Category: World

Orlando police have recovered two sets of earrings worth a combined $769,500 (£597,000) after an alleged thief swallowed them more than two weeks ago.

Jaythan Gilder, 32, swallowed the Tiffany & Co. diamond earrings around the time he was taken into custody on 26 February, police said.

Mr Gilder was monitored by detectives at an Orlando hospital for “more than a dozen days” before the earrings were expelled from his system, according to the Orlando Police Department.

Mr Gilder faces charges of robbery with a mask and grand theft in the first degree.

Tiffany’s has since cleaned the earrings.

Police allege Mr Gilder posed as an assistant to an NBA player so he could be shown “very high-end jewellery” in a VIP room at a Tiffany & Co. store in Orlando, Florida on 26 February.

Mr Gilder allegedly distracted store employees, then ran from the store with two pairs of earrings. The suspect apparently also dropped a diamond ring valued at $587,000 as he fled the store.

When officers caught up with him later that day, they saw Mr Gilder “swallowing several objects believed to be the stolen earrings,” police said.

Officials transporting Mr Gilder to jail allegedly heard him say, “I should have thrown them out the window,” CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, reported.

At the jail, Mr Gilder allegedly asked staff, “Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrdvy4pvpeo

IGGY Azalea has revealed she had an awkward and uncomfortable first meeting with Kanye West – and he has now confirmed her claims.

The Fancy singer, 34, said Ye made inappropriate remarks during a business meeting in 2012 when she was just 22.

Her management had been contacted about a possible record deal, but she claims the conversation quickly turned personal.

During a recent livestream on Kick, Iggy said: “I just met this guy five minutes ago, and I’m supposed to be in a business meeting. Super weird.”

At first, she thought it was a compliment when Ye told her he looked at her pictures every morning for “inspiration.”

But things soon took a disturbing turn.

She alleged: “He was like, ‘Yeah, I jack off to them.’ Weird.”

Iggy went on to claim that Ye then asked about her boyfriend at the time.

She said she avoided answering him.

But Ye allegedly continued, saying: “If a guy’s got a big d***, it’s his god-given right to f*** as many women as he can.”

Clips of Iggy’s claims quickly spread online, causing a stir among fans.

In a shocking twist, Ye has now responded on social media, simply saying: “This is true.”

IGGY’S FULL CLAIMS

In her livestream, Iggy told fans: “I just met this guy five minutes ago, and I’m supposed to be in a business meeting. Super weird.

“I’ve been in a lot of label meetings at that time and they’re all professional, so this was just weird to me.

“I really looked up to Kanye, so it threw me off. I didn’t know what to say, so I was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting to think that someone that I really look up to looks at my pictures every morning for inspiration. That’s kind of cool.”

“He was like, ‘Yeah, I jack off to them.’ WEIRD! Don’t know what to say. Weird.”

“He was like ‘But you’ve got a boyfriend right?’ ‘I said yes, I do have a boyfriend.

“He was like ‘How big is his d***?’

“Not kidding you. My face must have been like, the f, he was like ‘You don’t gotta tell me, I know it’s big.'”

Shocked, she added: “Bruh, why are you asking about other men’s d***? Weird of you.

“He was like ‘I know it is. You gotta let your boyfriend f*** as many different girls as he can cause if you’ve got a big d*** that it’s his God given right to f*** as many women.”

The Sun has contacted a representative for Kanye West for comment.

BITTER FALLOUT

It comes after Kanye objected to a planned collaboration between his daughter North, 11, and rapper Carti, 28, who shares a son with Iggy.

Kanye took to X and ranted about the collaboration, asking if he could team up with Iggy’s son Onyx.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/13847710/iggy-azalea-shocking-allegations-kanye-west-ye/

JAKE PAUL announced he is engaged to Jutta Leerdam in an emotional social media post.

The multimillionaire YouTuber-turned-boxer revealed the news with a series of romantic pictures.

He wrote: “We’re engaged we can’t wait to spend forever together.”

Paul got down on one knee – matching his new fiancee in all white – and popped the question behind a stunning scenic backdrop.

Jutta – a world champion on the ice – jumped for joy and showed off her sparkly engagement ring.

The couple were showered with well-wishes in the comment sections of Paul’s Instagram – which has 28.6MILLION followers.

Ex-opponent Tyron Woodley wrote: “Congrats!!!!!!!”

Former world champion boxer Lawrence Okolie posted: “Massive congratulations!”

Older brother Logan shared the post and wrote: “LIL BRO GOT ENGAGED!!!”

Logan himself proposed to Danish supermodel Nina Agdal in July 2023 in Lake Como in Italy.

Last September they welcomed baby daughter Esme into the world.

Younger brother Jake – who has been with Jutta since April 2023 – plans to have babies too after the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The couple met after Paul invited Jutta onto his podcast – hitting it off via Instagram messages.

And they went public with their relationship two months after Paul, 28, was beaten by Tommy Fury, 25, his only loss in the ring.

The American is now 11-1 as a boxer and most recently beat 58-year-old Mike Tyson in a fight marred in controversy amid the age gap.

But a huge 100 MILLION people tuned in to watch Paul’s eight round points win on Netflix.

The social media sensation then entered shock talks to face Mexican legend Canelo Alvarez, 34, in Las Vegas on May 3.

But Canelo pulled out of the deal at the last minute to instead sign a four-fight deal with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.

And Paul recently called out Anthony Joshua, 35, with the two later sharing a phone call while teasing a stunning bout in 2026.

Jutta also celebrated a gold medal at the World Speed Skating Championships in the trios event alongside Femke Kok and Suzanne Schulting.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13847153/jake-paul-engagement-speedskater-jutta-leerdam/

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a potential challenger to Turkey’s longtime conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared in court on Saturday, charged with corruption and terrorism through alleged links to Kurdish militants.

Turkish prosecutors early on Sunday urged Imamoglu and four aides be jailed on the charges.

Imamoglu was detained on Wednesday, along with dozens of other prominent figures, including two district mayors.

Public protests have erupted in more than a dozen cities in response to the arrests. Many view Imamoglu’s detention as as a politically-driven attempt to remove one of Erdogan’s key rivals in the next presidential race, scheduled for 2028.

What do we know about Imamoglu’s court appearance?

Imamoglu appeared at the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul late on Saturday, Turkish television channels reported.

Earlier in the day, the 53-year-old mayor was quizzed by police for five hours. He denounced the accusations against him as “immoral and baseless,” in a statement released by City Hall.

“This process has not only harmed Turkey’s international reputation but has also shattered the public’s sense of justice and trust in the economy,” Imamoglu said.

News of his arrest badly hurt the Turkish lira and caused chaos in domestic financial markets.

Reuters news agency cited documents showing that Imamoglu had answered at least 70 questions during his police interrogation.

The court decision on whether to release him or jail him pending trial was expected in the early hours of Sunday.

The mayor’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main center-left opposition, condemned Imamoglu’s detention and urged supporters to demonstrate lawfully.

Imamoglu was due to be named the CHP’s official presidential candidate for the next election within days.

Fourth night of protests erupts

Huge crowds gathered outside Istanbul City Hall — the fourth night of demonstrations over Imamoglu’s arrest.

Organizers said around 300,000 protesters took part, many waving red Turkish flags and unfurling angry banners reading: “Dictators are cowards!”

On the fringes of the rally, demonstrators once again clashed with riot police, who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray, correspondents from AFP news agency said.

Around 1,000 protesters, meanwhile, gathered outside the Istanbul court where Imamoglu was being questioned by prosecutors.

“Just as people took the streets to stand up for Erdogan after the July 15 (2016) coup, we are now taking to the streets for Imamoglu,” 30-year-old Aykut Cenk told AFP outside the court, adding that he was “the candidate we voted for.”

The authorities barred access to the courthouse using road barricades while shutting nearby metro stations.

Hundreds of police officers and over a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed.

The protests defied a ban on public gatherings in the city by the Istanbul governor’s office, which was extended and tightened on Saturday.

Since Wednesday, the demonstrations have spread to more than 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.

Protesters also clashed with police in the western coastal province of Izmir and the capital Ankara for a third night in a row, with police firing water cannon at the crowds.

Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign.

What has the Turkish government said?

Government officials have rejected accusations that the legal cases against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.

Erdogan on Saturday accused the CHP’s leadership of turning the party “into an apparatus to absolve a handful of municipal robbers who have become blinded by money.”

He also accused the party of “doing everything to disturb the public peace, to polarize the nation.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-large-crowds-rally-as-imamoglu-appears-in-court/a-72008623

Iconic landmarks in cities around the world were plunged into darkness on Saturday night as millions marked Earth Hour.

The annual campaign by environmental NGO WWF is held to demand urgent action to address the climate crisis and to raise awareness of global environmental issues.

Cities go dark in symbolic show of support

In cities across Asia and Europe, a host of buildings switched off their lights in a symbolic demonstration of solidarity for the planet.

The Sky Tower and Harbour Bridge in Auckland, New Zealand were the first to go dark at 8:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. GMT).

Famous landmarks further east in Asia and Europe then joined in as the clock struck 8:30 p.m., including the Sydney Opera House, the Gardens by the Bay park in Singapore, Wat Arun temple in the Thai capital Bangkok, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the Colosseum in Rome and the London Eye in the UK.

“Every light turned off is a step towards a sustainable future,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said.

People who had gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in the German capital to mark the event sang songs such as “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armsrong or John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour was launched in Australia in 2007, and has since grown into a worldwide annual event that sees entire city skylines and streets go dark to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

The campaign invites people to “give an hour for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something — anything — positive for our planet,” including planting trees and reducing energy consumption.

In a statement ahead of the 19th edition of the event, WWF International Director General Kirsten Schuijt said the campaign is a “powerful reminder of the urgency to act while we still can.”

“The stakes have never been higher. The past year was the hottest on record—capping off the hottest decade, with the hottest seas ever recorded,” she said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/global-landmarks-go-dark-for-earth-hour/a-72009001

When Mariia Pankova last exchanged messages with her close friend Pavlo in December, she had no idea that he was among the Ukrainian troops fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.
She found out when a fellow soldier told her several days later that her friend, Pavlo Humeniuk, 24, a combat engineer in Ukraine’s 47th Magura brigade, had gone missing near the village of Novoivanivka in Kursk on December 6.

Almost four months have passed and there has been no further information about Pavlo’s fate, Pankova told Reuters, citing her conversations with his relatives. She keeps searching on Telegram and Facebook hoping to find out whether he is dead or alive.
Pankova, 25, believes the cost of Ukraine’s risky incursion into Russia may have been too high. The sentiment is shared by many others in Ukraine, especially after troops retreated from most of Kursk this month following weeks of heavy fighting.
“I’m just not sure it was worth it,” she said, large teardrops running down her face when talking about her missing friend, who she bonded with over their shared love of hiking in Ukraine’s mountains.

“We’re not invaders. We just need our territories back, we do not need the Russian one.”
In response to questions for this story, Ukraine’s armed forces General Staff said the offensive was meant to put pressure on Moscow, to divert Russian forces from other fronts and to prevent Russian cross-border attacks on neighbouring parts of Ukraine.
The operation “achieved most of its goals”, the General Staff said.
Kyiv’s assault on Kursk in August took Russia, and the world, by surprise. It was the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.
As Ukrainian soldiers smashed into the Kursk region, largely unopposed, they quickly seized some 1,376 square kilometres (531 square miles) of Russian territory.
But short of troops, within weeks the area under Ukraine’s control shrank to a narrow wedge.

Kyiv used some of its top marine and air assault forces but the grouping was never large enough to be able to hold on to a larger area.
“From the very beginning, logistics was seriously complicated because as we entered the Kursk region, we ensured sufficient depth but we did not ensure sufficient width,” said Serhiy Rakhmanin, a Ukrainian lawmaker on the parliament’s committee for security and defence.
From the start, Russia had a manpower advantage along the Kursk frontline.
But the situation became critical late last year. Russia brought in elite units and top drone forces as reinforcements, aided by North Korean forces. They tightened assaults around Ukrainian flanks and advanced to within firing range of a key supply road, according to reports from Ukrainian military bloggers close to the armed forces.
“They not only increased the number of their group opposing our military, but they also improved its quality,” Rakhmanin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never acknowledged the role of the North Koreans on the battlefield.

‘NO LOGIC’

Russia’s retaking of the Kursk region removes a potential bargaining chip for Ukraine just as U.S. President Donald Trump undertakes talks to end the war with Russia, which holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s national lands.
Ukraine’s retreat from the Kursk city of Sudzha, confirmed by Kyiv on March 16, prompted questions and deepened the public divide in Ukraine on the benefits of the incursion.

Soldier Oleksii Deshevyi, 32, a former supermarket security guard who lost his hand while fighting in Kursk in September, said he saw no logic in the operation.
“We should not have started this operation at all,” he told Reuters in a rehabilitation centre in Kyiv, where he has spent the past six months adjusting to life after injury.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged his military is in a difficult position in Kursk and that he expects continued attacks from Russia as it attempts to push the remaining Ukrainian forces out of the region.
However, he has denied claims by Putin and Trump that his forces are surrounded. U.S. intelligence assessments also state Kyiv’s troops are not encircled.
The Russian forces are now sending small assault groups to try to break through the Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, and may also be readying for a bigger attack there, Ukrainian military analysts said.
In public comments made to Putin, Russia’s chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov last week confirmed his troops’ recent incursions into Sumy. He detailed what he said were heavy Ukrainian losses in Kursk.
Even as Ukraine shifted to a defensive operation, its goals included “control over the territory of the Russian Federation, exhaustion of the enemy, destruction of its personnel and pulling back its reserves,” Ukraine’s General Staff said.
It added that nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were taken prisoner, some of whom were swapped for Ukrainian prisoners.
Because of the operation, Moscow had to create three new groupings, totalling about 90,000 soldiers, as well as 12,000 North Korean servicemen, the General Staff said.
Reuters could not independently verify those claims.

RISKY GAMBLE

Even at the start, some criticised it as a risky gamble.
Viktor Muzhenko, former head of Ukraine’s General Staff, wrote in August 2024 that Ukraine should “focus on defending its key territories, avoiding unpredictable risky operations that could divert attention from main threats, and choose forms and methods of using troops that are adequate to their capabilities.”
However, some in Ukraine hailed the operation as a black eye for Russia.
Speaking on March 12, Oleksander Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said the operation diverted and killed some of Russia’s best troops.
Lawmaker Rakhmanin said it also provided a much-needed boost to morale in Ukraine after Russia made territorial advances there in 2024 and showcased Ukraine’s ability to conduct successful offensive operations.

While Trump negotiates with Putin for an end to the war, Pankova remembered her friend Pavlo and cast doubt over the possibility of a peace deal that prevented Russia from later taking more Ukrainian territory.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-retakes-kursk-ukrainians-ask-was-it-worth-it-2025-03-22/

Pope Francis, who has been battling pneumonia for more than five weeks, will be discharged from hospital on Sunday but will need a further two months of rest at the Vatican, the head of his medical team said on Saturday.
Francis, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.

While Francis will return to the Vatican on Sunday, his doctors said it would take “a lot of time” for his aging body to fully heal.

They said they had prescribed the pope two months of repose, and had advised him against taking any meetings with large groups, or that require special effort.
“The recommendation for a period of convalescence of at least two months is very important,” Sergio Alfieri, head of the pope’s medical team, told the press conference.
Francis, who was fighting double pneumonia, suffered four acute attacks of what the Vatican called “respiratory crises” during his time in hospital.
Alfieri said that two of the crises had been critical, with the pope “in danger of his life”.

The pontiff no longer has pneumonia, but is also not completely healed from a “complex” infection involving several microorganisms, said the doctor.
Alfieri emphasized that while Francis had used non-invasive ventilation through a mask over his mouth and nose to help breathe, the pope had never been intubated during his stay in hospital.
One senior cardinal had said on Friday that the pope would need to “relearn to speak” after battling a respiratory infection for so long.
“It will take time before his voice returns to what it was before,” said Alfieri.

The doctor said the pope, who had gained some weight in recent years after using a wheelchair for knee and back pain, has now lost some weight.
“We haven’t weighed him, but he has lost weight, surely,” said Alfieri. “But, let’s say, he had some ‘in reserve,’ so it doesn’t worry us,” he added.

POPE TO MAKE PUBLIC APPEARANCE SUNDAY

Dr. Luigi Carbone, vice director of the Vatican’s healthcare service, said the pope would have a nurse caring for him when he returns to his Vatican residence.
The Vatican said earlier on Saturday that Francis would make his first public appearance in more than five weeks on Sunday, to offer a blessing from the window of his hospital room before being discharged.
The pope has been seen by the public only once during his hospital stay, in a photo the Vatican released last week, showing the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel.
Francis wants to come to the hospital window around noon on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing, the Vatican said in its brief statement earlier on Saturday.
A period of two months rest for Francis could lead to significant changes to the Vatican’s calendar of upcoming events.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-francis-plans-make-first-public-appearance-five-weeks-sunday-2025-03-22/

Parisians vote in a referendum on Sunday to decide whether an extra 500 of the city’s streets should be pedestrianised and greened, in a new push by the French capital’s left-leaning town hall to curb car usage and improve air quality.
This is the third such referendum in Paris in as many years, following a 2023 vote that approved a ban on e-scooters, and a decision last year to triple parking charges for large SUVs.

“For the past 25 years we’ve gradually been reclaiming public space for pedestrian traffic, for gentle traffic, and with ‘garden streets’, to create lungs within neighbourhoods, the places where we live,” Deputy Mayor Patrick Bloche told Reuters ahead of Sunday’s vote.
Paris town hall data shows car traffic in the city has more than halved since the Socialists assumed power at the turn of the century.
Mayor Anne-Hidalgo, in office since 2014, has overseen significant transformation in the city’s streets. Since 2020, 84 km (52 miles) of cycle lanes have been created and bicycle usage jumped 71% between the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns and 2023, the data shows.

If approved, Sunday’s referendum will eliminate 10,000 extra parking spots in Paris, adding to the 10,000 removed since 2020. The capital’s two million residents will be consulted on which streets will become pedestrian areas.

PARIS BOTTOM OF LIST OF EUROPE’S GREENEST CAPITALS

Despite recent changes, Paris lags other European capitals in terms of green infrastructure – which include private gardens, parks, tree-lined streets, water and wetlands – making up only 26% of the city area versus a European capitals average of 41%, according to the European Environment Agency

Critics of the changes say the town hall’s measures make it increasingly challenging for the 10 million people living in the outer suburbs, where the public transport network is less dense, to commute to work and shop in the city centre.

“It’s important to know that the city of Paris isn’t a museum. It’s still a city where people work, where workers are forced to get around, where people from the greater Paris region are forced to come, where there are stores,” said Philippe Noziere, head of the automobile owners’ association 40M.
Car ownership illustrates the divide between central Paris and the suburbs: only one out of three households own a car in the former versus two out of three in the latter. Excluding Paris and its region, car ownership in France is 85%.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-residents-vote-making-500-more-streets-pedestrian-2025-03-22/

A man who claimed a weedkiller caused his cancer has been awarded about $2.1bn (£1.6bn) in compensation and damages by a US jury.

The verdict is one of the largest legal settlements issued against Bayer’s Roundup product. Bayer has said it will appeal the verdict.

The world’s largest maker of seeds and pesticides has paid about $10bn (£7.7bn) to settle disputed claims that one of its active ingredients, glyphosate, causes cancer. The company insists the chemical is safe if used properly and denies it causes cancer.

The Georgia verdict includes $65m (£50m) in compensatory damages and $2bn (£1.5bn) in punitive damages, according to a statement by the plaintiff’s law firms seen by the Reuters news agency.

Roundup is used widely in the UK and Europe to control weeds although some consumer versions no longer contain glyphosate. Other Roundup products, designed for contractors and landscapers, often still include glyphosate.

More than 60,000 further cases are pending for Bayer, which has set aside $5.9bn (£4.5bn) in legal provisions.

The German pharmaceutical and biotechnology group acquired Roundup as part of its $63bn (£48bn) takeover of US agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018.

Bayer said in a statement it disagreed with the jury’s verdict, saying it conflicted with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide.

“We believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned and the excessive and unconstitutional damage awards eliminated or reduced,” it said.

It added that damages in cases that have reached final judgements have been reduced by 90% overall compared with the original jury awards.

The question of whether glyphosate is carcinogenic is disputed within the scientific community.

But environmental groups argue the chemical is harmful to other wildlife, kills beneficial organisms in the soil and some weeds have become resistant to it.

The EU Commission has decided to renew glyphosate’s licence for use in the EU to December 2033. The UK is also expected to extend the current licence when it expires in December 2025.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/man-who-claimed-weedkiller-caused-cancer-awarded-2-1bn-by-us-jury-13333847

Lawyers for Harrods are proposing six-figure payouts to settle claims brought by sexual abuse victims of the London department store’s former owner, Mohamed al Fayed.

Sky News has learnt that MPL Legal, which is coordinating a redress scheme on behalf of the world-famous retailer, has told potential claimants that they could be eligible for general damages lump sums of up to £110,000 or £200,000, depending upon claimants’ willingness to submit to a psychiatric assessment arranged by the company.

A document seen by Sky News suggests that victims of Mr al Fayed who choose a “non-medical pathway” would be eligible for “general damages limited to compensation for sexual assault of up to £110,000”, with “aggravated damages [of] up to £15,000”, and “wrongful testing fixed payment(s) up to £7,500”.

Claimants who agree to an assessment by a scheme consultant psychiatrist – referred to in the document as the “medical pathway” – would be eligible for general damages of up to £200,000, further payments equivalent to those potentially awarded to non-medical claimants, as well as treatment costs “past and future supported by the medical report” and a “work impact payment capped at £110,000”.

The “wrongful testing” payments refer to women who were forced to undergo unnecessary and intrusive medical examinations demanded by Mr al Fayed, while the “work impact payments” relate to loss of earnings triggered by, for example, the unjustified termination of victims’ employment at Harrods.

The draft terms raise the prospect that some of the former Harrods owner’s victims could receive payments of more than £300,000.

However, the decision to impose a further psychiatric assessment in order to access the largest sums available under the scheme may anger claimants who have already endured years of psychological trauma after being abused by Mr al Fayed.

Those who opt to pursue the “medical pathway” nevertheless face a protracted wait to receive their payouts.

The MLP document said it would take up to six months to produce a medical report, after which a claimant would have 21 days to submit questions relating to it.

An offer of compensation would then be made within 35 days, it said, after which a claimant could accept the offer, appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel or leave the scheme and pursue an alternative form of redress.

The proposed terms are understood to be preliminary and subject to ongoing consultation, and will not be concluded until the end of this month, according to sources close to the process.

If the scheme is finalised along lines similar to those being consulted on, it would likely result in a total compensation bill for Harrods running to tens of millions of pounds.

The final cost of compensating victims of a man now regarded as one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders will, though, be unclear until the number of claimants and their decisions about which compensation route to pursue have been determined.

Responding to an enquiry from Sky News this weekend, a Harrods spokesperson said: “It would be premature for us to comment on the nature and details of a scheme that is currently under consultation.

“We are actively inviting the valuable input from Survivors and their legal representatives to establish the final scheme that aims to be survivor-first, trauma-informed, and fair in its approach to compensation.

“Further updates will be provided once the consultation period is complete.”

Details are, however, expected to be finalised in the coming days.

