court. Musk’s company sued media outlets PingWest and ifeng.com over negative coverage. It was unhappy about PingWest’s report that claimed Tesla’s Shanghai factory was a “sweatshop.” The news website ifeng.com drew Tesla’s ire over a story that explored the tribulations of car owners who fought Tesla. PingWest had to apologize and pay Tesla 100,000 yuan ($13,700). AP could not determine the outcome of the case against ifeng.com.

Tesla is not the only company in its industry to sue its critics. BYD has also aggressively pursued media in court, including an unsuccessful lawsuit against Vice Media in the United States. More recently, electric vehicle makers Nio and Li Auto have stepped up defamation cases against bloggers in China who allegedly spread false information about their companies.

Tesla, however, stands out even among its cut-throat Chinese competitors — in going after car owners who suffered crashes.

“Tesla used their legal advantages to bully Chinese car owners and people who speak up for them,” said Feng Shiming, an auto blogger and Tesla owner who was ordered by a Shanghai court last year to pay Tesla 250,000 yuan ($34,200) after he wrote about Tesla’s alleged brake failures. He has appealed the verdict. “Tesla wants to have a chilling effect on society and terrify people so they will be scared to say anything negative about Tesla.”

Chen Junyi got the message. He lost control of his Model 3 and plowed into a dozen cars in a parking lot at high speed in August 2020. He claimed the brakes had failed. He told Chinese media at the time that he broke his back and four ribs and had to have 30 centimeters (12 inches) of his small intestine removed. Chen took to social media and warned people not to buy Teslas, raising his shirt to reveal the long, gnarled scar that runs up his abdomen.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/tesla-china-lawsuits-musk-investigation-58b10ccace488784fcc63646ab78b410

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is prepared to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary” in Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia.

Ahead of an “emergency meeting” of European leaders on Monday, the prime minister said he was “ready and willing” to put British troops into a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the prime minister also said the UK was “ready to play a leading role” in Ukraine’s defence and security, by committing £3bn a year until 2030.

It comes as Emmanuel Macron rallies the likes of Sir Keir and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a hastily-arranged Paris summit to discuss Ukraine’s next steps.

The French president will look to recapture Ukraine’s future at the informal meeting, which has been swiftly put together following announcements from the United States.

It will take place as the US sends senior officials to Saudi Arabia for peace talks with Russia – which representatives from Europe have not been invited to. It is unclear if Ukraine will take part.

A delegation from Ukraine is in Saudi Arabia to pave the way for a possible visit from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one Ukrainian official said on Sunday.

However, less than 24 hours prior, a top Zelenskyy adviser had denied Ukraine would take part in the discussions.

“There is nothing on the negotiating table that would be worth discussing,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in a TV interview.

Speaking in Florida on Sunday, Donald Trump said of Mr Putin: “I think he wants to stop fighting.

“They [Russia] have a big powerful machine, you understand that. They defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. They’ve been fighting a long time.”

Mr Macron’s meeting is expected to be attended by British Prime Minister Sir Keir, Germany’s Mr Scholz, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, alongside other European leaders.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and NATO chief Mark Rutte are also expected at the Paris summit.

The goal of the discussions is to “bring together all partners interested in peace and security in Europe”, a French statement said.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Trump administration are travelling to Saudi Arabia for peace talks with Russia. The discussions are expected to begin in Riyadh on Tuesday, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Mr Trump’s push for a quick way out of Russia’s war on Ukraine has stirred concern and uncertainty from European leaders.

After a recent phone call with Mr Putin, Mr Trump has – on multiple occasions – said he and the Russian president will meet soon to discuss a peace deal over Ukraine.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/pm-prepared-to-send-troops-to-ukraine-if-peace-deal-reached-as-european-leaders-gear-up-for-crisis-talks-13311176

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in the Gaza Strip – throwing the region’s fragile ceasefire into further doubt.

Mr Rubio met with top Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday as he started a tour of the Middle East which will likely see him face pushback from Arab leaders over Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” and redevelop Gaza.

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire began on 19 January and the first phase comes to an end in two weeks’ time. The second phase is yet to be negotiated.

Mr Rubio said Hamas cannot continue as either a military or government force – using language which could complicate the talks.

“As long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible,” he said.

“It must be eradicated.”

Hamas reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire began and has been releasing hostages taken during its attack on 7 October 2023 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Mr Rubio’s comments came as the Israel military said it carried out an airstrike on Sunday on people who had approached its forces in southern Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry had said three of its police officers were killed while they secured the entry of aid trucks on the Egyptian border. Hamas said the attack was a “serious violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

Mr Netanyahu – who has welcomed Mr Trump’s plan for Gaza – has signalled a readiness to war after the current phase of the ceasefire.

He has offered Hamas a chance to surrender and send its top leaders into exile – which has been rejected by the group.

While each of the phase one hostage releases have so far taken place as planned, they haven’t been without their issues.

Earlier this week, Hamas threatened to delay a release because Mr Netanyahu was yet to approve the entry of mobile homes and heavy machinery into Gaza, as required by the ceasefire agreement.

In response, Israel – with the backing of Mr Trump – threatened to renew its offensive if the hostages were not freed.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-ceasefire-thrown-into-further-doubt-as-rubio-backs-netanyahus-war-aims-13311022

Pop star Shakira has been taken to hospital in Peru after experiencing “an abdominal issue”, forcing her to cancel one of her concerts.

The Hips Don’t Lie singer had been due to perform in Lima for the first time in over a decade.

“I’m sorry to let you all know that last night I had to go to the emergency room for an abdominal issue and I’m currently hospitalized,” Shakira wrote in a post on Instagram.

“The doctors taking care of me have let me know that I’m not well enough to perform tonight.”

On Saturday, the Colombian singer posted videos showing hundreds of fans greeting her at the airport as she arrived in Peru.

“I am very sad that I will not be able to take the stage today,” she wrote in her post. “I have been deeply emotional and excited about reuniting with my beloved Peruvian audience.”

“I hope to be better by tomorrow and that they release me from the hospital as soon as possible to be able to put on the show that I’ve prepared for you all,” she wrote.

Shakira has been a trailblazer for Latin artists crossing over into the English-speaking market although she faced controversy in recent years.

In 2023, the singer settled a tax fraud case with the Spanish authorities where she eventually ended up paying a €7.5m (£6.5m) fine and accusing tax authorities of draining her “energy, time, and tranquillity”.

The singer’s next show in Lima is booked for Monday after starting her tour in Brazil last week. Her tour is in support of her Grammy-winning album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, centred around her highly-publicised split from Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/shakira-taken-to-hospital-as-shes-forced-to-cancel-concert-13311142

U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to start talks aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine, a U.S. lawmaker and a source familiar with the planning said on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Friday, said Ukraine was not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia and Kyiv would not engage with Russia before consulting with strategic partners.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saudi Arabia, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul told Reuters. It was not immediately clear who they would meet from Russia.
On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, McCaul said the aim of the talks was to arrange a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy “to finally bring peace and end this conflict.”

A source with knowledge of the plans confirmed the planned talks in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian officials. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who took office on January 20, has repeatedly vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine war. He made separate phone calls to Putin and Zelenskiy on Wednesday, leaving Washington’s European allies alarmed that they will be cut out of any peace process.
Those fears were largely confirmed on Saturday when Trump’s Ukraine envoy said Europe won’t have a seat at the table, after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

MINERALS DEAL
Earlier on Saturday Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. They agreed on regular contacts to prepare for a meeting between Putin and Trump, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Zelenskiy said on Friday he would visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but did not say when. However, the Ukrainian leader said he had no plans to meet with U.S. or Russian officials during those visits.
Moscow controls a fifth of Ukraine and has been slowly advancing in the east for months, while Kyiv’s smaller army grapples with manpower shortages and tries to hold a chunk of territory in western Russia.
Russia has demanded Kyiv cede territory and become permanently neutral under any peace deal. Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured land and wants NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent attack by Moscow.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-team-start-russia-ukraine-peace-talks-saudi-arabia-coming-days-politico-2025-02-15/

Billionaire Elon Musk said on Saturday that his xAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot and ChatGPT challenger Grok 3 would be released with a live demo at 8 p.m. Pacific time on Monday (0400 GMT on Tuesday).

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/elon-musk-says-xais-grok-3-chatbot-be-unveiled-monday-2025-02-16/

Hamas released Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel Chen and Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov in Gaza on Saturday and Israel freed some 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange, after mediators helped avert a collapse of the fragile ceasefire.

The three Israelis were led onto a stage with Palestinian Hamas militants armed with automatic rifles standing on each side of them at the site in Khan Younis, live footage showed, before they were taken back into Israel by Israeli forces.

Shortly afterwards, buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners and detainees departed Israel’s Ofer jail in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The first bus arrived in Ramallah to a cheering crowd, some waving Palestinian flags.
“We didn’t expect to be freed, but God is great, God set us free,” said Musa Nawarwa, 70, from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, who was serving two life terms for killings of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.
Buses carrying some of the hundreds of Palestinian freed prisoners and detainees, some flashing victory signs as they hung from the windows, arrived later at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Some of the Palestinians were serving long prison terms for involvement in suicide bombings and other attacks that killed dozens of Israelis during the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. Others were jailed for killing Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
Some, like Hassan Ewis, will be allowed to return to their homes. Others, such as his brother, are expected to be deported to Egypt.
Ewis’ charge sheet in the Israeli Justice Ministry records include the planting of explosives and attempted murder and intentional homicide. He said prison conditions were difficult and Palestinians were deprived of sufficient food.
Some of the Israeli hostages who have returned since January 19 have reported being deprived of food, held in tunnels for months and not seeing daylight, and being subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

Some freed Palestinians are returning to an enclave they have not seen for years, before it was blasted into rubble by Israeli airstrikes and shelling in 15 months of war. But most were rounded up after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
‘NOW WE CAN BREATHE A LITTLE’
The ceasefire’s second phase is meant to usher in negotiations to return the remaining living hostages among the 251 seized that day, and complete an Israeli military withdrawal before a final end to the war and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Netanyahu thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for putting pressure on Hamas, which he said led to the release of the three hostages and said he would convene a cabinet meeting to discuss next steps, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Argentina-born Iair Horn, 46, was taken captive together with his younger brother Eitan. Horn appeared to have lost considerable weight in captivity.
“Now, we can breathe a little. Our Iair is home after surviving hell in Gaza. Now, we need to bring Eitan back so our family can truly breathe,” Horn’s family said in a statement.
The swap of the three Israelis for the 369 Palestinians allayed growing alarm that the ceasefire agreement could unravel before the end of the 42-day first stage of the truce pact in effect since January 19.
In what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, people broke into cheers and tears after hearing the Red Cross was on its way to deliver the three to Israeli military forces.
Dekel Chen, a U.S.-Israeli, Troufanov, a Russian Israeli, and Horn along with his brother Eitan were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities near Gaza’s border that were overrun by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-israeli-hostages-set-return-gaza-ceasefire-holds-2025-02-15/

Why does an mRNA-based vaccine hold promise? What have pre-clinical trials shown?

In December last year, Russia announced that it had developed a new, mRNA-based personalised ‘vaccine’ for cancer which would be available free for patients by early 2025. Media reports state that Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health, spoke to Radio Rossiya about the vaccine. Reports also say that Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, said the vaccine’s pre-clinical trials had shown that it suppresses tumour development and potential metastases.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/what-is-the-cancer-vaccine-russia-is-offering-explained/article69222820.ece

Privacy campaigners have called Google’s new rules on tracking people online “a blatant disregard for user privacy.”

Changes which come in on Sunday permit so-called “fingerprinting”, which allows online advertisers to collect more data about users including their IP addresses and information about their devices.

Google says this data is already widely used by other companies, and it continues to encourage responsible data use.

However the company had previously come out strongly against this kind of data collection, saying in a 2019 blog that fingerprinting “subverts user choice and is wrong.”

“Shōgun” dominated with three wins at the Writers Guild Awards on Saturday evening — including best drama, while “Hacks” scored two on the TV side, including best comedy. In film, “Anora” and “Nickel Boys” scored big wins, giving both entries a bit more momentum as Oscar voting ends on Tuesday. “Anora,” coming off Critics Choice, DGA and PGA wins for best picture last weekend, picked up the original screenplay prize for Sean Baker. “Nickel Boys,” which has two Oscar noms, won the WGA award for RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes.

“Shōgun” was the night’s big winner, picking up prizes for best drama, best new series and best drama episode. On the comedy side, “Hacks” also scored a double play, landing best comedy and best comedy episode. In the limited field, “The Penguin” scored the series win.

Meanwhile, it was the first WGA noms and wins for Baker, Ross and Barnes. The Writers Guild Awards are underway in both Los Angeles and New York, as the WGA recognizes the best of 2024’s writing in television and film. This year’s annual event bicoastal event is being at the Beverly Hilton for the West Coast edition and at New York’s Edison Ballroom for the East Coast ceremony.

HBO/Max led the night with six wins, led by the “Hacks” honors, as well as with “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “The Great Lillian Hall” and “Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die.” FX/Hulu was next, with three wins, all for “Shōgun.”

In Los Angeles, Joel Kim Booster hosted this year’s event, while in the East, comedian Roy Wood Jr. served as host.

“I say this seriously: It is a pleasure to return to this post for a second time as we celebrate our nation’s final Black History Month,” Wood, a second-time host, said at the top of his monologue. The comedian went on to take further clear shots at the new presidential administration: “It’s crazy out there. Zuckerberg owns Instagram. Trump owns Zuckerberg. Then Elon bought both of them. Then Putin got the whole set. White people buying white people, that’s progress.”

Wood noted the resilience of the entertainment industry, saying, “We’re here. We survived till ’25. That’s pretty cool.”

“We survived the pandemic, we survived the strikes, we survived the fires… We also survived being forced to know who Justin Baldoni is,” Wood said. “I will be honest with you, I’m still not sure who Justin Baldoni is. I stay out of the white people business. We have survived the mergers and mergers on top of mergers happening, all these mergers. Fox bought Tubi, there’s Freevee, there’s Mubi — they all seem like STDs? ‘I got a Fubo on my Peacock!’”

Among the honorary awards, “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan was tapped to receive the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, while the late David Lynch was honored with the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. Also, RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes received the Paul Sevlin Award, “presented to that member whose script best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties which are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.”

In his speech, Ross lamented the current drive by the Trump administration to roll back decades of Civil Rights advances. “The imagination is the most powerful form of resistance,” he said from the stage in L.A. “Let’s take courage from one another.”

Later, in his speech, Gilligan — the writer behind ultimate antihero Walter White — suggested that given the current political environment, Hollywood needed to write more good guys. “For decades we made the bad guys too sexy,” he said. “Fictional bad guys stopped being the cautionary affairs that they were. They became aspirational. So maybe what the world needs now are some good, old fashioned, Greatest Generation types who give more than they take.”

In New York, Scott Frank was set to be presented with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement by Marielle Heller, while Bill Lawrence was to be presented with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. Kathy McGee was selected to be honored with the Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild by Penelope Koechl.

Among key nominations, Oscar original screenplay nominees Sean Baker (“Anora”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“A Real Pain”) are in the hunt, alongside Justin Kuritzkes for “Challengers,” Alex Garland for “Civil War” and Megan Park for “My Old Ass.” All are first-time WGA nominees. In adapted screenplay, Oscar-nominated “A Complete Unknown” (James Mangold and Jay Cocks) and “Nickel Boys” (RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes) are joined by Richard Linklater and Glen Powell for “Hit Man,” Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts for “Dune: Part Two” and Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox for “Wicked.”

On the television side, FX’s epic adaptation of James Clavell’s “Shōgun,” Netflix’s political thriller “The Diplomat,” and three Prime Video entries — “The Boys,” “Fallout,” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” — led drama, while comedy nominees included ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” FX’s “The Bear” and “What We Do in the Shadows,” and HBO/Max’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and Emmy winner “Hacks.”

The limited series category included HBO/Max’s “The Penguin” and “True Detective: Night Country,” Apple TV+’s courtroom drama “Presumed Innocent,” Netflix’s “Ripley” and Hulu’s political thriller “Say Nothing.”

Presenters appearing at this year’s L.A. awards show included Jordan Firstman, Edwin Lee Gibson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Adele Lim, Justine Lupe, Kyle MacLachlan, Joe Manganiello, Rhea Seehorn, Kiernan Shipka, Lisa Ann Walter, Cedric Yarbrough, and more. Presenters in New York include Jesse Eisenberg, Rosie Perez, Michael McKean, Cory Michael Smith, DeWanda Wise, Ronny Chieng, Adriana Diaz, Meredith Scardino, Cole Escola, Bridget Moynahan, Anette O’Toole and Michael Zegen.

Here are this year’s winners, bolded and noted among the nominees for each category.

Original Screenplay

Adapted Screenplay

Documentary Screenplay

Drama Series

Comedy Series

New Series

Limited Series

TV & Streaming Motion Pictures

Animation

Episodic Drama

Episodic Comedy

Comedy/Variety Series – Talk or Sketch

Comedy/Variety Specials

Quiz and Audience Participation

Daytime Drama

Children’s Episodic, Longform and Specials

Shortform Streaming

Documentary Script

Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas spent an evening together in London.

The “Top Gun” actor, 62, and de Armas, 36, were pictured grabbing dinner in London, according to photos obtained by Daily Mail. While Daily Mail claims the images were taken on Valentine’s Day (Friday), People reports the outing was on Thursday.

The two stars appeared overwhelmed by a swarm of fans during their night out and graciously stopped to chat and take photos with several people in the small crowd.

Both wore casual looks for the evening out. The “Knives Out” actress styled a pair of blue denim jeans with a black blazer. She added a pair of gold ballet pumps to complete her ensemble.

Meanwhile, Cruise wore a grey polo shirt and a navy suit.

The stars exited the restaurant with two bags of food in hand before sharing a taxi ride together.

Cruise was previously in the news for dating Russian socialite Elsina Khayrova. However, sources told us in February 2024 that he “cooled things down” with Khayrova over fears that they were “moving too fast.”

“He wasn’t there yet,” the insider told us at the time.