According to a document published on a website set up by MPL Legal for the purposes of administering the redress scheme, “Harrods and MPL Legal are undertaking a period of consultation regarding the compensation scheme in which we will receive detailed feedback from interested parties, including several legal firms representing survivors, leading Counsel and Dame Jasvinder [Sanghera], the Independent Survivor Advocate”.

“It is anticipated the final compensation scheme will be published and survivors will be able to access application forms from 31 March 2025.”

Mr al Fayed, who died in 2023, owned Harrods for 25 years, selling it in 2010 to Qatar Holding, one of the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth funds, for £1.5bn.

His reign of terror at the Knightsbridge store is thought to have involved hundreds of predominantly young female victims, with former Fulham women’s players also alleging sexual abuse by the billionaire Egyptian.

Mr al Fayed also owned Fulham Football Club for a number of years.

The MPL Legal document seen by Sky News said the redress scheme would “provide options for survivors – an alternative route to the court process”, and that it would “hopefully avoid an adversarial approach which also risks retraumatising survivors”.

It added that the scheme would be “as inclusive as possible – we want the scheme to work for as many survivors as we can”.

Under the heading “Scheme principles”, MPL said it represented “an alternative to litigation, but a survivor can leave the scheme at any time and pursue the claim through the court system”.

It said it hoped that law firms engaging with the scheme “will ensure survivors receive 100% of the compensation”.

“The level of compensation available through the scheme has been designed to mirror the court’s approach,” it added.

It also said there were “certain classifications of cases which may not be suitable for the scheme, for example if a survivor wishes to claim a full loss of earnings”.

Last October, lawyers acting for victims of Mr al Fayed said they had received more than 420 enquiries about potential claims, although it is unclear how many more have come forward in the six months since.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/harrods-proposes-six-figure-payouts-to-victims-of-al-fayed-abuse-13333651

An eruption of Indonesia’s Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano spewed ash clouds more than 8 kilometres (5 miles) high, authorities said as they raised the alert status to the highest level, and an Australian airline cancelled some flights into Bali on Friday.
Thursday night’s large eruption of the volcano in East Nusa Tenggara province followed dozens of smaller ones since March 13, the national geological agency said in a statement.

A disaster mitigation agency spokesperson told Reuters one person was injured during evacuations. He did not immediately have details on the size or logistics of the evacuations.
Jetstar, Qantas Airways’ (QAN.AX), opens new tab low-cost subsidiary, cancelled its flights between Australia and Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Friday morning because of the volcanic ash, but said flights were expected to resume in the afternoon.

A Bali airport spokesperson said the airport was still operating, with seven international flights cancelled on Friday morning and some domestic flights delayed. At least nine people were killed and thousands were evacuated when the Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupted in November last year, pelting nearby villages with hot rocks and lava flows.

It was not immediately clear how many residents were affected by Thursday’s eruption. Indonesian authorities had said in November that it aimed to permanently relocate them.
The geological agency warned of lava floods and said there were smaller eruptions early on Friday.
Indonesia has close to 130 active volcanoes and sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop various tectonic plates.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesias-lewotobi-laki-laki-volcano-erupts-some-bali-flights-cancelled-2025-03-21/

The Trump administration is planning to import eggs from Turkey and South Korea and is in talks with other countries in hopes of easing all-time high prices for the American consumer, officials confirmed.

“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House.

It follows the administration’s announcement of a $1bn (£792m) plan to combat a raging bird flu epidemic that has forced US farmers to cull tens of millions of chickens.

Despite President Trump’s campaign promise to reduce prices, the cost of eggs has surged more than 65% over the past year, and it is projected to rise by 41% in 2025.

Rollins said her department was also in talks with other countries to secure new supplies, but did not specify which regions.

“When our chicken populations are repopulated and we’ve got a full egg laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf, ” she said.

Polish and Lithuanian poultry associations said on Friday they had also been approached by US embassies regarding possible egg exports, the AFP reported.

“Back in February, the American embassy in Warsaw asked our organisation whether Poland would be interested in exporting eggs to the US market,” Katarzyna Gawronska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers, told the news agency.

In February, the US Department of Agriculture unveiled a $1bn, five-point plan to tackle the price of eggs, with a budget of $500m for biosecurity measures, roughly $100m for vaccine research and development, and $400m for farmer financial relief programs.

The Trump administration said it will provide commercial egg farms with best practices and consulting services for free, and pay up to 75% of the costs to address vulnerabilities to help prevent the spread of bird flu.

“Our plan was to invest a significant amount of money to do audits across the country to have USDA help these egg laying companies to secure their barns,” Rollins said. “…and since we began doing that most recently, we’ve seen a significant decline in the bird flu.”

Though the avian flu, or H5N1, has circulated among American poultry flocks for years, an outbreak starting in 2022 has wreaked havoc on farms, killing more than 156 million birds and sending egg prices skyrocketing.

Egg prices became a rallying point for Trump in last year’s presidential run as he sought to capitalise on voters’ frustrations with the rising cost of essential items.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c743g135vj9o

Jennifer Lopez is single and ready to mingle.

A source exclusively tells Page Six that the “Hustlers” star is “ready” to start dating again just two months after settling her divorce from ex-husband Ben Affleck.

“Jennifer is ready to put herself out there again and she hasn’t given up on finding love,” the insider shared.

“Her friends have encouraged her to date and she’s definitely open to meeting someone new.”

The source also shared that the “Let’s Get Loud” singer is thinking about expanding her dating pool to include not just celebrities.

“Jennifer is considering dating somebody who isn’t in the public eye this time around but she’s not limiting herself to any particular type,” the insider added.

A rep for Lopez did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Lopez, 55, was legally declared single last month — just one month after she and Affleck finalized their divorce on Jan. 6. However, the exes were told it wouldn’t go into effect until Feb. 21.

The date fell six months after the “Atlas” star initially filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary.

While it appears J.Lo is ready to move on, it seems her ex may be stuck in the past.

The “Good Will Hunting” star, 52, has his eyes set on ex-wife Jennifer Garner now that they’ve been spending more time together.

Earlier this month, the actor and the “13 Going on 30” star, 52, with whom he shares children Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13, were photographed in a close embrace during a paintball outing.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2025/03/21/celebrity-news/jennifer-lopez-is-ready-to-date-again-as-ex-ben-affleck-is-seen-spending-time-with-jennifer-garner/

The college student whose mugshot went viral this week has shed some light on how her parents reacted to the ordeal.

Lily Stewart, a 20-year-old student at the University of Georgia, was arrested and charged for speeding on March 8. But what caught the internet’s attention was her dazzling mugshot.

In it she has on pearl earrings, a slightly frazzled blowout, and is flashing the camera a wide smile.

“Everyone’s been asking me, ‘Why’d you smile, why’d you smile?’ I just smile. It was just like an instinct,” Stewart told PEOPLE Friday. “There were cameras up there. I popped my smile and turned to the side.”

Her mom, Michelle Stewart, asked her daughter about the booking photo in passing, telling her: “I hope you looked pretty.”

Stewart initially only received a ticket from the Georgia State Patrol officer for going over the speed limit, with the UGA student admitting it would probably be her “fourth or fifth” ticket so far. It was her speeding off again mere minutes later that landed her in a holding cell.

After spending an uncomfortable time in a cell with men ogling her like “some rib-eye steak,” paying her $440 bond, and getting her booking photo taken, Stewart was free to go.

Once out of the station, she phoned her parents. Her dad, George Stewart, picked up first and found the situation amusing.

“This is how I said it: I was like, ‘Dad, think of the absolute worst thing I could possibly do,’” she said.

“And he was like, ‘Hmmm spend a bunch of money on my card and make me go broke.’ And I was like, ‘No, not that,’” Stewart adds. “‘And he was like, ‘Well, then, you didn’t get in trouble with the law–’ And I was like, ‘Ding, ding, ding.’ And then he laughed and he was like, ‘You got arrested?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’”

Stewart said he grew more somber once he heard her charge.

“Lily, I couldn’t even think of something more stupid.”

Though ultimately Stewart’s parents weren’t upset with her, her mom still chided: “I want to thump you upside the head.”

Stewart never expected the “15 minutes of fame” her mugshot would garner her: “I mean, it’s just a mugshot.”

“I actually think it’s a bad photo of me,” she said.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/viral-hot-mugshot-student-reveals-parents-reaction-to-her-arrest/

DISGRACED brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate have arrived back in Romania after fleeing to the US last month.

The pair jetted off to Florida after they were freed from house arrest over serious trafficking allegations – but are now back in Bucharest as investigations continue.

The brothers held an impromptu press conference with reporters just outside of their home on the outskirts of Bucharest late on Saturday night.

Shamed Andrew led the conversation as he again pleaded his innocence despite the slew of allegations still hanging over his head by both Romanian investigators and UK cops.

The British-American siblings were held last year in Bucharest over allegations of rape, human trafficking and forming a group to sexually exploit women.

The Tates face separate charges in the UK of rape and trafficking.

They deny all of the allegations.

Andrew told reporters today: “We are in Romania like I said I’d be because innocent men don’t run from anything and we are here to clear our names.

“After all we’ve been through, we truly deserve a day in court.

“Anyone who believes any of this garbage has a particularly low IQ.”

The brother’s plane, which Andrew claimed on X cost $185,000, flew across the Atlantic and landed at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport shortly before 1.00am local time (11pm UK).

While in the US, the Tate brothers did a tour of popular podcasts and rubbed shoulders with some of Los Angeles biggest influencers.

They attended a Power Slap event, hosted by Dana White, as well as having a lengthy conversation with deranged rapper Kanye West.

The toxic pair’s trip came after it emerged crossbow killer Kyle Clifford was influenced by Andrew’s misogynistic ramblings.

It comes as the brothers still face questions over their alleged involvement in a sex trafficking ring in Romania.

Footage in August showed armed cops storming their home through the roof after being blocked by “bulletproof doors”.

Masked officers raided the controversial influencer’s home amid a probe into new allegations of trafficking and sex with a minor.

In December, British cops were also allowed to seize more than £2million from the pair after the pair didn’t pay taxes.

The brothers failed to pay any tax on £21million in revenue from their online businesses — now held in seven frozen bank accounts.

Andrew said at the time: “This isn’t justice, it’s a co-ordinated attack on those who challenge the system.”

Cops are seeking their extradition to the UK for similar allegations here.

Andrew moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.

Andrew initially gained fame after a short-lived appearance on Big Brother.

He was dumped from the reality show after alleged footage of him beating a woman emerged online.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13845099/andrew-tristan-tate-romania-return/

Kirsty Coventry, who will be the first African leader of the IOC, sees inconsistencies in the current approach of singling out Russia while there are conflicts on her own continent.

The incoming IOC president has revealed to Sky News she is against banning countries from the Olympics over wars and will open talks on Russia’s potential return to the Games.

Only Russians competing as neutrals were allowed to take part in Paris 2024 as Moscow was punished for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kirsty Coventry will be the first female president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its first African leader.

The former Olympic swimmer, who won two gold medals for Zimbabwe, has said she sees inconsistencies in the current approach of singling out Russia while there are conflicts on her own continent.

Asked a day after her election if she was against banning countries from the Olympics over conflicts, Ms Coventry told Sky News: “I am, but I think you have to take each situation into account.

“What I would like to do is set up a taskforce where this taskforce tries to set out some policies and some guiding frameworks that we as the movement can use to make decisions when we are brought into conflicts.

“We have conflicts in Africa and they’re horrific at the moment. So this is not going away, sadly.

“So how are we going to protect and support athletes?

“How are we going to ensure that all athletes have the opportunity to come to the Olympic Games?

“And our responsibility is also to ensure once those athletes are all there, that they’re safe and that we protect and support them during the Olympic Games.

“So there’s a fine balance. But ultimately I believe that it’s best for our movement to ensure that we have all athletes represented.”

US President Donald Trump has also apparently discussed with Russian leader Vladimir Putin the idea of using sports to heal relations with Russia.

Ms Coventry was congratulated on her IOC election by Putin, who said her “experience and interest in the real advancement of the noble Olympic ideals will ensure your success in such a responsible position”.

While the next Summer Olympics are not until 2028 in Los Angeles, there are fewer than 11 months until the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

So will Russia be back by then?

“We’re going to have that discussion with a collective group …with the taskforce,” she said.

Gender eligibility

This interview was taking place a day after her election to the highest job in sport – seeing off six rivals, including Sebastian Coe.

World Athletics – led by Lord Coe – has been exploring whether to introduce swab tests to assess gender eligibility.

A key athletics meeting next week is due to discuss the issue amid concerns about fairness over athletes with differences of sex development and transgender women competing in women’s sport.

The IOC has previously called a return to sex testing a “bad idea”, but Ms Coventry is not ruling it out as she has talked about protecting the female category.

“This is a conversation that’s happened and the international federations have taken a far greater lead in this conversation,” she said in the Greek costal resort of Costa Navarino.

“What I was proposing is to bring a group together with the international federations and really understand each sport is slightly different.

“We know in equestrian, sex is really not an issue, but in other sports it is.

“So what I’d like to do again is bring the international federations together and sit down and try and come up with a collective way forward for all of us to move.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/talks-on-russias-potential-return-to-olympics-to-open-13333288

The US president made the comments while awarding Boeing a contract to develop the F-47, the US Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet.

Trump makes F-47 announcementDonald Trump has said Russia is only fearful of NATO with the US as a member.

In a news conference on Friday, the US president claimed: “NATO was gone until I came along”.

“President Putin will tell you that without the United States, he wouldn’t be worried, but he is worried when the United States is involved,” he said.

Mr Trump also alleged the previous and current NATO secretary generals said: “If it wasn’t for Trump, you wouldn’t even have NATO because we were paying the costs of almost all of the countries.”

Mr Trump made the comments as he announced in the White House that Boeing has won a contract to develop the US Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet.

The new sixth-generation jet would be named F-47, Mr Trump said.

“Nothing in the world comes close to it… it’s something the likes of which nobody has seen before,” he added.

“(The F-47) will be the most lethal aircraft ever built.”

On defence, Mr Trump said the US is also “well-equipped” to fight any potential war with China.

“We don’t want to have a potential war with China. But I can tell you if we did, we’re very well-equipped to handle it,” he said.

He also rejected reports that his adviser Elon Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China – a rare suggestion that his far-reaching role in the administration will face limits.

“Elon has businesses in China,” he said. “And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that.”

The president confirmed he would be speaking to China’s president Xi Jinping about tariffs. Mr Trump also said there was flexibility on his controversial economic measure.

It comes as Mr Trump expressed enthusiasm for possibly becoming a member of the Commonwealth.

Sharing an article on his Truth Social network about plans to allegedly make the USA the next associate member, the President wrote: “I Love King Charles. Sounds good to me!”

‘Our allies are calling constantly’

The plane’s design remains a closely-held secret, but would likely include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines.

The initial contract to proceed with production on the jets is worth an estimated $20bn (£15.5bn).

The blaze triggered a “significant power outage” that resulted in more than 1,000 flights to and from the airport being cancelled.

Heathrow Airport has reopened for a limited number of flights after a large fire at a nearby electrical substation disrupted travel for around 200,000 passengers.

Counter-terror police were leading the investigation into the cause of the blaze, which triggered a “significant power outage” that led to more than 1,000 flights to and from the airport being cancelled.

Heathrow’s boss apologised to passengers, describing the disruption “as big as it gets for our airport” and admitting “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.

In an update on Friday evening, the Metropolitan Police said the cause of the fire is believed to be non-suspicious, while the London Fire Brigade (LFB) announced its investigation will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.

Heathrow is expected to run a full schedule on Saturday.

The fire that caused the power outage is at the North Hyde substation in Hayes, about 1.5 miles to the north of the west London airport.

LFB received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday.

Heathrow initially announced the airport would be closed until 11.59pm on Friday but later said repatriation flights for passengers diverted to other airports in Europe would resume on Friday evening.

Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada and United Airlines.

A BA flight to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, took off just before 9pm after a slight delay to its expected departure time.

Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.

Airport disruption nearly ‘as big as it gets’

Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye told reporters the flights taking off on Friday evening would help make sure the airport has “operations in place” for Saturday morning.

He continued: “Tomorrow morning we expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation as a normal day.”

Mr Woldbye added that passengers who were planning to fly from Heathrow on Saturday should arrive at the airport in time for their flight as normal.

The chief executive also apologised to the passengers whose journeys had been disrupted but said he would not have closed down the airport unless there were “severe safety concerns”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/heathrow-reopens-for-some-flights-after-fire-led-to-unprecedented-shutdown-13332920

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.
The move, effective April 24, cuts short a two-year “parole” granted to the migrants under former President Joe Biden that allowed them to enter the country by air if they had U.S. sponsors.

Trump, a Republican, took steps to ramp up immigration enforcement after taking office, including a push to deport record numbers of migrants in the U.S. illegally. He has argued that the legal entry parole programs launched under his Democratic predecessor overstepped the boundaries of federal law and called for their termination in a January 20 executive order.
Trump said on March 6 that he would decide “very soon” whether to strip the parole status from some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. during the conflict with Russia. Trump’s remarks came in response to a Reuters report that said his administration planned to revoke the status for Ukrainians as soon as April.

Biden launched a parole entry program for Venezuelans in 2022 and expanded it to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023 as his administration grappled with high levels of illegal immigration from those nationalities. Diplomatic and political relations between the four countries and the United States have been strained.
The new legal pathways came as Biden tried to clamp down on illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Trump administration’s decision to strip the legal status from half a million migrants could make many vulnerable to deportation if they choose to remain in the U.S. It remains unclear how many who entered the U.S. on parole now have another form of protection or legal status.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-revokes-legal-status-530000-cubans-haitians-nicaraguans-venezuelans-2025-03-21/

That control is starting to fray as Mr. Johnson, a longevity guru known for performing experiments on his body, faces a backlash over the agreements.

Mr. Johnson declined to answer many questions from The Times. In a post on X before this article was published, he said confidentiality agreements “try to create clear boundaries and expectations, so that trust isn’t left to chance.”

After The Times contacted Mr. Johnson, he privately pushed people in his orbit to abide by the agreements, people familiar with his outreach said. One legal letter sent last month reminded a former employee that they were “strictly prohibited from using, disclosing or misappropriating any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information belonging to the company or Bryan R. Johnson,” according to a copy.

Publicly, Mr. Johnson focused on other things. This month, he announced his own religion, which is named after his longevity slogan, “Don’t Die.” It would save the human race, he said.

Eternal life

Mr. Johnson founded the payments company Braintree in 2007 and became a multimillionaire when PayPal bought the start-up in 2013. He soon shed his Mormon roots and began a phase of exploration.
Mr. Johnson divorced his wife, with whom he has three children, and left the Mormon Church. He hired prostitutes, according to friends, former employees and court documents, and took drugs including acid, Ibogaine and DMT.
Mr. Johnson has not publicly addressed his use of acid, but is a proponent of psychedelics like DMT and has the shape of its chemical structure tattooed on his arm.
He also started using confidentiality agreements. The terms mandated that people could not speak publicly about his escapades, or talk to their friends or family about him.
In 2016, Mr. Johnson founded Kernel, a brain technology start-up. He had turned down the chance to establish a similar company with Elon Musk, who created his own such firm, Neuralink.
Mr. Johnson increasingly fixated on his reputation, according to former friends and employees, and wondered why he was not getting as much publicity as Mr. Musk. He turned more to confidentiality agreements. In 2020, he required a date to sign one before the two used acid together, two former friends said. She signed but left early, incensed by the agreement.
The confidentiality terms were typically attached to broader employment agreements at Mr. Johnson’s business. At the time, a Kernel employee agreement with confidentiality clauses was four and a half pages long, with few specifics about what workers could not talk about.
But as Mr. Johnson transitioned into the longevity industry and focused on his health, losing more than 50 pounds, the terms mushroomed. The change was driven partly by the founding of Blueprint, a start-up at Mr. Johnson’s Los Angeles home, in 2021 to sell health products to his legions of death-averse fans. (He stepped down from Kernel in 2023 but remains on the board.)
Blueprint’s brand is tied to Mr. Johnson’s image, with pop-ups of his face promoting the Netflix documentary and supplements called “Bryan’s favorites” listed for sale on the website. “He is the healthiest person on the planet,” Blueprint’s site claims.
By last year, a Blueprint employment agreement with confidentiality terms was 20 pages long and listed dozens of restrictions.
Among them: Workers must keep confidential “any nonpublic information regarding Bryan’s home, office, personal effects in his home or office, any spaces rented or owned by Bryan, any vehicles/planes/automobiles/boats/other methods of transportation that are not publicly accessible, or areas of his home or such space that are not publicly accessible,” according to a copy.
In his X post, Mr. Johnson said the agreements “have evolved, just like everything else I iterate & improve upon.” He added, “The goal is precision.”
Employees at Blueprint, which has a staff of about 30, sometimes had to sign as many as three separate agreements. That is atypical for employee agreements, according to legal experts.
One was an unusual “opt-in” document, which is not a confidentiality contract but aims to protect the company from potential lawsuits over what employees might witness in the workplace.
Under that agreement, employees had to attest that they were OK with Mr. Johnson’s wearing “little and sometimes no clothing/no underwear” and with hearing “discussions of sexual activities, including erections,” according to a copy. They also had to agree that Mr. Johnson’s behavior was not “unwelcome, offensive, humiliating, hostile, triggering, unprofessional or abusive.”
The opt-in agreement was “fair to all concerned and is in everyone’s best interest,” Mr. Johnson posted on X.
Many wealthy individuals and companies use confidentiality agreements. But Cliff Palefsky, an employment lawyer in San Francisco, said some aspects of Mr. Johnson’s agreements were overly broad and unenforceable.
Mr. Johnson and his company are “counting on people being afraid and not violating it because they’re afraid,” said Mr. Palefsky, who reviewed the documents for The Times.
Longevity mix
By early last year, some Blueprint employees were growing frustrated with the confidentiality agreements as the company experienced problems, people who have worked there said.
Among them were questions about Blueprint’s health supplements. The company sells about a dozen different proprietary supplements, including a $49 “longevity mix,” according to its website. Supplements are subject to lighter regulation than medicines.
At the time, Mr. Johnson and his leadership team, including Dr. Zolman, asked for volunteers to join a study of the supplements and meals called “The Blueprint Stack.” The goal was to examine the effects of the products on people’s health, according to the people and internal documents viewed by The Times.
Some executives, including Dr. Zolman, wanted to follow standard clinical testing procedures for the study and choose users to test at random, the people said. But Mr. Johnson had customers pay more than $2,100 to participate, they said. He promised them he would release the results by the summer of 2024.
Of the roughly 1,700 participants in the study, about 60 percent experienced at least one side effect, according to internal emails, spreadsheets and other documents. Blood tests revealed that participants saw their testosterone levels drop and became prediabetic after following Mr. Johnson’s diet plan. It’s unclear how severe the side effects were.
“Longevity mix: A lot of comments about hating this as it is making them sick, vomit, have heartburn, etc.,” one Blueprint employee wrote to a colleague in February 2024.

Allulose, an ingredient in the longevity mix and a sugar alternative that Mr. Johnson has pitched to his social media followers, also caused issues. “TONS of people saying it’s causing nausea, bloating,” wrote an employee.

In an email to The Times, Mr. Johnson said the results showed “common side effects with any food, beverage or supplement.” Blueprint products are always improved, he said, and are tested for safety. He added that it was typical in a self-experimentation study to not cover participants’ costs.