“Tom wants to go slow with whoever he sees, as he feels he’s been burned by several of his exes.”

Months after the reported breakup, the “Mission: Impossible” star was rumored to have been romantically involved with Spanish singer Victoria Canal.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/02/15/celebrity-news/tom-cruise-62-and-ana-de-armas-36-are-all-smiles-during-valentines-day-outing-in-london/

Beyonce’s post came just hours after a woman who accused Jay Z and Diddy of raping her after an MTV party dropped her lawsuit

BEYONCE left fans in awe as she sizzled in a raunchy new perfume advert, drenched in gold from head to toe.

Singer Beyonce, 42, turned up the heat in the campaign shots, painted in shimmering gold to plug her latest fragrance, Cé Lumière.

In sultry snaps shared to Instagram, the Crazy in Love songstress stared away from the camera, wearing a striking wide-brimmed hat with an armor corset bustier and high-waisted skirt.

In another, she wore a form-fitting dress and matching gold opera gloves while gazing down at the bottle.

Her platinum locks tumbled down to one side of her head as the camera caught her mid-movement.

More saw her holding the perfume in the air against a white spotlight, adding a funky pair of sunglasses to her look.

She simple wrote in her captions: “Love is the only gold,” and: “Sweet like honey.”

Beyonce launched her first fragrance, Heat, in 2010, which became a bestseller and led to multiple spin-offs, including Heat Rush in 2011.

She followed with Pulse the same year and Rise in 2014, inspired by her personal journey and Maya Angelou’s poetry.

After nearly a decade away from fragrances, she returned in 2023 with Cé Noir, a perfume she crafted in France.

Cé Lumière, first dropped in 2024, features notes of black pepper, patchouli, jasmine, and musk, reflecting her evolving artistic vision.

Beyonce’s post came just hours after a woman who accused Jay Z and Diddy of raping her after an MTV party dropped her lawsuit.

Jay Z – real name Shawn Carter – hailed the legal withdrawal as a “victory” after previously blasting the lawsuit as “blackmail”.

The anonymous victim accused the two rappers of raping her at a party following the MTV Video Music Awards in September of 2000.

Documents filed with in New York said the accuser had “volunteraily dismissed” the case “with prejudice” – meaning it cannot be refiled.

It was not immediately clear if the stars had reached a settlement with the woman, who has not been identified.

But 55-year-old billionaire Jay-Z welcomed the closure of the case, which he slammed as “frivolous, fictitious and appalling”.

He said: “This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims.”

“I would not wish this experience on anyone.

“The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”

Jay-Z’s attorney, Alex Spiro, emphasised in a separate statement that the case “never should have been brought”.

He said: “By standing up in the face of heinous and false allegations, Jay has done what few can – he pushed back, he never settled, he never paid one red penny, he triumphed and cleared his name.”

The complaint said Combs and Carter took turns assaulting the plaintiff as another celebrity stood by and watched.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/13551316/beyonce-sizzles-painted-gold-raunchy-perfume-advert/

Vance also accused European governments of suppressing free speech under the guise of fighting misinformation

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized U.S. Vice President JD Vance for comments he made Friday in support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party just days before Germany’s national election

Vance, who was in Munich for the Security Conference, met with AfD party leader Alice Weidel before making a speech where he argued against the long-standing German political practice of isolating the AfD, saying, “There’s no room for firewalls” in a democracy. He also accused European governments of suppressing free speech under the guise of fighting misinformation, AP News reported.

“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation,” Vance said.

Scholz swiftly pushed back, invoking Germany’s history with Nazism as the reason mainstream parties refuse to work with far-right groups.

“Out of the experiences of Nazism, the democratic parties in Germany have a joint consensus — that is the firewall against extreme right-wing parties,” Scholz wrote on social media.

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also condemned Vance’s comments, calling them “unacceptable” and rejecting the notion that Europe’s democracies resemble authoritarian regimes.

“Every opinion has a voice in this democracy,” Postorius insisted, pointing out that Weidel appeared on prime-time German television alongside other candidates one night earlier. “Democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right…Democracy must be able to defend itself against the extremists who want to destroy it.”

Source: https://www.latintimes.com/german-chancellor-rebukes-vance-supporting-far-right-party-experiences-nazism-reason-firewall-575787

A mother and her two-year-old died due to their injuries. Prosecutors had said they believed the suspect had an “Islamist motive.”

A 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter have died two days after they were injured in a car ramming in the southern German city of Munich, officials said on Saturday.

Authorities earlier said that at least 39 people were injured in the Thursday attack, in which a car rammed into a group carrying out a token strike by the trade union Verdi.

Authorities believe suspect had ‘Islamist motive’
Police said on Thursday that the suspected perpetrator, an Afghan citizen, was detained at the scene.

On Friday, German authorities said that they believed the suspect had an “Islamist motive,” while adding that there was no evidence that the incident was tied to any terrorist organizations.

The state of Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Hermann, said authorities did not believe there was any connection with the Munich Security Conference that hosts international leaders.

Hermann told the German DPA news agency that the suspect had a valid German residency and work permit and no criminal record.

The attack came ahead of February 23 elections where migration and security issues have been at the forefront of political campaigns.

Bavaria ‘in mourning’ — premier, Munich mayor
The mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, extended his condolences in a post on Instagram.

“My thoughts are with the family of those murdered and their friends and relatives,” he said, adding that the woman who had died was a municipal employee.

“She and her daughter were murdered as she took the streets for her union rights.”

In a video statement, he called for people commenting on the car ramming incident to express themselves “respectfully” and not to create “political propaganda” out of it.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-2-injured-in-munich-car-ramming-die/a-71624867

Cops are investigating to find if there are more people involved in the attack

A CHILD has been killed and five other people stabbed after a man launched a random knife attack in Austria.

The suspect, 23, said to be a Syrian asylum seeker, was arrested as cops swarmed the central square of southern town Villach.

The victim is said to be a 14-year-old boy.

Images of the arrest show the suspect smiling with his index finger raised as police officers surround him with weapons.

A 42-year-old man who works for a food delivery company witnessed the incident from his car.

He drove toward the suspect and helped to prevent things from getting worse, police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio told Austria’s public broadcaster ORF.

Police said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect acted on his own and therefore continued to search for potential further suspects.

They are now said to be investigating if this was a “terror attack”.

Regional Governor Peter Kaiser described the incident as an “unimaginable atrocity”.

It comes after a mum and her child tragically died today from serious injuries after a suspected Islamist terrorist rammed his Mini Cooper into a crowd in Munich.

The woman, 37, and her two-year-old daughter were among the 39 injured in the “shocking attack” said to be carried out by a rejected Afghan asylum seeker.

The Mini Cooper is said to have “sped up” and ploughed into the back of around 1,500 Verdi demonstrators – a Berlin-based German trade union – on Seidlstrasse in Munich on Thursday.

The suspected attack came just hours before the Munich Security Conference that started on Friday, with US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arriving at the summit to speak.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13553058/child-killed-stabbed-knife-attack-austria/

Sidelined by Angela Merkel in the early 2000s, Friedrich Merz left politics for 20 years until she announced her retirement in 2018.

After a two-year lead in the polls, Friedrich Merz is largely expected to become German chancellor after the country’s election later this month.

Voters will head to the ballot box on 23 February after the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition in November.

A victory for Merz would return German politics to the right and the traditional conservatism of the Christian Democrats.

It would be a remarkable comeback for a man pushed aside by Angela Merkel in the early 2000s and who failed to take charge of his party twice.

He left politics altogether for two decades, working in the private sector and training as a pilot.

Now 69, he seems finally poised to become leader of Europe’s largest economy.

‘Classic, West German conservative’

Friedrich Merz was born in Brilon, in west Germany, in 1955 to a well-known conservative, Catholic family.

His father was a local judge and a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which he decided to join himself as a teenager.

After a brief period of military service, he obtained a scholarship to study law from a political foundation linked to the CDU. There, he met his wife Charlotte, a fellow law student, who still works as a judge. They have three children.

He was a lawyer for much of the 1980s before setting his sights on politics – and being elected to the European Parliament in 1989.

Four years later, and still in his mid-thirties, he traded Brussels for the Bundestag and was elected MP for Hochsauerlandkreis in 1994.

Sidelined by Merkel

Merz quickly ascended the ranks of the CDU, becoming leader of the parliamentary party in 2000.

“Back then, he was the coming man in German politics – a classic West German, Catholic conservative,” Simon Green, professor of politics at the University of Salford, told Sky News.

But Angela Merkel, then the party’s overall leader, blocked his path, and after the CDU lost the 2002 election, replaced him as parliamentary leader as well.

“He embodied the more traditional, right wing of the party,” says Sebastien Maillard, associate fellow at Chatham House’s Europe Programme.

“Merkel was very centrist and by her standards, he was a real conservative – more what one would expect of a Christian Democrat.”

Their rivalry deepened further when the CDU returned to power in 2005 and Merkel became chancellor. Four years later, Merz stepped down as an MP and left politics for corporate law.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/angela-merkels-long-time-rival-on-course-to-become-german-chancellor-13307761

The tennis player initially said he hadn’t done anything wrong but has now accepted a ban which expires in time for him to compete in the Italian and French Opens in May. But it has triggered a furious response from Australian Nick Kyrgios.

Tennis world number one Jannik Sinner has been banned for three months over doping.

The Italian player, 23, twice a Grand Slam champion in 2024, tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol last March, but he blamed accidental contamination following a massage from his physiotherapist.

He has now accepted the ban and settled his case with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The organisation said in a statement: “Mr Sinner will serve his period of ineligibility from 9 February 2025 to 11.59pm on 4 May 2025.”

It means the reigning Australian and US Open champion will be able to return to competitive tennis for his home tournament, the Italian Open in Rome, ahead of the French Open which starts in late May.

That has prompted an angry response from Nick Kyrgios who posted on X: “Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist”.

What’s the background to the case?

Initially, Sinner was cleared of doping in August by an independent tribunal who determined he was not to blame.

The panel accepted Sinner’s explanation that clostebol entered his body as a result of a massage from his physiotherapist, who had used a spray, called Trofodermin, containing the steroid to treat a cut on their finger.

Sinner subsequently fired physio Giacomo Naldi and his trainer Umberto Ferrara, who had supplied Naldi with the over-the-counter spray.

Although Sinner was required to forfeit his 400 ranking points from Indian Wells and prize money, he was able to continue competing.

He went on to win the US Open in September, adding to the Australian Open title he won at the start of the year and successfully defended last month.

But WADA argued the finding of ‘no fault or negligence’ was incorrect. It appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and had been seeking a ban “of between one and two years”.

Tennis star pleaded innocence

Sinner had always maintained his innocence, arguing the amount of clostebol found in his system was less than a billionth of a gram. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said in January.

But on Saturday, Sinner said in a statement: “I have accepted WADA’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three-month sanction.”

“I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love,” he added.

What did WADA say in its latest statement?

WADA said it accepts Sinner “did not intend to cheat and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage”.

“However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/world-number-one-gets-three-month-tennis-ban-for-doping-13309697

The Substance sees Demi Moore playing an Oscar winner turned fitness guru struggling to accept she has been unceremoniously dropped from her TV show because she’s too old. Now, it’s one of the frontrunners of the 2025 awards season.

It’s the bloody body horror that has made audiences squirm in their seats – and is now making waves throughout awards season.

Demi Moore has already won a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award for her performance as fading star Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance – and we’ll find out later on if she gets to add a BAFTA to that list.

The film sees the ’90s icon playing an Oscar winner turned fitness guru struggling to accept she has been unceremoniously dropped from her TV show because she’s too old. She signs up for a secret new medical procedure to create a younger version of herself – without fully understanding what the consequences might be.

Moore stars alongside Margaret Qualley, who plays her younger version. The impact of creating this other “self” – called Sue – on her own body is pretty gruesome.

Director Coralie Fargeat insists her visceral story is more allegory than gory, reflecting the daily violence and sexism women experience throughout life.

“The story was really for me expressing what a life of a woman in our society is in a very genuine way, which is the violence that I think it’s at every level and stage… since we were little girls,” she tells Sky News.

“There are so many pressures that make you feel that if you are not the perfect fantasy or ideal then you don’t deserve to exist. That you have to cut this, hide that, keep it inside, and it is a huge jail that we’ve been raised with and it generates so much violence.”

A few years ago, The Substance might not have been considered traditional awards season fare. But horrors are having a moment, with Heretic and Nosferatu in the running at several ceremonies this year. And the theme of The Substance, a reflection of the harsh realities of ageing for women, especially in Hollywood, is resonating.

The ‘popcorn’ speech

On stage at the Globes, Moore, 62, gave an emotional speech about winning her first major award after 45 years in the business, despite starring in dozens of hit films including Ghost, A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal. The irony was not lost.

“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn’ actress and at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something that I was allowed to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged,” she says.

“I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it, maybe I was complete. I’ve done what I was supposed to do.

“And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance, and the universe told me that you’re not done.”

Moore thanked French filmmaker Fargeat along with her team, and said the film was a reminder “that I do belong”.

Fargeat says she let out “a huge scream of joy” when she found out – saying the nods are particularly satisfying after she initially struggled to secure funding for the film.

“The space that [women] have is still to be pretty, to smile, to be gentle, polite, and I really wanted to be the opposite.”

‘She took risks’

Fargeat is also BAFTA and Oscar-nominated for best director – but once again, is the only female filmmaker in the running.

“Being the only woman director, I still think it tells a lot of things about all the imbalance, you know, the inequality that there is in society,” she says.

“There are as many women in film school as there are men… when you look at the difference between film school and where we are now, like [the absence of women making] second and third feature films. The difference is drastic.”

She was told to tone the film down “a lot”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/demi-moore-took-many-risks-says-director-of-the-substance-13307274

The prime minister warns against allowing “divisions” in the alliance between Europe and the US to distract from “external enemies” and the threat from Russia. His comments come among tensions at a security conference in Munich.

The prime minister has spoken of a “once in a generation moment” for the UK, US and Europe to work together and warned against NATO “divisions” – as two senior American officials head to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK will “work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together” amid the threat faced from Russia.

His comments came after the Ukrainian president cautioned: “The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

Earlier on Saturday, US officials confirmed Europe would not be involved in the upcoming peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Washington also sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO,” said Sir Keir on Saturday night.

“We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”

The French president is thought to be convening crisis talks between European leaders and NATO, which the prime minister will attend.

Sir Keir will then take messages from that meeting to Washington DC when he meets US President Donald Trump the week after, according to Downing Street sources.

During a talk at a security conference in Munich, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said he was “very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris” to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff are thought to be going to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

It comes as US secretary of state Marco Rubio landed in Israel on Saturday evening to begin a diplomatic tour of the Middle East.

He will discuss Gaza and the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel during the trip, after a widely condemned proposal by President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said there had been an agreement to begin negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, after holding phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president alluded to the conversations at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, suggesting Europe should be playing a role in the negotiations as well.

“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

He told world leaders it is time for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, adding his army was “not enough”.

Following his call with President Putin, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social saying: “We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/once-in-a-generation-moment-starmer-vows-to-keep-us-and-europe-together-amid-russia-threat-13310358

It was not immediately clear which European leaders would be invited to the emergency meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron is convening European leaders for an emergency summit in Paris on Monday, according to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

“I’m very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris,” Sikorski said, adding that he expects the European leaders to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“President Trump has a method of operating which the Russians call razvedka boyem —reconnaissance through battle: You push and you see what happens, and then you change your position. … And we need to respond,” the Polish minister said.

The meeting will take place on Monday, according to two EU officials.

It was not immediately clear whether the meeting would involve all EU leaders, or only a smaller group of countries, and if other European leaders like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also be invited.

A French spokesperson was not immediately able to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who was on the panel with Sikorski in Munich, didn’t confirm or deny the emergency summit.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-convenes-european-emergency-summit-in-paris-on-sunday-polish-minister-says/

An anonymous woman who accused Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her in 2000 when she was 13 dismissed her civil lawsuit on Friday against the hip-hop moguls.
A filing in federal court in Manhattan said the plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning she cannot bring it again.
Tony Buzbee, a lawyer for the woman, declined to comment.

President Zelenskyy says the strike was a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation” – a claim Moscow denies.

‘Russian drone’ hits Chernobyl reactor shell
A drone with an explosive warhead has smashed a hole in the radiation shield at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

The plant’s chief engineer, Alexander Titarchuk, said there was a “possibility of a leak of radioactive substances, but the situation is under control”.

“The barrier which was supposed to prevent the spread of radioactive substances has ceased to function according to its original design,” he added.

Emergency crews were seen scaling the roof to repair the damage after a fire briefly broke out.

However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels hadn’t increased after Friday’s incident.

The agency also said there was no damage to the plant’s inner containment shell.

Mr Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference the strike was a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation to the security conference”.

Chernobyl was famously the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986, with radioactive fallout spewing over a large part of Europe.

Its reactors are now encased in a huge protective structure resembling an aircraft hangar.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/russian-drone-smashes-hole-in-chernobyl-shield-and-starts-fire-13309629

Sir Keir Starmer’s position appears to put him at odds with the White House, after Donald Trump said he does not think Russia would allow Ukraine to join NATO.

Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in Kyiv earlier this year. Pic: ReutersUkraine is still on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO, Sir Keir Starmer has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The UK and Ukrainian leaders spoke on the phone early on Friday, according to Downing Street.

The conversation came less than 24 hours after Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he didn’t see any way “that a country in Russia’s position” could allow Ukraine to join NATO.

Mr Trump’s deputy Ukraine envoy John Coale also said on Thursday that NATO membership for Ukraine was still “on the table”.

The US president has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, and has said he wants to start negotiations.

He is also pushing for Europe to provide more support for Kyiv, and the US to spend less.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir began the conversation by “reiterating the UK’s concrete support for Ukraine, for as long as it’s needed”.

They added: “He was unequivocal that there could be no talks about Ukraine, without Ukraine.

“Ukraine needed strong security guarantees, further lethal aid and a sovereign future, and it could count on the UK to step up, he added.