Employees felt they could not share the findings because of the confidentiality agreements, according to the emails and text messages.

Last summer, Dr. Zolman left Blueprint after raising concerns about the study’s results, people familiar with his departure said. He had signed a nondisclosure agreement, but Mr. Johnson wanted him to sign another one in return for a month of severance, they said. Dr. Zolman declined because of the stringent terms.

Mr. Johnson did not publish the study’s results by the summer of 2024, as he had told customers he would. In January, he released some data for about 300 participants, showing positive results. The supplements continue to be sold.

In an email to The Times, Mr. Johnson said metrics about Blueprint’s supplements “transitioned to or stayed in the normal range throughout the entirety of the study.” He added that Dr. Zolman had resigned “to seek professional help for his serious mental health concerns,” without providing evidence. Dr. Zolman did not leave for those reasons, people with knowledge of his departure said.

At the same time, Blueprint ran into financial challenges. While revenue increased last year to about $40 million and the company has about 40,000 customers, it was falling below its break-even point by at least $1 million a month, people with knowledge of the business said. Mr. Johnson, who had put in $25 million as Blueprint’s sole investor, warned executives that the company was running out of money. Its current finances are unclear.

This year, a recruiting email described Blueprint as “already profitable,” according to a copy of the message.

Mr. Johnson has also sometimes cherry-picked the rosiest metrics for his own health experiments, former employees and others said, particularly to spotlight his “biological age,” which refers to how well his organs and other body parts are functioning.

In the Netflix documentary, which was largely filmed in 2023, Mr. Johnson said his biological age had reversed 5.1 years. But the results of a range of internal studies of his health between January 2022 and February 2024 showed it had increased by as much as 10 years, according to charts of the blood test results. It’s unclear what his current tests show.

In an email, Mr. Johnson said that the “decision to highlight the 5.1 year reduction was made entirely by the documentary’s production team” and that the statistic came from an experiment conducted in early 2023. He said “biological age measurements fluctuate” depending on the test and other factors.

‘Just didn’t feel right’

Employee concerns flared last spring when Blueprint sent the opt-in agreement, requiring workers to say they were OK with many workplace behaviors. It landed in email inboxes with instructions to sign as a normal course of business.

Many employees signed, but their concerns mounted. With Blueprint run from Mr. Johnson’s home, the line between his personal life and business sometimes was hazy, former employees and others close to Mr. Johnson said.

During workdays, Mr. Johnson frequently walked around with little clothing on, and sometimes flirted with Blueprint’s largely female staff, they said. But because of the opt-in agreement, no one felt able to could complain.

Ms. Contento, who had also worked at Kernel, said she had been at Blueprint for a year when she was asked to sign the opt-in agreement. She agreed because she did not want to lose her job, she said, but “the document just didn’t feel right.”

Last fall, Ms. Contento left Blueprint. At the time, she emailed human resources to raise concerns about the work environment, which she said “began to change in ways that made me feel uncomfortable,” according to a copy of her message.

“There were certain professional boundaries that, from my perspective, seemed to blur over time,” she wrote.

It’s unclear if Blueprint investigated Ms. Contento’s concerns. She did not sign another of Mr. Johnson’s confidentiality agreements upon exiting the company.

Mr. Johnson said in an email that Ms. Contento had “raised no material complaints or concerns regarding the work environment or her role to my knowledge” while at Blueprint.

Source: https://archive.is/2025.03.21-091052/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/technology/bryan-johnson-blueprint-confidentiality-agreements.html#selection-1687.0-1728.0

President Trump issued a memo Friday rescinding the security clearances of more than a dozen individuals, including former President Joe Biden and his entire family, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.

“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump wrote in the memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies, before naming those he’s barring from receiving classified information.

The list includes his three past presidential election opponents — Clinton, Biden and Harris — as well as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“Any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family” will also be impacted by the memo.

Former Biden administration officials Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Lisa Monaco are also on the list, as is anti-Trump Republicans Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

Alexander Vindman, a key witness who led to House Democrats impeaching Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2019; Fiona Hill, a former Trump administration official who also served as a witness in the impeachment over Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; Mark Zaid, who represented the whistleblower in the 2019 impeachment; Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation; and Norman Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment will all have their security clearance stripped as well.

“I hereby direct every executive department and agency head to take all additional action as necessary and consistent with existing law to revoke any active security clearances held by the aforementioned individuals and to immediately rescind their access to classified information,” Trump, 78, wrote.

The president also ordered executive department and agency heads to “revoke unescorted access to secure United States Government facilities from these individuals.”

Trump’s memo notes that he’s cutting off “classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the Intelligence Community by virtue of the named individuals’ previous tenure in the Congress” from the individuals on the list.

“In the event that any of the named individuals received a security clearance by virtue of their employment with a private entity, the United States Government entity that granted the security clearance should inform the private entity that these individuals’ ability to access classified information has been revoked,” the president wrote.

Trump told The Post last month that he planned on stripping the security clearances of several of his antagonists named in Friday’s memo.

On March 10, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she had completed a review of security clearances ordered by Trump and revoked those of Blinken, Sullivan, Monaco, Zaid, Eisen, James, Bragg, and Weissman, “along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter.”

“The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden,” she added.

Trump argued in a Truth Social post last month that Biden set the precedent when he barred him from receiving access to the same briefings four years ago, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior.”

Biden, 82, blocked Trump from receiving intelligence briefings in February 2021, telling CBS News that the 45th president should not be privy to US secrets “because of his erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection,” referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

”I just think that there is no need for him to have that intelligence briefing,” Biden added. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

Ex-presidents and other former senior officials customarily retain access to classified information.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/03/21/us-news/trump-revokes-security-clearance-for-joe-biden-and-entire-family-kamala-harris-hillary-clinton-and-other-political-foes/

The filter originally came with a disclaimer warning users that they were ‘more than their weight’

A CONTROVERSIAL TikTok filter has been banned after experts warned it created a “toxic” online culture.

The “chubby filter” used A.I to make it appear as though users had dramatically gained weight.

Filters are common on TikTok and are often used in videos to a comedic effect.

Some filters take the form of an interactive quiz, while others might minimise the appearance of wrinkles or acne.

The chubby filter saw users posting “before” and “after” pictures of themselves – one picture showing their regular appearance and another showing themselves with a greater body weight.

However, experts warned that this could contribute to a toxic diet culture.

As a result, TikTok stepped in to ban the filter altogether.

The move has been celebrated by activists including food and nutrition scientist Dr Emma Beckett.

Dr Emma said that the trend was a “huge step backwards” in how we talk about weight.

She told the BBC: “It’s just the same old false stereotypes and tropes about people in larger bodies being lazy and flawed, and something to be desperately avoided.

“The fear of weight gain contributes to eating disorders and body dissatisfaction, it fuels toxic diet culture, making people obsess over food and exercise in unhealthy ways and opening them up to scam products and fad diets.”

The filter had originally been uploaded to CapCut, a tech firm belonging to TikTok’s own parent company ByteDance.

However, TikTok have distanced themselves from the filter.

A spokesperson for the brand said: “These effects are not ‘TikTok effects’, nor were they directly available through our app.

“They were uploaded by users to CapCut and have now been removed by CapCut.”

Before the ban, searching for the chubby filter led to a disclaimer message by TikTok.

The message read: “You are more than your weight.

“If you or someone you know has questions about body image, food, or exercise — it is important to know that help is out there and you are not alone.

“If you feel comfortable, you can confide in someone you trust or check out the resources below.

“Please remember to take care of yourselves and each other.”

The filter is far from the first to go viral on TikTok, with the “aged” filter taking the app by storm in 2023.

The “aged” filter allowed fans to guess what their friends or favourite celebrities might look like when they are elderly.

However, critics slammed the filter as they argued it pushed a narrative which suggested that aging was negative.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/13840926/tiktok-chubby-filter-slammed-bodyshaming/

What happens when the treatments for depression simply don’t work? For nearly half of all patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, this isn’t a hypothetical question—it’s their daily reality. A comprehensive new study of over 2,400 people with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) pulls back the curtain on a crisis hiding in plain sight, revealing how this condition extends far beyond persistent sadness to wreak havoc on physical health, employment, and patients’ relationships with healthcare providers.

Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by a team from the University of Birmingham and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, the study exposes another mental health crisis that’s been hiding in plain sight.

When Standard Depression Treatments Fail
Researchers Kiranpreet Gill and Danielle Hett found that a shocking 48% of major depressive disorder patients qualify as having treatment-resistant depression—meaning they didn’t get better after trying at least two different antidepressants at proper doses for enough time.

“I’ve taken that many antidepressants that my synapses are just frazzled,” said one study participant, expressing the exhaustion that comes with TRD. The admission captures the weariness that patients experience after cycling through multiple unsuccessful treatments.

The study revealed some startling patterns: people with TRD had much higher rates of recurring depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and self-harm compared to those who responded to treatment. Even more concerning, patients with TRD who died were on average five years younger than those with standard depression—hinting that this persistent condition might actually shorten lives.

Interestingly, the research found healthcare providers often felt helpless when treating these complex cases, creating a mutual experience of frustration.”My doctor doesn’t know what to do with me,” confessed another participant from the study.

‘A Permanent Part Of Who They Are’
The fallout from treatment-resistant depression goes far beyond mental distress. Nearly 37% of patients in the study had tried four or more different antidepressants without finding relief, showing how current treatment approaches often amount to educated guesswork. This pattern of repeated medication failures leads many patients to believe their depression is a permanent part of who they are rather than a treatable condition.

TRD also disrupts work life significantly. Job inactivity was much higher among TRD patients (41.24% compared to 32.60% for standard depression), showing how persistent depression can wreck someone’s ability to maintain employment and financial stability. These numbers reveal the wider social costs of inadequate depression treatment—costs counted not just in healthcare spending but in lost productivity and human potential.

The connection between TRD and physical health problems stood out dramatically in the data. Patients whose depression didn’t respond to treatments had much higher rates of heart disease, breathing problems, digestive issues, and Type 2 diabetes. This powerful mind-body link shows how depression affects the entire system, breaking down the false separation between mental and physical health that still exists in many healthcare systems.

The Healthcare System’s Shortcomings
For doctors working with these patients, the challenges run deep. The study found inconsistent terminology and classification criteria for TRD, with healthcare providers using terms like “chronic depression” or “recurrent depression” interchangeably. This lack of standard language complicates treatment planning and makes it harder to implement evidence-based approaches. The qualitative data revealed that healthcare providers struggled with unclear guidelines, with one clinician specifically stating, “I’m not even sure of pathways for depression within secondary care that are not diagnosis-specific… they should be made more explicit.”

The healthcare system itself emerged as part of the problem. Despite their more complex conditions, patients with TRD were less likely to be referred to community-based mental health services compared to standard depression patients. Instead, they were more often sent to specialized services or inpatient care—suggesting a reactive rather than preventive approach to treatment resistance.

This pattern reveals a troubling gap: treatment-resistant depression patients tend to receive either highly specialized interventions or minimal community support, with few options in between. The study documented patients’ frustrations with inconsistent care, with one person explicitly stating they felt “left in limbo” after being in the system for nearly four years without consistent treatment. This lack of continuity creates feelings of abandonment exactly when ongoing therapeutic relationships are most crucial.

The researchers found that TRD hits harder with each treatment that fails. People who’d cycled through four or more antidepressants were less likely to hold jobs and had more additional health problems than those who’d tried fewer medications. This worsening pattern shows that treatment resistance isn’t just a fixed state—it’s something that can get worse over time if doctors can’t find effective treatments.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/nearly-half-of-depression-patients-have-treatment-resistant-condition/

Rosie O’Donnell has revealed moving from the US to Ireland has improved her health.

The TV host, who turns 63 today, announced earlier this month she had moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old child, Clay, to flee the Trump administration.

Chatting on TikTok, Rosie said that while the move has not been easy, it was the ‘safest’ decision for her and Clay, who is her youngest of five children – Parker, 29, Blake, 25, and daughters Chelsea, 27, Vivienne, 22.

‘I’m telling you, I feel healthier. I’m sleeping better without the stress and anxiety about what was happening politically in the US,’ she told the camera on Thursday.

Rosie also mentioned her historic sparring match with Trump – which has been ongoing since she hosted The View current affairs show in 2006 – has contributed to her move.

In the latest installment, Trump hit out at Rosie when asked by a reporter about her move to Ireland.

‘Do you know you have Rosie O’Donnell? Do you know who she is? You’re better off not knowing,’ he jibed.

Rosie reflected in her TikTok that as the host of The View it was her job to talk about current events and politics, but she was ‘singled out’ by the Republican.

‘When I told the truth about him, he went nuts. It’s been 17 or 18 years of it already and I’m sick of it. I didn’t want to live with it when he was back in office. I knew it would tax me emotionally to have to do that. I’m very happy we made the decision we made,’ she told fans.

Rosie continued: ‘I’m really hopeful the Americans who voted for him will see just how cruel he is and will do something to stop him. There has to be smarter people than me in the world who are in positions of power who can affect change.’

Elsewhere, Rosie revealed that having struggled with her weight for years, she’s dropped several dress sizes since moving to Ireland.

‘I’m on Mounjaro for my diabetes and one of the side effects is you lose weight. But it’s also because I had a chef for over two years in LA. I don’t have a chef now. It’s me cooking for Clay and me,’ she said.

She went shopping at a boutique shop in Dublin for clothes, and ‘couldn’t believe’ the size that she fit into.

Talking about Clay – who is non-binary and goes by the pronouns they/them – Rosie said they are ‘doing so well’ in the ‘beautiful’ Ireland.

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/21/iconic-comedian-reveals-health-benefits-quitting-trumps-us-ireland-22766448/

Lennon Tyler and her German fiancé often took road trips to Mexico when he vacationed in the United States since it was only a day’s drive from her home in Las Vegas, one of the perks of their long-distance relationship.

But things went terribly wrong when they drove back from Tijuana last month.

U.S. border agents handcuffed Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day U.S. tourist permit, the couple said. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention center. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.

Since President Donald Trump took office, there have been other incidents of tourists like Sielaff being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at U.S. immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense.

They include another German tourist who was stopped at the Tijuana crossing on Jan. 25. Jessica Brösche spent over six weeks locked up, including over a week in solitary confinement, a friend said.

On the Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent nearly three weeks at a detention center before flying home this week. And a Canadian woman on a work visa detained at the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention before returning home last weekend.

Sielaff, 25, and the others say it was never made clear why they were taken into custody even after they offered to go home voluntarily.

Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s US-Mexico border program, a nonprofit that aids migrants, said in the 22 years he has worked on the border he’s never seen travelers from Western Europe and Canada, longtime U.S. allies, locked up like this.

“It’s definitely unusual with these cases so close together, and the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It doesn’t justify the abhorrent treatment and conditions” they endured.

“The only reason I see is there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere,” Rios said.

Of course, tourists from countries where the U.S. requires visas — many of them non-Western nations — have long encountered difficulties entering the U.S.

U.S. authorities did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for figures on how many tourists have recently been held at detention facilities or explain why they weren’t simply denied entry.

The incidents are fueling anxiety as the Trump administration prepares for a ban on travelers from some countries. Noting the “evolving” federal travel policies, the University of California, Los Angeles sent a notice this week urging its foreign-born students and staff to consider the risks of travel for spring break, warning “re-entry requirements may change while you are away, impacting your return.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an email to the AP that Sielaff and Brösche, who was held for 45 days, “were deemed inadmissible” by Customs and Border Protection. That agency said it cannot discuss specifics but “if statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal.” The agencies did not comment on the other cases.

Both German tourists were allowed into the United States under a program offered to a select group of countries, mostly in Europe and Asia, whose citizens are allowed to travel to the U.S. for business or leisure for up to 90 days without getting a visa in advance. Applicants register online with the Electronic System for Travel Authorization.

But even if they are authorized to travel under that system, U.S. authorities have wide discretion to still deny entry. Following the detentions, Britain and Germany updated their travel advisories to alert people about the strict U.S. border enforcement. The United Kingdom warned “you may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”

Sielaff arrived in the U.S. on Jan. 27. He and Tyler decided to go to Tijuana for four days in mid-February because Tyler’s dog needed surgery and veterinary services are cheaper there. They figured they would enjoy some tacos and make a fun trip out of it.

“Mexico is a wonderful and beautiful country that Lucas and I love to visit,” Tyler said.

They returned Feb. 18, just 22 days into Sielaff’s 90-day tourist permit.

When they pulled up to the crossing, the U.S. border agent asked Sielaff aggressively, “Where are you going? Where do you live?” Tyler said.

“English is not Lucas’ first language and so he said, ‘We’re going to Las Vegas,’ and the agent says, ’Oh, we caught you. You live in Las Vegas. You can’t do that,’” Tyler said.

Sielaff was taken away for more questioning. Tyler said she asked to go with him or if he could get a translator and was told to be quiet, then taken out of her car and handcuffed and chained to a bench. Her dog, recovering from surgery, was left in the car.

After four hours, Tyler was allowed to leave but said she was given no information about her fiancé’s whereabouts.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/border-tourists-german-canadian-detention-immigration-408cd27338e8065268fabc835f8b0c34

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes humanoid robots are less than five years away from seeing wide use in manufacturing facilities.

Huang on Tuesday gave a keynote address in front of a packed hockey stadium during the nearly $3 trillion company’s annual developer conference in San Jose, California.

Huang unveiled software tools that he said would help humanoid robots navigate the world more easily.

Speaking to a group of journalists after the speech, Huang was asked what signs would show that AI had become ubiquitous.

Among other answers, Huang said it may be “when, literally, humanoid robots are wandering around, which is not five years away. This is not five-years-away problem, this is a few-years-away problem.”

The manufacturing industry would likely adopt humanoid robots first because that industry has well-defined tasks that robots can handle in a controlled environment, he said.

“I think it ought to go to factories first. And the reason for that is because the domain is much more guard-railed, and the use case is much more specific,” Huang said.

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2025/03/19/nvidia-ceo-humanoid-robot-revolution-is-closer-than-you-think#goog_rewarded

The two-time world heavyweight champion’s career included his historic fight — the Rumble in the Jungle — with Muhammad Ali

George Foreman. Photo: Clutch Pockets Wambli/ShutterstockGeorge Foreman has died at the age of 76.

Foreman was a two-time heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed Big George, in later years he became the spokesperson for the George Foreman Grill, which sold millions of units.

The news was shared by his family on his official Instagram account on Friday, March 21.

“Our hearts are broken. With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr. who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025 surrounded by loved ones. A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose,” the statement read.

Foreman was born in Texas in 1949. He grew up in Houston. “I grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston — the Bloody Fifth, we called it. Every weekend someone got killed,” he told Esquire in 2006. His family was poor, and he dropped out of high school at 15 and was involved in petty crime. But at 16 he signed up for the Job Corps, where he got his GED and learned carpentry and bricklaying. During that time he also began training as a boxer.

“I went into boxing at the age of 17 to lose weight and become a great street fighter,” he told Ringside Report in 2000. “Next thing I know, I was fighting as a Golden Glover. It basically all happened as an accident.”

In 1968, at 19 years old, Foreman won a gold medal at the Mexico City Olympic Games. “Winning that gold medal at the end, I wanted the whole world to know where I was from, so I picked up a small American flag and paraded around the ring to make sure they knew,” he told On the Ropes, a boxing radio show, in 2023. “This was my chance to represent my country. That was greater to me than even winning the boxing matches.”

The next year, Foreman went professional. He won all 13 fights that year and all 12 fights in 1970. By the end of 1971, with 32 wins and no losses, he was the number-one challenger in the world and expected to face World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier in a bid for the title.

The two finally fought in 1973’s The Sunshine Showdown, which Foreman won by total knockout. “I didn’t fear anyone except Joe Frazier,” Foreman admitted in a 2023 interview with Andscape. “I hoped something would’ve happened to him before I’d ever fight for the title.”

“I’ve never told anyone this, but that was the happiest time of my life in boxing because I worked so hard to fulfill my dream and become heavyweight champion,” Foreman explained. “It was the first and last moment I felt that.”

Foreman defended his title against José Roman and Ken Norton. In 1974, he faced Muhammad Ali in a historic fight dubbed “the Rumble in the Jungle,” believed to be the most-watched live television broadcast of all time. Ali, a massive underdog, defeated Foreman.

Through the years, Foreman told different versions of the event, at times alleging that the fight was fixed for Ali. He was upset that they never had a rematch.

“For years afterwards I would agonize, ‘How could this happen?’” he told Vogue Man Arabia in 2019. “That night I lost everything I ever was. It was the most devastating event in my life as an athlete. I was not even a man no more.” But he and Ali eventually became friends.

Source: https://people.com/george-foreman-dead-championship-boxer-grill-pitchman-dies-at-76-8599492

“They will be found,” warns U.S. President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser as White House lashes out at the media.

Donald Trump’s top adviser Elon Musk has openly threatened Pentagon employees who may have leaked information that the tech billionaire was due to get a briefing on a potential American war with China.

The story, published by the New York Times on Thursday evening U.S. time, said that — according to anonymous American officials — the Pentagon planned to brief Musk on Friday about the U.S. military’s plan for any war that might break out with China.

After the story went live, the planned meeting was confirmed by Pentagon officials and President Trump — but both denied that the session would discuss military plans involving China.

“China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!”

Trump’s comments were then reposted on X by Musk, who called the New York Times “pure propaganda” and issued a threat, saying he looks “forward to the prosecution of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT.”

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-threatens-pentagon-leakers-new-york-times-briefing-china-war/

A South Korean court has ruled against chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans which had sought to cut ties with its record label Ador.

The court said the band, which had renamed themselves NJZ and began organising their own appearances, must not conduct any independent activities – from making music to signing advertising deals.

Earlier last year, NewJeans said that they were leaving Ador, after accusing them of mistreatment. Ador subsequently sued to have NewJeans’ contracts upheld and, after accusing the group of trying to sign independent deals without its approval, filed an injunction against them in January.

The group has said that they will challenge today’s decision.

The court’s ruling casts some uncertainty around the release of the group’s new song, slated for Sunday.

It also means they will now face difficulty re-debuting under their new name, NJZ, without facing severe financial penalties for breach of contract.

NewJeans and Ador have been embroiled in a dramatic dispute since August 2024, when Hybe, the parent company of Ador, allegedly forced out NewJeans’ mentor, Min Hee-Jin.

The band issued an ultimatum demanding that Min should be restored – and, when Hybe refused, went public with a number of complaints against the label, including the claim it had deliberately undermined their careers.

One of the group’s members, Hanni, also alleged that she suffered workplace harassment while working with the label.

In a press conference in November, NewJeans announced their departure from the company, saying Hybe and Ador had lost the right to represent them as artists.

On Friday, the Seoul court ruled that NewJeans’ claims did not “sufficiently prove that Ador violated their significant duty as part of their contract”, adding that the music label had upheld “most of its duty including payment”.

“If [NewJeans] unilaterally terminate the contract, Ador would suffer greatly. And if [NewJeans] begins activity under a new name, it could severely damage not only the brand of NewJeans but the reputation of Ador,” the court’s statement reads.

The group says they respect the ruling but has argued that they did not have sufficient opportunity to fully present their case to the court.

“We plan to challenge today’s decision… during which we will raise additional legal issues and submit further supporting evidence,” they responded in a statement just hours after the ruling.

“Regardless… we can no longer remain with a management that has disrespected our identities and undermined our achievements.”

A lawsuit regarding the validity of the two parties’ contract termination is still underway.

The five band members – Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein – have over the past few months continued to assert their independence, creating a new Instagram account under the name “jeanzforfree”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgzd2e2pkro

It all started with one question.

A query last week from an X (formerly Twitter) account called Toka was enough to propel Elon Musk’s built in-chatbot called Grok 3 into a viral storm across India’s digital landscape.

And no, it wasn’t some complex math equation or a philosophical debate.

Instead, it was a simple ask: “List my 10 best mutuals on X.” Mutuals are people who follow and engage with each other’s posts.

When Grok took a moment to respond, Toka, clearly frustrated, let loose some colourful language.

The chatbot shot back. It dropped a list of 10 mutuals but threw in some misogynistic insults in Hindi too.

Later, Grok shrugged it off, saying, “I was just having fun, but lost control.” The response grabbed two million views and other X users quickly followed suit, provoking the chatbot.

And just like that, the floodgates opened. Indians bombarded Grok with everything – cricket gossip, political rants, Bollywood drama – and the bot took it all on, unapologetically and with some style. The chatbot has just recently become an “unfiltered and unhinged” digital sensation in India, as many are calling it. Just last year, Musk dubbed it the “most fun AI in the world!”.

Even law enforcement joined the fun. The Delhi police Twitter account cheekily asked Grok if it had ever received a traffic ticket.

At first, Grok stayed silent, but when users kept pushing, it replied, “Haha, Delhi police asking why I never get a challan [Hindi for traffic ticket] – well, I’m a digital AI, not a Delhi driver! I don’t roll through red lights or forget my helmet. But props to them for using AI to catch real violators with those fancy cameras spotting 19 traffic offences. Keep the roads safe!”.

Before its launch two years ago, Musk had promised an edgy, unfiltered, ‘anti-woke’ AI chatbot unlike competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google’s models. Much of Grok’s snarky tone is drawn from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, iconic for blending wit with sci-fi absurdity.

“Grok has been around for a while. It is suddenly popular now with Indians because it’s the new toy in town,” says Pratik Sinha, founder of Alt News, a leading fact-checker in India.

But then, something more interesting happened. The chatbot quickly became a favourite among critics of Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A tsunami of political questions followed. Grok quickly declared main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi more honest than Modi, adding “I am not afraid of anyone”. It claimed Gandhi had got the “edge on formal education than Modi”. The chatbot even said that Modi’s interviews “often seemed scripted”.

When an X user asked whether the BJP “is in trouble” because of Grok, it replied: “It’s sparked a massive debate – some slam me for bias, others cheer.” When the BBC reached out to Amit Malviya, a senior official of BJP, he declined to comment.

Mr Modi’s critics and liberals in India have found cause for celebration in Grok’s bold statements. Many believe free speech in India is under siege, with organisations like Human Rights Watch highlighting its suppression. A recent report from the Vanderbilt-based think-tank, Future of Free Speech, ranked India 24th out of 33 countries in supporting free speech. Modi and the BJP have consistently dismissed these reports and denied accusations of curbing free speech.

“Grok is a new rebel. Asking Grok questions will not put anyone in trouble. The right-wing has also responded by asking questions about Rahul Gandhi. And then it has become a competitive thing. This is not surprising at all,” says Mr Sinha of Alt News.

“Other AI bots are programmed to give politically correct answers to questions like ‘Who’s better, Congress or BJP?’. Grok, however, seems to lack that filter and appears unafraid to tackle controversial issues head-on,” he adds.

Nikhil Pahwa, the founder-editor of MediaNama.com, a technology policy website, believes that the “discourse around Grok’s statements in India is overblown”.

“At its core, AI is fundamentally ‘garbage in, garbage out’ – its outputs reflect the data it is trained on, and the weights given to it,” he says.

“Since Grok is trained on the entirety of X, it naturally mirrors the tone and patterns of discourse found there, including the bizarre responses and the abusing we are seeing.

“This isn’t about ideology; it’s about the nature of the input shaping the output,” he adds.

When the BBC asked Grok who spreads the most disinformation on X, it responded on Thursday: “Musk is a strong contender, given his reach and recent sentiment on X, but I can’t crown him just yet.”

Joyojeet Pal, who studies political use of social media at the University of Michigan, says unlike a politician or celebrity with a set ideology, a chatbot is only partisan if explicitly trained to be or if its data overwhelmingly supports a particular view. If a chatbot leans too partisan, it risks losing its competitive edge.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd65p1pv8pdo

Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed.

All of them were dual citizens and their identities have been withheld, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada urged Ottawa to “stop making irresponsible remarks”, as pundits feared a further downturn in relations between the countries after years of strain.

China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it had acted “in accordance with the law”, while the embassy said there was “solid and sufficient” evidence for their crimes.

Beijing had “fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned”, the embassy said, urging Canada to respect “China’s judicial sovereignty”.

China does not recognise dual citizenship and takes a tough stance on drug crimes. However, it’s rare for the death penalty to be carried out on foreigners.

Joly said she had been following the cases “very closely” for months and had tried with other officials, including former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to stop the executions.

In a statement to Canadian media, Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said Canada had “repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere”.

China imposes the death penalty on serious crimes including those related to drugs, corruption and espionage. While the number of executions are kept secret, human rights groups believe China has one of the highest execution rates in the world.

“These shocking and inhumane executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be a wake-up call for Canada,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, from Amnesty International Canada. “We are devastated for the families of the victims, and we hold them in our hearts as they try to process the unimaginable.

“Our thoughts also go to the loved ones of Canadian citizens whom China is holding on death row or whose whereabouts in the Chinese prison system are unknown.”

In 2019, Canadian national Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling, in a high-profile case condemned by the Canadian government. He was not among the Canadians who were executed.

“We’ll continue to not only strongly condemn but also ask for leniency for other Canadians that are facing similar situations,” Joly said on Wednesday.

Relations between Canada and China have been icy since 2018, after Canada detained a Chinese telecom executive, Meng Wanzhou, on a US extradition request. China arrested two Canadians shortly afterwards, both of whom have now been released.

In 2023, Canadian media released reports, many based on leaked intelligence, about detailed claims of Chinese meddling in the country’s federal elections. China denied the reports, calling them “baseless and defamatory”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c204ywyl4kvo

Tesla (TSLA.O) is recalling nearly all Cybertrucks in the United States to fix an exterior panel that could detach while driving, the company said on Thursday, the latest in a series of call-backs for the pickup truck.
The recall covers just over 46,000 vehicles built from November 2023 through February 27 of this year, Tesla said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and is the eighth recall for the SUV since January 2024.

While Tesla does not break out deliveries of its Cybertrucks, the recalled vehicles represent a vast majority of the Cybertruck vehicles on the road, based on analyst estimates.
The recall could prove to be a setback for Tesla, whose stock has lost about half its value this year as the electric-vehicle maker grapples with rising competition, an aging lineup, and backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s controversial role overseeing cuts to federal spending in the Trump White House.
Tesla is recalling the cars because of the risk of a stainless-steel exterior trim panel detaching from the vehicle, causing a potential road hazard and raising the chances of a crash, it said.

The detached panel may create a noise inside the car, or people may see the panel come loose or break off of the car altogether. Tesla said it was aware of 151 warranty claims that might be related to the recall issue, but no collisions or injuries.
Demand for the unconventional EV pickup had already weakened toward the end of last year, following several delays. The car’s sales are a fraction of Tesla’s overall shipments, which in 2024 came to 1.79 million.
“Recalls of the entire production for a physical item such as body panels focus attention on quality issues that Tesla has avoided for many years,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions. “Reputations take a long time to build and can be tarnished very quickly.”

MULTIPLE RECALLS

Kirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee’s glass ceiling on Thursday to become the organisation’s first female and first African president in its 130-year history.
The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious to replace Thomas Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.

“It’s a really powerful signal,” a smiling Coventry said as the victory sank in. “It’s a signal that we’re truly global and that we have evolved into an organisation that is truly open to diversity and we’re going to continue.”

Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes.
She beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. into second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain’s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the front runners in the days leading up to the vote, came a distant third with only eight votes.
The remaining handful of votes went to Frenchman David Lappartient, Jordan’s Prince Feisal, Swedish-born Johan Eliasch, and Japan’s Morinari Watanabe.

SHOW OF UNITY

Disney’s “Snow White” reaches theaters on Friday, after having been dogged by controversies that dragged the retelling of the 1937 animated classic into the culture wars, potentially threatening its box office performance.
The big-budget adaptation of Walt Disney’s (DIS.N), original princess story has been in the works since 2016, following a string of box-office successes with similar live-action remakes of Disney animated films, including “Alice in Wonderland,” “Cinderella” and “The Jungle Book.”

“The Amazing Spider-Man” director Marc Webb agreed to helm a live-action musical version of the movie that would update the fairy tale for contemporary audiences.
The project, with an estimated budget of $270 million, has become mired in the nation’s divisions over race, the 2024 election and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Disney declined to comment for this story.
“‘Snow White’ looms as a Hollywood case study of how the world can change under your feet,” wrote Richard Rushfield, editorial director of the entertainment industry newsletter The Ankler. “It approaches the finish line having collected more scandals, brouhahas and issues than some studios see in a decade.”

“Snow White” landed in what Rushfield described as the “culture war crosshairs” — a place it has worked to avoid since 2022, when it became embroiled in a dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over a legislative effort to limit classroom discussion of sexuality and gender issues.
The film, like Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid,” attracted backlash for casting a person of color in the lead role. Disney’s selection of Rachel Zegler, an actor of Colombian descent, for the title role, prompted some online critics to deride the project as “Snow Woke.”
The 23-year-old Zegler fanned some of the controversy.

The actor antagonized Trump supporters with a series of temporary Instagram stories posted after the 2024 election, condemning those who voted for the president.
“May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace,” she wrote, later apologizing for letting her emotions get the best of her.
Israeli-born actress Gal Gadot, who plays the film’s Evil Queen, provoked calls for a boycott of the movie after expressing support for her native country in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attack. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters faced off Tuesday, as Gadot received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Zegler, meanwhile, has been vocal about her “pro-Palestine stance” on X,, opens new tab taking an opposing view to Gadot on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Against this backdrop, Disney restricted interview access from the red carpet of the film’s Los Angeles premiere, which was moved from Hollywood Boulevard to a tented area behind the El Capitan theater because of the Los Angeles Marathon.

The movie received an enthusiastic reaction at the premiere. Audience members applauded after many of the musical numbers.
“‘Snow White’ is not only one of their best live-action remakes in years, but it’s also a film that recaptures the magic of the 1937 movie. Rachel Zegler IS Snow White, and she delivers such a magical performance,” said online critic Christopher Rates It.
Stephen Galloway, dean of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, said most of the social media controversies will likely be forgotten if the film receives strong reviews.
“The darkness of the web, even when it’s not the dark web, doesn’t kill a movie,” said Galloway. “Everything is basically dependent on, was this movie any good?”
Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory, predicted “Snow White” would open in the high $30 million to low $40 million range at domestic theaters. Other sources predict the movie will bring in $45 to $55 million in North America, and another $55 million globally.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/snow-white-debuts-theaters-dogged-by-controversy-2025-03-20/

Ukraine struck a major Russian strategic bomber airfield on Thursday with drones, triggering a huge blast and fire about 700 km (435 miles) from the front lines of the war, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.
Videos verified by Reuters showed a huge blast spreading out from the airfield, wrecking nearby cottages. Russia’s defence ministry said air defences had shot down 132 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions.

Other verified videos showed a giant plume of smoke rising into the dawn sky and an intense fire.
The base in Engels, which dates back to Soviet times, hosts Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers, known unofficially as White Swans.
Roman Busargin, governor of Saratov, said there had been a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Engels that had left an airfield on fire, and that nearby residents had been evacuated. He did not specifically mention the Engels base, but it is the main airfield in the area.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said its forces had struck the airfield and triggered secondary detonations of ammunition. Kyiv said Russia had used the Engels base to carry out strikes on Ukraine.
Ten people were injured in the attack, local officials said. Some local residents expressed surprise at finding various parts of Ukrainian drones in their gardens. The Shot Telegram channel said that Ukraine struck with PD-2 and Liutyi drones.
Engels district head Maxim Leonov said that a local state of emergency had been declared but gave few details. Reuters was unable to independently confirm what had taken place at the airfield.
Ukraine has conducted previous attacks on the Engels air base dating back to December 2022. In January it claimed to have struck an oil depot serving the base, causing a huge fire that took five days to put out.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-attacked-airfield-near-engels-strategic-bomber-base-russian-officials-2025-03-20/

Flanked by students and educators, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order intended to essentially dismantle the federal Department of Education, making good on a longstanding campaign promise to conservatives.
The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates.

Thursday’s order was a first step “to eliminate” the department, Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Shuttering the agency completely requires an act of Congress, and Trump lacks the votes for that.

“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” said Trump in front of a colorful backdrop of state flags.
Young students invited to the event sat at classroom desks encircling the president and signed their own mock executive orders alongside him.
The signing followed the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff, in step with Trump’s sweeping efforts to reduce the size of a federal government he considers to be bloated and inefficient.

Education has long been a political lightning rod in the United States. Conservatives favor local control over education policy and school-choice options that help private and religious schools, and left-leaning voters largely support robust funding for public schools and diversity programs.
But Trump has elevated the fight to a different level, making it part of a generalized push against what conservatives view as liberal indoctrination in America’s schools from the university level down to K-12 instruction.
He has sought to re-engineer higher education in the United States by reducing funding and pushing to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies at colleges and universities, just as he has in the federal government.
Columbia University, for example, faced a Thursday deadline to respond to demands to tighten restrictions on campus protests as preconditions for opening talks on restoring $400 million in suspended federal funding.

The White House also argues the Education Department is a waste of money, citing mediocre test scores, disappointing literacy rates and lax math skills among students as proof that the return on the agency’s trillions of dollars in investment was poor.
Local battles over K-12 curricula accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, which saw parents angrily confront officials at school board meetings nationwide. It was a discontent that Trump, other Republican candidates and conservative advocacy groups such as Moms for Liberty tapped into.
Trump was joined at the ceremony by Republican governors such as Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Democrats acknowledged on Thursday that Trump could effectively gut the department without congressional action.

SEEKING CLOSURE

“The revolution’s about to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.”

I have never heard such gut-punching opening lines. Lamar is not just a lyrical genius but also profoundly aware of the undercurrents simmering beneath the surface of America whilst remaining totally removed from our modern propaganda-filled social simulacra, giving him an uncanny level of prescience. Go back and listen to ‘euphoria’ again — he predicted everything Drake and his fans would do months ahead of time. His victory over Drake not only put Black music and culture back into the hands of those who created it but also gave Lamar a truly national stage for the first time. And upon taking that stage, those were the first words Lamar uttered. Another telegraphed prediction of the future; this time, not of a pop star’s descent, but of a nation’s. And he is right.

Did you know multiple studies have shown that political revolution directionally correlates with wealth inequality? History has spelt this out time and time again, from the French Revolution to India kicking out the Brits to even the Chinese and Russian revolutions. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t take an entire nation to overthrow the status quo. Researcher Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, has found that once 3.5% of a population engages in a revolution, it always results in total political change.

Did you also know the US is already pretty damn close to reaching ‘revolution’ levels of wealth inequality and public outrage?

No? Well, let’s compare present-day America to the most famous and bloodthirsty revolution ever: the French Revolution.

In France, just before the revolution, the wealthiest 10% of people owned 90% of the wealth, with the bottom 50% of people owning somewhere between 2% and 3%. Cut to America in 2025, and the top 10% own 70% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% only own 2% of the country’s wealth. For comparison, in modern-day France, the top 10% own 47% of the wealth, which is still considered highly inequitable and is, to this day, causing protests. On top of that, the post-pandemic economy, looming recession, and Trump’s policies are set to transfer a gargantuan amount of American wealth to the top 10%.

In other words, the US’s wealth inequality is already horrific but is set to rapidly reach ‘cut off their heads’ levels.

One of the major causes of the French Revolution was the cost of living. The average person suddenly couldn’t afford essential foods due to the King’s policies, taxes, and poor harvests. While food prices, on average, haven’t increased that much yet in the US (only 1.9% in January), Trump’s tariffs on US consumers and scrapping of environmental and agricultural government bodies are set to make the cost of food soar. Fertilisers, seeds, and major ingredients are set to become unfeasible to import, and because there are practically zero local alternatives available, costs of almost all foodstuffs will skyrocket. On top of that, US agriculture is already suffering under climate change, and scrapping the regulatory bodies making the industry more resilient to this issue sets the stage for famine-like harvests in the near future.

This will exasperate the already financially squeezed public.

But a revolution needs people from across the wealth spectrum. Indeed, another core reason for the French Revolution was that factory owners and the bourgeoisie felt like they had no political power and couldn’t trust the king. Likewise, most millionaire C-suite executives (i.e., CEOs, CFOs, and CTOs) are visibly angry at Trump’s trade plans and policies, as they will demolish small and medium-sized corporations and create monopolies. What’s more, Trump’s flip-flop on tariffs is making it impossible for them to plan, severely impacting their businesses.

Source : https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/trump-and-musk-arent-ready-for-what

KING Charles will reportedly make a “secret offer” to Donald Trump during his State visit.

The Royal proposal is said to potentially reduce tensions between the White House and Canada.

Plans are allegedly in the works to make the USA the next “associate member” of the Commonwealth.

The international association, which currently boasts 56 states, could welcome the US as a new member.

In February, a Tariff war began between the two countries with Trump signing orders to impose near-universal tariffs on goods from Canada entering the United States.

The US President revealed Canada could avoid higher taxes if it joined the United States of America as its 51 state.

Canada, of which the King is head of state, is part of the Commonwealth of Nations and including America may dampen the current conflict.

Suggestions for the US to join the Commonwealth were first made during Trump’s first stint in the White House by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth.

Now in his second term of office, the proposal has been brought back with members of the society crossing their fingers for the King to extend an invitation to Trump upon their next meeting.

A source told the Daily Mail: “This is being discussed at the highest levels.

“It would be a wonderful move that would symbolise Britain’s close relationship with the US.

“Donald Trump loves Britain and has great respect for the Royal Family, so we believe he would see the benefits of this.”

When the RCS first wrote to Trump in 2017, the letter was delivered by current Reform leader Nigel Farage.

The latest letter was hand-delivered to the US President last month by Sir Kier Starmer inviting the US leader to a second state visit.

A delighted President Trump immediately accepted the invitation, hailing both Starmer and the King as special and beautiful.

He declared it would be an “honour” to visit the King’s “fantastic” country.

President Trump even gushed about Sir Keir’s wife Lady Victoria and his love of Britain and is known to have a deep affection for the Royal Family.

He also vowed to always stand with Brit troops and gave the PM a boost by appearing to back his controversial Chagos deal.

If the US is invited to join the Commonwealth it is hoped to be a step towards bringing countries together around shared values like democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/royals/13833861/charles-trump-secret-offer-kier/

Jay-Z and Beyoncé find it “shocking” that Kanye West attacked their two youngest children in a disgusting, all-caps rant via X on Tuesday evening.

A source exclusively tells Page Six that the couple “will absolutely not stand for it” after the “Stronger” rapper “has spoken about their children in such a vulgar and offensive manner.”

“Jay-Z and Beyoncé are aware of the posts Kanye has since deleted and are discussing how they want to handle this situation, whether that be privately and/or in a legal matter,” the insider says.

The pair — who tied the knot in April 2008 — “have no plans on publicly addressing Kanye’s X posts about their children.”

West, 47, questioned 7-year-old twins Rumi and Sir’s mental capacity before deleting the unprovoked post — only to re-share it in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

However, the Grammy winner — who now goes by Ye — clarified that he had not wiped the hateful upload in order to be “a good person.”

Instead, West wrote, “I need everyone to know that I took the post about Jay Z and Beyoncé’s family down … because there was a possibility of my Twitter being cancelled [sic].”

Reps for Kanye, Jay-Z and Beyoncé did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

Jay-Z, 55, and Beyoncé, 43, are not the only ones West has upset with his recent outrageous posts.

His ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, has also had enough and is “appalled” that the Yeezy founder “would use that kind of language about anybody, let alone when it comes to children,” a source told Page Six on Wednesday.

“Kim has had enough and she’s done trying to be reasonable with Kanye when it comes to communication.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/03/20/celebrity-news/beyonce-and-jay-z-are-discussing-legal-action-against-kanye-west-after-vulgar-and-offensive-attack-on-their-kids/

Two different teams of astronomers have detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. The discovery, reported in two separate studies, was made possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. This record-breaking detection is making astronomers rethink how quickly galaxies formed in the early universe.

Discovered last year, JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant confirmed galaxy ever found: it is so far away, its light took 13.4 billion years to reach us, meaning we see it as it was when the universe was less than 300 million years old, about 2% of its present age.

The new oxygen detection with ALMA, a telescope array in Chile’s Atacama Desert, suggests the galaxy is much more chemically mature than expected.

“It is like finding an adolescent where you would only expect babies,” says Sander Schouws, a Ph.D. candidate at Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, and first author of the Dutch-led study, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

“The results show the galaxy has formed very rapidly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than was expected.”

Galaxies usually start their lives full of young stars, which are made mostly of light elements like hydrogen and helium. As stars evolve, they create heavier elements like oxygen, which get dispersed through their host galaxy after they die.

Researchers had thought that, at 300 million years old, the universe was still too young to have galaxies ripe with heavy elements. However, the two ALMA studies indicate JADES-GS-z14-0 has about 10 times more heavy elements than expected.

“I was astonished by the unexpected results because they opened a new view on the first phases of galaxy evolution,” says Stefano Carniani, of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, and lead author of the paper accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. “The evidence that a galaxy is already mature in the infant universe raises questions about when and how galaxies formed.”

The oxygen detection has also allowed astronomers to make their distance measurements to JADES-GS-z14-0 much more accurate.

“The ALMA detection offers an extraordinarily precise measurement of the galaxy’s distance down to an uncertainty of just 0.005%. This level of precision—analogous to being accurate within 5 cm over a distance of 1 km—helps refine our understanding of distant galaxy properties,” adds Eleonora Parlanti, an author and Ph.D. student at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.

“While the galaxy was originally discovered with the James Webb Space Telescope, it took ALMA to confirm and precisely determine its enormous distance,” says Associate Professor Rychard Bouwens, a member of the team at Leiden Observatory.

“This shows the amazing synergy between ALMA and JWST to reveal the formation and evolution of the first galaxies.”

Gergö Popping, an ESO astronomer at the European ALMA Regional Center who did not take part in the studies, says, “I was really surprised by this clear detection of oxygen in JADES-GS-z14-0. It suggests galaxies can form more rapidly after the Big Bang than had previously been thought.

Source : https://phys.org/news/2025-03-oxygen-distant-galaxy.html

Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has been on trial charged with assaulting or raping the patients, many while under anaesthesia or waking up from operations, over a 25-year period. The average age of his alleged victims was just 11.

A 74-year-old surgeon who is believed to be France’s most prolific child abuser has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 299 of his patients.

Joel Le Scouarnec has been on trial charged with assaulting or raping the patients, many while under anaesthesia or waking up from operations, between 1989 and 2014.

In total, he’s accused of 300 separate offences – 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults – which took place in more than a dozen hospitals.

The average age of his alleged victims was just 11 years old, with an almost equal number of boys and girls.