“The prime minister reiterated the UK’s commitment to Ukraine being on an irreversible path to NATO, as agreed by allies at the Washington summit last year.

“Discussing the upcoming third anniversary of Ukraine’s courageous defence of its sovereignty in the face of Russia’s barbaric full-scale invasion, the leaders agreed that it would be an important moment to demonstrate international unity and support for Ukraine.

“The leaders also reflected on the prime minister’s visit to Kyiv last month, and the president updated on his plans at Munich Security Conference.

“They agreed to stay in close contact.”

A statement on Mr Zelenskyy’s social media said: “I informed Prime Minister Starmer about my discussion with President Trump and contacts with the American side. The Ukrainian and American teams must work together with Europeans and all our global partners to achieve concrete results.

“The security of each nation depends on strengthening our collective security. It is crucial that every new week brings tangible results that will ensure a lasting and reliable peace.

“We also discussed an action plan for the near future to shape a common strategy on security, economic cooperation, and political partnership.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/irreversible-path-starmer-contradicts-trump-on-nato-membership-for-ukraine-13309097

Talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. Vice President JD Vance ended in Munich on Friday without an announcement of a critical minerals deal that is central to Kyiv’s push to win the backing of President Donald Trump.
Kyiv came back to the U.S. earlier with a revised draft agreement of the deal that could open up its vast resources of key minerals to U.S. investment, amid concerns in Kyiv over a U.S. version that was presented to Ukraine on Wednesday.

“Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, adding that he had had a “good meeting” with Vance and that Kyiv was “ready to move towards as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace”.
Two members of the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters that “some details” still needed to be worked out.
It was not immediately clear what the sticking point was, but Ukraine is pressing for robust security guarantees from Europe and the United States that would protect it from Russia in the future if a peace deal is reached.

Zelenskiy set out the contours of the deal in a Reuters interview last week, unfurling a map showing numerous mineral deposits and saying he was offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly and not “giving them away”.
The minerals in question would include rare earth varieties, as well as titanium, uranium and lithium among others.
Trump, who has not committed to continuing vital military assistance to Ukraine, has said he wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured”.
Asked earlier if there would be a deal agreed on Friday, Vance had said: “Let’s see.”

Ukraine was presented with a draft accord drawn up by the United States on Wednesday when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent travelled to Kyiv. Zelenskiy said Ukraine would study it with a view to reaching an agreement in Munich.
Bessent told Fox Business Network on Friday that the Trump administration’s plan to end the war would intertwine Kyiv’s economy with the United States, with the U.S. bringing its “best practices” of privatization.
He said: “Part of it starts with intertwining the … Ukrainian economy more with the U.S., and making sure that U.S. taxpayers receive the return for the money they put in.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/ukraine-hands-over-draft-minerals-deal-us-kyiv-source-says-2025-02-14/

OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale and that any future bid would be disingenuous.
The unsolicited approach is Musk’s latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — but later left — from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the artificial intelligence race.

“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity,” it said on X, quoting OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor on behalf of the board.
Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberoff, in a statement, responded that OpenAI is putting control of the for-profit enterprise up for sale, and said the move will “enrich its certain board members rather than the charity.”

OpenAi in late December had outlined plans to revamp its structure, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to make it easier to “raise more capital than we’d imagined,” and remove the restrictions imposed on the startup by its current nonprofit parent.
Altman on Monday had rebuffed the consortium’s offer with a “no thank you” posted on X, prompting Musk to retort: “swindler.” On Tuesday, Altman told news website Axios that OpenAI was not for sale.
Musk’s lawyers, in a court filing on Wednesday, said the consortium, which includes Musk’s own AI startup xAI, would withdraw its bid for OpenAI’s non-profit arm if it drops plans to become a for-profit entity.

“Two days ago, you filed a pleading in court adding new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients’ much publicized ‘bid’ is in fact not a bid at all,” the OpenAI board said, according to a letter signed by William Savitt, a lawyer representing the company, and sent to Toberoff on Friday.
Other investors in the consortium include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital and Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel.
Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years.
After Musk’s departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good.
Musk sued Altman, OpenAI and its biggest backer, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, in August last year for alleged breach of contract.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-board-rejects-musks-974-billion-offer-2025-02-14/

India is likely to seek bids this year for 114 multi-role fighters, two sources said, marking a major step in a process to bolster the country’s stock of combat aircraft that has gone on for nearly two decades.
The project is critical for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly.

On the sidelines of the Aero India aerospace exhibition in Bengaluru, many of the companies who expressed interest in 2018 – when the government last sought planemakers for the project – said they were still in the hunt.
“The Chinese are inducting modern fighters and Pakistanis are also getting some Chinese support whereas the Indian Air Force, in terms of combat squadrons, is deficient. There is no doubt about it,” said Laxman Behera, a defence expert at government-funded Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

“We’ll have to wait and watch.”
Potential competitors for the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) contract include U.S. defence firms Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab and Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), France’s Dassault Aviation (AM.PA), opens new tab, Sweden’s Saab AB (SAABb.ST), opens new tab, and Germany’s Eurofighter.
Companies are preparing supply chain blueprints, scouting for local partners, and ensuring cost effectiveness of their offerings, two executives and three sources told Reuters this week at the exhibition.
Lockheed Martin is trying to sell its F-21, an India-specific variant of its widely used F-16 fighter, to New Delhi for the MRFA, which will be a 4.5 generation aircraft made in India with a local partner.

Separately on Thursday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would eventually sell the country fifth generation F-35 stealth fighters, although India’s foreign secretary said afterward that no formal process had started yet.
“We are encouraged by the recent announcement by President Trump to provide the F-35 to India. However, these are government-to-government decisions. We look forward to working closely with both governments on upcoming strategic procurements,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said.
RUSSIAN SUPPLIES
Lockheed builds F-16 wings at the company’s joint production facility with India’s Tata Group in the southern city of Hyderabad and has plans to use the facility for F-21 jets.
The IAF does not have U.S. fighter jets in its active fleet, but about 50 aircraft are powered by General Electric engines, with 170 more on order.

UAC may have advanced jets on offer, including the stealthy Sukhoi Su-57, a Russian industry source said.
The Su-57 is a generation ahead of the Su-35 and the MiG-35 that were previously on offer for the MRFA and has a more powerful engine, avionics, and radar systems.
Russia has for decades been the main weapons supplier to India, the world’s biggest arms importer. But New Delhi has been diversifying its imports since the war in Ukraine hobbled Moscow’s ability to supply spares to India.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/india-seen-seeking-global-bids-this-year-114-fighters-2025-02-14/

The World Health Organization released new findings on Friday about an “alarming” lack of awareness about alcohol’s link to cancer across Europe and called for clear and prominent tobacco-style warnings in the region with the world’s heaviest drinkers.
The global health agency has repeatedly warned that alcohol causes cancer and has backed clear labelling but has never before been as prescriptive in its call for new government regulations.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Surgeon General also called for warnings of cancer risks on alcoholic drink labels.
Alcohol causes 800,000 deaths across Europe each year but just a fraction of the population is aware of the risks, the WHO’s Europe office said. Its study found that just 15% of respondents knew that alcohol can cause breast cancer and 39% were aware of its link to colon cancer.
“Despite cancer being the leading cause of alcohol-attributable deaths in the European Union (EU), public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer remains alarmingly low,” the WHO said.

Relying on self-regulation, as the industry would prefer, brings the risk that alcohol producers use “inconspicuous placement and ambiguous messaging” or use QR codes which tend to be ignored by shoppers, it said.
Instead, alcoholic drinks should display “clear and prominent health warnings” in written format which could be combined with pictures “to maximise reach and empower consumers with clear, accurate information to make informed choices about their health,” it said.
Pictograms and simple text-only messages can be just as effective as more graphic photographs, a spokesperson said when asked about the types of warnings.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-calls-tobacco-style-cancer-warning-labels-alcoholic-drinks-across-europe-2025-02-14/

Utah students in as early as kindergarten would be required to learn about firearm safety in the classroom under a bill that passed the state House with overwhelming support Friday.

The Republican-controlled chamber approved the measure in a 59-10 vote and sent it to the Senate, despite concerns from some gun violence prevention advocates that it places an undue burden on children.

Under the proposal, public school students would receive mandatory instruction throughout their K-12 years on how to respond if they encounter a gun. The lessons, which could be presented in a video or by an instructor displaying an actual firearm, would demonstrate best practices for safely handling and storing a gun to prevent accidents.

Elementary age children would learn about gun safety on at least three occasions by the time they reach sixth grade, with the possibility for that instruction to begin in kindergarten, when kids are around five years old.

The bill’s Republican sponsor, Rep. Rex Shipp of Cedar City, said it’s aimed at preventing accidental shootings by and of young children. The lessons, he said, will be age-appropriate for each grade level, with younger students learning to avoid touching a gun and alert an adult immediately.

“A lot of times when they don’t have any firearms in their homes or don’t do any hunting and shooting, then these kids are not taught what to do when they come in contact with a firearm,” Shipp said.

One other state, Tennessee, has a law on the books requiring firearm safety training in public schools, but it lets education officials determine in which grade they think it’s appropriate for students to start receiving that instruction. The lessons, set to begin next school year, will be annual and cannot include live firearms or ammunition.

A Utah statute already allows firearm safety to be taught in schools, but Shipp said teachers don’t currently do so. His bill makes it mandatory but allows parents to opt their kids out of the instruction.

If it passes the similarly Republican-led Senate and is signed into law, the lessons would begin next school year.

The effort comes a year after Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill funding tactical training for teachers who want to defend their classrooms with guns. Republican sponsors said it was aimed at incentivizing teachers to carry firearms in schools to protect students. Opponents worried it would increase the likelihood that a student could gain access to a gun.

Gun violence prevention advocates have applauded Utah Republicans this year for growing gun safety education programs, but some argue those lessons should only be aimed at adults.

The proposal unfairly places the responsibility of gun safety on children rather than their parents, said Barbara Gentry of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah.

“Guns and gun safety are the responsibility of the adult gun owner, not school children,” Gentry said. “We support schools sending home materials to parents outlining the importance of safe storage in keeping our families and schools safe from gun violence.”

Jaden Christensen, a volunteer with the Utah chapter of Moms Demand Action, said lawmakers should instead look to grow programs that teach parents the importance of keeping firearms away from children.

“The burden should always be on adults,” Christensen said.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/utah-gun-safety-training-schools-0a8c5ab2d6814cde5804391245a54810

Hamas has released the names of three hostages due to be freed on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, after days of fears over the future of the ceasefire.

They are Russian-Israeli Alexander Troufanov, Argentine-Israeli Yair Horn, and US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen.

Israel has said it will resume bombing if the three are not released on time. The warning came after Hamas said it was postponing the releases in response to alleged Israeli violations of the ceasefire.

President Trump said the ceasefire should be scrapped if Hamas did not release all the hostages held in Gaza by midday on Saturday.

Since the ceasefire began on 19 January, 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released in exchange for 766 prisoners.

During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, a total of 33 hostages should be freed in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

More than 48,230 people have been killed by the Israel offensive in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

There are 73 hostages taken on 7 October who are still being held in Gaza. There are also three other Israeli hostages – one of whom is dead – who have been held in Gaza for a decade or more.

Alexander Troufanov, 29, Yair Horn, 46, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, were all seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz on the edge of Gaza.

The ceasefire has been under strain since it began, with each side taking reciprocal action over alleged violations. Intense efforts by mediators US, Egypt and Qatar have managed to stop it from collapsing.

Israel has been especially infuriated by the staged way hostages have been released – publicly displayed on platforms alongside gunmen and in front of crowds of spectators, before being handed over to the Red Cross in chaotic scenes.

For its part, Hamas has accused Israel of preventing what the group says are the amount of tents and aid lorries required to be let into Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire. Israel denies this.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm213pvdr22o

Warning: This report contains some disturbing details

An Indian court’s ruling that a man’s forced “unnatural sex” with his wife is not an offence has led to huge outrage and sparked renewed calls for better protections for married women.

The controversial order has also brought back into the spotlight the issue of marital rape in a country which has stubbornly refused to criminalise it.

Earlier this week, a high court judge in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh set free a 40-year-old man who was convicted by a trial court in 2019 of rape and unnatural sex with his wife, who died within hours of the alleged assault.

The lower court had also found the man guilty of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”. He was sentenced to “rigorous imprisonment for 10 years” on each count, with all the sentences to run concurrently.

But on Monday, the High Court’s Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas acquitted the man of all charges, saying that since India did not recognise marital rape, the husband could not be considered guilty of non-consensual sex or any non-consensual unnatural sexual act.

The judgement has been met with anger, as activists, lawyers and campaigners renew their calls to criminalise marital rape in India.

“To watch this man walk away is unacceptable. This judgement may be correct legally, but it is ethically and morally abhorrent,” said lawyer and gender rights activist Sukriti Chauhan.

“An order that absolves a man of such a crime, to say it’s not a crime, is the darkest hour in our legal system,” she told the BBC.

“It has shaken us to the core. This needs to change and change quickly.”

Priyanka Shukla, a lawyer in Chhattisgarh, said a judgement like this “sends out the message that because you’re the husband, you have rights. And you can do anything, you can even get away with murder”.

She added that this is not the first time a court has given such a judgement, and there is always anger.

“This time, the outrage is more because it is so gruesome and the woman died.”

The court documents make for grim reading.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of 11 December 2017, when the husband, who worked as a driver, “committed unnatural sex with the victim against her will… causing her a lot of pain”.

After he left for work, she sought help from his sister and another relative, who took her to hospital where she died a few hours later.

In her statement to the police and her dying declaration to a magistrate, the woman said she became ill “due to forceful sexual intercourse by her husband”.

A dying declaration carries weight in court and legal experts say it is generally enough for conviction, unless contradicted by other evidence.

While convicting the man in 2019, the trial court had relied heavily on her dying declaration and the post-mortem report, which stated “the cause of death was peritonitis and rectal perforation” – simply put, severe injuries to her abdomen and rectum.

Justice Vyas, however, saw matters differently – he questioned the “sanctity” of the dying statement, noted that some of the witnesses had retracted their statements and, most importantly, said that marital rape was not an offence in India.

The lower court’s conviction was “a rarest of rare case”, Ms Shukla said, “probably because the woman died”.

“But what is shocking about the high court order is that there’s not even one sympathetic comment from the judge.”

Considering the nature of the assault, the high court’s order has come as a shock for many, who believe the judge should not have dismissed the case so lightly.

India is among more than 30 countries – along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia – where marital rape is not a criminal offence.

A number of petitions have been filed in recent years seeking to strike down Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which has been in existence since 1860.

The British colonial-era law mentions several “exemptions” – or situations in which sex is not rape – and one of them is “by a man with his own wife” if she is not under 15 years.

Britain outlawed marital rape in 1991 but India, which recently rewrote its criminal code, retained the regressive law in its new statute book.

The idea is rooted in the belief that consent for sex is “implied” in marriage and that a wife cannot retract it later. Campaigners say such an argument is untenable in this day and age, and that forced sex is rape, regardless of who does it.

But in a country where marriage and family are considered sacrosanct, the issue has polarised opinions and there’s strong resistance to the idea of criminalising marital rape.

The Indian government, religious leaders and men’s rights activists have strongly opposed the move.

In October last year, the government told the Supreme Court that criminalisation of marital rape would be “excessively harsh”. The federal home ministry said it “may lead to serious disturbances in the institution of marriage”.

Authorities also insist that there are enough laws to protect married women against sexual violence. But campaigners say India cannot hide behind archaic laws to deny women bodily agency.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm29drxjlxmo

No more “Bad Blood.”

Lorne Michaels claims Taylor Swift once asked him to kill a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that poked fun at the singer’s “girl squad” — but he stood his ground and refused.

In a new interview with Vulture, the “SNL” creator recalled the time he contacted Swift’s management team with a request for the pop superstar to make a surprise cameo on the show. The sketch he wanted Swift for would be a spoof of her “Bad Blood” music video, reimagined as an apocalyptic cult in 2015.

Michaels, 80, claimed that Swift, 35, subsequently called him directly and asked him to cut the sketch, while also telling him she would not be making a cameo.

Michaels told the outlet that he listened to Swift’s points, but he ultimately decided that he wanted to do the sketch anyway.

“Taylor, I do not negotiate with terrorists,” Michaels allegedly told her at the time.

After the sketch aired, Michaels received a bouquet of flowers in his office from the “Cruel Summer” singer.

“I hope there’s no bad blood,” Swift wrote on the note.

Both Michaels and Swift seemed to take the sentiment to heart, since Swift appeared as show’s musical guest in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

She also made a surprise cameo to introduce Ice Spice as the musical guest in 2023.

The “Bad Blood” spoof starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as they formed their “Dope Squad” with guests Amy Schumer, Gayle King and Robert Downey Sr.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/02/14/entertainment/taylor-swift-asked-lorne-michaels-to-cut-bad-blood-sketch-from-snl-but-he-refused/

Critics argue that Nepal’s proposed social media bill could stifle free speech, with provisions that grant the government sweeping powers to regulate online content.

Nepal, whose constitution guarantees press freedom, is considered one of the freest countries in Asia. In 2024, the Himalayan nation ranked 74th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

However, a new bill aimed at regulating social media has raised concerns over its potential impact on freedom of speech.

Critics argue that its vague provisions could suppress political dissent and contradict constitutionally protected rights.

The government claims that the bill aims to promote decency and transparency online. It mandates social media account registration for various firms and grants authorities the power to remove “indecent” or “misleading” content.

The bill, which seeks to “oversee the operation, usage, and regulation of social media,” proposes banning social media organizations that don’t register in Nepal.

It proposes hefty fines and up to five years imprisonment for spreading false information, and criminalizes posting on social media anonymously or under a false identity.

What does the bill propose?
The proposed legislation requires every social media platform operating in Nepal — such as Facebook, X, and others — to obtain operating permissions in order to function in the country.

Likewise, it outlines restrictions on social media usage, prohibiting activities that are detrimental to national interests, including cyberbullying, extortion, hacking, and privacy violations.