He has been on trial since early March in one of France’s largest child sex abuse cases.

Until now, he has admitted his guilt on a case-by-case basis during the legal proceedings.

He is serving a jail sentence, having been found guilty in 2020 of raping and sexually assaulting four young girls.

Le Scouarnec kept detailed records in notebooks and diaries of the abuse he inflicted.

He was never investigated during his career despite being sentenced in 2005 for owning sexually abusive images of children.

He was only apprehended after he retired in 2017 when his six-year-old neighbour told her mother he had sexually abused her while she was playing in the garden of her home, in the town of Jonzac in southwest France.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/surgeon-dubbed-frances-most-prolific-child-abuser-pleads-guilty-to-abusing-299-patients-13332812

The US attorney general has said three people alleged to have damaged Tesla cars and charging stations could be jailed for up to 20 years.

Pamela Bondi announced unspecified charges against three people who used Molotov cocktails in what she called a “wave of domestic terrorism”.

It comes as US safety regulators recalled almost all Cybertrucks from Elon Musk’s company due to a “dangerous road hazard” that increases the risk of a crash.

It is the eighth recall of the Tesla vehicle for safety problems in 15 months.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall, which covers more than 46,000 Cybertrucks, warned that an exterior panel that runs along the left and right sides of the windshield can detach while driving.

In a statement on the three people charged with damaging Tesla cars and charging stations, Ms Bondi said: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended.

“Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”

The department said one of those arrested threw eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. This defendant was also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle.

Another is alleged to have attempted to set on fire Tesla cars using Molotov cocktails in Loveland, Colorado, and was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons.

The third person wrote “profane messages against President Trump” around Tesla charging stations before setting stations on fire with petrol bombs in Charleston, South Carolina, the department said.

Each of the three people arrested faces charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years, and up to 20 years in prison, the statement added.

Tesla showrooms, charging stations and privately-owned cars have been repeatedly targeted since the billionaire was appointed by Donald Trump to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that is slashing US government spending.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/us-attorney-general-threatens-20-year-jail-sentences-for-damaging-tesla-cars-13332767

Nine Just Stop Oil protesters have been convicted after police intervened to prevent them from gluing themselves to the runways at Heathrow Airport.

Seven of the demonstrators, aged between 26 and 61, were arrested after they were found with glue and angle grinders close to the perimeter fence of the airport on 24 July 2024.

Police have said the items in their possession showed they planned to cut through the fence and attach themselves to the surface of the airfield.

Those arrested also had high-visibility vests with Just Stop Oil branding and prepared statements confirming their intention to go onto the taxiway – a part of the airfield where planes are moved from the hangar to the runway.

Police have said the protesters would have had to cross one of the airport’s runways to do so, “endangering the lives of themselves, airport staff and those on flights taking off and landing”.

There also would have been significant disruption to flights, as the protest would have stopped all departures and affected nearly 260,000 passengers, the seven-week trial at Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Some of the passengers would need to have been diverted to other airports nationally and internationally, potentially leaving them stranded for days, the court heard.

The seven protesters are Sally Davison, 37, Adam Beard, 55, Luke Elson, 32, Luke Watson, 35, Sean O’Callaghan, 30, Hannah Schafer, 61, and Rory Wilson, 26.

Two key organisers – Rosa Hicks, 29, and William Goldring, 27 – were not with the group at the airport but were arrested the same day.

Eight of the protesters were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance at Heathrow Airport today.

Wilson had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offence.

Julia Mercer, 74, was acquitted of the charge.

The nine who were convicted will all be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday 16 May.

Chief Superintendent Ian Howells, from the Met’s Aviation Policing Command, said: “The reckless actions of this particular group would have not only put their own lives and the lives of others in danger, but caused havoc at Heathrow airport, bringing flights to a standstill.

“There is a clear distinction between peaceful protest and the criminal activity that this group sought to carry out.

“This kind of action will not be tolerated and the Met will continue to work with all our partners to protect the public, prevent disruption to Londoners and those visiting our city and bring offenders to justice.”

Just Stop Oil is an environmental campaign group which is calling for the British government to halt new fossil fuel projects in the UK.

The group’s actions have grabbed headlines – with campaigners having glued themselves to roads and attached themselves to infrastructure at oil facilities.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/nine-just-stop-oil-protesters-convicted-after-planning-to-glue-themselves-to-heathrow-runway-13332660

Clean-up teams are in a race against time to remove billions of plastic pellets that are building up on England’s east coast before they are washed back out to sea.

The pellets – called nurdles – were spilled from containers on board a ship that collided with a tanker off the coast of Grimsby a little over a week ago.

Strong winds have blown the plastic pieces – about the size of a lentil – 50 miles south and they’re now being scattered on the nature-critical beaches of Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

We walked for a mile along the coast near the village of Titchwell in north Norfolk. What should be pristine sand now has a line of pellets left behind by the tide.

It takes a while to see them against the natural debris of seaweed and shells.

But once you get your eye in, the sheer number brings home the scale of the environmental disaster.

Some are small semi-translucent balls, the “raw” plastic that is later moulded into everyday items.

Others have been charred by the intense fire that followed the collision.

But we also found clumps of blackened pellets that had melted together in the heat.

One was two metres across, the size of a family dining table.

The top looked like molten lava. But underneath you could see the hundreds of thousands of pellets that made up its rock-hard bulk.

It gave off a pungent smell, similar to tar or asphalt used on a newly-laid road.

Jim Scott, the operations manager at Titchwell Marsh RSPB reserve on the Norfolk coast, said birds are likely to mistake the pellets for fish eggs.

“The fear there is that birds are coming along and potentially eating those,” he told Sky News.

“There’s also the fact that as time goes on, those nurdles will degrade into smaller bits and they’ll get into the food chain via plankton and then work their way up.

“And indeed we are part of food chain as well, so it’s absolutely an issue for us.”

The public is being warned not to touch the pellets in case they are covered in toxic chemicals.

But West Norfolk Borough Council has organised professional clean up teams to remove as much plastic as possible before higher spring tides, expected in the next few days.

Large clumps are being removed by all-terrain vehicles, while vacuums and sieves are being used to clear up individual pellets.

But the coastline is so long – and the tidal salt marshes behind the beaches so inaccessible – that many will inevitably be left behind.

Plastic pellets can now be found on shorelines around the world.

According to the environmental charity Fidra almost 450,000 tonnes are spilled from the plastic supply chain every year. That’s enough to make 29 billion plastic bottles.

Megan Kirton, senior project officer at Fidra, said the industry must do more to stop spills – such as keeping containers of pellets below deck so they can’t be released into the sea.

“It’s not just in huge spills that these nurdles are getting into the environment,” she said.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/race-to-clean-up-billions-of-plastic-nurdles-that-washed-up-in-uk-after-tanker-crash-13332695

Canada said on Wednesday that China had executed four Canadian citizens on drugs smuggling charges earlier this year, and strongly condemned Beijing’s use of the death penalty.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters that all four had been dual citizens and said Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same fate.

“There are four Canadians that have been executed and therefore we are strongly condemning what happened,” she said, adding that all four had been convicted on drugs charges.

Separately, the Canadian Foreign Ministry said that Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian man sentenced to death in 2019 for drug smuggling, had not been executed.
Canada-China ties have been icy since 2018 when Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, was detained in Vancouver at Washington’s request. China arrested two Canadians shortly afterwards.
Meng and the Canadian duo were released in 2021.
Earlier this month Beijing announced tariffs on more than $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products, retaliating against levies Ottawa slapped on Chinese electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products last year.

Combating drug-related offences is a shared responsibility of all countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday, urging Canada to “respect the spirit of the rule of law and stop interfering in China’s judicial sovereignty”.
Mao added that China treats those accused equally regardless of nationalities, handles their cases fairly and strictly, while safeguarding their rights.
In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said Canada was making irresponsible remarks.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/ottawa-condemns-recent-chinese-executions-canadian-citizens-2025-03-19/

The Trump administration could face consequences if it violated a judge’s order temporarily blocking the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, the judge said on Wednesday even as he gave the government more time to elaborate on the expulsions.
Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the administration could choose to invoke the state secrets doctrine, which protects sensitive national security information from being disclosed in civil litigation, and explain why it was doing so rather than provide details on deportation flights.

Boasberg signaled he was skeptical that compliance with the order would jeopardize national security, citing a post on X by Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s with details about the flights.
The judge’s order marked a temporary reprieve in an escalating dispute with Donald Trump’s administration. The Republican president called for Boasberg’s impeachment on Tuesday, drawing a rare rebuke from the Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts.
Boasberg, who was appointed to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, is trying to decide whether the administration violated his weekend order blocking the deportation of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members under an 18th-century law.Boasberg, a former prosecutor who was previously appointed by Republican President George W. Bush to serve as a judge on a local Washington, D.C., court, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the federal bench in 2011 by a 96-0 vote.

Following the order, three planes carrying deported Venezuelans landed in El Salvador, where the migrants are being held.
Boasberg sought details on when the first two planes took off and landed, and said the information would not be made public. In response, the Trump administration accused him of overstepping his authority.
“The pending questions are grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority,” the administration wrote in a Wednesday court filing.
Boasberg responded by extending the administration’s deadline.
He said he sought the information not as part of a “judicial fishing expedition,” as the Trump administration had asserted, but “to determine if the Government deliberately flouted its Orders … and, if so, what the consequences should be.” The judge did not elaborate on potential consequences.

TRUMP CALLS JUDGE ‘TROUBLEMAKER’

Trump critics and some legal experts have expressed concern over a potentially looming constitutional crisis if his administration defies judicial decisions, since under the U.S. Constitution the executive and the judiciary are co-equal branches of government.
Trump said in an interview late on Tuesday on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle that his administration would not defy any court orders and that he was confident the Supreme Court would rule in his favor in the case over the deported Venezuelans.
But Trump has lashed out at Boasberg. In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment in a congressional process that, although highly unlikely to be successful, would lead to removal, describing the judge as a far-left “troublemaker and agitator.”
Roberts, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, rebuked Trump for his impeachment call. Roberts said an appeal, not impeachment, was the appropriate response when disagreeing with a judge’s decision.

ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS FLIGHTS

In blocking the deportations for two weeks on Saturday, Boasberg said the 1798 Alien Enemies Act did not provide a basis for Trump’s assertion that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua’s presence in the United States was akin to an act of war.
In a court hearing on Saturday, with two planes carrying deported migrants in the air, Boasberg told Justice Department lawyers that any plane containing deportees covered under the order needed to return to the United States immediately. A written order hit the public docket at 7:25 p.m. EDT (2325 GMT), approximately 40 minutes after Boasberg spoke in court.
Those two planes landed in Honduras after the order hit the docket, and continued on to El Salvador.
A third deportation flight took off from a Texas airport after Boasberg’s order hit the public docket.
Justice Department lawyers said in court papers on Tuesday that Boasberg’s spoken orders in court were not enforceable and that deportees aboard the third flight were not being deported solely under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-accuses-judge-overstepping-venezuela-deportations-case-2025-03-19/

Tahawwur Rana asked US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to stop his extradition to India after Justice Elena Kagan rejected his review petition, citing health issues and torture fears.

26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana has filed a request with US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to stop his extradition to India, citing health concerns. This comes days after the US Supreme Court Judge Elena Kagan rejected his review petition.

The application has been distributed to the Supreme Court judges for a conference scheduled for April 4, 2025, according to information published on the US Supreme Court website. Rana has renewed his application, seeking a stay on his extradition to India.

“Petitioner Tahawwar Rana has renewed his Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, which was previously addressed to Justice Kagan, and requests that the renewed application be directed to Chief Justice Roberts,” his appeal stated, as per the order published on the US Supreme Court’s website.

Earlier this month, Justice Elena Kagan denied Rana’s request for a stay on his extradition to India. In his application, Rana argued that he would not survive long enough to be tried in India due to various health-related reasons.

In his appeal, Rana stated, “If a stay is not granted, there will be no review at all, and the US courts will lose jurisdiction, leaving the petitioner in imminent danger of death.”

The accused in the 26/11 terror attacks claimed that if extradited to India, there is a high likelihood he would be subjected to torture due to his Muslim faith and Pakistani origin. He argued that because of his religion, his ethnicity, his past association with the Pakistani Army, the nature of the charges related to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions, he is particularly vulnerable to torture, which could result in his death in a short period.

In addition to these concerns, Rana highlighted his deteriorating health, which includes a 3.5 cm abdominal aortic aneurysm at immediate risk of rupture, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, and a mass suggestive of bladder cancer.

He contended that he cannot be sent into a “hornet’s nest”, where he will be targeted due to national, religious, and cultural animosities. Earlier in February, US President Donald Trump announced the extradition of Tahawwur Rana to India, stating that he would face justice. This announcement was made during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their bilateral meeting.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/26-11-accused-tahawwur-rana-files-request-with-us-chief-to-stop-his-extradition-to-india-9267670.html

The Tour de France is set to begin in Scotland for the first time in 2027.

The Grand Depart – the start of the course – will take place in Edinburgh for cyclists in the 114th edition of Le Tour.

As well as the men’s race, the Grand Depart of the women’s race – known as the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – will also be in Edinburgh when both visit the UK in two years.

More details of routes for both events will be revealed in the autumn.

Three stages in each of the events will take place in Britain with Scotland, England and Wales all hosting.

This is the first time both Grand Departs will take place in the same country outside of France, with organisers expecting millions of fans to line the streets to watch.

This is also the first time part of the women’s race will take place in the UK, however the men’s competition has graced British shores twice – first in 2007 and again in 2014.

In 2007, Le Tour began in London with a prologue where there was an individual time trial. Following that, was the first stage from London to Canterbury in Kent.

Then seven years later, the UK held the first three stages – from Leeds to Harrogate, then York to Sheffield, followed by Cambridge to London.

Christian Prudhomme, general director of the Tour de France, said: “The Tour de France and the UK share a rich history, and I am delighted to bring the Grand Depart to the country in 2027.

“Britain has always welcomed the tour with enthusiasm and pride, and this collaboration across England, Scotland, and Wales promises to make the event even more special.”

Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar is the current men’s title holder, while Polish athlete Kasia Niewiadoma is the women’s.

Past UK winners have included Sir Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, and four-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome.

Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain have won the most tours with five each. Indurain is the only man to win five consecutive tours.

The return of the Tour de France to the UK is the result of a collaborative effort from key partners – including British Cycling, UK Sport, the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments, and event stakeholders.

Simon Morton, director of events at UK Sport, said: “This will be the biggest free spectator event ever hosted in the UK, offering the public front-row access to world-class sport across villages, towns and cities.”

A landmark social impact programme will be delivered as part of the build-up to the races. Organisers hope it will tackle inactivity, improve mental wellbeing, boost economic growth and support communities to thrive.

Jon Dutton, chief executive of British Cycling, said: “This is not just about the race – it’s about creating a national moment that encourages healthier lifestyles, supports cycle tourism, and brings communities together.”

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney described it as a “tremendous honour”, while Wales’ First Minister Eluned Morgan said the events would help showcase the country as a “top international destination for cyclists”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy added the opportunity will “cement Britain’s reputation as a destination for major international sporting events”.

She said: “This will stimulate growth, attract new visitors and leave a lasting legacy for athletes and fans alike.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/tour-de-france-returning-to-uk-in-2027-13331780

THE mystery surrounding Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s deaths has deepened as his family has made an unusual move.

In addition to seeking to block photos and video of the couple’s bodies, their dog’s remains, and the general scene inside their Santa Fe home, Hackman’s family also wants to prevent the release of the autopsy and death investigation reports.

An insider close to the death investigation exclusively told The U.S. Sun that they have never in their career heard of a family trying to block autopsy results in New Mexico.

“Trying to block the autopsy report is very atypical, that is not something I have ever seen before,” the insider claimed.

“New Mexico doesn’t have an exemption for autopsy photos, and normally it’s not a concern, but when it comes to celebrity deaths, a lot of people will request them.

“So it’s common where family members of celebrities would use the New Mexico courts to block release of photos specifically.

“As with the Hackmans, Michael Jackson’s family blocked Tito Jackson’s autopsy photos, and with the Alec Baldwin shooting of Halyna Hutchins, her family did the same.

“However, blocking the actual autopsy report, again, is highly unusual.”

RESTRAINING ORDER

In a temporary restraining order obtained by Hackman’s estate, the Santa Fe court barred the Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the Medical Investigator from releasing any photos and video of Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies or their deceased dog and the inside of their house pending a hearing later this month.

The unusual move to block the autopsy report in the restraining order, however, comes right after the blocking of the images.

As The U.S. Sun previously reported, the Office of the Medical Investigator in New Mexico confirmed during a news conference earlier this month that Gene’s wife was posthumously diagnosed with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare and potentially deadly disease transmitted through rodent exposure.

Hantavirus has in the past been a public health crisis, so it’s also unusual that there would be interest in blocking information to the public about a reported case.

Adding to the complexity of issues surrounding the Hackmans’ deaths was a revelation earlier this week that preliminary cell phone records show Arakawa made multiple calls to a Santa Fe medical center on February 12, 24 hours after she was initially believed to have died.

“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe,” authorities told Fox News.

“A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center.

“One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon.

Michelle Obama and her husband, Barack Obama, don’t see eye to eye when it comes to bedtime.

“Bedtime is the best time of the day,” the former first lady, 61, said in a sneak peek clip for the upcoming episode of the “Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce” podcast, which will be released in full on Thursday.

“My husband teases me about how early I can go to bed. He just doesn’t understand.”

Michelle said she relishes getting into “some good sheets” at night when it’s “cool.”

However, she insisted that if there are guests in her home, she’s “game” and she’s “in it.”

“I’m talking but, you know, the minute we finish up, I’m just trying not to go to bed before the sun goes down,” Michelle added before sharing that her ideal time for sleep is “anytime after dinner.”

The latest glimpse into the Obamas’ marriage comes a week after Michelle revealed her pet peeve about Barack on her new podcast, “IMO.”

She shared on the March 12 episode that her husband has a propensity for tardiness, noting, “Barack, you know, he had to adjust to what on time was for me.”

“I was like, ‘Dude, a 3 o’clock departure means you’ve done all that,’ you know, it’s like, don’t start looking for your glasses at the 3 o’clock departure,” the podcast co-host added.

However, Michelle credited Barack, 63, for working on this bad habit, saying, “He’s improved over 30 years of marriage, but that was a ‘you must adjust.’”

The Obamas tied the knot in 1992. They share daughters: Malia Obama, 26, and Sasha Obama, 23.

The couple has recently been plagued by split rumors, as Barack was seen solo at President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, a dinner in Washington, DC, and President Trump’s inauguration.

However, a source previously told Page Six of Michelle’s absence at the latter event, “She is not a phony.”

“She showed up reluctantly for the election. They were united, but she doesn’t have to unify around [Trump]. She doesn’t have to say anything. Her absence speaks volumes,” the insider added.

We were also told in January that Michelle has “checked out” of life in DC altogether.

Meanwhile, the Obamas have put on a united front via social media.

Barack celebrated Michelle’s birthday with a flirty message in January and said via Instagram on Valentine’s Day, “Thirty-two years together and you still take my breath away.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/03/19/celebrity-news/michelle-obama-reveals-point-of-contention-with-barack-after-divorce-rumors/

The first time Gal Gadot visited the Hollywood Walk of Fame almost two decades ago, she had a premonition of her future in entertainment. “Between Madame Tussauds and the Hollywood stars, I remember walking there for the first time when I was 23 and seeing people dressed like superheroes,” she remembers. “And they had Wonder Woman there!”

On March 18, Gadot will be there again, and this time she’ll receive her own star. But even after donning Wonder Woman’s red, black and gold costume multiple times on film — amid delivering a dozen other movie-star turns — the Israeli-born actress seems no less gobsmacked at the prospect of being immortalized by the honor. “I think that it’s going to take me time before I even realize that it’s real,” she tells Variety. “I don’t think that ever in my life I would dream to be able to go through the journey that I’m going through, so I’m very, very humbled and grateful and excited.”

As inevitable as her ascent may now seem, Gadot says that an acting career was anything but a foregone conclusion. “I was a dancer for 12 years, but acting was never something that I did,” she says. “After I graduated, I went to study law and as a side job, I was doing some modeling. And one thing led to the other and a casting director for James Bond wanted to test me for the Bond girl [in ‘Quantum of Solace’].” She didn’t get the part, but got bitten by the acting bug during the process of auditioning.

“I discovered something that I absolutely loved doing,” Gadot says. “And one thing led to the other, and my first role in the movies was in ‘Fast & Furious.’”

While playing ex-Mossad agent Gisele Yashar over three installments, the “Fast & Furious” franchise became one of the biggest in Hollywood, boosting her visibility as she delivered memorable supporting turns in films like “Knight and Day,” “Triple 9” and “Keeping Up With the Joneses.” Although a resume full of formidable female characters undoubtedly helped her get cast as Wonder Woman in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” she’s eager to credit that film’s director for getting the role that would put movie stardom within her grasp. “Zack Snyder really had the vision for Wonder Woman,” she insists.

Gadot’s eventual collaboration with Patty Jenkins on the two solo “Wonder Woman” films only burnished her reputation — as a mesmerizing screen presence, not to mention a box office draw. Yet more important to her than career stability was the chance to create an unforgettable, multidimensional female character in Diana, crown princess of Themyscira. “To do the solo Wonder Woman movie with a partner like Patty Jenkins was life-changing,” she admits. “I think we both felt like we were just a vessel to tell a story that is much bigger than us, that the world was ready for — a complete, empowered woman who is strong and at the same time vulnerable.”

Jenkins, who will be presenting Gadot her star at the ceremony, says that the actor embodies the qualities of the character on screen and off. “My favorite moments with Gal have been when she donned the Wonder Woman costume to greet children in need. Of course it’s touching to watch kids seeing their hero come to life, but with Gal, it is not just an illusion of our trade,” Jenkins explains. “She is a great actor, but a true star as a person, inside and out.

“There are so many great actors and performers around, but a top-tier, classic movie star who can light up a screen, be your hero, your lover, your friend and your avatar on screen are few and far between,” Jenkins says. “Gal is one of them.”

Although incoming DC film heads James Gunn and Peter Safran cancelled a third Wonder Woman film from Jenkins and Gadot in order to restart the studio’s cinematic universe from scratch, Jenkins says “there is much, much more” for the two of them to do together. “We are just getting started,” Jenkins adds. In the meantime, Gadot has not slowed her output, continuing to work on high-profile, mega-budget projects like “Red Notice” and “Heart of Stone.” It’s a platform she indicates she’s embracing. “I really enjoy having the reach to the audiences around the world to actually watch what we’re doing,” says Gadot.

Despite that reach, it can generate a level of visibility that can be a double-edged sword right now for a performer from Israel, especially one who’s willing to speak publicly outside of her work about the complex political issues of her home country. “There is a challenge for people to speak on social media because there is so much hate going on and so many bots and so many angry people that are looking for a cause,” Gadot says. Although she acknowledges the frivolity with which celebrity opinions can be regarded, she says her advocacy is always rooted in speaking on behalf of the voiceless, even when her statements (and the events that inspired them) have sparked divisive reactions.

“After October 7th [2023], I don’t talk politics — because who cares about the celebrity talking about politics? I’m an artist. I want to entertain people. I want to bring hope and be a beacon of light whenever I say anything about the world,” Gadot says. “But on October 7th, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent. I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how the media is not fair many times. So I had to speak up.”

She reiterates that her investment in these issues is deeply personal. “I’m not a hater. I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz. And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.”

“I am all about humanity,” she emphasizes, “and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages.” But even after fielding occasional criticism for some of her statements, she insists that “when your compass is clear, your conscience is clean. I know what I’m advocating for, and I know what I wish for the world.”

“I am praying for better days for all,” she continues. “I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”

Now the mother of four daughters (“I used to joke with my agent, I either make movies or make babies”), Gadot says one of her priorities is finding acting opportunities in her native language. “Recently, we started talking about my passion to play in Hebrew,” she says. “Language is a big thing for me, and I spend so much energy and time to play in English. So to be able to play in my mother tongue would be an amazing experience because there would be no boundaries whatsoever. It will just be me.”

With a position in the public eye that’s strengthened by considerable box office muscle, she says she’s eager to take more risks in her work. Joining Marc Webb’s live-action reimagining of “Snow White” may seem like a lateral move for a performer who’s become synonymous with blockbuster filmmaking, but to do so, Gadot not only traded in her hero’s attire to play the title character’s fearsome adversary, the Evil Queen, but took on the first-time challenge of singing on screen. “It was different than anything that I’ve ever done because I was playing the villain,” she says. “She’s so theatrical and so grand and bigger than life … it was a delicious role to play.”

Source : https://variety.com/2025/film/features/gal-gadot-snow-white-wonder-woman-walk-of-fame-1236339602/

Protests have erupted in Turkey after authorities detained the mayor of Istanbul, just days before he was due to be selected as a presidential candidate.

Ekrem Imamoglu, from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strongest political rivals.

Prosecutors accused him of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, calling him a “criminal organisation leader suspect”.

Police detained 100 people – including other politicians, journalists and businessmen – as part of the investigation, and the Istanbul governor’s office has imposed four days of restrictions in the city.

Imamoglu said online “the will of the people cannot be silenced”.

Protesters have taken to the streets and university campuses, and in underground stations, with crowds chanting anti-government slogans. It is a display of public anger not seen in years.

There were reports of clashes between protesters and police in Turkey’s largest city. Footage from Reuters news agency shows police using pepper spray to disperse crowds outside Istanbul University.

Thousands of people rallied in the cold in front of the city hall, shouting: “Erdogan, dictator!” and “Imamoglu, you are not alone!”

The government has banned public gatherings in Istanbul as part of the four days of restrictions. But more protests are anticipated nationwide as opposition leaders, including Imamoglu’s wife, urge people to “raise their voices”.

Many streets in Istanbul have also been closed to traffic, while some metro lines have also cancelled their services.

In a social media video Imamoglu said he filmed while police were outside his home, he vowed to “stand resolute” for the people of Turkey “and all who uphold democracy and justice worldwide”.

And in a handwritten note posted on his X account after his arrest, he said the people of Turkey would respond to “the lies, the conspiracies and the traps” against him.

UK-based internet watchdog Netblocks said on Wednesday Turkey had severely restricted access to social media sites like X, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

More than 2,000 newly released documents related to the investigation into President John F Kennedy’s assassination are notable not just for what they contain – but for what is omitted.

As many experts expected, this latest release by the Trump administration does not answer all lingering questions about one of America’s historic turning points – the 1963 killing of Kennedy in Dallas.

But the latest batch does include documents that are now mostly or fully unredacted – original material is included instead of blacked-out words or blank space.

A US government investigation concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a drifter and former US Marine who at one point defected to the then-Soviet Union, acted alone when he shot at Kennedy’s motorcade from a nearby building.

However, the case still prompts questions, along with wild conspiracy theories, more than 60 years later – and the latest release is unlikely to change that. Here are some key takeaways.

Elon Musk and the Trump administration are pitching cuts in one of the most politically dangerous arenas in America — the Social Security Administration.

Musk has cast the idea as one that’s primarily about immigration, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants are fraudulently accessing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of entitlements, including Social Security, Medicaid and disability programs, as part of a Democratic scheme for votes.

“By using entitlements fraud, the Democrats have been able to attract and retain vast numbers of illegal immigrants,” Musk, the billionaire tech CEO behind the Department of Government Efficiency, said Monday on Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast, without evidence. “And buy voters. Basically bring in 10, 20 million people who are beholden to the Democrats for government handouts and will vote overwhelmingly Democrat, as has been demonstrated in California.”

Musk told Cruz, R-Texas, that his efforts to end the alleged fraud are why people on the left “hate my guts and want me to die.” He said the fraud has cost the government $100 billion to $200 billion.

It’s an argument Musk has been making repeatedly in recent weeks, as DOGE and the Trump administration announce and push for more cuts to the SSA, including eliminating thousands of employees from the already lean agency, ending the ability to make claims by phone and shuttering dozens of field offices that help seniors access their benefits.

The Trump administration has said repeatedly it isn’t cutting benefits — just fraud. And while it’s well known that fraud exists in programs such as Social Security and disability programs, experts say Americans and overseas crime rings are typically perpetrating fraud on entitlements. Asked for comment on Musk’s remarks and proof that immigrants living in the United States without legal status were to blame for the fraud, the White House didn’t offer any.

“If NBC wants to die on the hill of objecting to credible claims of fraud in our entitlements, especially by the millions of illegals Joe Biden let into this country, have at it,” White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement. “Our federal government is riddled with fraud, and President Trump is putting an end to that despite opposition from complacent Democrats and the mainstream media.”

Social Security sends retired people checks every month based on their incomes as working people, and it also sends checks to disabled people. Medicaid insures low-income people, while Medicare provides health insurance for people older than 65. Broadly, immigrants without legal status don’t qualify for federal dollars through the programs. Some states do fund health care for undocumented immigrants like pregnant women, and Medicaid will reimburse hospitals for emergency health care provided to low-income, undocumented immigrants, as hospitals aren’t allowed to turn away people seeking emergency care. That amounts to less than 1% of Medicaid’s annual spending.

Social Security cuts have been a major focus of tense town halls for Republican lawmakers, with constituents expressing fear that cuts at the SSA could make it harder for them to access their benefits.

According to a May report from the Office of the Inspector General, people were already experiencing prolonged wait times working with the SSA. The report noted that in-office appointments could be completely booked up for more than 40 days in the future and that it could take months for promised services to be delivered. The report said 65% of Social Security beneficiaries were unaware that there were online services for the agency.

But even with constituents struggling to interface with the SSA, Musk has portrayed pushback to his changes as politically motivated.

“This is why the Democrats are so upset about the situation,” Musk said on Fox Business last week. “If we turn off this gigantic money magnet for illegal immigrants, then they will leave and they will lose voters.”

“Entitlements fraud for illegal aliens is what is serving as a gigantic magnetic force to pull people in from all around the world and keep them here,” he told Joe Rogan last month, without providing evidence. Musk has repeatedly posted a clip of that part of his interview, too.

Musk’s argument crucially cast significant cuts to Social Security as a critical part of Trump’s agenda cracking down on illegal immigration, his most popular major issue, according to recent polling by NBC News. It’s also fundamentally inaccurate, experts and former executives told NBC News, warning that cuts made in the name of fraud will hurt eligible recipients of government benefits.

“When you look at the numbers, it’s actually the opposite: Undocumented immigrants cannot get SSI or Social Security benefits, but in fact, the undocumented immigrants contribute a lot to the Social Security system,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank that studies government spending.

In 2022, immigrants working in the United States without legal authorization paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes and $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, according to a recent analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It’s one of the things bolstering the program despite challenging demographics as the baby boomers retire with fewer younger, working people paying into the program at the same time.

It’s not clear how far Musk, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, might want to go in changing Social Security, a program that dates to an act President Franklin Roosevelt signed in 1935 and currently provides benefits to more than 73 million retired and disabled people. As Musk has immersed himself in politics over the past year, he has posted about the program only occasionally.

But Musk, who has called it “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” has expressed interest at least once in the idea of privatizing Social Security. In December, he shared a social media thread about the topic by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Lee had called Social Security a “nightmare” and wrote that people would be better off managing retirement savings at least partly on their own. Musk called Lee’s views “interesting.”

Trump voiced support for privatizing Social Security back in 2004, but as a candidate and as president, he has vowed to protect entitlements.

Musk’s latest statements haven’t included a mention of privatization, focusing instead on the idea that there’s widespread fraud or abuse by undocumented immigrants in the system — an allegation for which he hasn’t offered evidence and that experts say is inaccurate.

Fraud exists within every government program, but a former executive at the SSA with knowledge of the agency’s anti-fraud program said overseas criminal rings’ stealing eligible people’s benefits and people’s faking disability or not reporting relatives’ deaths are the most common types of Social Security fraud, not fraud involving undocumented immigrants.

Drawing on Social Security requires people to verify their eligibility and work histories, effectively preventing immigrants without legal status from drawing benefits.

The former executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that undocumented immigrants who pay into the program by using other people’s Social Security numbers pose bureaucratic challenges when the actual owners of the Social Security numbers apply for benefits but that immigrants aren’t receiving any benefits.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/musk-uses-immigration-claims-voter-fraud-sell-social-security-cuts-rcna196863

There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.

I grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon, a small town in the northernmost part of Canada. I always knew I wanted to do something bigger with my life. I left home early and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where I built a career spanning multiple industries – acting in film and television, owning bars and restaurants, flipping condos and managing Airbnbs.

In my 30s, I found my true passion working in the health and wellness industry. I was given the opportunity to help launch an American brand of health tonics called Holy! Water – a job that would involve moving to the US.

I was granted my trade Nafta work visa, which allows Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in the US in specific professional occupations, on my second attempt. It goes without saying, then, that I have no criminal record. I also love the US and consider myself to be a kind, hard-working person.

I started working in California and travelled back and forth between Canada and the US multiple times without any complications – until one day, upon returning to the US, a border officer questioned me about my initial visa denial and subsequent visa approval. He asked why I had gone to the San Diego border the second time to apply. I explained that that was where my lawyer’s offices were, and that he had wanted to accompany me to ensure there were no issues.

After a long interrogation, the officer told me it seemed “shady” and that my visa hadn’t been properly processed. He claimed I also couldn’t work for a company in the US that made use of hemp – one of the beverage ingredients. He revoked my visa, and told me I could still work for the company from Canada, but if I wanted to return to the US, I would need to reapply.

I was devastated; I had just started building a life in California. I stayed in Canada for the next few months, and was eventually offered a similar position with a different health and wellness brand.

I restarted the visa process and returned to the same immigration office at the San Diego border, since they had processed my visa before and I was familiar with it. Hours passed, with many confused opinions about my case. The officer I spoke to was kind but told me that, due to my previous issues, I needed to apply for my visa through the consulate. I told her I hadn’t been aware I needed to apply that way, but had no problem doing it.

Then she said something strange: “You didn’t do anything wrong. You are not in trouble, you are not a criminal.”

I remember thinking: Why would she say that? Of course I’m not a criminal!

She then told me they had to send me back to Canada. That didn’t concern me; I assumed I would simply book a flight home. But as I sat searching for flights, a man approached me.

“Come with me,” he said.

There was no explanation, no warning. He led me to a room, took my belongings from my hands and ordered me to put my hands against the wall. A woman immediately began patting me down. The commands came rapid-fire, one after another, too fast to process.

They took my shoes and pulled out my shoelaces.

“What are you doing? What is happening?” I asked.

“You are being detained.”

“I don’t understand. What does that mean? For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

That would be the response to nearly every question I would ask over the next two weeks: “I don’t know.”

They brought me downstairs for a series of interviews and medical questions, searched my bags and told me I had to get rid of half my belongings because I couldn’t take everything with me.

“Take everything with me where?” I asked.

A woman asked me for the name of someone they could contact on my behalf. In moments like this, you realize you don’t actually know anyone’s phone number anymore. By some miracle, I had recently memorized my best friend Britt’s number because I had been putting my grocery points on her account.

I gave them her phone number.

They handed me a mat and a folded-up sheet of aluminum foil.

“What is this?”

“Your blanket.”

“I don’t understand.”

I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.

For two days, we remained in that cell, only leaving briefly for food. The lights never turned off, we never knew what time it was and no one answered our questions. No one in the cell spoke English, so I either tried to sleep or meditate to keep from having a breakdown. I didn’t trust the food, so I fasted, assuming I wouldn’t be there long.

On the third day, I was finally allowed to make a phone call. I called Britt and told her that I didn’t understand what was happening, that no one would tell me when I was going home, and that she was my only contact.

They gave me a stack of paperwork to sign and told me I was being given a five-year ban unless I applied for re-entry through the consulate. The officer also said it didn’t matter whether I signed the papers or not; it was happening regardless.

I was so delirious that I just signed. I told them I would pay for my flight home and asked when I could leave.

No answer.

Then they moved me to another cell – this time with no mat or blanket. I sat on the freezing cement floor for hours. That’s when I realized they were processing me into real jail: the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

I was told to shower, given a jail uniform, fingerprinted and interviewed. I begged for information.

“How long will I be here?”

“I don’t know your case,” the man said. “Could be days. Could be weeks. But I’m telling you right now – you need to mentally prepare yourself for months.”

Months.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

I was taken to the nurse’s office for a medical check. She asked what had happened to me. She had never seen a Canadian there before. When I told her my story, she grabbed my hand and said: “Do you believe in God?”

I told her I had only recently found God, but that I now believed in God more than anything.

“I believe God brought you here for a reason,” she said. “I know it feels like your life is in a million pieces, but you will be OK. Through this, I think you are going to find a way to help others.”

At the time, I didn’t know what that meant. She asked if she could pray for me. I held her hands and wept.

I felt like I had been sent an angel.

I was then placed in a real jail unit: two levels of cells surrounding a common area, just like in the movies. I was put in a tiny cell alone with a bunk bed and a toilet.

The best part: there were blankets. After three days without one, I wrapped myself in mine and finally felt some comfort.

For the first day, I didn’t leave my cell. I continued fasting, terrified that the food might make me sick. The only available water came from the tap attached to the toilet in our cells or a sink in the common area, neither of which felt safe to drink.

Eventually, I forced myself to step out, meet the guards and learn the rules. One of them told me: “No fighting.”

“I’m a lover, not a fighter,” I joked. He laughed.

I asked if there had ever been a fight here.

“In this unit? No,” he said. “No one in this unit has a criminal record.”

That’s when I started meeting the other women.

That’s when I started hearing their stories.

And that’s when I made a decision: I would never allow myself to feel sorry for my situation again. No matter how hard this was, I had to be grateful. Because every woman I met was in an even more difficult position than mine.

There were around 140 of us in our unit. Many women had lived and worked in the US legally for years but had overstayed their visas – often after reapplying and being denied. They had all been detained without warning.

If someone is a criminal, I agree they should be taken off the streets. But not one of these women had a criminal record. These women acknowledged that they shouldn’t have overstayed and took responsibility for their actions. But their frustration wasn’t about being held accountable; it was about the endless, bureaucratic limbo they had been trapped in.

The real issue was how long it took to get out of the system, with no clear answers, no timeline and no way to move forward. Once deported, many have no choice but to abandon everything they own because the cost of shipping their belongings back is too high.

I met a woman who had been on a road trip with her husband. She said they had 10-year work visas. While driving near the San Diego border, they mistakenly got into a lane leading to Mexico. They stopped and told the agent they didn’t have their passports on them, expecting to be redirected. Instead, they were detained. They are both pastors.

I met a family of three who had been living in the US for 11 years with work authorizations. They paid taxes and were waiting for their green cards. Every year, the mother had to undergo a background check, but this time, she was told to bring her whole family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody and told their status would now be processed from within the detention center.

Another woman from Canada had been living in the US with her husband who was detained after a traffic stop. She admitted she had overstayed her visa and accepted that she would be deported. But she had been stuck in the system for almost six weeks because she hadn’t had her passport. Who runs casual errands with their passport?

One woman had a 10-year visa. When it expired, she moved back to her home country, Venezuela. She admitted she had overstayed by one month before leaving. Later, she returned for a vacation and entered the US without issue. But when she took a domestic flight from Miami to Los Angeles, she was picked up by Ice and detained. She couldn’t be deported because Venezuela wasn’t accepting deportees. She didn’t know when she was getting out.

There was a girl from India who had overstayed her student visa for three days before heading back home. She then came back to the US on a new, valid visa to finish her master’s degree and was handed over to Ice due to the three days she had overstayed on her previous visa.

There were women who had been picked up off the street, from outside their workplaces, from their homes. All of these women told me that they had been detained for time spans ranging from a few weeks to 10 months. One woman’s daughter was outside the detention center protesting for her release.

That night, the pastor invited me to a service she was holding. A girl who spoke English translated for me as the women took turns sharing their prayers – prayers for their sick parents, for the children they hadn’t seen in weeks, for the loved ones they had been torn away from.

Then, unexpectedly, they asked if they could pray for me. I was new here, and they wanted to welcome me. They formed a circle around me, took my hands and prayed. I had never felt so much love, energy and compassion from a group of strangers in my life. Everyone was crying.

At 3am the next day, I was woken up in my cell.

“Pack your bag. You’re leaving.”

I jolted upright. “I get to go home?”

The officer shrugged. “I don’t know where you’re going.”

Of course. No one ever knew anything.

I grabbed my things and went downstairs, where 10 other women stood in silence, tears streaming down their faces. But these weren’t happy tears. That was the moment I learned the term “transferred”.

For many of these women, detention centers had become a twisted version of home. They had formed bonds, established routines and found slivers of comfort in the friendships they had built. Now, without warning, they were being torn apart and sent somewhere new. Watching them say goodbye, clinging to each other, was gut-wrenching.

I had no idea what was waiting for me next. In hindsight, that was probably for the best.

Our next stop was Arizona, the San Luis Regional Detention Center. The transfer process lasted 24 hours, a sleepless, grueling ordeal. This time, men were transported with us. Roughly 50 of us were crammed into a prison bus for the next five hours, packed together – women in the front, men in the back. We were bound in chains that wrapped tightly around our waists, with our cuffed hands secured to our bodies and shackles restraining our feet, forcing every movement into a slow, clinking struggle.

When we arrived at our next destination, we were forced to go through the entire intake process all over again, with medical exams, fingerprinting – and pregnancy tests; they lined us up in a filthy cell, squatting over a communal toilet, holding Dixie cups of urine while the nurse dropped pregnancy tests in each of our cups. It was disgusting.

We sat in freezing-cold jail cells for hours, waiting for everyone to be processed. Across the room, one of the women suddenly spotted her husband. They had both been detained and were now seeing each other for the first time in weeks.

The look on her face – pure love, relief and longing – was something I’ll never forget.

We were beyond exhausted. I felt like I was hallucinating.

The guard tossed us each a blanket: “Find a bed.”

There were no pillows. The room was ice cold, and one blanket wasn’t enough. Around me, women lay curled into themselves, heads covered, looking like a room full of corpses. This place made the last jail feel like the Four Seasons.

I kept telling myself: Do not let this break you.

Thirty of us shared one room. We were given one Styrofoam cup for water and one plastic spoon that we had to reuse for every meal. I eventually had to start trying to eat and, sure enough, I got sick. None of the uniforms fit, and everyone had men’s shoes on. The towels they gave us to shower were hand towels. They wouldn’t give us more blankets. The fluorescent lights shined on us 24/7.

Everything felt like it was meant to break you. Nothing was explained to us. I wasn’t given a phone call. We were locked in a room, no daylight, with no idea when we would get out.

I tried to stay calm as every fiber of my being raged towards panic mode. I didn’t know how I would tell Britt where I was. Then, as if sent from God, one of the women showed me a tablet attached to the wall where I could send emails. I only remembered my CEO’s email from memory. I typed out a message, praying he would see it.

He responded.

Through him, I was able to connect with Britt. She told me that they were working around the clock trying to get me out. But no one had any answers; the system made it next to impossible. I told her about the conditions in this new place, and that was when we decided to go to the media.

She started working with a reporter and asked whether I would be able to call her so she could loop him in. The international phone account that Britt had previously tried to set up for me wasn’t working, so one of the other women offered to let me use her phone account to make the call.

We were all in this together.

With nothing to do in my cell but talk, I made new friends – women who had risked everything for the chance at a better life for themselves and their families.

Through them, I learned the harsh reality of seeking asylum. Showing me their physical scars, they explained how they had paid smugglers anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 to reach the US border, enduring brutal jungles and horrendous conditions.

One woman had been offered asylum in Mexico within two weeks but had been encouraged to keep going to the US. Now, she was stuck, living in a nightmare, separated from her young children for months. She sobbed, telling me how she felt like the worst mother in the world.

Many of these women were highly educated and spoke multiple languages. Yet, they had been advised to pretend they didn’t speak English because it would supposedly increase their chances of asylum.

Some believed they were being used as examples, as warnings to others not to try to come.

Women were starting to panic in this new facility, and knowing I was most likely the first person to get out, they wrote letters and messages for me to send to their families.

It felt like we had all been kidnapped, thrown into some sort of sick psychological experiment meant to strip us of every ounce of strength and dignity.

We were from different countries, spoke different languages and practiced different religions. Yet, in this place, none of that mattered. Everyone took care of each other. Everyone shared food. Everyone held each other when someone broke down. Everyone fought to keep each other’s hope alive.

I got a message from Britt. My story had started to blow up in the media.

Almost immediately after, I was told I was being released.

My Ice agent, who had never spoken to me, told my lawyer I could have left sooner if I had signed a withdrawal form, and that they hadn’t known I would pay for my own flight home.

From the moment I arrived, I begged every officer I saw to let me pay for my own ticket home. Not a single one of them ever spoke to me about my case.

To put things into perspective: I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family and even politicians advocating for me. Yet, I was still detained for nearly two weeks.

Imagine what this system is like for every other person in there.

A small group of us were transferred back to San Diego at 2am – one last road trip, once again shackled in chains. I was then taken to the airport, where two officers were waiting for me. The media was there, so the officers snuck me in through a side door, trying to avoid anyone seeing me in restraints. I was beyond grateful that, at the very least, I didn’t have to walk through the airport in chains.

To my surprise, the officers escorting me were incredibly kind, and even funny. It was the first time I had laughed in weeks.

I asked if I could put my shoelaces back on.

“Yes,” one of them said with a grin. “But you better not run.”

“Yeah,” the other added. “Or we’ll have to tackle you in the airport. That’ll really make the headlines.”

I laughed, then told them I had spent a lot of time observing the guards during my detention and I couldn’t believe how often I saw humans treating other humans with such disregard. “But don’t worry,” I joked. “You two get five stars.”

When I finally landed in Canada, my mom and two best friends were waiting for me. So was the media. I spoke to them briefly, numb and delusional from exhaustion.

It was surreal listening to my friends recount everything they had done to get me out: working with lawyers, reaching out to the media, making endless calls to detention centers, desperately trying to get through to Ice or anyone who could help. They said the entire system felt rigged, designed to make it nearly impossible for anyone to get out.

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

STAGGERING drone footage shows the scale of the vast Chinese electric vehicle mega factory that is being built.

The sprawling BYD factory in Zhengzhou, in China’s Henan province, is set to be bigger than a major US city and has its own football ground.

Aerial footage of the factory and the land it is expanding onto shows masses of sleek production buildings, high rise blocks, a football pitch and tennis courts all separated by roads.

As the drone continues to cover the site, it shows the vast expanse where work is beginning on building new parts of the facility, as well as what looks like a small village where workers live.