It also prohibits users posting obscene or graphic content, defamatory remarks, trolling with offensive words, images or audiovisuals intended to harm someone’s reputation, as well as hate speech.

While rights activists acknowledge the need for some regulation, they argue that such measures should be implemented through a self-regulation and public awareness approach rather than government control and punitive measures.

“The bill should focus on creating an enabling environment for self-regulation and promoting digital literacy, rather than imposing strict government control,” Rukamanee Maharjan, assistant professor at Nepal Law Campus, told DW.

“Unfortunately, the bill is drafted from a crime-and-punishment perspective, criminalizing actions such as spreading rumors, using pseudonyms, or creating social media accounts without prior government approval,” she added.

She warned that the bill could lead to self-censorship among intellectuals and disproportionately impact those who are less digitally literate and may inadvertently share misleading content.

“Sexual and gender minorities, such as the LGBTQ+ community, often rely on anonymous handles to share their woes and experiences,” she added.

“This bill could suppress their voices by criminalizing anonymity with vague definitions and excessive government control.”

Bill ‘could curb criticism’
Many critics suspect the bill is intended to silence dissent and curb public criticism, which has been growing due to the government’s poor performance despite its strong parliamentary majority.

While social media influencers have launched the hashtag #BolnaDeSarkar (Let us speak, government), major political parties and mainstream news media organizations have largely remained silent.

Taranath Dahal, chairman of Freedom Forum Nepal, told DW that opposition parties have no reason to speak up against the bill as they pushed similar measures when they were in power.

He said mainstream media might also feel that their audience and revenue has decreased due to the wide use of social media.

“I believe they would understand its larger implications, which aim to regulate all internet-based communications that includes journalism as well, with punitive measures, ” said Dahal, who is also a former chair of Federation of Nepali Journalists.

“If approved, it will suppress dissent and [target] political opponents.”

Dahal argues that the bill contradicts key constitutional principles, including press freedom and freedom of expression.

“From its vague definition of social media to its sweeping provisions, the bill is deeply flawed. It approaches regulation from a criminal perspective rather than treating it as a civil matter,” Dahal noted.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/nepals-social-media-bill-raises-free-speech-concerns/a-71595277

She said a security guard accused her of being ‘engaged in criminal activity’

AN INFLUENCER has won £16,000 after Zara staff pulled back her changing room curtain as she tried on clothes.

TikToker Krystal Joyce, 20, was left distraught after a female security guard opened the partition while she was half-dressed at the store in Blanchardstown shopping centre, Dublin.

The content creator, who shares her life on the platform as an Irish traveller, was paid €20,000 in damages by Zara and the security company.

Krystal told Dublin Circuit Civil Court she had been questioned in front of other customers while standing half-dressed in her cubicle.

She claimed the security guard accused her of being “engaged in criminal activity” in front of other shoppers.

The 20-year-old argued this constituted as defamation because it could affect her image and job as an influencer.

A judge ruled in her favour and awarded the TikToker, who he said gave “honest and forthright evidence”, the large lump sum.

The court heard how Krystal asked to leave after feeling upset and embarrassed but was forced to stay on the shop floor.

Her barrister Esther Earley said she was being “interrogated” and a written report of the incident was “falsified” by the retail giant.

She said Krystal had merely been taking photos of her outfits while trying them on.

The barrister said the influencer enjoyed showing off new clothes to her followers, and sharing where they could buy them.

Judge Roderick Maguire said: “I find Ms Joyce was a truthful witness and was particularly upset because she has a social media presence through which she does her best to raise awareness for the Travelling community of which she is a member.”

He continued: “This was a public place she was used to frequenting and in the habit of trying on clothes. I accept there were other people there, and I fully accept her evidence.”

The judge also slammed Zara’s defence and testimonies from their eye-witnesses due to “glaring inconsistencies” in evidence.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13541179/traveller-tiktoker-wins-thousands-zara-staff-curtain-changing-room/

Barack and Michelle campaigned with Kamala Harris separately during the 2024 election campaign

QUESTIONS still continue to swirl about Barack and Michelle Obama’s marriage after he shared a snap of the couple on Valentine’s Day.

The former president paid tribute to Michelle as he said she still takes his breath away.

Obama revealed that he and Michelle have been together for 32 years.

Michelle shared the same picture on her Instagram feed and described Obama as her “rock.”

“Always have been. Always will be. Happy Valentine’s Day, honey!” she captioned the post.

But in recent weeks, there has been intense speculation about the health of their marriage.

And some critics wasted no time in bringing up the subject of their relationship after Obama uploaded the picture on X.

They suggested that Obama had to share the snap to squash the speculation.

“Thought y’all were getting divorced for a second – had me worried,” one X user said.

Baseless speculation has been swirling for months that Obama and actress Jennifer Aniston had a secret romance.

She emphatically shut down the rumors during a sit-down on Jimmy Kimmel’s show in October.

Aniston responded to a magazine’s front page that said, “The Truth about Jen and Barack!”

“There’s no truth. I’ve met him once,” she told Kimmel.

“I know Michelle more than him.”

Aniston’s representative said the star doesn’t have a “personal friendship” with Obama.

The Valentine’s Day snap is not the first time there has been chatter about the Obamas’ marriage.

Last month, Obama appeared to fuel speculation about his marriage when he shared an awkward-looking picture of the pair holding hands

The couple, celebrating Michelle’s birthday, were inside a wine cellar.

“Happy birthday to the love of my life, Michelle Obama. You fill every room with warmth, wisdom, humor, and grace – and you look good doing it,” the caption underneath the image said.

“I’m so lucky to be able to take on life’s adventures with you. Love you!”

Michelle replied to the post, saying: “Love you, honey.”

In the picture, Obama had a beaming smile on his face and was sporting a gray shirt and smart dark trousers.

Meanwhile, Michelle sported a black v-neck dress and completed her look with a patterned headpiece.

However, the distance between Obama and Michelle proved a talking point.

One critic dissected the photo and suggested their smiles seemed unnatural.

“Are you two separated? Her smile looks fake,” another social media user asked.

OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT
Michelle has been out of the public eye in recent weeks.

She did not attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral or Donald Trump’s inauguration last month.

Her team confirmed she was still on an extended vacation in Hawaii.

Without his wife by his side, Obama was seen engaged in conversation with Trump at Carter’s funeral.

During the 2024 presidential election cycle, Obama and Michelle warmly embraced onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Obamas endorsed Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee, but they campaigned with the then vice president separately.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13544426/barack-obama-michelle-divorce-conspiracy-theory-valentines-day/

The dad of one of the 17 people murdered in the shocking Parkland school shooting talks to The U.S. Sun about the push for change

SEVEN years ago today, the city of Parkland suffered unimaginable heartache.

Valentine’s Day represents a day of global love, yet in this small corner of South Florida, there will forever be pain and despair on February 14.

THE DARKEST OF DAYS
On this day in 2018, 17 innocent lives were brutally cut short by sick former student Nikolas Cruz, who strode into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and mercilessly sprayed the classrooms with a hail of bullets.

Deranged Cruz pled guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, forever marking the darkest day in Florida’s history.

The 24-year-old was hammered with a life term for each of the 34 counts read by the judge, but the jury recommended life in prison with no parole rather than the death penalty.

The final death toll was 14 students and three members of staff. Yet the agony for those affected is everlasting.

Max Schachter’s beloved 14-year-old son Alex was among the victims.

The former insurance company owner’s life was turned upside down when the horrific news began to break.

There had already been heartbreak in his life – his first wife passed away when their son was just four years old, and after remarrying and moving to Parkland, fresh tragedy was to follow.

Yet as he speaks to The U.S. Sun ahead of the seventh commemoration of Alex’s tragic passing, Schachter’s message is hope for a brighter future.

The Florida native has become a relentless crusader for tougher gun laws, fighting for change in Florida and beyond. His mission is to ensure safety for all students everywhere.

But for now, he says, the Sunshine State is leading the way.

FUTURE HOPE
Max sits on the Parkland Shooting Commission, which was formed by Governor Ron DeSantis after the tragedy. They meticulously investigated the shooting and produced recommendations to make schools safer.

“What we’ve been doing is unique,” he told The U.S. Sun, “Florida leads the nation in school safety efforts.”

He says every year since the Parkland shooting, a new school safety law has been passed, which is not just recommended – they are mandated by law.

“Schools have to take it seriously or face serious consequences,” he said.

For the record, I live in South Florida, and without the help of Max and his fellow advocates — Democrat congressman Jared Moskowitz is also a local resident and has been vociferously outspoken on the subject — my daughter’s school, for example, wouldn’t have an armed guard stationed outside keeping kids safe daily.

The impact of the tragedy on Florida’s leaders was huge.

The most significant school safety bill in the state’s history —the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act — was passed after constant analysis and refinement of implemented policies.

“I made clear when I arrived in Washington that I would not bow to decades of inaction on school safety,” said Moskowitz.

“Too many families fear for their child’s safety at school, and Congress ought to be listening to them to enact urgently needed reforms to protect our classrooms.”

“Our government failed the community at Marjory Stoneman Douglas that day, and families across the nation who have faced other tragic instances of school violence.”

“I’m working with colleagues across the aisle to bolster school security, improve emergency notification systems, and keep students and teachers safe.”

Max, meanwhile, has also been instrumental in creating the school safety dashboard, which, he says, is the first of its kind in Florida.

Parents are given real-time information about what’s happening in schools—data on bullying, violence, weapons, and discipline numbers. Access to this information can then crucially aid informed conversations with school districts if problematic trends appear.

“Transparency is key to improving school safety,” said Max. “We know these individuals often show warning signs before something happens. If we can catch that early and use our systems effectively, we can prevent much harm, even if we can’t stop everything.”

SICKENING STATS
Since 2018, the statistics have been alarming.

Education Week has reported 221 school shootings through December 2024 — including a staggering 39 alone in 2024.

Of those, over two-thirds happened outdoors, making it harder for security to step in before it’s too late.

Last year, there was at least one shooting per month.

While Max enthuses about the strides made in his home state, he fears for the rest of the country.

“Yes, I’m worried about other states,” he continued. “It’s not a question of if, but when and where the next tragedy will occur. These individuals don’t just snap overnight—they exhibit concerning behavior over time.”

“If we can teach people to identify that behavior and implement multidisciplinary threat-assessment teams, we can prevent many tragedies or limit the damage.”

When he last spoke to The U.S. Sun in July last year, the building where the killings occurred was finally being torn down.

It had been frozen in time since that fateful day, and a crime scene was maintained to assist prosecutors and jurors.

Max recalled how, despite it sparking unspeakable agony, to have a prime example of how the shooting played out was critical in helping shape how to refine safety protocols moving forward.

He was able to take governors and government officials on emotional classroom walkthroughs where his son and 16 others were killed.

It graphically showed visitors what happened and how to make sure it won’t happen again.

“It’s excruciatingly painful to see Alex’s blood all over the chair and to see how he died,” he said.

But despite such a harrowing reminder of his beloved son’s death, Max was keen for the authorities to keep the building to help further educate some areas of the country that sadly remain ambivalent when pressed on the issue of gun crimes in school.

Last year, for example, Utah officials were taken around the halls of horror during a grueling six-hour visit before confirming a new $200 million safety program.

It was razed to the ground eight months ago, despite Max’s best efforts to persuade the authorities to think outside of the box. He said the current superintendent “didn’t want to keep it.”

“That building was the best tool we had to teach others about the tragedy of Parkland,” he said.

“That Utah bill would never have happened if we hadn’t used that building as a tool to change minds. I understand their decision, but there’s nothing like bringing people through that building to change their perspective truly. I was upset when it was knocked down.”

Max is also the founder of Safe Schools for Alex, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the best school safety practices to communities nationwide.

The threat is constant, yet the push for change – and to keep his son’s memory alive – remains.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13539935/marjory-stoneman-douglas-high-school-parkland-shooting-victims-parents/

The White House has sparked outrage for attacking the free press by banning Associated Press journalists from covering President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One and in the Oval Office.

The all-out suppression effort had been building all week as the Trump administration barred AP White House correspondents and photographers from certain events because of the news organization’s decision to stick with the four-centuries-old name “Gulf of Mexico” over Trump’s newly named “Gulf of America.”

Washington news organizations denounced the apparent assault on freedom of speech and braced for more to come.

“The actions taken to restrict AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a geographic location chip away at this important right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for all Americans,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement.

The New York Times, in a statement quoted by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, condemned the White House move as being “at odds with the press freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”

And New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker highlighted the unprecedented nature of Trump’s stifling of words that don’t conform with what many critics see as his emerging autocratic rule.

While some have called for other news outlets to boycott the White House press briefings in a show of solidarity, Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple pointed out that doing so would be counterproductive: “Who’d interrogate Trump officials about their actions against the AP?”

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-blacklists-ap-news-for-writing-gulf-of-mexico/

Ashley St. Clair, a 26-year-old right-wing influencer, contributor to conservative satirical news site The Babylon Bee and semi-regular guest on Fox News, took to X late Friday night to claim that she recently had a child with Elon Musk.

She wrote, “Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father. I have not previously disclosed this to protect our child’s privacy and safety, but in recent days it has become clear that tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause.”

St. Clair ended her statement with a request for the media to honor their child’s privacy and refrain from invasive reporting. The statement was accompanied by a Latin phrase, “Alea iacta est,” which means “The die is cast.” It is unclear which media outlet or story prompted St. Clair to publish her statement.

Conservative figures like Jack Posobiec, his wife Tanya Tay, Mike Cernovich and Candace Owens all sent St. Clair their support via X.

“Children should always be off limits,” wrote right-wing commentator Owens, who has long been plagued by accusations of antisemitism, before adding: “Journalists are parasites.” In response to Cernovich’s comment that “There is no low that they [the media] won’t go to,” St. Clair responded, “Doxxing a baby is pretty bottom of the barrel.”

Musk, who has yet to confirm St. Clair’s news, is already a father of 12 children with three women. The DOGE director has six children with his first wife, Justine; three with musician Grimes; and three with former Neuralink director of operations Shivon Zilis—the youngest of whom was born in June 2024.

Grimes—the mother of X Æ A-12, who has recently been photographed visiting the Oval Office with Musk—has been using X (the social media platform) to express her discomfort with Musk using their son as a prop, writing, “He should not be in public like this,” in response to their son’s latest appearance at the White House.

Musk has yet to publicly comment on St. Clair’s post, though he has been tweeting relentlessly since she published her statement, and clearly has babies on the brain:

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-influencer-elon-musk-is-the-father-of-my-5-month-old/

A BAD radio transmission may have caused the horrific mid-air crash between a passenger plane and a military helicopter that killed 67, the National Transportation Safety Board has revealed.

Investigators discovered muffled messages and mismatched altitude readings after pulling data from the wreckage that plunged into the Potomac River in Washington DC on January 29.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy held a press conference on Friday and revealed what the agency has discovered while investigating the cause of the deadly crash.

She said the Black Hawk didn’t receive a crucial message sent just 17 seconds before it slammed into the American Airlines flight.

A Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport air traffic controller had urgently asked the Black Hawk pilot to “pass behind the” plane, but that message wasn’t heard on recordings recovered from the chopper’s flight data systems. It’s believed the Black Hawk crew’s microphone key was pressed at that exact moment.

“That transmission was interrupted – it was stepped on,” she said, adding they may have never heard the words “pass behind the.”

The pilots also could have missed the tower saying the American Airlines jet was shifting to a different runway.

The Black Hawk was on a mandatory annual training mission to test Army pilots’ night flying skills.

The crew was wearing night vision goggles and using instruments for flight readings.

At another point before the crash, the pilot reported to the controller that they were flying at 300 feet while the instructing pilot said the helicopter was at 400.

“At this time, we don’t know why there was a discrepancy between the two,” Homendy said.

The NTSB is still investigating whether the helicopter pilots were getting inaccurate readings.

“We are looking at the possibility there may be bad data,” she said.

The agency restricted helicopter activity around the airport after the crash and they’re now looking at whether this change should be permanent.

Friday’s update came just over a week after Senator Ted Cruz, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, claimed a key safety system on the Black Hawk was turned off.

The NTSB declined to comment on the claim at the time.

The board still insists that US air travel is impeccably safe.

HORROR TRAGEDY

Washington DC’s ink-black waters and frigid temperatures left passengers with little chance of survival and the rescue mission quickly turned into a recovery operation.

Brave crews spent days diving through razor-sharp metal debris as they pulled bodies from the river and identified the victims.

The crash took place in “helicopter alley,” which earned its name from being a pre-approved route for Army missions.

Children, world-class athletes, and a group of hunting buddies were all on the plane that came crashing into a deadly spiral.

A large portion of the flight from Wichita, Kansas, was coming from the US National Championships for ice skating.

Teen skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane boarded the plane with their mothers and their coaches – Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Little sisters Alydia and Everly Livingston, who were 11 and 14 years old, were also on the doomed flight.

Another victim, 30-year-old Kiah Duggins, was a former Miss Kansas contestant and Harvard Law graduate who previously worked as an intern for Michelle Obama.

Source :  https://www.the-sun.com/news/13547877/washington-dc-crash-update-black-hawk-helicopter/

Vance’s speech — which focussed on key themes of Trump’s election campaign — was a combative broadside at the Munich Security Conference at a time of transatlantic discord over Ukraine, defence and trade.

Vance stressed that Europe must “step up” in managing its own security, a key bone of contention. But he mostly lambasted the EU’s members on culture war issues.

“There is a new sheriff in town under Donald Trump’s leadership,” said Vance in a speech that stunned the room, and was later condemned as “unacceptable” by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

Vance slammed EU “commissars” for stifling free expression and charged that “across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat”.

Trump, speaking in Washington, doubled down on Vance’s attack on traditional US allies.

“I heard his speech. He talked about freedom of speech. And I think it’s true in Europe,” the president told reporters at the White House. “They’re losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech.

“And he talked about immigration, and Europe has a big immigration problem.”

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had earlier made clear that Berlin’s relationship with Washington had sharply deteriorated since Trump’s return.

“The new American administration has a very different world view to ours,” Steinmeier said. “One that has no regard for established rules, partnership and established trust.”

Immigration

The German head of state urged European leaders to keep calm in the face of a blizzard of disruptive policy announcements from Washington.

“We must not freeze in fear, or as the English saying goes: Let’s not be a deer caught in the headlights.”

Vance, undeterred, in a later speech urged European countries, including conference host Germany, which faces elections on February 23, to “change course” on immigration.

His remarks came a day after a 24-year-old Afghan man was arrested in Munich over a car-ramming attack that wounded 36 people.

“How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilisation in a new direction?” he said.

“Why did this happen in the first place? It’s a terrible story but it’s one we’ve heard way too many times in Europe and unfortunately too many times in the United States as well.

“An asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid-20s already known to police, rams a car into a crowd and shatters a community.”

Defending political parties that oppose immigration and their supporters, Vance added: “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”

‘Meddling’

Germany warned Friday against foreign “meddling” in its politics after Vance also called for a bigger role for Europe’s anti-immigration parties, nine days before the German general election.

Vance told the Wall Street Journal: “Unfortunately, the will of voters has been ignored by a lot of our European friends.”

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) looks set for its best-ever result of around 20 percent in the election and has received enthusiastic backing from tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk.

Vance met on the sidelines of the conference with AfD leader Alice Weidel, according to German press.

Source : https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20250214-new-sheriff-in-town-vance-tells-europe

Three months after President Donald Trump announced Elon Musk would head up a cost-cutting initiative, and nearly a month after its official creation, the White House has not made public an ethics form disclosing the tech billionaire’s finances or his conflicts of interest.

Trump has classified Musk in a category of temporary federal worker that is required to fill out the same ethics form as Cabinet officials, according to ethics law experts who spoke to USA TODAY. And he’s required to file it publicly, they said.

But while confirmed appointees who run other agencies for Trump have not only filled out disclosure forms but reached agreements to divest from their conflicts of interest, the federal ethics website doesn’t show any such disclosure or agreement for Musk.

Ethics forms filed by cabinet members including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are already available to the public.

Elizabeth Horton, a spokesperson for the Office of Government Ethics, said her office does not discuss specific individuals.

“He is filing the proper financial disclosure, and he is complying with all applicable federal laws,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said of Musk on Wednesday. “We’re very confident with the ethics and the guardrails that have been put in place here.” The White House did not respond to an inquiry asking if Musk had completed the task.

Requirements for special government employees

The White House announced Feb. 3 that Musk would be designated as a special government employee. That’s someone who works for the federal government, but only for about a third of the year. His Department of Government Efficiency is based inside the White House.

“People who exercise power in the executive branch, who have a discretion and can affect the financial well-being of others in the executive branch, have to file publicly available financial disclosure forms,” said Kathleen Clark, an ethics professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. “And that has not happened.”

Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School who previously served on New York City’s conflicts of interest board, had the same read of federal law. He said Musk is required to file ethics disclosures publicly, just like Cabinet appointees.

Briffault said special government employees can get waivers from filling out financial disclosures if it’s unlikely the person’s government work or outside employment would create a conflict of interest. “It strikes me that given his widespread interest, that probably would be a hard standard to meet,” he said of Musk.

At a press conference Wednesday, Leavitt did not confirm or deny whether Trump signed a waiver for Musk.

On Monday morning, Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said he’d sent letters to the ethics office and the White House asking whether Musk has filled out a financial disclosure, and whether an official in the White House issued a waiver.

“If Elon Musk is now a government employee, he is subject to conflicts of interest law,” Schiff wrote on X, which Musk owns. “Requirements he seems to be completely ignoring. The American people deserve answers and accountability.”

Later that day, Trump fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics, who was confirmed under former President Joe Biden. The agency maintains a public database of financial disclosure forms and ethics agreements that top government employees have filed, including Trump’s Cabinet appointees.

Clark said there are thousands of government employees, such as those who oversee grant contracts, who are allowed to file their financial disclosures confidentially. Even more don’t have to file forms at all.

But she said Musk doesn’t fit either category.

“There is no more powerful person in the federal government right now actively exercising power than Elon Musk,” she said.

Musk, Trump respond to ethics concerns

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Musk said members of the public would be outspoken if they saw him taking actions that present a conflict of interest. “I mean, you can see,” he said. “Am I doing something that benefits my companies or not? It’s totally obvious.”

Trump added, “We would not let him do that segment or look in that area if we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest, and we watch that also. He’s a big businessman. He’s a successful guy. That’s why we want him doing this. We don’t want an unsuccessful guy doing this.”

Source : https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/14/elon-musk-public-financial-disclosure-form/78533975007/

The U.S. has made some strides toward reaching racial equality since the days of the civil rights movement.

But President Donald Trump has made ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives a priority under his administration. As the president has instructed federal agencies to end related programming and dismiss relevant employees, major companies like Target and Google have followed suit in rolling back their own DEI initiatives.

Both historically and now, it’s reasonable that many Black residents in the U.S. are saying they feel the American Dream is not a viable pursuit for them.

In fact, 75% of Black Americans report experiencing discrimination from time to time, if not regularly, according to a 2023 Pew Research survey. And 67% of Black adults say the U.S. political system was designed to hold Black people back.

Leaving the U.S. may not be a solution to racism, which certainly exists in other countries. Plus, it can be expensive or difficult to secure a job that lets you work abroad. But many of the Black expats CNBC Make It has spoken with report greater senses of security and more overall happiness.

Below, three Black Americans who moved abroad share their experiences.

I get to ‘exist in peace’

Cara West and her family relocated to the Greek island of Syros in 2024. She says the regularity and tragedy of school shootings in the U.S. was a large motivator for her to look for safer places to raise her daughter, but she says she found more security and acceptance for herself as a Black woman living abroad as well.

“I just get to exist in peace and I’m not worried about someone following me around at the store or treating me differently because of my skin color,” West recently told CNBC Make It.

The content creator and luxury travel concierge spent time living nomadically in several different places, including Portugal and Belize, before settling in Greece, and she “always felt welcomed,” she said. “I’m really seen first as an American, and not necessarily for the color of my skin.”

West often gets questions from her Black viewers about moving abroad. Many just don’t know where to start.

“I hope that the content that I create and the experiences that I’m able to showcase on my platform really helps people understand where there are safe places for Black Americans who are looking to either travel or to live abroad,” she said.

‘You’re celebrated’

Like West, Jamal Robinson says he’s seen more as an “American first” than a Black man when traveling, he recently told CNBC Make It. He retired in 2024 from his corporate tech career at just 39 and currently lives in Dubai, where he says he’s “much happier.”

“My experience has been very different than what I’m used to in America,” he said. ”[In the U.S.,] you’re typically identified as a Black person first, and then after that you’re an engineer or a janitor or whatever they want to label you as.”

In addition to seeing Black Americans as just Americans, Robinson said when he’s been in places where locals aren’t used to seeing Black people, “it’s almost like you’re celebrated.”

“People will come up to you and they want to talk and engage with you,” he said. “For the first time in my life, [it’s been] a privilege to be a Black person, and it’s been really beneficial, the reception that I’ve received as I’ve traveled around.”

Shedding the idea that ‘it always has to be about my skin color’

Both being American and being Black are rare characteristics for people living in Iceland. But Jewels Chambers, a Black woman who’s lived there since 2016, says that hasn’t been a problem.

“Living in Iceland has 1,000% had an amazing impact on my mental health,” she told CNBC Make It in 2024. “The nature aspect has helped me in so many ways, shedding this idea that it always has to be about my skin color has helped.”

While she doesn’t deny that racism exists in Iceland, Chambers says she’s been fortunate not to experience it herself. Through her podcast and YouTube channel, “All Things Iceland,” she shares what life is like as an expat and wants her audience to see the positive impact living there has had on her life.

Source : https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/14/black-expats-share-experiences-living-abroad.html

 

Argentina’s government plans to revoke all permits for marijuana cultivation for medicinal use, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced in an interview on Thursday.

“Some believe it does no harm, but it has become a very dangerous drug. THC—the substance that changes your neurology—in Argentina is 18%, while the one legalized in Uruguay is accepted up to 2%. It is like a transgenic soybean,” Bullrich said. “We have had a very serious problem.”

As part of a broader policy shift, the government plans to “start from scratch” regarding marijuana cultivation permits. Bullrich said she has already formed a team, with the help of the Ministry of Health, to review all previously granted marijuana cultivation permits.

A key aspect of the new policy is the elimination of the Cannabis Registry Program (REPROCANN), the official system that allows individuals to grow marijuana for medical use with a doctor’s prescription. Approved users can either grow marijuana themselves, have a third party grow it for them, or purchase it from authorized pharmacies. The program also allows for the transport of up to 40 grams.

According to Bullrich, the previous administration under President Alberto Fernández issued over 300,000 marijuana cultivation permits. The government claims to have found major irregularities in the system. Bullrich pointed to one case where a man was authorized to grow 18 marijuana plants but was found cultivating 18,000.

The debate over medical cannabis has intensified in Argentina over the past several years. In 2017, a law was passed establishing a framework for marijuana research and use. By 2020, REPROCANN was introduced, allowing individuals to grow cannabis for medical use under controlled conditions. Pharmacies were also permitted to sell cannabis products, and health insurers were required to cover cannabis-based prescriptions.

In 2022, Fernández expanded the regulatory framework with a new law that created the National Regulatory Agency for Hemp and Medical Cannabis Industry to oversee cannabis-related activities.

President Javier Milei has voiced support for drug legalization, including marijuana, arguing that consumption is a personal choice in which the state shouldn’t intervene. However, he has also likened drug use to “euthanasia in installments.”

“If you want to commit suicide, I have no problem with that, but don’t ask me to pay the bill. If you’re not going to take responsibility for your decisions, it seems unfair to me,” he said during his campaign.

Source : https://reason.com/2025/02/14/argentina-to-revoke-all-medical-marijuana-cultivation-permits/

India and the U.S. agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more U.S. oil, gas and military equipment and fight illegal immigration.
The series of agreements emerged after talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, just hours after Trump railed against the climate for U.S. businesses in India and unveiled a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs on countries that put duties on U.S. imports.

“Prime Minister Modi recently announced the reductions to India’s unfair, very strong tariffs that limit us access to the Indian market, very strongly,” Trump said. “And really it’s a big problem I must say.”
The deal to resolve trade concerns could be done within the next seven months, said India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
A joint statement after the meeting said Washington welcomed New Delhi’s recent steps to lower tariffs on select U.S. products and increase market access to U.S. farm products, while seeking to negotiate the initial segments of a trade deal by the fall of 2025.

While both leaders “had their perspectives” on tariffs, “what is more remarkable…is the fact that we have a way forward on this issue,” Misri said.
Some of the leaders’ agreements are aspirational: India wants to increase by “billions of dollars” its purchases of U.S. defense equipment and may make Washington the “number one supplier” of oil and gas, Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi.

And Delhi wants to double trade with Washington by 2030, Modi said. Long-planned cooperation on nuclear energy, also discussed by the leaders, faces ongoing legal challenges.
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” said Trump.
Misri, the Indian official, later said the F-35 deal was a proposal at this point, with no formal process underway. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on any deal.

WHAT TRUMP WANTS

Although Trump had a warm relationship with Modi in his first term, he again said on Thursday that India’s tariffs were “very high” and promised to match them, even after his earlier levies on steel and aluminum hit metal-producing India particularly hard.
“We are being reciprocal with India,” Trump said during the press conference. “Whatever India charges, we charge them.”
Modi vowed to protect India’s interests.

“One thing that I deeply appreciate, and I learn from President Trump, is that he keeps the national interest supreme,” Modi said. “Like him, I also keep the national interest of India at the top of everything else.”
The two leaders praised each other and agreed to deepen security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a thinly veiled reference to competition with China, as well as to start joint production on technologies like artificial intelligence.
Asked before the meeting about the steps India was taking, one source described it as a “gift” for Trump designed to lower trade tensions. A Trump aide said that the president sees defense and energy sales to India lowering the U.S. trade deficit.
India’s energy purchases from the U.S. could go up to $25 billion in the near future from $15 billion last year, India’s Misri said, adding that this could contribute to reducing the trade deficit.
Tariffs will continue to dominate the two countries’ relationship, said Richard Rossow, head of the India program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.
“It’s going to be a boxing match,” he said. “India is willing to take a few hits, but there’s a limit.”
The U.S. has a $45.6 billion trade deficit with India. Overall, the U.S. trade-weighted average tariff rate has been about 2.2%, according to World Trade Organization data, compared with India’s 12%.

FIGHT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Trump wants more help from India on unauthorized immigration. India is a major source of immigrants to the United States, including a large number in the tech industry on work visas and others in the U.S. illegally.
The joint statement said the two countries agreed to aggressively address illegal immigration and human trafficking by strengthening law enforcement cooperation.
India may prove critical to Trump’s strategy to thwart China, which many in his administration see as the top U.S. rival. India is wary of neighboring China’s military buildup and competes for many of the same markets.
Modi also worries that Trump could cut a deal with China that excludes India, according to Mukesh Aghi, president of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum lobbying group.
India has continued its ties with Russia as it carries out its war with Ukraine. India has remained a major consumer of Russian energy, for instance, while the West has worked to cut its own consumption since the war started.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/indias-modi-brings-tariff-gift-trump-talks-2025-02-13/

A group of state attorneys general on Thursday sued to halt Elon Musk’s efforts to slash federal spending as head of President Donald Trump’s new government efficiency agency, escalating the legal fight over the billionaire’s influence in the White House.
The lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court filed by the attorneys general of New Mexico and 13 other states alleges Trump has given Musk “unchecked legal authority” without authorization from the U.S. Congress.

Musk’s team has swept through federal agencies since Trump, a Republican, became president last month and put the CEO of carmaker Tesla and the world’s richest person in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of a dramatic overhaul of government.
Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been hit with several privacy lawsuits over their access to government computer systems. The new lawsuit alleges Musk was illegally appointed and seeks an order barring him from taking any further government action.

“Oblivious to the threat this poses to the nation, President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities,” the states said, calling Musk an “agent of chaos” in the government.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two federal judges overseeing ongoing privacy cases against DOGE will consider on Friday whether the agency will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at U.S. health, consumer protection and labor agencies.

In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer will consider a request by Democratic state attorneys general to extend a temporary block on DOGE that he put in place on Saturday, which prevented Musk’s team from accessing Treasury systems responsible for trillions of dollars of payments.
The states allege that Musk’s team has no legal power to access the payment systems that contain sensitive personal information on millions of Americans.

The lawsuit also argued Musk and his team could disrupt federal funding for health clinics, preschools, climate initiatives and other programs, and that Trump could use the information to further his political agenda.
In Washington, U.S. District Judge John Bates will consider a request by unions to prevent the DOGE team from accessing sensitive records at the Departments of Health and Human Services, the Labor Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Most of Trump’s initiatives that have been legally challenged have been blocked by the courts, which has prompted Musk and other Trump allies to call for judges to be impeached, although the president said he would obey court orders.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/judges-consider-barring-musks-doge-team-several-government-agencies-2025-02-13/

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday urged Google (GOOGL.O), to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, adding the country could file a civil suit against the firm if necessary.
Google changed the name for U.S. users of Google Maps to reflect the decision by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly decried the move, arguing the “Gulf of Mexico” name has long been recognized internationally. On Thursday, the leader said Google had not resolved Mexico’s earlier complaints.

She urged Google to review the decree from the White House, arguing “the only place it was effective was where (the U.S.) has sovereignty, or up to 22 nautical miles from the coast.”
For users of Google Maps in Mexico, the gulf’s name remains the “Gulf of Mexico.” Outside of the two countries, users see both names on Google Maps.
If Google holds its ground on the name, Mexico could take to the courts, Sheinbaum said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-could-file-suit-against-google-gulf-mexico-name-change-president-says-2025-02-13/

US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks on Thursday and announced various measures to strengthen ties between the two countries.

The talks at the White House came just hours after Trump criticised India’s business environment and outlined plans for reciprocal tariffs on countries imposing duties on US imports.

Trump said at a press conference that India plans to increase its purchase of US defence equipment, including fighter jets, and may make the US its top oil and gas supplier.

Prime Minister Modi said India aims to double trade with the US by 2030. He posted on X, calling his White House meeting with Trump “excellent” and a boost to ties.

Here are the key takeaways from the meeting between PM Modi and President Trump:

Extradition of Tahawwur Rana: President Donald Trump confirmed that his administration has approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a key figure in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, to India.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently in custody at a Los Angeles detention center. He is closely linked to David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American terrorist and one of the main conspirators behind the attacks. Trump referred to Rana as “very evil,” emphasising the importance of bringing him to justice in India.

Strengthening defence cooperation: India and the US are set to deepen their strategic partnership across key sectors, with President Donald Trump announcing that Washington is moving forward to provide India with F-35 fighter jets.

This follows extensive discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where both leaders agreed to enhance cooperation in areas like energy, critical technologies, and connectivity. Trump said that military sales to India would increase by billions of dollars starting this year. He also confirmed that the US is working towards supplying India with advanced F-35 stealth fighters.

Expanding energy trade: Trump said that he and Prime Minister Modi have reached a significant agreement, positioning the US as a leading supplier of oil and gas to India. He pointed out that India’s tariffs, which can exceed 70 percent on American goods like cars, pose a “major issue” and that US oil and gas exports will help address the trade deficit with India.

Speaking at a press briefing with Modi, Trump said that PM Modi, “in good faith,” announced reductions to India’s “unfair and very strong tariffs,” which he described as a “big problem, I must say.”

“India imposes a 30, 40, 60, and even 70 percent tariff on so many goods, and in some cases, far more than that. For instance, a 70 percent tariff on US cars entering India makes it almost impossible to sell those cars. Today, the US trade deficit with India stands at nearly $100 billion, and Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed to negotiate to address these long-standing disparities,” Trump added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met for the first time since the latter’s return to the White House for a second term. PM Modi is one of the first global leaders to travel to the US for an official visit and meet Donald Trump. The two leaders held bilateral talks at the White House where they talked about trade, tariffs and immigration, among other issues.