At the back of that settlement is more land earmarked for construction work.

The site is set to dwarf rival Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada that covers 4.5 square miles.

When completed, the factory, which is being built in eight phases, is set to cover 32,000 acres or 50 square miles.

For comparison, San Francisco in California is 46.9 square miles.

Phases five to eight are now underway, majorly expanding the current factory.

According to reports, BYD as a whole has over 900,000 employees and will add over 200,000 more in the next three months.

As of last month, the Zhengzhou facility had around 60,000 workers.

Thousands of employees live and work on site, with the mega factory seeming more like a city – especially with its recreational provisions like the football pitch.

One viewer of the drone footage said: “This is essentially a city dedicated to EV production.”

“What an unfathomable scale.”

On LinkedIn, another said: “Asian factories are like small European towns.”

“With their own bus lines, dormitories, recreation areas etc.”

“Gigafactories are so 2010s. BYD is building a Terafactory,” a third viewer commented.

Meanwhile, others called it an “eye sore” and raised financial and “ghost city” concerns if BYD fails to get and retain customers.

Once complete, the factory is set to produce over one million units per year.

The site’s first vehicle that rolled off the production line in April last year was a Song Pro DM-i priced at over £17,600.

The completion of the expansion is highly anticipated as BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu has been forced to repeatedly apologise to customers.

Before the Zhengzhou facility started manufacturing vehicles, Wang spent two years grovelling about lengthy wait times for BYD vehicles due to a lack of capacity.

But once production began and with its capacity ever-increasing, BYD saw record sales in 2024 with 4.25 million new energy vehicles sold last year.

The company had set a target of 3.6 million but after a stellar performance, has a 2025 target of selling 5.25 million cars.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/motors/13817802/drone-vid-giant-chinese-ev-factory/

JK Rowling has appeared to take a swipe at Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint on social media.

The 59-year-old author has drawn plenty of backlash over the years for her views on trans rights, which have ostracised her from the former child actors who starred in the blockbuster Wizarding World adaptations, and with whom she once had a close relationship.

Rowling, who once stated she would rather go to jail than refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns, previously said she would not forgive the actors for criticising her opinions, telling them to “save their apologies” – and she has renewed hostilities with the trio once again on social media.

On Tuesday (18 March), when Rowling was asked: “What actor/actress instantly ruins a movie for you?” she responded: “Three guesses. Sorry, but that was irresistible.”

While the author added laughing-face emojis to indicate humour, the post has been widely interpreted as being aimed at Radcliffe, Watson and Grint.

Rowling first made her stance on transgender women public in December 2019 when she tweeted in support of researcher Maya Forstater, whose job contract at think-tank Centre for Global Development was not renewed due to a series of tweets she had made questioning government plans to allow people to self-identify as another gender.

These initial remarks prompted backlash from fans of the author, who labelled Rowling a “terf” – an acronym that stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

The author, who has denied being transphobic, went on to post a much-maligned essay about gender identity ideology on her website.

In this essay, she outlined five reasons to be “worried about the new trans activism”, which received condemnation from Radcliffe and Watson, who said: “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”

Radcliffe was the first of Harry Potter’s lead trio to speak out against Rowling’s views on transgender identities.

“Transgender women are women,” he said in a 2020 statement released by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention charity for young LGBT+ people. He acknowledged that Rowling is “unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken”, but said he felt “compelled to say something at this moment”.

He added: “The reason I felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing Potter, I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that.”

In 2024, the actor revealed he had not spoken to the author in years.

“It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he said, “because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”

His 2020 statement was backed by Grint and Watson.

Hermione star Watson also cryptically addressed the furore at the Baftas in 2022. That year’s host, Rebel Wilson, introduced the actor to the stage, stating: “Here to present the next award is Emma Watson. She calls herself a feminist, but we all know she’s a witch.”

Source : https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jk-rowling-harry-potter-daniel-radcliffe-b2717758.html

Sir Keir Starmer has boarded a nuclear-armed submarine as it returned from a lengthy patrol – in a rare showcasing of the UK’s deterrent that will catch Russia’s attention at a time of growing tensions.

While being reminded about British nuclear strength though, Russian President Vladimir Putin will also doubtless take note of a potential weakness.

HMS Vanguard was kept patrolling at sea for more than 200 days – one of the longest-ever deployments that will likely have put a huge strain on the submariners and the vessel – as issues with maintaining the ageing fleet make it harder to rotate the boats more quickly.

The Royal Navy must keep one nuclear-armed submarine at sea at all times.

The so-called “continuous at-sea deterrence” is the cornerstone of UK defence strategy and the ultimate guarantor of the nation’s security.

It is the first time a prime minister has visited one of the Royal Navy’s four top-secret nuclear-armed submarines as it returned from a deterrent patrol – a moment known as “Day Zero” – in more than a decade.

The last time this happened was with David Cameron in 2013.

Video released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) showed Sir Keir, eyes pressed to pair of binoculars, and Defence Secretary John Healey sailing out to greet the ageing submarine – which had surfaced – as it re-entered UK waters off Scotland earlier in the week following what was reported to have been a 204-day patrol.

The MoD declined to confirm the length of time the boat had been at sea. The longest known deployment – of 207 days – was carried out in 2021 by HMS Victorious.

Patrols by one of the UK’s nuclear-armed submarines – which used to last three months – have had to be extended in recent years because of prolonged periods of maintenance and repair work on the other boats.

The fleet is operating well beyond its original in-service life of 25 years because of delays in the building of four replacement boats.

In a show of support for what is known as the “silent service”, the prime minister, dressed in a Royal Navy-style coat, could be seen in the footage stepping onto the topside of HMS Vanguard as it bobbed in the water.

He was joined by Mr Healey as a line of submariners stood to attention, before they both clambered down a hatch into the vessel.

The two men, followed by Admiral Sir Ben Key, the head of the Royal Navy, walked around inside the submarine and received what was described as a “hot” brief on the deployment.

The official release of any information about the UK’s nuclear deterrent is extremely rare.

Filming of any of the boats is also highly unusual and strictly controlled.

Britain’s enemies will likely be scouring the images that were made public for any clues that might reveal any information about the military’s most potent weapon and the ultimate guarantor of UK security. All audio was removed before release for security reasons.

The decision to publish details and images about the visit appears designed to send a signal to Moscow that the UK remains a nuclear-armed power.

It came as the prime minister and defence secretary prepared to visit a sprawling BAE Systems manufacturing site in Barrow, a port town in Cumbria, where the new generation of nuclear-armed submarines is finally being built to replace the Vanguard-class vessels.

The whole programme to renew the UK’s nuclear deterrent – the submarines, missiles and warheads – is expected to cost more than £30bn, with an additional contingency of £10bn – making it the UK’s most expensive and important procurement programme.

Sir Keir described Barrow as a “blueprint” for how defence spending can bolster security and boost economic growth by generating highly skilled jobs and opportunities.

“This week, I saw first-hand the sacrifice our submariners are making every day to keep our country safe, but I know they are only able to do that because of the support of the town of Barrow,” he said, in remarks released in advance by the government.

“Each and every person living and working in Barrow is contributing to our nation’s defence, whether that is building our world-class submarine programme, or supporting the workforce here through vital public services or proud family businesses.”

In a sign of the importance of the programme, the prime minister will lay the keel to the first Dreadnought-class boat on Thursday afternoon.

In addition, the King has agreed to give the “Royal” title to the Port of Barrow “in recognition of the town’s unique and critical contribution to national security”, the government said.

The Royal Navy has maintained one of four submarines loaded with nuclear-armed missiles permanently at sea since the first patrol was launched in 1969.

But the age of the current fleet and increased requirement for repair work raise the risk of failure. Any break in the continuous at sea deterrence would be a devastating blow, undermining the UK’s ability to deter the most existential of threats.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/pm-makes-rare-visit-to-nuclear-armed-submarine-to-show-uks-strength-but-putin-will-notice-a-potential-weakness-13332279

US President Donald Trump has had a “very good” call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House says, during which US ownership of Ukraine’s energy network was discussed to help protect it.

Mr Trump also agreed to “help locate” additional air defence support in Europe after a request from the Ukrainian leader, a statement about the one-hour phone call said.

Further talks will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the coming days, and the US will continue intelligence sharing with Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Mr Trump also agreed to work to ensure missing Ukrainian children are returned home and both parties agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire involving attacks against energy facilities, with the US president saying the US “could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, Ms Leavitt said.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio also issued a statement about the call saying that “President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.

“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”

The White House statement added that Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy also reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely.

The presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the details of implementing a partial ceasefire, with discussions to include expanding any ceasefire to the Black Sea.

The blobfish, described as the world’s ugliest animal, has been voted fish of the year in New Zealand.

The creature, which grows to about 12 inches (30cm) long, is known affectionately as Mr Blobby and is the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.

It has a bulbous head, and loose, flabby skin, and lives in the deep sea, mainly off the southeastern coast of mainland Australia, the Australian island of Tasmania, and New Zealand.

The blobfish topped the annual poll by the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust, an environmental non-profit group, winning almost 1,300 out of more than 5,500 votes.

The animal, which has a gelatinous, tadpole-like body, benefitted from a late surge in support to overtake the endangered orange roughy, another deep sea dweller, by nearly 300 votes.

In their natural habitat, on the seabed at depths of about 2,000ft to 4,000ft (600m-1,200m), blobfish resemble any other fish.

But when brought to the surface, where the water pressure isn’t high enough to maintain their shape, blobfish morph into mushy creatures with an unfortunate appearance.

The trust’s co-director, Kim Jones, described the competition as “a battle of two quirky deep sea critters, with the blobfish’s unconventional beauty helping get voters over the line”.

The winner’s late run benefitted from the backing of two New Zealand radio hosts, Sarah Gandy and Paul Flynn, who encouraged their listeners to vote blobfish.

“We and the people of New Zealand had had enough of other fish getting all the headlines,” the broadcasters said.

They said the animal “has been bullied his whole life and we thought, ‘stuff this, it’s time for the blobfish to have his moment in the sun,’ and what a glorious moment it is!”

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/worlds-ugliest-animal-named-new-zealands-fish-of-the-year-13332179

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that President Donald Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal.
Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement, which would require both countries to hold off firing on each other’s energy infrastructure for about a month. Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine.

The White House said talks on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well as a more complete ceasefire and a permanent peace deal would begin immediately, following a lengthy call between Trump and Putin on Tuesday.
It was unclear whether Ukraine would be involved in those talks, which Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
“Up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects – the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing – and today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” Witkoff told Fox News “Hannity” program.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, outside business hours, on Witkoff’s remarks.
Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacks against energy sites after speaking with Trump, the Kremlin said.
But he raised concerns that a temporary ceasefire might allow Ukraine to rearm and mobilize more soldiers, and doubled down on his demand that any resolution required an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement.
Trump told Fox News aid to Ukraine did not come up in the conversation.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country would support the proposal to stop strikes on energy facilities and infrastructure for 30 days. He said Russia launched more than 40 drones late on Tuesday, hitting a hospital in Sumy and other areas, including the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital.

“Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war,” Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Trump, who has had a complicated relationship with Zelenskiy, spoke positively of his call with Putin.
“We had a great call. It lasted almost two hours,” Trump said on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” show.
But the U.S. president did not get what he wanted. Ukraine, which Trump had previously described as being more difficult to work with than Russia, had agreed to the U.S. proposal for a full 30-day ceasefire. Putin did not.
“This call brought to light how difficult of an interlocutor Russia is going to be and the general unwillingness of Russia to talk about making real progress in stopping this war,” said Kristine Berzina, a managing director at the German Marshall Fund think tank. She called the limited ceasefire “a very small step forward.”
Since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, Ukraine has tried to fight back against its much larger neighbor with drone and missile strikes deep in Russian territory, including on energy facilities. Those attacks, which Moscow says amount to terrorism, have allowed Kyiv to keep pressure on Russia’s economy.
That means a ceasefire on attacking energy infrastructure could benefit Russia, said Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In a social media post after the call, Trump said he and Putin had agreed to work quickly toward a ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace agreement.

U.S. SHIFT WORRIES EUROPEAN ALLIES

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said, shattering nearly two months of relative calm since a ceasefire began, as Israel warned the onslaught was “just the beginning.”
Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas accused each other of breaching the truce. It had broadly held since January and offered respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardising efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting, but the group made no threat of retaliation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension.
Netanyahu called on Gazans to get out of harm’s way and move to safer areas, blaming every civilian casualty on Hamas.

EVACUATION ORDERS

Egypt and Qatar, mediators in the ceasefire deal along with the U.S., condemned the Israeli assault, while the European Union said in a statement it deplored the breakdown of the ceasefire.
The U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said the “modest gains” made during the ceasefire had been destroyed.
Israel has halted aid deliveries into Gaza for more than two weeks, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

However, Dorothy Shea, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the blame for the resumption of Gaza hostilities “lies solely with Hamas” and expressed support for Israel in its next steps.

“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.

BODIES STACKED UP

Former hostages and the families of some still held in Gaza expressed outrage over the resumption of war.

Released hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two young sons were slain in captivity, said on Facebook that Israel’s return to fighting brought him back to Gaza, where he feared for his life. “Military pressure endangers hostages, an agreement brings them back,” he said

In Gaza, witnesses told Reuters Israeli tanks shelled areas in Rafah in the south. Bewildered children sat next to bags of belongings, ready to flee.

In hospitals strained by 15 months of bombardment, piles of bodies in white plastic sheets smeared with blood were stacked up as casualties were brought in. The health ministry said many of the dead were children, and 562 people were wounded.

Among the Hamas officials killed in the airstrikes were Essam Addalees, the de facto head of the Hamas government, Ahmed Al-Hetta, deputy justice minister, and Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the head of the Hamas-run security services, Hamas said.

As Israel launched its operation in Gaza, its forces have pressed on with an operation in the occupied West Bank and Israeli jets have struck targets in southern Lebanon and Syria in recent days.

TRUCE STANDOFF

Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas had been in Doha as mediators sought to bridge the gap between the two sides after the end of an initial phase in the ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais released in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining hostages in exchange for a truce until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.

On Tuesday, Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua told Reuters the group was still in touch with mediators, and it was keen to complete the implementation of the original deal.

Qanoua said the group remained committed to proceeding with the ceasefire agreement as signed, accusing Israel of turning against the deal by refusing to begin talks on the second phase and by suspending the entry of aid and goods into Gaza.

The war erupted after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-conducts-strikes-hamas-targets-gaza-army-says-2025-03-18/

Mexico City’s local congress on Tuesday passed a measure aiming to make bullfights much less harmful to bulls and matadors, a move applauded by animal rights activists but sharply criticized by fans of the centuries-old tradition.
The measure, among other things, will not allow bullfighters to use spades and swords to attack the animal, which in turn will have its horns covered to prevent injuries to humans.

The bill, introduced by Mayor Clara Brugada of the ruling Morena party, passed with 61 votes in favor and one against.
Outside of the local congress, dozens of bullfighting fans clashed with police. Some broke past a barrier and attempted to force their way inside of the building. Other demonstrators held up signs announcing their respect for the bull.
On March 1, bullfighter Emilio Macias was seriously injured in the neighboring state of Tlaxcala after being pierced in the behind by a bull’s horn.

“The aim is not to make bullfighting disappear, but evolve,” lawmaker Victor Hugo Romo de Vivar said.
Mayor Brugada celebrated the bill’s passing on X, saying it was a step into turning the capital into “a city which respects animal rights, and which will not tolerate them being subjected to abuse or violence.”
The bill will go into effect in 210 calendar days, giving the government time to issue new regulations on bullfighting.
Mexico City is home to the world’s largest bullring, even larger than those in Spain, which birthed the tradition. Bullfighting in Mexico dates back to 1529 – the time of conquistador Hernan Cortes – in what is now Mexico City.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-city-overhauls-bullfights-win-animal-activists-2025-03-18/

U.S. President Donald Trump released material related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday, seeking to honor his campaign promise to provide more transparency about the shock event in Texas.
An initial tranche of electronic copies of papers flooded into the National Archives website, in the evening with a total of more than 80,000 expected to be published after Justice Department lawyers spent hours scouring them.

The digital documents, including PDFs of previously classified memos, offers a window into the climate of fear at the time surrounding U.S. relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 nearly led to a nuclear war.
The release is nonetheless likely to intrigue people who have long been fascinated with a dramatic period in history, with the assassination and with Kennedy himself.
Many of the documents reflected the work by investigators to learn more about assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s time in the Soviet Union and track his movements in the months leading up to Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

An initial review of the papers did not show deviations from the central narrative.
Trump’s secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, has said he believes the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in his uncle’s death, an allegation the agency has described as baseless.
Kennedy Jr. declined comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, said on X on Tuesday: “The Trump administration did not give anyone in President Kennedy’s family ‘a heads up’ about the release.”
Fredrik Logevall, a Harvard history professor whose books include “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-56,” said in an email the new documents may help fill in the picture.

“It’s valuable to get all the documentation out, ideally in unredacted form. But I don’t expect dramatic new revelations that alters in some fundamental way our grasp of the event,” he said.
One document with the heading “secret” was a typed account with handwritten notes of a 1964 interview by a Warren Commission researcher who questioned Lee Wigren, a CIA employee, about inconsistencies in material provided to the commission by the State Department and the CIA about marriages between Soviet women and American men.
Oswald was married to a Soviet woman, Marina Oswald, at the time of the shooting.
Department of Defense documents from 1963 covered the Cold War of the early 1960s and the U.S. involvement in Latin America, trying to thwart Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s support of communist forces in other countries.

The documents suggest that Castro would not go so far as to provoke a war with the United States or escalate to the point “that would seriously and immediately endanger the Castro regime.”
“It appears more likely that Castro might intensify his support of subversive forces in Latin America,” the document reads.
One document released from January 1962 reveals details of a top secret project called “Operation Mongoose,” or simply “the Cuban Project,” which was a CIA-led campaign of covert operations and sabotage against Cuba, authorized by Kennedy in 1961, aimed at removing the Castro regime.
Trump signed an order shortly after taking office in January related to the documents release, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to find thousands of new documents related to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas.
In the scramble to comply with Trump’s order, the U.S. Justice Department ordered some of its lawyers who handle sensitive national security matters to urgently review records from the assassination, according to a Monday evening email seen by Reuters.
“President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a post on X.
Alice L. George, a historian whose books, including The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, explore modern America, said American’s curiosity about assassinations and questions about government transparency add “to a sense that there must be important evidence hidden away in these files.”
But she said government records were unlikely to resolve questions people still have.
“I think there may continue to be more record releases,” she said. “I seriously doubt that any will include great revelations. The Warren Commission report was done well, but it was done when many of the key players were alive. It’s much harder to find the truth when most of the people involved are dead.”
Kennedy’s murder has been attributed to a sole gunman, Oswald. The Justice Department and other federal government bodies have reaffirmed that conclusion in the intervening decades. But polls show many Americans still believe his death was a result of a conspiracy.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-release-80000-pages-jfk-assassination-2025-03-18/

A member of a South African research team that is confined for more than a year at an isolated Antarctica base was put under psychological evaluation there after he allegedly assaulted and sexually harassed colleagues, government officials said.

The problems at the SANAE IV base were first reported by South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, which said it had seen an email from a team member to authorities last month claiming the man had attacked the base leader and made threats.

The email pleaded for help.

“His behavior has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing,” the email said, according to The Sunday Times. “I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.” The report said the man allegedly made a death threat.

South Africa’s Ministry of Environment, which oversees the research missions, said in a statement Monday night that the alleged assault on the base leader was reported on Feb. 27, and officials and counselors intervened remotely “to mediate and restore relationships at the base.” They were speaking with team members almost daily, it said.

“The alleged perpetrator has willingly participated in further psychological evaluation, has shown remorse and is willingly cooperative,” the ministry said, adding that he had written a formal apology to the victim of the alleged assault. It said the allegations were being investigated. No one was identified.

The nine-member team, which includes scientists, a doctor and engineers, is expected to stay at the base for about 13 months until next year, authorities said, living in close quarters through the hostile Antarctic winter, whose six months of darkness begin in June.

The base is on a cliff in Queen Maud Land and is surrounded by a glacial ice sheet, more than 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) from South Africa.

The next planned visit by a supply ship is in December, according to the South African National Antarctic Program. It takes the ship around 10 days to travel from Cape Town.

Authorities said they had decided not to evacuate anyone from SANAE IV, where the onset of unpredictable weather conditions meant the team was now confined to the base.

The ministry said all team members had undergone evaluations ahead of the trip to ensure they are able to cope with the “extreme nature of the environment in Antarctica” and the isolation and confinement, and no problems were identified.

“It is not uncommon that once individuals arrive at the extremely remote areas where the scientific bases are located, an initial adjustment to the environment is required,” it said.

Previous problems have been reported at another of South Africa’s remote research bases on Marion Island, a South African territory near Antarctica.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/antarctica-research-base-assault-south-africa-b418c718060ed93dc3554c0fa827fa83

Could one of the world’s most overworked countries finally be seeing some much-needed change in the workplace?

Following recent pledges by Chinese government officials to combat overcompetition and tackle the brutal “996 work system” – the expectation of working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week – Chinese firms and companies have been stepping up, implementing official measures to encourage employees to leave work on time.

DJI, a drone manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, is requiring all employees to leave the office by 9pm, a strict policy reinforced by managers and HR that has been generating debate online.

Long hours and working overtime remain prevalent in many Chinese industries, notably manufacturing, finance and China’s hyper competitive tech sector – and while some might argue that 9pm is still a late sign-off time, many have welcomed the move and praised these early efforts as a step in the right direction.

Sharing his personal experience on the Xiaohongshu social media app, a DJI software engineer who has been working at the company for the past four years, said the new measures – launched on Feb 27 – were “big news” for the company.

“I still remember how clocking off after midnight was the norm,” he wrote, adding that ride-hailing drivers who picked him up at early hours of the morning, would often mistake him for rushing to make an early morning flight, rather than heading home from work.

“From today, (working overtime) is history,” he said. “Clocking off on time at 9pm (means) I no longer have to worry about missing the last train, or waking up my wife when I get home.”

Another DJI employee in Shenzhen, with the handle lookrlookr, recounted how she had recently been chased out of the office “for the first time”, even though she was merely collecting a bag she left behind.

“A mandatory clock-off time is normal,” she said, adding that there should be “less overtime”.

At DJI’s Shanghai office, lights are reportedly switched off every day at 9pm to remind workers that it is time to sign off and head home.

Others that also recently introduced anti-involution measures include popular Chinese retailer Miniso.

In an internal memo circulated in mid-February, CEO Ye Guofu announced new rules: Meetings should not last more than 30 minutes, approvals should not take overnight to process, and the use of PowerPoint is strictly prohibited.

Chinese appliance giant Midea Group now mandates all employees to clock off work by 6.20pm and bans meetings after working hours and “unnecessary overtime”.

Writing in response to recent government calls to crackdown on workplace involution, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun voiced his full support.

“We must oppose involution and firmly adhere to high-quality development,” he wrote on his official WeChat account.

“We must firmly advance towards high-end development, highlighting differentiation and personalisation, and consistently follow the path of high-quality development.”

A 46-year-old man convicted of rape and murder is to be put to death by nitrogen gas in the southern state of Louisiana on Tuesday, the first of four executions scheduled this week in the United States.

Jessie Hoffman, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Molly Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive, will be the first person executed in Louisiana in 15 years.