Donald Trump reacted sharply to the question of Khalistani separatists in the US working against India. He said, “I don’t think India had a good relationship with the Biden administration…A lot of things happened that weren’t very appropriate between India and the Biden Administration.”

Reflecting on the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to India, Donald Trump said, “We are giving a very violent man (Tahawwur Rana) back to India immediately. There are more to follow because we have quite a few requests.

Donald Trump asserted, “So, we work with India on crime and we want to make it good for India.”

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/donald-trump-sharp-reply-on-khalistani-elements-in-us-were-working-with-india-9226915.html

Donald Trump’s son has backed a proposed sports event for athletes using performance enhancing drugs as the US president shakes up health policy and sports governance.
The Enhanced Games, dubbed by critics as the “steroid Olympics”, announced on Thursday that Donald Trump Jr’s venture fund 1789 Capital would co-lead an investment round for the sports group.
The vision for the games is to allow athletes in the competition to use almost any legally available performance enhancing drugs in an effort to break world records. One person close to the deal said the fundraising round would raise double digit millions of dollars for the project.
“For over 100 years, elites in charge of global sports have stifled innovation, crushed individual greatness, and refused to let athletes push the limits of what’s possible. That ends now,” said Trump Jr.
“The Enhanced Games represent the future — real competition, real freedom, and real records being smashed.”
​The Trump administration​ has championed an unorthodox agenda on drugs and health policy, driven by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Trump Jr is seen as a close advisor to his father but does not hold a formal position in the administration.
The games have already received financial support from tech investor Peter Thiel, another figure with close ties to the White House, crypto investor Balaji Srinivasan and Christian Angermayer, a German billionaire who is a leading investor in commercial psychedelics.
Aron D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games, said: “We’re building something revolutionary — sports without hypocrisy, where the best can actually be the best.”
The Enhanced Games have yet to announce a host city or date for the competition. The games would include athletics, swimming, and “strength” events, although only one athlete, retired Australian Olympic team member James Magnussen, has enlisted in the games.
The Enhanced Games have emphasised the scientific grounding and pioneering nature of the contest. It has promised athletes they will receive comprehensive medical testing and supervision.
D’Souza told the FT that the games would be partly funded by advertising by pharmaceutical and biotech firms.

Source : https://archive.is/2025.02.13-143552/https://www.ft.com/content/8f065bdb-1574-4327-a24e-3cf193232caa#selection-2389.0-2392.0

After years of strict border closures and travel restrictions, North Korea appears to be taking steps toward reopening to foreign tourists.

Why It Matters

North Korea closed its borders five years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and they have remained shut ever since, further isolating the country, known by its nickname the Hermit Kingdom, from the rest of the world.

However, the opening of its borders could indicate that North Korea is seeking to revive its limited tourism industry, reestablish economic ties with key partners like China and Russia, and ease its self-imposed isolation. The move could also signal a need for foreign currency, a shift in its pandemic policies, or a broader attempt to reengage with the international community on its own terms.

What To Know

Representatives from two Western travel agencies, Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, crossed into North Korea Thursday for the first time since the country closed its borders five years ago.

The two companies, both based in Beijing, said they had crossed the Chinese border into the North Korean special economic zone of Rason to discuss logistics for upcoming tours.

Both companies are now offering guided tours of Rason from February. Rason, in northeastern North Korea near the Chinese and Russian borders, has seen little Western tourism.

According to Koryo, the region is home to North Korea’s first mobile phone network, legal marketplace, and card payment system. Designated as the country’s first special economic zone in 1991, Rason has served as a testing ground for limited market-driven reforms within the otherwise state-controlled economy.

Koryo’s planned five-day itinerary includes visits to factories, foreign-language and Taekwondo schools, seaside recreation areas and a bank where visitors will be able to open a North Korean bank account. The tour starts from €705 per person and spends four nights in Rason, with the first trip departing on 12 February.

The tour is in honor of the country’s late leader – Kim Jong Il’s – birthday celebrations.

Young Pioneer’s five day tour includes an overnight stay exploring Yanji’s nightlife, visits to a North Korean bank, factories, a foreign language school for student interactions, the China-Russia-DPRK tri-border point, and local bars.

All visitors to North Korea are required to join government-approved guided tours. Independent travel is not allowed, and tourists are constantly accompanied by official guides who regulate interactions and movement. Visitors must adhere to strict rules, including restrictions on photography, speech, and engagement with locals. The tour starts from €645 per person and spends four nights in Rason, with the first trip departing on 16 February.

Roughly 5,000 Western tourists visited North Korea annually before the COVID-19 border closure, according to multiple reports.

Since 2017, U.S. citizens have been banned from traveling to North Korea under a State Department restriction imposed after the arrest and death of college student Otto Warmbier.

Detained in 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster, Warmbier was released in a vegetative state and died six days after returning home. A federal judge later ruled that North Korea was responsible for his torture and death.

In August 2024, North Korea said it hoped to send in the first Western tourists by the end of the year.

Source : https://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-tourism-borders-open-2030679

That’s when Aer Lingus launches its first nonstop flight to the country music capital from Ireland, a lesser-known hotbed of country music fans.

The new flight to Nashville from Dublin is possible with a new, longer-range plane from Airbus: the A321XLR, or “Extra Long Range.”

The derivative of the popular A321neo that debuted in 2017 can fly further than any other single-aisle plane on the market. Airbus also says it burns 30% less fuel per seat than previous-generation aircraft.

“It allows us to go to cities that we would not be able to take the risk on with a wide-body,” said Reid Moody, chief strategy and planning officer at Aer Lingus, referring to the twin-aisle aircraft such as the Airbus A330 or Boeing 787 that are common on transatlantic flights.

The Irish carrier already flies two A321XLRs and plans to add four more by the end of the year.

Hundreds of planes on order
Airlines around the world are clamoring for the new plane.

Aer Lingus and its Spanish peer, Iberia — both are owned by European airline conglomerate International Airlines Group (IAG) — already fly the A321XLR, and Airbus has firm orders for more than 500 of the model, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows.

Air Canada, American Airlines, Qantas Airways and United Airlines are among those awaiting their first XLR.

Single-aisle planes across the North Atlantic are not new.

Boeing’s 757 has plied the skies between North America and Europe for decades. The aircraft, however, is old. The last plane rolled off the production line in Everett, Washington, in 2004.

The remaining airlines that fly the 757, including United, are eager to replace them with the new, fuel-sipping XLRs. And others, such as Aer Lingus, want the new Airbus model to expand their transatlantic map to new cities.

The XLR, once it replaces older 757s, should allow airlines to bypass major hubs on either side of the Atlantic and open new, nonstop, transatlantic routes to smaller cities.

“We’re going to open up 10 to 12 new cities in Eastern Europe (and) North Africa out of Newark and (Washington) Dulles,” United CEO Scott Kirby said on The Air Show podcast in June. “We’re excited about it.”

While Kirby didn’t reveal just what cities United is considering, its recent expansion plans hint at outside-the-box destinations, at least from the United States, such as Bilbao, Spain, and Nuuk, Greenland.

United expects its first of 50 A321XLRs in early 2026.

American Airlines is also eyeing Europe with its coming XLRs.

“We are looking at new, secondary Spain, Portugal, UK, anything in range — France, Germany, Scandinavia, all these smaller destinations that we think a wide-body just isn’t well-suited for,” Brian Znotins, who leads network planning at American, told The Points Guy in November.

American’s first XLR, which is due later this year, will initially be used on premium transcontinental flights between New York and both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In addition to expansion opportunities, travelers could also see airlines using their XLRs to add extra flights on routes that might have only one today. Or the plane could be used to extend a seasonal route; for example, one that flies only during the summer, to year-round status by flying during the lower-demand winter.

Range questions

Just how many new transatlantic and other routes the XLR will unlock is an open question.

Safety modifications required by European regulators added weight to the plane. It’s widely acknowledged that the changes have reduced the estimated range of the jet to around 5,200 miles (4,500 nautical miles) from up to 5,400 miles (4,700 nautical miles).

The range cut, while seemingly small, could mean the difference between flying from New York to most of Europe versus just Western Europe.

“The XLR is absolutely heavier than Airbus wanted it to be originally,” said Jon Ostrower, editor of The Air Current, on a recent episode of The Air Show. “That really affected the heavily loaded long-range operations that airlines like Frontier wanted with 240 seats.”

Discounter Frontier Airlines canceled its order for the XLR in August citing performance concerns.

“The airplane likely won’t have the range to do some of the routes people have hoped to see, like East Coast to Rome,” said Brett Snyder, president of the travel assistance service Cranky Concierge and author of the Cranky Flier blog. “But it is enabling flying including Dublin to Nashville and Indianapolis. Over time, there will be more opportunity to stretch and try new things.”

Most airlines seem unconcerned over the range cut.

“It’s only a concern during the peak summers,” says Ramiro Sequeira, the chief operating officer of Iberia, of the A321XLR’s capabilities. The carrier believes it can do everything it hoped to with the plane — if not more.

Iberia was the first to fly the XLR, debuting the plane on flights between Madrid and Boston in November. It plans to introduce it in April on flights to Washington, D.C., pending the delayed delivery of its second aircraft from Airbus.

Sequeira hasn’t revealed what’s next for the plane at Iberia. “New routes are the secret of the commercial department,” he says.

Travelers can expect a product on board the XLR similar to what they would see on a larger plane.

American plans to introduce a new business class and premium economy product on its A321XLRs when they debut later this year. The airline will outfit the planes with 20 of its new lie-flat “Flagship Suites” up front, 12 spacious premium economy seats in the middle, and an updated economy product in the back.

Source : https://edition.cnn.com/travel/airbus-a321xlr-single-aisle-plane-transatlantic/index.html

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told President Donald Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin is only feigning interest in talks to end Russia’s war against Ukraine because he is “afraid of you,” inside sources told Axios.

Trump spoke on the phone with the Ukrainian leader Wednesday—the same day that the president announced he had entered talks with Putin to reach peace in the two-year-long conflict.

Trump indicated to Zelensky that he thought Putin wanted to make a deal, but the Ukrainian was skeptical of the Russian leader’s intentions, Axios reported, citing a Ukrainian official and three other sources with knowledge of the call.

“Putin told you he wants a deal only because he is afraid of you, because you are strong,” he said, according to the sources.

The overall message was that Trump has “leverage” over Putin, one source said.

Trump reportedly acknowledged that Zelensky could be right, adding, “We will know soon.”

Zelensky told Trump that he was still interested in making a deal to end the war but was concerned about Trump talking to Putin.

“I need to talk to Putin in order to save Ukraine,” Trump reportedly told him.

Zelensky’s office declined to comment to Axios, and the White House did not immediately reply to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

During the call, Trump also shared details about what a negotiation process would look like with Zelensky.

Trump said that his upcoming meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Munich will help launch the diplomatic process.

The president added that CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East, will play a role in the negotiations. He told Zelensky to prepare his own team.

Zelensky also informed Trump that there had been Russian airstrikes overnight in Ukraine. He added that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrived in Kyiv after the strikes.

Trump joked that if Bessent had heard the strikes, he “would have run away back to the U.S. already.”

Zelensky said publicly on Wednesday that it was “not pleasant” that Trump had spoken with Putin before him.

Trump’s call with Putin had raised concerns from some that he was prepared to give in to the Russians’ demands, backing Ukraine into a corner.

Source : https://www.thedailybeast.com/volodymyr-zelensky-tells-donald-trump-the-real-reason-vladimir-putin-wants-peace/

THIS is horrifying moment a kayaker is swallowed whole and then spat out by a 50ft humpback whale.

Adrian Simancas and his dad Dell were kayaking in the choppy waters off the coast off Punta Arenas in Southern Chile on February 8, when the mammoth animal bit off more than he could chew.

Without warning, the 24-year-old who was calmly paddling the waves in his inflatable yellow kayak at around 3pm local time was suddenly engulfed by the jaws of the humpback whale.

The first sign of the 50,000lb beast was when part of its open mouth emerged from the water behind the oblivious kayaker.

With the force of the whale’s jaws, Adrian tipped onto his left side and was taken into the depths by the closing mouth and torrent of water.

His anguished father who filmed the terrifying moment helplessly watched on before Adrian resurfaced after being spat out by the animal.

Dell shouted to his shocked and panicking son telling him to remain calm and to use his kayak as a raft.

He could be heard saying: “Stay calm, stay calm, don’t get back into the boat, head for the shoreline, I’m coming.”

As he paddled towards him while the whale disappeared from view, he continued to urge him: “Stay calm, grab my rope, grab my rope, if we head for the shore everything will be fine” before steering him away from the area.

Recalling the moment on a Chilean TV programme, Adrian who was unharmed in the incident said: “I saw something blue and white passing close to my face like on one side and on top but I didn’t understand what was happening.

“The next minute I sank. I thought I had been eaten.”

Dell, a 49-year-old Venezuelan-born anaesthetist who lives in Chile, added: “I turned round and I couldn’t see Adrian and that was the only real moment of panic.

“He disappeared for about three seconds and then shot out and that’s when I calmed down because I saw he was safe.”

Dell who was also uninjured, revealed that rather than be deterred by the horrifying moment, it was actually a change in the weather that saw them cut the trip short and return to land.

The pair had gone on a Saturday morning trek before unpacking their inflatable kayaks from their backpacks to take to the freezing waters of the 350 mile-long Straits of Magellan.

The strait is considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

It is believed that the whale mistook Adrian in his kayak for a fish that is part of its diet.

Despite the shock, the pair are already planning their next kayaking adventure, though admittedly with more precautions.

Experts have previously spoken out about the rarity of such an event with one saying the chances of being swallowed by a whale as “1-in-1 trillion.”

It came after veteran US lobster diver Michael Packard ended up inside a humpback’s mouth for around 40 seconds off Provincetown, Massachusetts in June 2021.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13536314/horror-moment-kayaker-swallowed-by-whale/

The Hamas militant group on Thursday said it would continue to implement the ceasefire deal, including a hostage-prisoner exchange within the agreed time frame.

Hamas had threatened a delay to a scheduled release of hostages, accusing Israel of not meeting its obligations to allow the movement of tents and shelters as part of the truce, as well as other alleged violations.

It remains unclear what effect the release of some of the hostages might have.

US President Donald Trump responded to the delay threat by saying “all hostages” must be freed by noon on Saturday or he would “let hell break out.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country would resume “intense fighting” if Hamas did not meet the deadline.

What Hamas said

“We are not interested in the collapse of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, and we are keen on its implementation and ensuring that the occupation [Israel] adheres to it fully,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said.

“The language of threats and intimidation used by Trump and Netanyahu does not serve the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,” he added.

Hamas said both Egyptian and Qatari mediators would press on with efforts “to remove obstacles and close gaps,” with talks underway in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The group said the negotiations have centered on issues such as Israel allowing the entry of mobile homes, tents, medical and fuel supplies, as well as heavy machinery needed for the removal of rubble.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/hamas-says-will-free-israeli-hostages-as-planned/a-71593539

President Donald Trump suggested Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to talk business.

During a press conference in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump was asked whether Musk met Prime Minister Bodi as an American CEO or as a representative of the U.S. government.

“I don’t know,” Trump proclaimed while shrugging his shoulder. “They met, and I assume he wants to do business in India.”

The president then explained “India is a very hard place to do business” because of the tariffs, which he claimed are “the highest tariffs, just about, in the world.” Trump has made similar claims in the past, which the Global Trade Research Initiative think tank refuted by arguing “‘Trump singles out products with the highest tariffs,'” The Hindu reported.

Trump then reiterated the meeting was most likely about Musk’s business.

“No, I would imagine he met, possibly, because, you know, he’s running a company,” Trump continued. “He’s doing this as something he’s felt strongly about for a long time.”

Prime Minister Modi later shared in an X post that he had a “very good meeting” with Musk during which they “discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation. I talked about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.'”

On Thursday, Trump announced “reciprocal tariffs” with U.S. trading partners in a post on Truth Social.

“For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider Countries that use the VAT System, which is far more punitive than a Tariff, to be similar to that of a Tariff,” Trump wrote.

Source : https://www.latintimes.com/trump-suggest-musk-met-india-prime-minister-washington-wants-business-india-575622

Kanye West and Bianca Censori are heading their separate ways after two years of marriage, Page Six has learned.

“She’s had enough. The swastika shirt [he was selling] was the last straw. She told him that’s not who she is, and that she can’t be associated with that,” an insider tells us. “He’s saying that he has dominion over her and then he’s selling those shirts. It reflects on her, and she doesn’t want any part of that circus.”

The insider notes, however, that West — who now goes by Ye — believes Censori will “come back to him” at some point, as she has in the past, and that divorce is not currently imminent.

“He’s saying that she’s just ‘mad at him,’” the source says, “but right now, she’s told him that she’s completely done.”

A rep for the couple denied reports of a pending divorce, telling The Hollywood Reporter in part on Thursday, “Ye and Bianca are in Los Angeles, about to enjoy Valentine’s Day together.”

“Announcements about their private life will come from them directly,” the statement continued, “not unsourced rumor in the tabloid press.”

However, other outlets have reported that West, 47, and Censori, 30, have already settled on a post-marital agreement, in which Censori will be awarded $5 million and be permitted to stay at the Yeezy founder’s $35 million house in Los Angeles.

The controversial couple has called it quits less than two weeks after their shocking Grammys 2025 appearance, in which the Australian architect hit the red carpet in a completely see-through dress.

Since then, West has gone on a series of antisemitic rants and went so far as to sell swastika merchandise on his website, all of which has been taken down.

The “Runaway” rapper has also been accused of making antisemitic remarks to a former Jewish employee and openly praising Adolf Hitler. He has been dropped by his talent agent as a result.

“Bianca’s exhausted. She’s been an awesome wife and awesome collaborator, she’s been through so many crazy moments, but this one may be unsurvivable,” a second source tells us, adding that Ye is “underwater in a submarine” trying to “navigate” a return to earth.

“There’s definitely been friction; it’s a big bump in the road for them,” the source adds. “She has to move on. … I think this is the end of the cycle for her.”

As for Censori’s reaction to Ye’s since-deleted X posts, our source tells us “she’s upset,” noting, “To embrace Hitler is a Satanic move.”

This isn’t the first time the headline-making couple have been plagued by split rumors.

In October 2024, TMZ reported that Censori and West had been telling their respective inner circles that they were broken up, and that the “All of the Lights” rapper planned to move to Tokyo.

However, that same month, West and Censori shut down the speculation by appearing cuddly during a joint shopping trip in Japan.

Four months later, the “Kanye’s Workout Plan” rapper and model hit the Grammys in a polarizing stunt that caused many people to once again express concerns about the couple’s marriage.

Critics were shocked to see West’s wife de-robe in front of photographers to display her naked body.

The “Power” rapper then admitted in a rant online earlier this month that he has control over Censori.

“She’s with a billionaire why would she listen to any of you dumb ass broke bitches,” he wrote in a since-deleted post on X. “Yes I don’t make her do nothing she doesn’t want to but she definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it without my approval you stupid woke ass pawns.”

An eyewitness who was at the awards show on Feb. 2 also claimed they saw West and Censori arguing.

“She didn’t look like was fully onboard with the scandal he wanted to create on the carpet,” social media star Riley Mae Lewis previously told the Sun.

“It makes me concerned for what their relationship is like behind the scenes.”

Our second source claims that the couple’s recent split was not due to the Grammys scandal, however, as Censori was not upset over the dress stunt, adding that “nudity is exciting.”

“It’s erotic imagery, it’s not as outlandish as we think it is — don’t forget how many millions of times these images were consumed online,” the source further adds.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/02/13/celebrity-news/kanye-west-and-bianca-censori-split-after-split-after-wild-grammys-stunt-antisemitic-rants-shes-had-enough/

TikTok is again available on the US app stores of Apple and Google, after President Donald Trump postponed enforcement of a ban of the Chinese-owned social media platform until 5 April.

The popular app, which is used by more than 170 million American users, went dark briefly last month in the US as the ban deadline approached.

Trump then signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law banning the app if it is not sold.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BBC News.

According to Bloomberg, which first reported TikTok’s return to app stores in the US, the decision to resume its availability came after Apple and Google received assurances from the Trump administration that they would not be held liable for allowing downloads, and the ban wouldn’t be enforced yet.

The ban, which passed with a bipartisan vote in Congress, was signed into law by former President Joe Biden. It ordered TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avert an outright ban.

The Biden administration had argued that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.

China and TikTok have repeatedly denied those accusations. Beijing has also previously rejected calls for a sale of TikTok’s US operations.

The law banning the app was supported by US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and it was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court.

Trump himself had supported banning the app during his first term in office but he appeared to have a change of heart last year during the presidential race.

He professed a “warm spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says his videos attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.

When the app started working again in the US last month, a popup message was sent to its millions of users that thanked Trump by name.

TikTok chief executive Shou Chew met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago after his electoral victory in November and later attended his inauguration ceremony.

Trump has said he wants to find a compromise with the Chinese company that complies with the spirit rather than the letter of law, even floating an idea of TikTok being jointly owned.

“What I’m thinking of saying to someone is buy it and give half to the US, half, and we’ll give you a permit,” he said recently during a news conference about artificial intelligence.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g91kyjw07o

Robert F Kennedy Jr, one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks, has been sworn in as the next US Health and Human Services Secretary.

The former presidential candidate will now oversee key health agencies with about 80,000 employees and a trillion-dollar budget. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had questioned his baseless health claims and vaccine scepticism.

On Thursday, Kennedy was confirmed by a 52-48 vote. No Democrats backed him. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the lone Republican to vote against Kennedy.

Kennedy is the latest cabinet appointee installed as the president seeks to rapidly overhaul almost every level of government.

The Senate is putting in late nights and early mornings as they hurry to round out the president’s cabinet by confirming his remaining nominees. Lawmakers also approved Brooke Rollins as head of the Department of Agriculture by a vote of 72-28.

Kennedy, who had his swearing in ceremony in the Oval Office, is the second controversial cabinet pick to be confirmed this week after Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed as director of National Intelligence in a narrow Senate vote on Wednesday.

He will now oversee agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Kennedy will also be charged with overseeing the US health industry which includes food safety, pharmaceuticals, public health and vaccinations. He ran for the White House himself in 2024 as an independent, but dropped out and backed Trump.

The president’s decision to tap Kennedy to lead the federal health agency drew scepticism from several Republicans. Many questioned Kennedy’s past comments on immunisations, his ties to groups making unsubstantiated health claims and his views on abortion.

Kennedy is the founder of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, which gained prominence in the US for casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccinations and making the discredited claim that the shots are linked to autism.

Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F Kennedy, has denied that he is anti-vaccination, pointing out his own children are immunised. He insisted during his confirmation hearings that he merely supports more stringent studies and safety tests for injections.

Some Republicans have praised Kennedy for his criticism over the use of food additives and push to curb big pharma.

During the hearings, lawmakers also grilled Kennedy on his promotion of health misinformation and knowledge of the US healthcare system.

He was asked to explain his stance on abortion, as he previously indicated that he was in favour of abortion rights. He responded by telling lawmakers he agreed with Trump that access to abortion should be controlled by individual states and that “every abortion is a tragedy”.

The exchange drew scrutiny from Democrats who accused Kennedy of “selling out” his pro-choice values in order to secure President Trump’s nomination.

One of his hearings was interrupted by shouting protesters. But he also received loud applause when promising to make America healthy again, a slogan used by Trump’s administration.

Ahead of the hearing, Caroline Kennedy – the cousin of Robert F Kennedy Jr – urged US senators to reject him as the next health and human services secretary. She said Kennedy’s views on vaccines disqualify him from the role of being one of America’s leading health policymakers.

It wasn’t enough to dissuade several Republicans who previously withheld their support from Kennedy but wound up approving his nomination during Thursday’s vote.

Many eyes were on Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican, who chairs the Senate Health Committee.

Cassidy, a doctor, previously indicated that he was struggling with Kennedy’s stance on vaccines. He voted to confirm Kennedy.

“We need to make America healthy again, and it is my expectation that Secretary Kennedy will get this done,” Cassidy posted on X after the vote.

Others closely watched McConnell, a Kennedy critic and polio survivor. McConnell had warned Kennedy not to undermine the polio vaccine.

He voted against confirmation.

“Individuals, parents, and families have a right to push for a healthier nation and demand the best possible scientific guidance on preventing and treating illness,” McConnell said in a statement. “But a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions does not entitle Mr. Kennedy to lead these important efforts.”

The Senate continues moving forward with Trump’s nominees. After confirming Kennedy, lawmakers are expected to advance the nomination of Howard Lutnick as the next Secretary of Commerce.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626eezr76wo

Donald Trump has said he would love to have Russia return to the G7 group of advanced economies, and that expelling the country “was a mistake”.

Russia had been a member of the club of industrialised nations, then known as the G8, until it was excluded following its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.

“I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia,” the US president said at the White House.

He also said that “high-level people from Russia” will attend the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

“Russia is going to be there with our people. Ukraine is also invited,” the president added.

During a series of fast-paced announcements, including a series of US trade tariffs, he also said he wants to discuss reducing defence spending with Russia and China, halve domestic defence expenditure and support moves towards getting rid of nuclear weapons.

The US president had already announced on Wednesday that he and Vladimir Putin would start peace talks “immediately” to end the war in Ukraine.

But much of Thursday’s focus on global defence and spending came after a fractious NATO meeting in Brussels.

It has been an intense 24 hours of diplomacy in Brussels, during which:

• Ukraine’s president said his country must have a place at the negotiating table.

• The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Ukraine would be involved in peace talks “one way or another”.

• Donald Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated the US vow to focus its military might away from Europe – telling NATO allies: “Trump won’t allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker.”

‘Make NATO great again’

Mr Hegseth told NATO allies that the US will not guarantee Europe’s security and pressured leaders to spend more on their militaries.

He told reporters “we must make NATO great again” as he called on allies to do “far more for Europe’s defence”.

In terms of military spending, as a proportion of a country’s GDP, the US defence secretary said: “2% is a start… but it’s not enough. Nor is 3%, nor is 4% – more like 5% – real investment, real urgency.”

Sky News’ US correspondent Mark Stone, who was listening to Mr Hegseth’s comments, said “he represents one man, Donald Trump, and he speaks for him”.

Stone points out that, whether people will like him or loathe him, he “is not a man who has experience in the forum he now finds himself in”.

‘Ukraine is just the first stage’

In response to the Trump administration’s shift in policy, a European defence minister warned the continent will see its “darkest times since the Second World War” as Russia seeks to rearm and regroup following any peace deal.

Dovile Sakaliene, Lithuania’s defence minister, told reporters: “China and Russia are going to coordinate their actions and if we are not able to work together as a team for the democratic world, it is going to be the darkest times since the Second World War.

“In a few years, we will be in a situation where Russia – with the speed that it’s developing its defence industry and its army – is going to move forward.”

“We all understand that Ukraine is just the first stage currently of an imperial expansion of Russia.”

She added that NATO partners have a stark choice – rebuild their armed forces and defence industries “swiftly and very significantly” or find themselves “in a very difficult situation to put it diplomatically”.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/us-president-wants-russia-back-in-g7-as-nato-warned-of-darkest-times-since-ww2-13308777

At least 30 people have been injured, including children, after a car was driven into a crowd in a “suspected attack” in Munich, authorities said.

A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, Farhad N, has been arrested after officers fired a shot at the vehicle.

Workers taking part in a union demonstration were walking along a street when the car overtook a police vehicle that was accompanying the group, according to officers in the German city.

They said the car then sped up and ploughed into the back of the group, before police opened fire.

Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder said the incident was “suspected to be an attack”. Some of the victims were seriously injured, and the motive was unclear.

Officials believe the protest, by the service workers’ union ver.di, was likely targeted at random, according to state interior minister Joachim Herrmann.

He said the suspect was known to authorities in connection with theft and drug offences.

The man’s asylum application had been rejected, but he had not been forced to leave due to security concerns in Afghanistan, said Mr Herrmann.

People were ‘crying and shaking’

A damaged Mini was pictured at the scene, along with items of clothing and bags, a broken pram, a shoe and a pair of glasses.

Sandra Demmelhuber, a journalist for local broadcaster BR24, posted an image on X showing the car surrounded by police and emergency crews.

She said: “There is a person lying on the street and a young man was taken away by the police. People were sitting on the ground, crying and shaking.”

A ‘terrible attack’

The incident happened at a square near downtown Munich, close to the city’s central train station at around 10.30am (9.30am UK time), police said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the events “horrible” and a “terrible attack”, saying “an Afghan perpetrator has severely injured people, and that is not something that we can tolerate or accept”.

“This perpetrator cannot hope for any leniency. He must be punished and he must leave the country.

“The government will be starting flights back to Afghanistan despite the lack of diplomatic ties.”

The incident is not suspected to be connected to the upcoming Munich Security Conference which starts on Friday around a mile away.

Security has been in sharp focus in Germany following a spate of attacks involving migrants in recent months and ahead of a federal election later in February.

A two-year-old boy and a man were killed in a knife attack last month in Aschaffenburg, also in Bavaria. An Afghan whose asylum application was rejected was the suspect in that attack.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/asylum-seeker-arrested-after-car-driven-into-munich-crowd-in-suspected-attack-13308333

A pile-up reportedly involving more than 100 cars in “whiteout conditions” has closed part of a major highway in the US state of Oregon.

One of the vehicles caught fire at the scene on Interstate 84 about 25 miles (40km) east of Portland on Thursday afternoon, but authorities said the occupants escaped unharmed.

There were reports of other drivers trapped and injured, with emergency services going car to car, but a police spokesman said no deaths had been reported.

Visibility in the area was said to be under 500ft (152m) with “blowing and drifting snow”.

Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it believed “more than 100 cars, trucks and semi-trucks” were involved at several locations on the westbound I-84 near milepost 28.

The road was shut near Multnomah Falls and Oregon’s transport department called it a “major crash in winter conditions”.

It warned of a lengthy closure while the scene was cleared.

Cold weather has prompted the opening of six emergency shelters for homeless people in nearby Portland, the state’s biggest city.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/100-car-pile-up-causes-chaos-on-snowy-us-highway-13308950

Grimes has criticised former partner Elon Musk’s decision to bring their son to an Oval Office news conference.

The 36-year-old singer, who has had an on-off relationship with Mr Musk since 2018, apparently only learned via social media that he had taken X Æ A-12 – or X for short – to the briefing with Donald Trump on Tuesday.

In response to a comment on X about her son being “very polite”, Grimes said: “He should not be in public like this. I did not see this, thank u for alerting me. But I’m glad he was polite. Sigh.”

Mr Musk, 53, carried the four-year-old on his shoulders as he spoke to reporters about his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

X Æ A-12 also stood beside his billionaire father and Mr Trump as they spoke, at one point appearing to attempt to address the president as Mr Musk answered questions.

He also interrupted his dad at times as he was quizzed over accusations he is orchestrating a “hostile takeover” of government in a non-transparent way.

While photographers took pictures, Mr Trump said: “X are you ok? This is X and he is a great guy, high IQ. A high IQ individual.”

X’s parents have previously explained the meaning behind his name, breaking it down into its component elements.

Apparently, “X” represents the “unknown variable”.

“Æ” is the “elven spelling” of “Ai”, which means love in Chinese – and is also an acronym for artificial intelligence.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/grimes-criticises-musk-for-taking-their-son-to-oval-office-briefing-13308469

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday in Washington where they discussed issues including space, mobility, technology and innovation, Modi said on X.

“Their discussion also touched on opportunities to deepen cooperation in emerging technologies, entrepreneurship and good governance,” India’s foreign ministry said separately in a statement.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Modi was slated to meet Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, during his trip this week to the United States, and Starlink’s entry in the South Asian market could come up for discussion.

SpaceX’s Starlink has long wanted to launch in India and has in recent months clashed with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s company over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services. India’s government has sided with Musk that spectrum should be assigned and not auctioned, but Starlink’s license application is still under review.

India’s looming decision on U.S.-based Starlink has shaken the country’s domestic satellite internet sector and made its regulatory strategy on space-based communications a key issue in the country’s push to stimulate commercial space activities and become a competitive force in the global space race.

Musk, a “special government employee” helming a disruptive effort to rid federal agencies of excessive spending, often serves as a key link between heads of state and SpaceX, which has dominated the global space industry with its vast Starlink network and its Falcon 9 launches that much of the Western world uses for space access.

Big decisions on technology and space matters have followed state visits by Modi in the past. India in 2023 signed the U.S. Artemis Accords – a set of guidelines for modern space and moon activities – following meetings in Washington between Modi and former U.S. president Joe Biden.

Modi is also expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump during his two-day U.S. visit, with discussions on trade and tariff concessions expected to be high on the agenda. He is, however, unlikely to meet other business CEOs during the trip, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Musk’s meeting with Modi drew the ire of some Democrats who say the billionaire executive’s influential role in the Trump administration poses conflicts of interest.

Source : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/indias-modi-holds-meeting-billionaire-182145423.html

European leaders scrambled on Thursday to try to get a seat at the table in Ukraine peace talks after US President Donald Trump announced the start of negotiations after speaking directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.

Trump’s move sent shockwaves through European capitals, which want a central role in peace talks because any settlement in Ukraine, hit by a full-scale Russian invasion three years ago, will have ramifications for their own security.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that the Ukraine conflict must not end with an “dictated peace”.

“The next task is to ensure that there is no dictated peace,” Scholz said in an interview with Politico.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that Ukraine must be involved in peace talks and any final deal to end Moscow’s war on Kyiv needs to be “enduring”.

“Of course, this is crucial – (when) we talk about Ukraine, that Ukraine is closely involved in everything happening about Ukraine,” Rutte told journalists ahead of a NATO meeting defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

‘Crucial moment of truth’

French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Thursday warned that NATO faces a moment of reckoning as the US and Russia set in motion negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

“It’s a crucial moment of truth,” said Lecornu. “People call it the most important, the strongest military alliance in history. That’s historically true – but the question is, will it still be true 10 or 15 years from now.”

His German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, said it was “regrettable” that the Trump’s administration had made “concessions” to Russia before peace talks on Ukraine had even started.

“In my view it would have been better to speak about a possible NATO membership for Ukraine or possible losses of territory at the negotiating table,” Pistorius said ahead of the NATO meeting.

Russia would be remain a threat to Europe’s security even if an agreement for peace in Ukraine can be reached, Pistorius added.

“It would be naive to believe that this threat, even after any peace agreement whenever it materialises, would in fact subside,” he said.

“That’s why we have to invest faster and more in our defence and security capabilities. Peace, this has unfortunately been the experience over centuries, can only be secured from a position of strength,” he added.

Their comments came the morning after Trump took the world by surprise when he announced that the US and Russia had agreed to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine during a phone conversation between Trump and Putin.

Following Trump’s revelations, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Spain insisted that any peace deal in Ukraine could not be achieved without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.

“There will be no just and lasting peace in Ukraine without the participation of Europeans,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told a foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris, while his German and Spanish counterparts added that no decisions could be taken without Ukraine.

‘Peace in Europe is at stake’

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday reiterated the message that Ukraine and Europe need to be involved in peace talks about Ukraine.

“We can’t have talks without involving Ukraine. Peace in Europe is at stake, that’s why we Europeans need to be brought in,” Baerbock said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio.

The German foreign minister said she had not been informed of Trump’s phone call with Putin in advance.

“This is the way the Trump administration operates. That is why constant mutual communication is needed with the various players. That, too, is different from other times. This is not how others do foreign policy, but this is now the reality,” said Baerbock, a member of the Greens party.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey echoed Baerbock’s comments, insisting that Ukraine and Europe should participate in negotiations with Russia to bring an end to the conflict.

“Let’s not forget, Russia remains a threat well beyond Ukraine,” said Healey. “There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” Healey told reporters in Brussels.

Trump’s peace push ‘not a betrayal’, says Hegseth

US defence chief Pete Hegseth however told reporters on Thursday that Trump’s peace plan was “not a betrayal” of Ukraine.