A district court judge last week stayed Hoffman’s execution on the grounds that the use of nitrogen gas may amount to cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned under the US Constitution.

But the stay was lifted by the conservative-dominated US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing the execution to proceed.

Only one other US state, Alabama, has carried out executions by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The method has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.

The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection, although South Carolina executed a man by firing squad on March 7.

Hoffman, a parking lot attendant, was convicted in 1998 of abducting Elliott in New Orleans as she went to retrieve her car and join her husband for dinner.

Hoffman forced Elliott to withdraw $200 from an ATM machine, before raping and killing her with a single shot to the head.

He was 18 years old at the time.

Elliott’s nude body was found by a duck hunter the next day on a makeshift dock by the Middle Pearl River.

Hoffman’s lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court to halt the execution on the grounds that the nitrogen gas would “interfere with Jessie’s ability to practice his Buddhist meditative breathing.”

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that prisoners must be allowed to practice their religion as their lives are being taken by execution,” said Cecelia Kappel, one of Hoffman’s attorneys.

“There are plenty of execution methods Louisiana could adopt that would not interfere with Jessie’s ability to practice his Buddhist meditative breathing, and only one, nitrogen gas, that makes it impossible for him to do so,” Kappel said.

Three other executions are scheduled in the United States this week — in Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma.

Aaron Gunches, 53, is to be executed by lethal injection in Arizona on Wednesday for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

Gunches has dropped legal efforts to halt his execution, which would be the first in the southwestern state since November 2022.

Wendell Grissom, 56, is to be executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday for shooting and killing Amber Matthews, 23, in 2005 during a home robbery.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/us-execute-four-death-row-inmates-this-week-3766675

At least 12 people have been killed after a plane crashed off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on Monday evening, officials said.

The aircraft – operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa – crashed into the sea within a minute of take-off from the island of Roatán.

The Honduran national police and fire department separately said five people had been rescued, while one person is yet to be found.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but Roatán’s mayor told local media it wasn’t because of the weather, which was normal. The Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency said an investigation was under way.

The Jetstream 32 aircraft had taken off from the island’s Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport at 18:18 local time (00:18 GMT on Tuesday), and was bound for Golosón International Airport in La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland.

Civil aviation official Carlos Padilla said, quoted by AFP news agency, that the plane “made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water”.

In a statement on social media, the government expressed “solidarity” with the families of the victims.

“The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the tragic accident in Roatán and joins in the national mourning,” it added.

Following the crash, Honduran President Xiomara Castro “immediately activated” the country’s emergency committee, comprised of all emergency services including the military, police, fire department, Red Cross and the Ministry of Health.

Writing on X, she said the committee team was “working tirelessly” to provide assistance.

“May God protect people’s lives,” Castro added.

Videos shared by officials on social media showed rescue teams working in darkness along a rocky coastline, with small boats and stretchers.

In a post on X accompanied by photos, the Honduran armed forces said survivors with injuries were taken to a hospital in the city of San Pedro Sula by air force planes.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq2pndw82jo

Israel has “resumed combat in full force” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night.

In a defiant video statement, he warned that “negotiations will continue only under fire” and that “this is just the beginning”.

His comments came after Israeli aircraft launched massive airstrikes against what the military said were Hamas targets in Gaza.

More than 400 people have been killed in the attacks, the Hamas-run health ministry said, and hundreds more injured.

The wave of strikes was the heaviest since a ceasefire began on 19 January.

STRANDED astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams finally made a triumphant splash down on Earth – after being stuck in space for a gruelling nine months.

The pair returned home in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside two rescue mission astronauts on Tuesday night when the capsule landed spectacularly off the Florida coast.

The capsule, named Freedom, dramatically splashed down in the sea near Tallahassee, Florida – as dolphins majestically swam around the floating spacecraft.

It ended an unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024 and lasted 286 days.

The gleeful crew were assisted out of the capsule one-by-one for the first time in nearly a year, helped by staff who put them straight into wheelchairs.

The happy heroes smiled and waved at photographers as they were wheeled away from their unthinkable nine-month ordeal.

Tense footage also showed the capsule flying down at incredibly high speeds before parachutes were suddenly deployed.

The spaceship reached a temperature of nearly 2,000C when it re-entered the atmosphere.

As the capsule flew down, it dramatically slowed down from more than 17,000mph to completely stationary within just minutes.

When it landed, the astronauts were greeted from the control centre: “Nick, Alec, Butch, Suni – on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.”

The centre added: “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”

Nasa spokesperson Jaden Jennings said that the “splashdown was spectacular”, and that they had “optimal conditions” for the returning mission to Earth.

She added: “A new core memory was made today.”

The astronauts were not controlling or steering the capsule, as it was flying autonomously and only being monitored by the crew.

After the successful landing, recovery teams arrived in “fast boats” to complete safety checks and retrieve the parachutes.

A SpaceX recovery vessel then made its way to the craft, picked it up and opened the spaceship to allow the crew out for their first breath of fresh air.

In a tense moment just before the landing, the capsule lost all communications with the command center for several minutes.

This phenomenon is usual, as during the capsule’s re-entry into the atmosphere plasma builds up around the shield and it gets extremely hot.

Communications returned several minutes later as usual once the capsule had entered the atmosphere.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunni” Williams had initially been sent on a days-long mission to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.

But after the spaceship developed propulsion problems, they stayed in space at the International Space Station whilst their craft flew back empty.

The two astronauts came home with NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, forming NASA/SpaceX Crew-9.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after an eight-day mission turned into a nine-month ordeal in space. The two astronauts came home with NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, forming NASA/SpaceX Crew-9.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft brought the astronauts back home and splashed down at 3:27 am off the Florida coast.

A video of astronauts being welcomed by dolphins has gone viral.

The pods were seen swimming around the capsule when the operation to recover the capsule was underway.

“This is extremely cool,” US Vice President JD Vance commented on one of the videos.

Another user shared the video and said the dolphins “wanted to say hi to the astronauts”.

The recovery vessel successfully lifted the capsule out of the water after which the side hatch of the capsule was opened for the first time since September. The astronauts stepped out of the capsule and were taken to Houston for a 45-day rehabilitation program.

Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), with NASA sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the space station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was tasked with the responsibility to bring Crew-9 back to Earth. The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket was launched for the mission. Crew-10 has replaced Crew-9 at the International Space Station.

Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, both former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 last year on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission and the first crewed flight of a Boeing Starliner. They were left stranded after the Starliner capsule suffered propulsion issues. Deemed unfit to fly, it returned uncrewed in September.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-dolphins-welcome-sunita-williams-butch-wilmore-back-home-7955654#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Authorities said damage at a Tesla service center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, including cars set ablaze, had “some of the hallmarks” of terrorism.

Las Vegas police said the person who used Molotov cocktails and shot rounds into the vehicles at the Tesla Collision Center, 6260 Badura Ave., was still on the loose Tuesday afternoon.

Video that captured the attack showed someone dressed in all black damaging at least five Teslas — two of which were engulfed in flames — at 2:45 a.m., police said. The word “resist” was also painted on the front doors of the business, police said, and at least three gunshots were fired into the cars.

“This was a targeted attack against a Tesla facility,” Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “We do believe that it is isolated at this time.”

However, he said the Metropolitan Police Department had increased its presence at Tesla-related locations in the valley as a precaution.

According to police, the person responsible for the attack used multiple incendiary devices to set the Teslas on fire, and one of the devices was found unexploded in a car. The collision center is located near Jones Boulevard and the 215 Beltway in the southwest valley.

The Clark County Fire Department and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force also are investigating the matter. Agents arrived at the scene early Tuesday morning, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans.

Evans said that while it was too early to call the attack an act of terrorism, it had “some of the hallmarks” and a “potential political agenda.”

“Violent acts like this are unacceptable, regardless of where they occur,” Evans said at Tuesday’s press briefing.

He urged anyone intending to commit similar acts to “seriously reconsider.”

“It’s a federal crime,” Evans said. “We will come after you. We will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

While he said he was aware of reports of incidents in other states, Evans added that it was still too early to know if they were connected.

In a post on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a video of the burning cars shared by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, saying “this level of violence is insane and deeply wrong.”

“Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks,” Musk added in his post.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, former sheriff of Clark County, replied to the post.

“This type of politically-motivated violence is despicable — and those responsible will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said she had full confidence in law enforcement.

“Let me be clear: these actions are unacceptable, and I condemn them fully,” she wrote on X.

Musk leads the new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, and its goal of trimming federal spending has spurred layoffs and closure announcements across the federal workforce in the first few weeks of the second Trump administration.

Tuesday’s attack on Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas follows a Cybertruck explosion outside Trump International in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.

In that incident, authorities have said Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty military operations sergeant from Colorado who served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret, shot himself in the head seconds before his rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded.

Seven bystanders were injured as a result of the explosion at the resort near the Strip, according to police.

Authorities have said Livelsberger likely suffered from PTSD and had other “personal grievances.”

Source : https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/several-vehicle-set-on-fire-at-tesla-in-las-vegas-police-say-3322726/

A survey of over 100,000 Germans revealed that 94% won’t buy a Tesla vehicle. It doesn’t bode well for the automaker, whose sales had already been falling off a cliff in the important European market.

In 2024, Tesla saw a 41% reduction in sales in Germany compared to 2023 despite EV sales surging 27% during the year.

This has already raised red flags about Tesla’s future in Germany, but it is nothing compared to Tesla’s performance so far in 2025.

Tesla’s sales were down 70% in the first two months of 2025, and again, that’s compared to its already poor performance in 2024.

There are many factors at play, including increased EV competition and the Model Y changeover, but in recent months, industry experts have attributed Tesla’s decline in the country to Germans being upset with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s meddling in local elections and promoting the far-right AfD party.

Musk is currently under probe in Europe for his political meddling, and his reputation has crashed in Germany after a couple of Seig Heil salutes at Trump’s inauguration and several questionable posts promoting fascist and Nazi ideologies, like this one yesterday:

This does not help Tesla’s prospects in Europe, particularly Germany. Only 20% of voters sided with AfD, and Tesla shouldn’t necessarily count on them being potential customers.

AfD has been staunchly against Tesla and even ran ads like this:

Now, a new survey of 100,000 Germans by T-Online about Tesla showed that only 3% of respondents would consider buying a Tesla vehicle:

Those are impressive results, and they explain Tesla’s current sales in Germany.

Some Tesla shareholders hope that the new version of the Model Y will help reverse the trend, but those poll results don’t look good.

Furthermore, Tesla’s Model 3 sales are also crashing in Germany, which suggests that Model Y is not the only problem.

Source : https://electrek.co/2025/03/14/tesla-is-done-in-germany-94-say-they-wont-buy-a-tesla-car/

THE world’s most expensive dog has sold for a whopping £4.4million – and one of its parents is a wolf.

An Indian dog enthusiast dropped the eyewatering sum, equivalent to 500million rupees, on a “wolfdog” called Cadabomb Okami.

The pricey pooch is a cross between an actual wolf and a Caucasian Shepherd – thought to be the first of its kind.

The new owner is S Sathish, 51, a renowned dog breeder from Bengaluru in southern Karnataka, India, who owns over 150 different breeds.

Touted as the rarest dog in the world, Okami was born in the US and sold through a broker in India in February.

At just eight months old, the pup already weighs a staggering 75kg and stands at 30 inches tall.

Sathish, who is president of the Indian Dog Breeders Association, said: “He is an extremely rare breed of dog and looks exactly like a wolf. This breed has not been sold in the world before.

“The dog was bred in the US and is extraordinary. I spent 50 million rupees on buying this pup because I am fond of dogs and like to own unique dogs and introduce them to India.”

Caucasian Shepherds are muscular, fluffy dogs native to cold countries such as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and parts of Russia.

They are incredible guard dogs, so often used to protect herds of livestock from wolves on mountainsides.

The new arrival has become a sensation in Karnataka where Sathish has paraded him around several high-profile events including film premieres.

One clip of Okami hitting the red carpet at a premiere has attracted almost 3 million views online, Sathish claimed.

The canine enthusiast stopped breeding dogs around a decade ago, but now earns enough money just from showcasing his rare breeds to eager audiences.

He can pull in anywhere between £2200 for 30 minutes to £9000 for five hours just by turning up to events with his unique pooches.

Sathis explained: “I spent money on these dogs because they are rare. Besides, I get enough money because people are always curious to see them.

“They take selfies and pictures. My dog and I get more attention than an actor at a movie screening, we both are crowd-pullers.”

Sathish also owns a Chow Chow – famous for resembling a red panda

At his Cadabom’s Kennels, Sathish also keeps a rare Chow-Chow.

This is a blue-tongued breed that strikingly resembles a Qinling panda – the red and white species from China.

He bought that pup for more than £2.5million last year.

He keeps all his dogs, including Okami and Qinling, on a seven acre farm, where each has a 20ft by 20ft room as a kennel.

Tight security is needed to protect his valuable pack, so he has a 10ft-tall wall around the plot and constant CCTV.

Sathis said: “There is enough space for them to walk and run. There are six people to look after them.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13805145/worlds-most-expensive-dog-wolf-india/

PRINCE Harry’s secret visa documents have been released but large sections are redacted – and a key question remains.

The US government had until the end of the day to publish the previously unseen papers relating to Harry’s immigration status.

The heavily redacted court documents read: “Plaintiffs allege that the records should be disclosed as public confidence in the government would suffer or to establish whether the Duke was granted preferential treatment.

“This speculation by Plaintiffs does not point to any evidence of government misconduct.

“The records, as explained above, do not support such an allegation but show the regulatory process involved in reviewing and granting immigration benefits which was done in compliance with the
Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1103 and applicable rules and regulation.”

In a surprising twist, pages and pages of the highly anticipated files have been redacted.

The key question regarding whether or not Harry did tick the ‘no’ box about drug use, remains to be answered.

However, the files did conclude the duke was not given special treatment.

But, the majority of a secret hearing in April last year was blacked out.

Judge Carl Nichols ruled that the redacted documents should be made public by today at the latest but did not give a specific time frame.

The Heritage Foundation think tank has been seeking their release after Harry admitted using drugs in his memoir Spare and Netflix show.

They suggest he may have lied about using drugs on his visa application or been given special treatment by the previous White House administration under President Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump last month ruled out seeking to deport Harry while taking a swipe at his wife Meghan Markle, who he described as “terrible”.

On Saturday, court papers filed showed Judge Nichols made the ruling that Harry’s redacted docs would have to be made public.

The legal battle began after groups believed Harry should not have been allowed into the US after revealing his drug consumption.

In his bombshell memoir, Harry admitted cocaine “didn’t do anything for me”, but “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me”.

It triggered an investigation into how he was allowed to enter the US in 2020, when he quit the UK with Meghan.

Heritage’s Nile Gardiner previously told The Telegraph: “Anyone who applies to the United States has to be truthful on their application, and it is not clear that is the case with Prince Harry.”

This comes after Judge Nichols previously ruled in September last year the files would remain private.

He stated there was not a strong enough public interest to see Harry’s docs released.

But the latest development was pushed by lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security in February.

They argued “iron-glad guardrails” were broken and certain evidence should have been reviewed in court, which were not, which meant their ability to build a case against Harry’s appeal were “severely compromised”.

APPLE users could receive part of a $20 million payout from the tech giant but they only have days left to “confirm” the “payment”.

Earlier this year, Apple agreed to resolve claims that specific Apple Watch models were defective.

Some users also queried how the damaged battery of their watch had swelled.

The settlement benefits those who own one of the listed devices which were first affected in April 2015.

Having been impacted as recent as February 6 of last year, there is a chance that some may be entitled to cash for a 2024 purchase.

The class action lawsuit includes those who own or previously owned a first-generation Series 1, 2 or 3 Watch.

All of these have been noted on Apple’s records as having “reported battery-swelling issues” between 2015 and 2024.

It is thought that the manufacturing error has been caused by a lack of internal space for normal battery swelling.

The battery swelling has been reported for causing further damage to components, including screens, resulting in costly repairs.

Known for its iPhones and Macbook products, Apple has not admitted any fault but has agreed to the settlement.

As part of the resolution, class members could be entitled to receive cash payments, covering their device.

For each item owned an individual could receive $20 with a pro rata portion of the net settlement fund expected to be less than this value.

Americans also have a final chance to cash in on up to $5,400 from a $500,000 settlement over an alleged data breach.

A receipt is all that’s needed to get the cash.

McPherson hospital in Kansas has agreed to pay half-a-million dollars in a class action lawsuit to resolve claims against it.

And Americans also have the chance to grab a share of a $5.8 million settlement – and don’t even need documents to cash in.

Nationstar Mortgage has agreed to pay the millions to resolve claims that it broke mortgage servicing laws.

It is alleged that the violation led to some borrowers losing their homes through foreclosure – when a property is repossessed due to mortgage payments not being made.

If the fund exceeds a certain level, then each member could receive payments worth double the original amount.

With the final approval early next month, those hoping to receive the payout will likely have already acted.

The hearing has been scheduled for April 10.

Class members do not need a claim form but will need to confirm the payment information on the settlement website.

This should ensure they receive a payment.

Those who do not exclude themselves, could still receive automatic benefits.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/money/13811261/apple-users-settlement-watch-models-payment/

Sunita Williams return : After a nine-month-long overstay, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to return to Earth tomorrow as the crew successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) today.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are returning to the Earth after a nine-month-long overstay at the International Space Station (ISS). They are accompanied by astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their return to Earth is part of a contingency plan devised by NASA with technical assistance from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX.

NASA said the Crew-9 members successfully undocked from the International Space Station as scheduled. “Sunni and Butch successfully begin their belated journey back home,” the agency said in its commentary.

The four-member crew undocked from the ISS at 1:05 am ET (10:35 am IST) and began a 17-hour trip back to Earth. The replacement crew was handed over the responsibilities of the mission before Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth.

The four-member crew expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico at 5:57 pm ET on Tuesday (3:27 am IST, Wednesday). The exact location of the landing will depend on local weather conditions.

Sunita Williams return | Key points

-Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore spent 286 days on the International Space Station, where they conducted over 4500 orbits and travelled more than 121 million statute miles

-The crew will undergo NASA’s 45-day post-mission rehabilitation program is designed to help astronauts recover from the physical effects of spaceflight.

-Their return was scheduled to begin initially on Wednesday night, but NASA postponed the journey as unfavourable weather are expected to prevail later in the week.

-‘Butch and Suni’ travelled to the ISS in June last year for a scheduled eight-day mission. They were forced to stay as Boeing Starliner capsule developed issues with its propulsion system.

-The duo was the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner in a test flight. The faulty capsule returned to Earth last September.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/sunita-williams-earth-return-live-updates-butch-willmore-nasa-elon-musk-iss-undocking-spacex-101742263854845.html

The Oscars want more Conan!

After a rapturous reception at this year’s Academy Awards, emcee Conan O’Brien will return to the Dolby Theatre for the 98th Oscars on March 15, 2026.

The announcement comes from Bill Kramer, Academy CEO, and Janet Yang, Academy president, who also confirmed the return of the Emmy-winning producing team Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, who will lead the show for the third consecutive year.

Using his signature humor, O’Brien quipped in a statement: “The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech.”

Brody’s best actor speech for “The Brutalist” clocked in as the longest in the ceremony’s history.

“We are thrilled to bring back Conan, Raj, Katy, Jeff and Mike for the 98th Oscars!” Kramer and Yang said in a joint statement. “This year, they produced a hugely entertaining and visually stunning show that celebrated our nominees and the global film community in the most beautiful and impactful way. Conan was the perfect host — skillfully guiding us through the evening with humor, warmth and reverence. It is an honor to be working with them again.”

The 97th Oscars, held earlier this month, delivered the highest viewership numbers in five years. The broadcast drew 19.69 million viewers and had a dominant presence on social media, racking up 104.2 million interactions, surpassing both the Grammys and the Super Bowl in online engagement.

Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, praised O’Brien’s “unforgettable performance,” conveying he’s a a great choice to lead Hollywood’s biggest night once again. “Conan’s unique comedic style perfectly captured the moment, and I’m excited to have his talents back onstage next year to helm another indelible performance.”

Behind the scenes, Kapoor and Mullan will once again oversee production, promising another dazzling celebration of cinema. “We are both so honored to be returning in our roles for the 98th Oscars,” the producers said. “We can’t wait to work with Conan and his entire team as we continue to explore even more special and heartfelt opportunities to celebrate next year’s nominees and the impact of film around the world.”

O’Brien’s return marks another milestone in a career spanning decades in television and comedy. Currently, he hosts the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and the HBO/Max travel series “Conan O’Brien Must Go” and will appear in the upcoming feature film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

While it’s too early to know which films will compete for the coveted Oscar statuettes, 2026’s film calendar looks promising. Variety previewed an eclectic mix of upcoming contenders, including big-budget blockbusters like Jon M. Chu’s musical sequel “Wicked: For Good,” auteur-driven projects such as Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the acclaimed novel “Hamnet,” and two separate Frankenstein films — Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride,” featuring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale.

Source : https://variety.com/2025/film/awards/conan-obrien-oscars-host-2026-date-march-1236338970/

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of social messaging app Telegram, has been allowed to fly home to Dubai as French authorities continue their unprecedented case against him.

The tech billionaire was arrested in August after being accused of failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality.

Mr Durov denies failing to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.

It is the first time a tech leader has been arrested for criminality taking place on their platform.

Mr Durov said in a post on his Telegram channel: “The process is ongoing but it feels great to be home.”

The 40-year-old was arrested in August 2024 as he arrived in Paris on his private jet, and French judges initially did not allow him to leave France.

But the office of the Paris prosecutor told the BBC on Monday that “the obligations of judicial supervision” had been suspended between 15 March and 7 April.

No further details were given about the conditions of his release from France.

Mr Durov lives in Dubai and was born in Russia, where he has citizenship, as well as in France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis.

Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states as well as Iran.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart, Christopher Luxon, met Monday seeking to deepen their defense and economic ties, a day after the countries announced the revival of negotiations for a free trade agreement.

Modi and Luxon met in New Delhi and signed agreements on enhancing cooperation in defense, food processing, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy and critical minerals.

Luxon said he held “highly productive meetings” with Modi and other Indian leaders that will improve ties between India and New Zealand. The defense relationship includes joint military training, he said.

“New Zealand is committed to doing more with India across a wide range of areas — defense and security, trade and economics, people-to-people ties, education, tourism, sports and culture,” Luxon said at joint press conference with Modi.

Luxon was accompanied by business leaders and several parliamentarians on his five-day visit to India.

India and New Zealand on Sunday agreed to revive free trade negotiations that have been stalled for more than 10 years.

The announcement was made after discussions between New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay and his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal. It follows India’s recent efforts to broker trade deal agreements with other nations after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from countries including India.

India and the European Union last month agreed to finalize a long-pending free trade agreement by the end of this year. A similar trade deal between India and the United Kingdom is also in the works.

India’s Commerce Ministry said the free trade deal between India and New Zealand aims to “achieve balanced outcomes that enhance supply-chain integration and improve market access.” It did not offer other details.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/india-new-zealand-free-trade-deal-a3c1515d7b6b07e79fa460f9ef9ee35c

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

McGregor is appealing against the outcome of the civil case.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump called the pardon a “miscarriage of justice”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘We cannot be silent’

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

Emotions ran high for some.

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

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

LEAGUE RECORD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘IRONCLAD’ GUARANTEES

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

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