“There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace, a negotiated peace, as President Trump has said, stopping the killing. And so that will require both sides recognising things they don’t want to,” said Hegseth.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels before the start of Thursday’s NATO meeting, Hegseth said it was Europe’s responsibility to stop the Russian “war machine”.

Hegseth repeated his call for increased defence spending by NATO countries, which he said should ultimately reach 5% of gross domestic product.

Source : https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250213-ukraine-europe-must-be-involved-peace-talks-say-nato-european-members-russia-trump-rutte

Recent bends by Disney related to a court battle and diversity programs that appear to appease President Donald Trump and the MAGA crowd has left the home of the self-described happiest place on Earth not so joyful for some staff.

The moves at Disney come amid a hard push by the new Trump administration to end DEI initiatives. In addition to defunding and banning such programs in the federal government, there have been widespread actions by Trump and his team against media companies, including Trump’s now $20 billion lawsuit against CBS and the FCC launching an investigation into Comcast‘s policies to end “the scourge of DEI.”

“It’s like Chapek on steroids!” one Mouse House insider exclaimed, a nod to the “Don’t Say Gay” stumble in 2022 by Disney’s short term ex-CEO Bob Chapek, after the now Bob Iger-run media giant unveiled shifts this week in its much touted diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In a memo to global staff Tuesday, Disney HR chief Sonia Coleman asserted that the changes and other related moves were intended to line up with self-declared “business goals and company values.”

Though under discussion for almost a year internally, the latest in a perceived series of walk-backs by Disney under Trump 2.0 was a hard pill to swallow for many staffers across various divisions of the company. Calling the present state of diversity initiatives at Disney “uncertain,” the insider added: “What’s next? Where do we go from here? What do we stand for now, keeping MAGA happy?”

“This is not what I expected from Bob — I thought he had our back.”

Another well positioned individual cited “embarrassment” over the public apology and $15 million-plus Disney paid out late last year to Trump‘s presidential foundation and museum as part of a settlement reached in the then-president-elect’s defamation case against ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos as “the beginning of the capitulation.” Along with the DEI giveaway, new disclaimers regarding what were once termed “negative depictions,” new compensation metrics and a rebranding of the under represented voices Reimagining Tomorrow program, several longtime employees referred to the December removal of a transgender storyline from Disney+’s upcoming Pixar series Win or Lose as shocking and “pandering to MAGA.”

There’s a strong consensus across a swath of Disney employees that the current Iger era is nothing like the last, when it seemed like the company and its leaders were comfortable taking a stance and sticking to it, contrarians be damned. In 2018, Iger was solidly behind then-ABC Entertainment boss Channing Dungey and her team in quickly cancelling the highly rated Roseanne revival after a series of racist tweets by Roseanne Barr. Iger seemed to shrug off a Twitter attack by Trump days later after the CEO called former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett to apologize for what Barr said about her. Now, many insiders have grown frustrated that Disney continues to try to win over conservatives rather than take a stand on almost anything — a stance not just affecting employees but also talent relationships, I hear.

Disney did not respond to request for comment on the dissent over its recent policy and content shifts. But if you talk with execs at the company they will insist that whatever moves Disney has made towards Trump and conservative consumers, it is is far less than what Amazon and Google have done in recent weeks.

Since taking office January 20, Trump has signed dozens of Executive Orders stripping DEI programs, trans rights and other equality measures from the federal government, its contractors and federally funded organizations. In addition to threatening to cutting funding for the likes of PBS or NPR and shutting down USAID, Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after lamenting drag shows were among the offerings in recent years at the prestigious federally funded arts organization, while Democrats appointed to the board of trustees were purged or, like Shonda Rhimes, resigned.

Add to that, the usually front-and-center Iger’s low-key presence Tuesday night at the Hollywood premiere of the somewhat politically charged Captain America: Brave New World further deepened the anxiety some inside Disney have felt since Trump’s return to the White House. Briefly on the red carpet with wife Willow Bay and a guest, Iger was seen later in the evening inside the TCL Chinese Theatre in an aisle seat before the screening of the Julius Onah-directed Marvel tentpole began.

Unusual for Iger, and unlike his December 20 appearance at the A Complete Unknown premiere at the Dolby Theatre, there are no photos of the CEO with Captain America lead Anthony Mackie, the cast or creatives last night.

Rebutting the implications of Iger staying out of sight in a sop to MAGA-land, a source close to events told Deadline that “there’s no there there, it was probably a matter of timing.”

Others noted that pro-Palestinian protesters on Hollywood Boulevard objecting to the inclusion of the Shira Haas-portrayed Israeli-born superhero Sabra in Brave New World may have contributed to Iger’s blink-and-you’d-miss him time on the red carpet, while the very public dinner last month at hotspot Craig’s between ex-VP Kamala Harris and Disney Entertainment co-chair (and possible Iger successor) Dana Walden, who are old pals, may signal Disney isn’t waiving the white flag yet.

Still, while Marvel boss Kevin Feige and Disney Entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman were seen making the rounds during Captain America: Brave New World‘s two-theater opening, any mention of the implications of the mercurial POTUS played in the movie by Harrison Ford in Brave New World was kept off the agenda.

“Can you imagine Trump’s reaction to Red Hulk?” one attendee told Deadline of the rage-filled creature Ford’s President Thaddeus Ross transforms into. “He’d either hate it or tweet about it, or both,” the attendee snickered.

Mackie’s backtracking after saying Captain America representing something larger than his namesake country came even though it’s a line Marvel and ex-Cap Chris Evans has parroted about that superhero for more than a decade.

Outrage erupted among right-wing pundits and politicians earlier this year when Mackie, during a press event, said “Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations.” With his patriotism questioned and concerns Brave New World‘s big box office might be in peril, the actor issued a clarification. “Let me be clear about this, I’m a proud American, and taking on the shield of a hero like Cap is the honor of a lifetime,” Mackie wrote on his Instagram feed.

Long before Trump’s return to office, Disney has been damned if they do by the right-wing press, and damned if they don’t by more Democratic factions when practicing diversity initiatives.

While the Chapek-run Disney eventually objected to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill and later law, the Iger-run company saw the writing on the courthouse wall. After some fireworks and court hearings, Disney resolved the feud last June and signed a $17 billion multi-decade expansion deal for Walt Disney World and elsewhere in the Sunshine State.

As much as Disney has been hammered by right wing media, it has progressed slowly in regards to the depiction of the LGBTQ+ community in movies such as Lightyear and the Lena Waithe-voiced Specter in 2020’s Onward. On the other hand, Disney’s bottom line at the box office hit blockbuster heights with Black Panther, the first largely all-Black superhero franchise. Animated movies such as Coco and Encanto, aimed largely at Hispanic/Latino moviegoers, also did huge business.

Other plays for diversity haven’t always gone well.

In October, Jodie Turner-Smith called the company out for remaining silent when the stars of The Acolyte were subject to racist vitriol online, only to see Disney cancel the series shortly after it premiered.

Fronted by a Black lead actress, The Little Mermaid resulted in an offshore box office that wasn’t as prominent as other Disney live-action movies based on its classic toons. Additionally Little Mermaid was subject to review bombing in France, Korea, Germany and beyond.

With the recent retreats by Disney since Trump’s reelection, two other potential MAGA minefields are coming Disney’s way later this year.

There’s the March 21 opening of the company’s long-awaited live-action reboot of its 1937 animated classic Snow White starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. Soon after Trump’s November election win, Zegler posted a now deleted post declaring “f*ck Donald Trump” and “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” As the Megyn Kelly-spurred on backlash grew, Zegler put out an apology in mid-November, saying she “let my emotions get the best of me.” Still, don’t be surprised if the former Celebrity Apprentice host pounds on Zegler’s initial statement closer to the Snow White debut.

Snow White is currently expected to open at $63M-$70M at the domestic box office, at the lower end of how Disney live-action fairy-tale movies typically fare.

Source : https://deadline.com/2025/02/disney-dessent-grows-trump-dei-backlast-1236287009/

Tens of thousands of U.S. civil servants were cleared to take a buyout from Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled the unprecedented downsizing effort could proceed.
About 75,000 workers have signed up for the buyout, said a spokesperson for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, equal to 3% of the civilian workforce. Trump’s administration has promised to pay their salaries through October without requiring them to work, though unions have warned the offer is not trustworthy.

Unions representing federal workers had sued to stop the program, and had delayed it for six days while U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston considered the issue. But the judge ruled on Wednesday, opens new tab that the unions did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit and said the issue needed to be tackled in other forums before landing in court.
The administration said the program is now closed to new applicants.

“There is no longer any doubt: the Deferred Resignation Program was both legal and a valuable option for federal employees,” the Office of Personnel Management said in a statement.
Unions involved in the dispute did not immediately say whether they would appeal the judge’s decision or pursue other options.
“Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it’s not the end of that fight,” said Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal workers.

The buyout is one of many approaches Trump is taking to slash a civilian workforce of 2.3 million that he has blasted as ineffective and biased against him. He has also ordered government agencies to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts, and several have already begun to lay off recent hires who lack full job security.
Officials have been told to prepare staff cuts of up to 70% at some agencies, sources say.

Trump’s offer to pay salaries and benefits until October may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14, and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point.
Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice had described the initiative as a “humane off-ramp” for those frustrated by Trump’s broader plans to reduce the size of the workforce and end the ability of many to work from home.
Unions representing federal employees argued in their lawsuit that the program was “stunningly arbitrary” and violates a law that prevents agencies from spending more money than approved by Congress.
They warned the buyout, which does not apply to border guards, air traffic controllers and some other workers, could thin the workforce in an arbitrary fashion and disrupt vital government services.
Unions and Democratic attorneys general have brought several other lawsuits challenging Trump’s rapid remaking of government and won some initial victories.
In a separate lawsuit filed on Wednesday, five unions sued to block what they called a possible mass firing of hundreds of thousands of workers who resist pressure to accept the buyouts.

LAYOFFS VS CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET PLAN

Trump has deputized billionaire Elon Musk to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which is combing through payment and personnel records in an effort to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget, which totaled $6.75 trillion last year.
Civilian worker salaries account for less than 5% of that total. If the buyout reduces headcount by less than 3%, it could deliver less than $10 billion in annual savings.
Roughly 6% of the workforce either resigns or retires each year, federal figures show.
Trump has ordered federal agencies to work with Musk’s team to identify employees who can be laid off and functions that can be eliminated entirely.
CNN late on Wednesday reported that terminations of probationary employees were underway at the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration, citing federal employees and union sources. Neither the DOE nor the SBA immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.
Musk’s team has focused on 15 agencies so far and has dismantled two – one that provides a lifeline to the world’s needy and another that protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders. Some Republican budget experts say the effort reflects conservative ideology more than a good-faith effort to save taxpayer dollars.
Trump himself has ruled out cuts to popular retirement and health benefits for seniors that account for 36% of federal spending and are projected to eat up more of the budget as the population ages.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-allows-trump-proceed-with-government-employee-buyout-2025-02-12/

Donald Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump ordered top U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The conversations came after Trump’s defense secretary earlier said Kyiv would have to give up its long-held goals of joining the NATO military alliance and regaining all of its territory seized by Russia, signaling a dramatic shift in Washington’s approach to the conflict.

After speaking with Putin for more than an hour, Trump said the Russian leader, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wants the war to end and they discussed “getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future.”
“He wants it to end. He doesn’t want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I think we’re on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelenskiy wants peace and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed,” he added.

Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without spelling out exactly how he would accomplish this.
The Kremlin earlier said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow. Trump said their first meeting would “probably” take place soon in Saudi Arabia.
In a post on his social media platform, he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would lead negotiations on ending the war.

Trump and Zelenskiy spoke after Trump’s call with Putin, and Zelenskiy’s office said the conversation lasted for about an hour.
“I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS. We… talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together …and Ukraine’s technological capabilities… including drones and other advanced industries,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the conflict, now approaching its third anniversary. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, oversaw billions of dollars of military and other aid to Kyiv and had no direct contact with Putin after Russia’s invasion.
Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered permanently neutral under any peace deal.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, said on Wednesday they had to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace. They said they were ready to enhance support for Ukraine and put it in a position of strength.

‘ILLUSIONARY GOAL’

Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the new administration’s bluntest statement so far on its approach to the war, saying Kyiv could not realistically hope to return to previous borders or join NATO.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth told a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
Russia in 2014 annexed Crimea, which Ukraine and many Western countries consider to be occupied Ukrainian territory.
Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”. But he said U.S. troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.
Zelenskiy, hoping to keep Trump interested in continuing to support his country, has lately proposed a deal under which the United States would invest in minerals in Ukraine.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Kyiv on Wednesday on the first visit by a member of Trump’s cabinet, said such a mineral deal could serve as a “security shield” for Ukraine after the war.
Trump also said Rubio and Vice President JD Vance will hold talks about the war on Friday in Munich, where Ukrainian officials were expected to attend an annual security conference.
The new diplomacy followed a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap that got under way on Tuesday, which the Kremlin said could help build trust between the two countries.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-he-discussed-ending-ukraine-war-with-russias-putin-2025-02-12/

Two transgender girls in New Hampshire on Wednesday set in motion the first legal challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that would ban them from participating in school sports for female athletes.
Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 15, and their parents filed a lawsuit last year challenging a New Hampshire law that would block transgender girls from playing female school sports, one of many passed across the United States in Republican-led states.

U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, in September issued a preliminary injunction, barring New Hampshire and the school districts from enforcing the law.
Tirrell and Turmelle are now seeking to expand their case, to take on Trump’s executive orders stating that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female. The orders also would not recognize any change in sex and would ban transgender women and girls from playing female sports.

The judge on Wednesday granted them permission to file an amended complaint.
“School sports are an important part of education – something no child should be denied simply because of who they are,” said Chris Erchull, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, in a statement.
The plaintiffs say Trump’s February 5 executive order, as well as an earlier one, discriminates against transgender people in violation of their equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for the White House, said that each of Trump’s executive orders will hold up in court because every action of his administration is completely lawful.
“Any legal challenge against it is nothing more than an attempt to undermine the will of the American people, who overwhelming elected President Trump to secure the border, revitalize the economy, and restore common-sense policies,” Fields said.

The two students in court filings on Wednesday said their schools face the possibility of losing federal funding, leading both transgender girls to attend classes with uncertainty and fear.
Tirrell plays soccer and Turmelle is looking to try out for tennis in the spring. Both played sports when they were younger.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/transgender-girls-challenge-trumps-ban-them-playing-female-sports-2025-02-12/

Before she goes to bed each night, Holly Wang logs on to DeepSeek for “therapy sessions”.

Ever since January, when the breakout Chinese AI app launched, the 28-year-old has brought her dilemmas and sorrows, including the recent death of her grandmother, to the chatbot. Its responses have resonated so deeply they have at times brought her to tears.

“DeepSeek has been such an amazing counsellor. It has helped me look at things from different perspectives and does a better job than the paid counselling services I have tried,” says Holly, who asked for her real name to be withheld to protect her privacy.

From writing reports and Excel formulas to planning trips, workouts and learning new skills, AI apps have found their way into many people’s lives across the world.

In China, though, young people like Holly have been looking to AI for something not typically expected of computing and algorithms – emotional support.

While the success of DeepSeek has inspired national pride, it also appears to have become a source of comfort for young Chinese like Holly, some of whom are increasingly disillusioned about their future.

Experts say the sluggish economy, high unemployment and Covid lockdowns have all played a role in this sentiment, while the Communist Party’s tightening grip has also shrunk outlets for people to vent their frustrations.

DeepSeek is a generative AI tool – similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini – trained on massive amounts of information to recognise patterns. This allows it to predict things like people’s shopping habits, create new content in text and images, and also carry on conversations like a person.

The chatbot has struck a chord in China partly because it is far better than other homegrown AI apps, but also because it offers something unique: its AI model, R1, lets users see its “thought process” before delivering a response.

The former chief executive of Google is worried artificial intelligence could be used by terrorists or “rogue states” to “harm innocent people.”

Eric Schmidt told the BBC: “The real fears that I have are not the ones that most people talk about AI – I talk about extreme risk.”

The tech billionaire, who held senior posts at Google from 2001 to 2017, told the Today programme “North Korea, or Iran, or even Russia” could adopt and misuse the technology to create biological weapons.

He called for government oversight on private tech companies which are developing AI models, but warned over-regulation could stifle innovation.

Mr Schmidt agreed with US export controls on powerful microchips which power the most advanced AI systems.

Before he left office, former US President Joe Biden restricted the export of microchips to all but 18 countries, in order to slow adversaries’ progress on AI research.

The decision could still be reversed by Donald Trump.

“Think about North Korea, or Iran, or even Russia, who have some evil goal,” Mr Schmidt said.

“This technology is fast enough for them to adopt that they could misuse it and do real harm,” he told Today presenter Amol Rajan.

He added AI systems, in the wrong hands, could be used to develop weapons to create “a bad biological attack from some evil person.”

“I’m always worried about the ‘Osama Bin Laden’ scenario, where you have some truly evil person who takes over some aspect of our modern life and uses it to harm innocent people,” he said.

Bin Laden orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in 2001, where al-Qaeda terrorists took control of planes to kill thousands of people on American soil.

Mr Schmidt proposed a balance between government oversight of AI development and over-regulation of the sector.

“The truth is that AI and the future is largely going to be built by private companies,” Mr Schmidt said.

“It’s really important that governments understand what we’re doing and keep their eye on us.”

He added: “We’re not arguing that we should unilaterally be able to do these things without oversight, we think it should be regulated.”

He was speaking from Paris, where the AI Action Summit finished with the US and UK refusing to sign the agreement.

US Vice President JD Vance said regulation would “kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off”.

Mr Schmidt said the result of too much regulation in Europe “is that the AI revolution, which is the most important revolution in my opinion since electricity, is not going to be invented in Europe.”

He also said the large tech companies “did not understand 15 years ago” the potential that AI had, but does now.

“My experience with the tech leaders is that they do have an understanding of the impact they’re having, but they might make a different values judgment than the government would make,” he said.